Cipher Prime’s Fractal [Game Impressions]

Local game developer Cipher Prime, award winning creators of the games Auditorium and Pulse, have recently released an updated version of their addictive music/puzzle game called Fractal. Featuring colorful graphics, cool music, various play modes, and deceptively simple gameplay, Fractal will keep you hooked for hours.

Fractal’s main campaign starts you of creating “blooms”, which is when you connect a group of similarly colored pieces called fractals to create a giant hexagon cluster on the board. For every bloom you create, you also are rewarded with music. The more blooms you take off the board, the more music you hear within the level.

The catch is that you only have  a certain amount of fractals to put on the board while also trying to achieve a certain amount of points per level. As you move through the campaign, the difficulty certainly ramps up. Multiple colored fractals pop up on the board, suddenly making the player have to be aware that the upcoming fractal might destroy an attempted bloom combo.

While playing Fractal I was reminded of the game Lumines, but while that game had a style of gameplay very reminiscent of the classic puzzler Tetris, Fractal feels like it’s own thing. It has its own style  and pace. The campaign doesn’t have you trying to complete a level within a certain timeframe, nor does it suddenly ramp up the speed of gameplay. It all comes down to the player. How the player decides to interact with the level determines the tension and complexity of each level. Needless to say you can discover multiple ways of creating blooms within a level which certainly ups the replay value of the game.

The Campaign mode features 30 levels that keeps increasing in difficulty. Of course, you are given some help when bombs are put onto the level that helps you take out more fractals on a stage. Arcade mode ups the ante by being a time trials version of the main game. Finally, there’s puzzle mode which includes  six sets of levels each with their own batch of puzzles to complete. All of the various play modes and levels will continue to challenge the player again and again.

With Fractal, Cipher Prime continues to deliver immersive, solid gameplay with a great sense of style and design. Anyone who downloads this game will get their money’s worth and then some. You will lose many hours playing Fractal, and you will love it.