monline

Did you love the original The Incredible Machine? If yes, then I bet you'll love this one too. However this time you've even more control. In TIM you had a fixed number of readily made tools at your disposal, but in CPD you've to draw the tools for yourself. The intro video on their website makes the game look pretty cool. I wonder how good it is, when played with a regular mouse.

After some gameplay my experiences ...
The mouse is not a problem, but of course drawing would be much easier (and more fun) with a stylus. One thing was disturbing in the beginning: the first 4-5 islands (each having approx. 6-10 levels) were too easy. The 6th and 7th islands have levels that I had to think about and thus it was more fun to solve them. Maybe a choice of difficulty level at the start of the game could have spared those piece of cake levels and take me to the real thing. But never mind. The game rocks (if you have the patience to get over the first 4-5 levels)!

P.S.: and the final verdict is ... It's a nice game and I love the concept of free drawing. It gives the player a huge amount of free will to choose a solution to the given problem. Unfortunately there're a few techniques that you learn to master soon enough and it makes solving even the more challanging levels quite easy. I'd introduce a few constraints to the game and discourage the use of some techniques to make it more difficult. All in one: I loved it, it's worth playing til the end. The level editor might still hold a few suprises ... I bet the gamer community will produce a few mind-crunching levels.