SpaceChem is a Puzzle Game

And I don't want to play it. I'm not being paid to play it. I consider the ten dollars I spent on it a donation to a passionate indie dev.

I can't help but feel that people who like pure puzzle games should be doing something else with their time (sorry). Instead of playing a puzzle game they could be writing code, which yield much happier long-term results (I'm saying this knowing nothing about code). But I'm also saying this because less time spent playing puzzle games and more time spent coding equals way more money, which equals more freedom to do fun, creative things.

It seems that, whenever I discuss the boringness of puzzle games, I always come back to the old: Why did I like Portal?

I liked Portal because of its story, and GLaDOS, and the companion cube, and the portal gun; plus the puzzles weren't too easy nor too hard.

And why again did I like Portal 2 more than Portal? Deh Jokes. A game with flaws (unlike Portal), sure. But, joke-quality measured, Portal 2's best jokes were much funnier than Portal's.

Although I do want to take a moment to complain about SpaceChem (and it is enough of a complaint that it would warrant a less than stellar review). Putting out the reactor instructions (the gameplay part of the game) is tedious. It took me a minute just lay out the things in some of the early puzzles.

A lot of reviews are describing how the game gives immediate feedback for your puzzle-solving attempts. You press "play" and the game runs a molecule-making-and-processing cycle with the instructions you've assembled. But, that doesn't make the putting-out-the-parts not take minutes each puzzle!

Again, back to Portal: remember how the Portal gun takes a second to show you if you made a portal, and looks cool? You do?! Cool! Because SpaceChem's puzzle-doing takes minutes and looks boring (until you run a cycle blah blah blah).