Some Thoughts About 'Cogs'

I stumbled on another game I've had for years and simply never took the time to start. Today, I'm sharing some thoughts about Cogs, a sliding puzzle game with a few twists.

Old Fashioned in a Good Way

Cogs' visuals have aged a little bit, but they still hold up surprisingly well. The game revolves around sliding puzzles - but instead of completing an image, you're completing a machine. On top of the sliding panels are cogs (of course) or pipes, and you're tasked with making sure all the cogs connect and make a specific cog move, or to guide flowing glas to a balloon.

Because the game is all about cogs and steam, its visuals consist entirely of wood and metals. This lends the game a pleasant old-fashioned atmosphere with some hints of steampunk, though purely aesthetically and not thematically. It's very satisfying to see it in motion; having a machine spring to life thanks to your efforts offers great feedback for your actions compared to just popping up a "stage clear!" message like so many puzzle games do. It gives the puzzles a "real" purpose instead of being a series of abstract pieces you put together in an arbitrary order.

The music also matches up perfectly, and is very relaxing and pleasant - though there isn't too much of it.

Let it Slide

The game's aeshetic is beautiful and the simple joy of watching a machine activate because you solved a puzzle is worthwhile, but what about the actual gameplay?

At its core, Cogs is a pretty basic slide puzzle game - but that doesn't mean it has no tricks up its sleeve. For example, many of the puzzles use 3D space, forcing you to think about how the moving parts will interact across multiple sides of the machine.

In the prior section, I gave praise to the game's use of moving parts as a way to make a sliding puzzle into a way to operate a machine. The game takes advantage of this on a gameplay level as well, with some of the harder puzzles requiring timing - for example, you may have to set up the cogs so that they activate two machines at the exact same time, forcing you to time when exactly you put the slides in place. This adds yet another dimension to the puzzles that your average sliding puzzle simply doesn't have.

The game is short, simple and sweet, so I don't really have any problems beside this minor nitpick: you have to pause to restart; I think games with short puzzles really benefit from having a quick restart button or option, as the game rewards you for completing puzzles with as few moves and in as little time as possible.

Those are my thoughts. Cogs is a simple but enjoyable sliding puzzle game with a charming presentation and a few twists that keep it interesting. Check it out if puzzles or intricate contraptions are your thing.