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Genre: Puzzle

Format: Download

Developer: Pangea Software, Inc.

Publisher: Pangea Software, Inc.

Minimum System Requirements: 800MHz G4 or any Intel Mac, 256MB RAM and 32MB VRAM, Mac OS X v10.3.9, QuickTime 7, OpenAL (included with Mac OS 10.4, but for Mac OS X v10.3.9, it must be downloaded and installed)

Review Computer: 1GHz PowerPC G4, 1.25GB RAM, 128MB ATI Radeon 9000, Mac OS X v10.4.3

Network Feature: No

Price: $29.95

ESRB Rating: N/A

Availability: Now

Version Reviewed: 1.0.3

Official Website: www.pangeasoft.net/enigmo2/

I stared at the dripping water, wondering if I was playing an incarnation of Chinese water torture rather than Enigmo 2, the most recent puzzle game from Pangea. It seemed like such a simple task to use a combination of boosters and sliders to coax the water droplets through a hoop and into the bucket, allowing me to finish the level, yet I was stuck.

Rotating the puzzle around to give me a better look revealed a funnel I hadn't seen before, which gave me a clue as to how to approach. By bouncing the water back through the hoop (which turned off a force field door) and into the funnel, it fell through a shield tube which turned off the force field surrounding the water tank. Add a drum to bounce the water up and a gutter to force the water to fall down, and the level was complete.

This is the essence of Enigmo 2; using a variety of devices (bouncing drums, slides, sponges, mirrors, etc.) to direct water drops, laser beams and plasma particles around a puzzle and through obstacles to the correct tank to complete each level. Sometimes you need to push a button with water in order to activate the laser emitter, and other times you'll need to use the walls of the puzzle to help aim the laser beams. The twist is that since the puzzle is 3-dimensional, you can rotate the puzzle and the devices, and place them anywhere you want.

Being able to zoom in and out and rotate the camera freely around the puzzle adds additional challenges, such as being able to move the devices around a 3D world with a 2D monitor. One nice feature is being able to select a piece currently in the puzzle (either part of the puzzle or a device), and when you drag out a new device, it is aligned with whatever you selected. Unfortunately, moving the piece around the puzzle is a bit cumbersome, as you have to first move the camera to the desired axis before you can move or rotate the device in that axis. For example, let's say you want to move a device up and down, so you have to move the camera to face the side of the device before being able to do so. It's not difficult, and I don't know what better system could be used, but it can be rather tedious to precisely place devices since I needed to rotate the camera so many times.

The graphics are futuristic in style and very metallic, which contrasts with the cartoonish appearance of the original Enigmo, and not always for the better. I often had difficulty telling the different pieces apart because they are close in size, especially zoomed out, and there are few other details to separate them. When a piece is selected, there is no label, so you have to either memorize how they look or remove them from the puzzle to return them to the palette where there are labels. It would have been nice to have a bigger contrast between the devices while keeping with the futuristic theme. However, the rest of the graphics are excellent, with impressive space backgrounds and colorful and vivid lava beams and plasma particles as they reflect and bounce around. The music also keeps with the theme, and is appropriately spacey and futuristic.

An extra feature that's a bit surprising is the built-in editor that enables you to make your own levels and combine them into a collection. There are a few already made and available for easy downloading from Pangea's website. I have played around with some of them, and have been impressed with how creative and challenging they are, especially since the built-in levels are a bit on the simple side.

Overall, Enigmo 2 is enjoyable with enough variety to make each level different and fun. If you're looking for a puzzle game which is easy to learn and has a lot of levels to play then you can't go wrong with Enigmo 2.