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3 May 2022

REVIEW: Sokobos on PC (Steam)

Review by Jon Donnis
Sokobos is based on the classic Japanese brain-twisting puzzle game of Sokoban, which I am sure all puzzle fans have heard of or played a variation of.

The basic idea of Sokoban is to push crates or boxes around, and into the final spots, the hard part being the limited amount of space you have to work in.

Sokobos takes on this format with a story inspired by ancient Greek tragedies, and as a Greek I am always happy to see anything that uses my culture for inspiration.

First the story
"Aeschylus took an oath to the Greek gods. He is granted inhuman strength and is tasked with building a temple worthy of the great Zeus, however he must do this by himself. If he succeeds, his father's town will prosper and outshine even Athens. However, Sokobos' story is a Greek tragedy, not everything will go according to the plan."


Instead of crates or boxes, you are instead trying to assemble Greek structures, think statues, pillars, even temples. You push each part into a set position, and when complete you finish the level and move onto the next. As you progress the levels get harder, you might need to build a bridge first, or activate gates, you might even need to paint pieces by moving them through coloured spots.

The game is pretty tough, but luckily you can easily walk back moves, so you don't need to totally restart a level if you get stuck. There are leader boards which show who can complete a level in the least amount of moves, as well as a colourblind mode with Trichromatic, Dichromatic and Monochromatic options.


There are 60 levels to beat.

The game starts off pretty straight forward, but here is a huge problem, the game gets very hard, very quick, now there is a skip level option, but I found that by level 5 which I got stuck on, I was already using the skip button. By level 10 I realised that this game is way harder than it should be.

I enjoy puzzle games, and I have played Sokoban games before, but never have I found myself stumped so early in the game, and this is a huge problem, especially if you are trying to attract new players to the genre.


The Good
I like the story, and some of the original gameplay elements to what is an old genre of game. The "undo" button is a welcome addition.

The Bad
Impossibly hard. Unless you are a Sokoban addict, then this game will frustrate you within 10 minutes of playing.

Overall
By having such an incredibly steep learning curve, this will instantly put off new players, who will either give up, or just go to YouTube and find solutions, which then makes the game rather pointless.

If you are a hardcore Sokoban addict, or someone who thrives on ridiculously hard puzzle games, then this if for you.
For everyone else however, you might want to think twice before purchasing.

I score Sokobos on PC a 6/10.
Out now on PC Steam

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