Like its predecessor, this is the best puzzle game I have ever played. This is more of an expansion than an actual separate game, but the price is so cheap that it doesn't matter. Both games are worth far more than the asking price, in my opinion.

The music and sound effects are spot-on fantastic, the puzzles are lovingly and painstakingly crafted, and the difficulty progression is just perfect from one puzzle to the next. Hexcells Plus adds a few things over its predecessor: additional types of puzzles, a couple of new types of clues, and a bit more difficult end puzzles.

I simply cannot recommend both games enough.

The mechanics are similar to Minesweeper and if you find yourself clicking the wrong mouse button (like me), you can change the button configuration from the Input tab of the configuration menu when you first start the game. Also, keep in mind that there is never a time that you must guess.

This game makes me feel smart.

[I know this shows 0 hours played, but my achievements should prove that I'd previously bought and beaten this game. In fact, I played it three or four times over!]

Hexcells Plus is everything I am always looking for in a puzzle game, distilled to a deceptively simple interface. Though comparisons to Minesweeper are not unwarranted, these comparisons miss a crucial difference: in Minesweeper, the final moves often (and annoyingly) come down to chance, debasing all the carefully planned moves you'd made before should you--at the end of a long game--happen to click a mine.

In Hexcells (and Hexcells Plus), however, the game gives you JUST enough information to never, ever have to guess. But you will often spend many, many minutes searching for and debating your next move. While the game provides various clues as to where you can find Hexes and numbers, it does not (at least past the first few levels) make this obvious (as it is in a game like Picross, for example, where every column's number of squares is provided). It only provides clues for a limited number of columns, rows, sections, etc.; based on this, and based on tricks you'll pick up and teach yourself as you go along, you'll have to very carefully make your next move.

And this is the crucial difference: any mistake you make in Hexcells is your own fault--thus Hexcells corrects an unfortunate norm in the puzzle genre. So, between chess-like demands on your every move, between the security of knowing the game will not force you to guess, between the pleasing visuals and soothing ambient soundtrack, Hexcells Plus is one of, if not THE, best puzzle games I have ever played, and I play a lot.

5/5

Regular Hexcells is like super happy fun puzzle time. Hexcells Plus is the diabolical demon from hell version of the game. It's a whole lot harder than the regular version. There were points where I couldn't find the next logical solution in the puzzle and had to guess. That doesn't mean there wasn't a logical move, just that I couldn't find it! The boards are much bigger and there are added game mechanics that result in more complicated play. It's way more like sudoku, with times when you have make complicated deductions based on the overlap of number clues.

If you want a nice, relaxing puzzle game, buy regular Hexcells. If you want a challenge, grab Hexcells Plus. Better yet, both. I think I slightly prefer regular Hexcells just because I like the more relaxing puzzles, but there is a certain sense of accomplishment to be found in Hexcells Plus that regular Hexcells lacks.

You should take this recommendation as being for Hexcells as well as Hexcells Plus - I bought both elsewhere earlier (hence the near-zero playtime, but it seems to have awarded me the achievements for my progress) and they really should be played together. At least, if you're still interested after the first one, which won't take you long to get through.

They're both magnificent.

Hexcells is often compared to Minesweeper and that's quite apt (also, Sudoku), but where Minesweeper usually devolves into frustrating guesswork, the puzzles in Hexcells are finely crafted individual pieces that (as far as I can tell) always contain just enough information to solve. So often, when the combination of elements that unlocked some part of the puzzle finally revealed itself to me, I would not just feel the wave of satisfaction at my own accomplishment, but would find myself nodding in appreciation, seeing how carefully that whole side of the board was put together.

And despite Hexcells Plus containing some incredibly tough puzzles (I have one level left to do at the time of writing), perhaps the aspect most worthy of raving about is that they're both such calming games. The gorgeous ambient soundtrack is...gorgeous, and the developer has enough respect for his puzzles to not add some forced layer of pressure like a time limit. The pace is then whatever you need it to be - for me, the harder puzzles in Hexcells Plus were often a "leave it on all day, have another look at it in half an hour" pace - and I love that.

Taken together (and they should be, because Hexcells is almost just an introduction to Hexcells Plus), these are in the running for the best puzzle game since Spacechem.

Buy it. Play it. Love it.

But only once you've played Hexcells all the way through - the later levels in Hexcells Plus will melt your brain, but boy will you feel smart afterwards.