Lucid PC Review

Match-em-up games have always been popular, with the never ending popularity of more recent casual titles on Facebook like Bejeweled and Zuma, which between them have millions of fans, most of whom clock up a frightening amount of game time causing what seems to be a minor addiction for playing against the clock to rack up those high scores, even now my girlfriend is sat behind me trying to get to that #1 spot on the score board! but can Lucid change all that with its goal of making it less about the competition and more about the experience?

As with a lot of block matching games, Lucid has to offer something original to get hold your attention, not to mention keep it.  Unlike games like Bejewelled where the idea is to line up blocks that either match horizonally or vertically the premise of Lucid is to match up areas of blocks, you drawing a line between two or more of the same colour to pop them, but you can only clear that colour if your able to select all the blocks of that colour that are connected to it with a constant line, sounds simple but its the simple ideas that always prevail in titles like this.

While you can clear any section that you want, either for points, or to help clear a path to the section you need, the main idea of winning the level is to clear enough of the target coloured blocks.

Clear enough blocks of the target colour and your meter fills up, as well as your score of course, once you fill the lucid meter the level is complete, again all sounds very simple, which I guess at first it is.

You can earn score multipliers by chaining together the task blocks, earning you Lucid-Blocks, lines up a combo with one of these and you can clear every block on the screen, or you can earn area bonuses for clearing square shaped areas at any time.

So a simple idea, simply executed, but the way lucid differs from most of its rivals is that there is no time limit, no pressure to get the target blocks first, meaning the only person your really challenging is your self, it gives you time to chill out and think about your next move if you want to, meaning you don’t feel rushed in your attempts.

With its relaxing music and sound effects combine with the simple yet memorising graphics, you can’t help but feel relaxed while playing, I did find my self being drawn into an very chilled out state while playing, which for a game called “Lucid” sounds about right.

The graphics are very limited, but are more than enough to serve their purpose, I wasn’t expecting vivid CGI battle in the background in a bubble pop game anyway.  The level seems to wobble and float around in front of its ever peaceful looking backgrounds such as clouds, stars, rainbows and various other “lucid” looking scenes.

Over all though, Lucid is a very enjoyable game, its one that normally I wouldn’t have given a second glance, but once you find your self drawn into its mellow gameplay you can’t help but keep playing, its a refreshing change of pace from the frantic gameplay of so many similar titles.  While this isn’t the most in-depth review I’ve ever done, there really isn’t much to talk about with this game, but since I enjoyed playing it, I figured it was worth reviewing.

With a unique match-all gameplay style, that brings something fresh to an already well cover genre is a good, which in its self really couldn’t hurt, the inclusion of achievements, colourful animations, chilled out music and plenty of re-play value thanks to having over 55 levels and high score system, all help toward keeping you coming back for more in this relaxing indie match-em-up and while I don’t think the game is worthy of our gamers choice award, it is still game worth playing, especially if your a fan of the Facebook addiction that is Bejewelled as you will appreciate the change of pace in this title, it will give you something else to do in those 20mins a day you have spare when you should really be doing some work and the boss isn’t peeking over your shoulder.

Lucid is available on Steam for £4.99