I am the kind of introvert who’s made an artwork of selecting the best seat in public locations. With such honed abilities, I assumed a puzzler like Is This Seat Taken? can be second nature, and I used to be principally proper. This lovely indie may not convey something radical to the desk, nevertheless it’s a wonderfully nice pick-up-and-play expertise, that may undoubtedly scratch any low-stakes puzzle itches.
Strung collectively by a free story a couple of rhombus with desires of treading the boards (sure, actually), Is This Seat Taken is about organising individuals into the appropriate spots so that everybody’s preferences are glad. This could be on the cinema or museum, a taxi or a ship, however every individual (nicely, “form” could be extra correct) has their very own circumstances to satisfy, and they are often quite fussy.
Issues begin easy: slot this handful of shapes right into a taxi, and ensure individuals A and C are sitting by the window. However every stage brings a brand new problem. Within the cinema display, some visitors will use their telephones or chat. On boats, you may get social gathering teams who must be saved separate from those that simply need to sightsee. And everybody needs to keep away from visitors who forgot to bathe.
The thought of performing such feats of organisation in the actual world is sufficient to break me out in a chilly sweat, however Is This Seat Taken could not be extra chilled. There is no timer and no punishment for placing anyone within the improper place. Heck, you’ll be able to even end the extent with out everybody sitting comfortably — although you’d lose precious ‘thumbs up’ factors, and my respect, within the course of.
Busier phases can really feel slightly trial-and-error-y, and the absence of any sort of trace system meant I needed to pull everybody from their short-term locations and begin from scratch on multiple event; I’d love an undo/reset button for this type of factor. Happily, no puzzle outstays its welcome. I polished off each stage (through which there are 5 or 6 phases) in round six hours, and phases themselves are damaged down into micro-challenges, primed for anybody who needs to squeeze in 10 minutes of gaming whereas the pasta’s cooking. It feels tailored for exactly this.
The onscreen cursor is clean and intuitive, the characters are cute, and you may even use touchscreen controls in handheld. If all of it sounds quite cell puzzler, that is as a result of it’s — I appreciated each new problem and tweak after I’d come again to the sport, however two or three ranges on the trot felt slightly repetitive.
All in all, Is This Seat Taken is stable pick-up-and-play puzzler. It might not do something new or distinctive, however the condition-meeting gameplay loop is primed for anybody after a low-stakes distraction. It will not maintain you occupied for hours on finish, nevertheless it’ll do an almighty job of reminding you that your seating preferences are to not be scoffed at.
