12 Word Searches

Review

Game Description

“A book of 12 small puzzles that get trickier as you progress.”

Personal Experience

I’ll be honest, I’ve always found word searches to be a bit boring. They’re good at wasting time, but typically don’t require any brain power. Turning a word search into a puzzle game though? Now I’m interested! 12 Word Searches does just that, using the mechanic of omission to create an interesting and challenging experience. It was a surprisingly lengthy one as well, taking me somewhere between three-four hours to play through.

Puzzle Play

12 Word Searches is purely a puzzle experience with no narrative elements. The primary puzzle element of the game is one of omission. You are presented with a series of word searches, but it’s clear from the beginning that you have not been given all of the information you need to succeed. There aren’t enough words, some of the words are gibberish, letters are missing, it’s impossible to make the words, there are doodles and ink blotches everywhere. Slowly but surely though, things click into place. The experience goes from word search to puzzle game and back to word search again.

The game features an interesting difficulty curve as well, starting easy, getting hard, and then coasting towards the end. There are no hints with the game, which may be frustrating for some players (though I ultimately didn’t need them myself). The game also is colorblind friendly, completely playable in black and white.

Recommendation

12 Word Searches was a fun experience and managed to make a puzzle format I don’t care for an enjoyable experience. Plus at the low, low cost of free, there’s no reason not to give it a try!

The game is already fairly difficult, but if you’re looking for a truly difficult challenge download the “No Zero” version and play through that.