‘Tilemetry’ Review: Enjoy Over 1200 Puzzles for Free

Today we’re preparing to look at a game that’s perfect for those of you who want something free — enjoy math puzzles — and positively refuse to either deal with any IAPs, or even advertisements. From the rather generous Theodore Neustaedter we have Tilemetry (out now, free), a game that challenges you to flip a series of number-bearing tiles until an array of equations have all been simultaneously solved. The game furthermore contains a staggering number of puzzles available, with precisely 1260 present, meaning that Tilemetry is a rather long affair for an app being so freely given.

IMG_0009The game itself features precisely one simple control-element: wherein a touched tile will flip itself over, and touching the same tile a second tile will flip it back to what it was originally displaying. Each of these tiles are furthermore designed so that both sides collectively add up to nine; which means that if one side of the tile displays a five, the other side would surely have to contain a four (and so on, and so forth). Your goal — using your tile-flipping prowess — is to make sure  that all of the displayed numbers add up to a target-goal, with every column and row each having their own unique target to achieve.

The game has been specifically structured into 36 different difficulty-tiers, with each of these sections containing 35 different puzzles (all of which offer a three-star scoring system based on how many tile-flips the player used to solve the puzzle). Whereas most other games would often make a player go through all 1260 puzzles present in sequential order, Tilemetry instead allows you to start on the first puzzle of any of these sections. The sections themselves are specifically arranged around how many flippable tiles are involved; so whereas one section might contain only 2×2 sized puzzles, an entirely different section might contain only puzzles that are 4×5 tiles in size.

I would personally advise that — for anyone even vaguely good at math puzzles — you start off with challenges measuring at least 4×4 tiles in size, because anything lower than that basically fails to serve as a proper challenge. This is largely due to the fact that once you’ve individually solved all the rows, you’ll likely have often solved all of the current puzzle’s columns as well (which is especially true during the game’s smaller grids). Thusly this leads to Tilemetry’s smaller puzzles not exactly being all that much fun to tackle, seeing as how quality fun — in regards to puzzle games — generally only occurs when you’re faced with ordeals you must spend time conquering.

IMG_0008Although an admittedly minor complaint, I do — on that note — wish I didn’t have to dig through all the lower puzzle-tiers each and every time I opened Tilemetry, seeing as how there’s a whopping fifteen sections before you reach the part with 4×4 sized puzzles. While scrolling over — one tap at a time — to the latter puzzles-sections might not seem like much at first, this quickly adds up should you find yourself loading Tilemetry time and time again. Should the app ever receive any form of updates in the near future, then I’d highly suggest to Theodore Neustaedter that sending people straight to whichever section they previously played would certain remove a wholly unneeded chunk of boring.

Actually — if it wasn’t for just how amazingly free Tilemetry is — I’d possibly go off on a rant right now regarding how utterly-mundane the app’s presentation is, but it’s not like I’ve much right to tirade on about that (it’s largely a case of getting what you pay for). That said — even though the game itself is completely free — I won’t lie about the slight apathy I felt during my entire time spent with Tilemetry either, despite the fact I had no specific qualms with either the app’s mathematical-premise or the touch-screen controls. It’s not like Tilemetry was even a horribly buggy affair — or anything like that — it’s just that I didn’t exactly feel much of anything during my time spent playing it, but please do feel free to judge for yourself all the same (after all, it’s not like you have much to lose).

Verdict

Tilemetry is a puzzle game wherein you attempt to flip tiles — whose front and back sides always add up to precisely nine — until you’ve solved a series of addition-based equations, with every row and column having a different target-value for players to achieve. Although being offered for absolutely free — and further containing no IAPs, or even advertisements — Tilemetry still manages to house a whopping 1260 puzzles for people to solve (many a premium game only wishes they had that much content contained within). However — on a sort of “you get what you pay for” style note — the game contains a massively mundane presentation throughout, and a slight degree of apathy was felt during the entire review period (but not due things like poor controls, or buggy mechanics).

No bugs
Solid controls
Absolutely free
No IAPs
Over 1200 different puzzles
Many of the early puzzles are way too easy
Constantly gives off a mundane vibe
3
Good