Hey Time Wasters!
This week I find myself in a bit of a rush with no new games from John and Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate taking all of my spare time. But I managed to find a game that drew me in with its concept and thought I’d see how it stood up compared to other games. So without further ado, let me talk with you about Layer Maze 4.
Now I haven’t played any of the prior games to this, so I’m just going to talk about the game itself rather than compare it to its predecessors. I’ll start with the idea that made me want to see what it was about. Rather than just being a normal maze or one that utilized puzzles, the idea of the game having layers (as it says right in the name) sounded like an interesting idea and one worthy of checking out. I was pleased to find out that the game not only had layers, but also included puzzle elements.
The puzzle elements aren’t anything new to the genre; just keys to collect to unlock roadblocks and colors you have to be in order to pass through certain points. They do add an order to the game though, making what would be a normally straightforward maze filled with more twists and turns. It made having to navigate the maze less of just guess and test, and more of remembering where things were so that I wouldn’t be wandering around aimlessly in a maze. And when there can be 15 layers in a single maze, you can bet that I don’t want to get lost in it.
But even with the cool concept of moving back and forth between a lot of layers, Layer Maze 4 didn’t quite turn out to be what I was expecting. There was nothing really wrong with the gameplay itself, but it seemed to really limit itself on how ‘maze’ like it was. Many times when going from one layer to another you’re not entering another section of maze, but instead just passing through; set to go on down the single hole and onto the next single hole that you find. I personally found myself wishing for less layers and more maze on the layers I had.
The graphics and music were also a bit lacking. I’m not expecting full 3D graphics and orchestrated music, but something a bit nicer than a red back with slightly darker red paths could have made the game really pop. In fact, the overall look of the game is extremely simple and a little bit more love to the graphics would have gave it a good boost. I wasn’t a fan of the music loop either; it could have been worse of course, but something a little bit easier on the ears would have been nice too.
In last words I’d have to say that I wouldn’t describe Layer Maze 4 as a maze but as a layer puzzle. Should there ever be a Layer Maze 5, I would hope to see a few less layers with better implemented mazes on the layers given.
Layer Maze 4 has earned 2.5 Gin Gems out of 5.