A different sort of puzzle game, Hexement is hard but gratifying, with environmental challenges and multiplayer
What is perhaps most interesting about Hexement is that it brings together a diverse array of ideas and puts them together into one game, and does so to great success. The way the game works is something like Tetris and Topple combined, but with environmental twists. You begin with a flat board which is divided up into hexegons, which is floating in space supported by an Atlas-like God. This is your "world" for lack of a better term. As you play, puzzle pieces of varying size (single hexes, lines, horseshoes, and other shapes) and land-type (land, water, fire) fall from the sky. To succeed at first, you must line the edges of the world with land-hexes as quickly as possible before the water-hexes begin to descend - the game will end if too much water falls off the world. Thankfully you can stack your hexes to help contain the situation. This is where the Topple part comes into play, because each hexe has a specific weight, and if you don't balance your map well, water will pour over the sides for game over. Thus you must at the same time balance your world, build up the land-hexes to contain the water-hexes, and try to use the fire-hexes as best you can. However, if things are too peaceful for too long (which seems unlikely) your Environment meter fills up and then the world lashes out at you with natural disasters, typically blowing up huge chunks of your world and undoing your hard work. This is of course all happening rapidly, as hexes continue to fall at a brisk pace. It's challenging but gratifying when you get things working right - chances are, however, that it will take a few tries to get the hang of it initially.
Points are scored in both singleplayer and multiplayer, however, not simply by the longevity to which you can maintain this delicate balancing act, but also to the extent to which your world matures and evolves. What's double fascinating in Hexement is that hexes placed next to each other interact. For instance, if you place a land-hexe next to a water-hexe a forest may grow in that hexe, which awards you more points. There are a decent number of combination-results, including fish in hexes, larger forests, volcanos (which release environment energy), etc. So much of the fun of Hexement, therefore, lies not only in maintaining your world through balance, but also through strategically "gardening" your world to score more points and achieve aesthetic virility.
If there's one drawback to the game other than the steep learning curve, it would undoubtedly be the pace at which all of this happens. While the speed of play certainly makes this game more challenging, as well as better in multiplayer, in the singleplayer mode it prevents one from leisurely doing any significant world-creating. Because of the frenetic pace of it all, you'll most likely be spending your time concentrating more on the balancing act required than the refinement of your planet. While this may be in some ways a small gripe, it would've been nice to have more ability to control the situation with multiple speeds, especially since Hexement has so much interesting stuff going for it. Alas, most trial players won't stick around long enough for the goods to pay off. However, dear reader, if you do I believe you will find an interesting and complex puzzle game that has a lot to offer!