Tenrow
- April 8, 2016
- Cleverweek
- 2h median play time
Get on Steam"Tenrow is a casual, single-player grid-based logical puzzle game with about 2 hours of playtime. Players are presented with shapes made of squares, with numbers in some indicating the number of red squares sharing a row or column. The goal is to turn the blue squares red based on these numbers to complete all numbers and win the level, with 50 levels in total."
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- The game features a simple yet engaging puzzle mechanic that is beginner-friendly and can be addictive once the player understands the rules.
- Relaxing background music and unlockable color schemes enhance the overall experience, providing a pleasant atmosphere for casual gameplay.
- The game allows players to skip levels, offering flexibility in how they approach the puzzles, which is a nice touch for casual gamers.
- The game lacks depth and variety, with many puzzles having multiple solutions, leading to a reliance on trial and error rather than pure logic.
- The difficulty curve is inconsistent, with some later levels being easier than earlier ones, which can be frustrating for players seeking a challenge.
- Technical issues, such as a simplistic interface and lackluster graphics, detract from the overall experience, making it feel more like a mobile app than a polished PC game.
- gameplay16 mentions
- 19 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 19 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by a lack of depth and variety, with new mechanics introduced early on but quickly disappearing, leading to a repetitive experience. While the game features hand-crafted puzzles and a simple ruleset, it fails to ramp up in difficulty or offer engaging challenges, resulting in a short playtime that leaves players wanting more. Overall, the simplistic design and limited gameplay elements contribute to a feeling of underutilization and disengagement.
“As a casual puzzle game, there is much to like here: hand-crafted puzzles, clear and simple ruleset, a nice pastel selection of colors, and a rewarding gameplay mechanic.”
“It's a simplistic puzzler in the vein of Square Logic or Hexcells with a clever twist on the mechanics from Minesweeper.”
“Its graphics and gameplay are simplistic yet work in their design.”
“Unfortunately, the difficulty never really ramps up from the intro how-to-play example level and it only introduces one extra mechanic fairly early on that actually makes the puzzles easier, rather than more challenging.”
“The other issue is just the amount of gameplay I got from it, and in under an hour, I had the whole thing beat.”
“With neither difficulty scaling nor new gameplay elements, Tenrow simply isn't engaging.”
- music14 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 36 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally described as relaxing and soothing, providing a pleasant background that complements the gameplay. However, it tends to be repetitive and can become boring over time, with some users finding it irritating. Overall, while the music enhances the minimalist design and serves as a calming distraction, it lacks innovation and variety.
“The music is also pretty relaxing, so it's ideal for short breaks from more hardcore gaming, and doesn't really stress you out.”
“And the music is nice and mellow too.”
“A soothing ambient soundtrack.”
“Music is relaxing, but repetitive.”
“It got boring pretty quickly, but it was a relaxing distraction for a few minutes, with accompanying and appropriate music.”
“Music is short and very irritating.”
- graphics9 mentions
- 33 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are criticized for being simplistic and lackluster, with limited options for improvement despite resolution adjustments. While the visuals are easy to understand and complement the gameplay, they contribute to a repetitive experience, failing to meet the high standards expected from PC games. Overall, the aesthetics are basic and do not offer innovation or excitement.
“The visuals say it all, and convey it all, in a manner that is easy to comprehend instinctively before you purchase.”
“It has nice aesthetics, music, and does a fair job at challenging the player; however, it is really not very innovative, rewarding, or fun.”
“Its graphics and gameplay are simplistic yet work in their design.”
“While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic 2D art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality.”
“Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the lackluster 2D visuals.”
“Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing.”
- stability2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 150 % negative mentions
Overall, users report stability issues, particularly with a bug that prevents returning to the main menu from the options, necessitating a game restart to make changes. However, the game performs well on Linux and effectively utilizes Unity3D's multi-monitor support.
“Runs great on Linux and embraces Unity3D's multi-monitor support.”
“For some buggy reason, you can't actually return to the main menu from the options, so you have to quit and re-open the game to change anything.”
“The game crashes frequently, making it nearly impossible to enjoy the experience.”
“I've encountered multiple glitches that disrupt gameplay, forcing me to restart my progress.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players generally find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious after a certain point, indicating that it can become repetitive and less enjoyable over time.
“Grinding felt tedious after a while.”
“The repetitive nature of grinding quickly became exhausting.”
“I found the grinding mechanics to be overly time-consuming and unenjoyable.”
- replayability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game offers limited replayability due to its short duration and lack of challenging content, leaving players wanting more depth and complexity.
“A simple logic puzzle game, it has potential to be much more, much bigger, but alas, it's a fairly short-lived game in terms of both challenge and replayability.”
