Critical Mass

Got it for free somehow. Maybe through humble bundle, but not sure. Played for 5 minutes. Super boring and way too punishing to start. Don't buy. It's waste of money.

I keep getting this error when I start the game:

Unable to connect to game server.
Online Ranking, Skillpoints and Achievements are unavailable in Offline mode.

This game is advertised on Steam store page as having Steam Achievements. But that is misleading since those achievements along with skill points are blocked because the game can't go online anymore. I thought this was a normal single-player puzzle game. Why does it need to be online? This game shouldn't be allowed to be sold in its current state. Anyway, I won't be financing this scam so I asked for a refund.

Big disappointment! If I were just to mention the facts they closed the online feature, meaning you can not compete anymore with leaderboards, or unblock achievements, etc - all the online features are DEAD, reducing the reach the game might have had in the first place - well, it would already be a big negative point for that game.
Sadly, online or offline does not much matter, the game itself is really poor. Puzzle design is uninspired, gameplay is totally boring (it felt there was more to it, but it is literally "link 4 cubes of the same color to make them disappear and clear everything out before the timer runs out". Which makes the overall experience totally underwhelming. The music is really stressful, the timer is super short, the camera close up to make you panic does NOT help at all... It is really not a good puzzle, on the contrary. That feels like a very casual, boring, forgettable app for smartphone. What a disappointment! There was some potential by doing something in 3D like that, but even the 3D minesweeper you can find on Steam is much more interesting.
Forget it!

this is not for a casual, relaxing experience which is what I was looking for. it has a time limit, but it DOESN'T HAVE A VISIBLE TIMER! please correct me if i'm wrong, but where i'm at now (the first level) I say fuck this game: looks fun and casual, but it is not.
Again, correct me if i am wrong and tell me what settings to change. but if the tight time limit is integral to the game, then it is stupid. it should be a casual puzzle game that helps me fall asleep which I thought it would be. And it looks like no online connection anyway, so.....who cares except the casual crowd that just wants to solve puzzles. fuck you game designers, you had a good idea and tried but now it's a fail because online connection isn't possible... like UT3

Cannot recommend this game, needs a patch to be fully playable offline.

Side note - Would be awesome if it had a relaxed mode with a reduced time limit as well.

Kinda meh and multiple achievements require you to be #1 on the leaderboards. Leaderboards that you cannot get to anymore because the online doesn't work. Also, I get an error and the game has to reinstall something every time it's launched.

notes:
Achievements fair? - NO (require being number one on multiple leaderboards)
Parts of the game don't work any more

This was a decent 3D matching game that you could pick up for cheap, but it is now abandonware. There are some bugs in even getting the game to run on current OSes, the online leaderboards have been shut off for years now, and any steam achievement collectors will find this game impossible to complete now because of it.

I probably got this game on sale a few years ago, but it is no longer worth any money. [i]Sad Trombone noises[\i]

Game can only be played in practice mode now, servers that allow achievements and leaderboards have been shut down.

I would have recommended this but it appears the devs have abandoned it and killed the servers making the achievements unattainable, and they lacked the brainpower to implement a fix/workaround beforehand.

I have had this game for years, but have never been able to play it, no matter which computer I try it on. I cannot even launch the game, it immediately crashs. Fixes on the discussions don't work, and there is seemingly no way for me to get this game to run. This game is simply too broken for me to be able to consciously recommend.

If you're an achievement hunter, avoid. The leaderboard achievements are terrible and may be nearly impossible to get legitly.

Otherwise, it's a good time waster, but wasn't that all fun for me than what I was to believe. I strongly suggest you play the demo first and see if it's fun for you, but I would avoid this game even if you're not going for achievements.

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I hate bashing on Ozzie companies. ;p And this isn't an evil, unplayable game. My first impression was good, I played it for a bit, expected to play more, had it installed forever, yet every time I fire it up, I close it after 5 minutes.

It's a match 3 game with some 3D tetris elements. The concept is good. The graphics are polished. The music isn't bad. The controls feel annoying at first, but they're actually mostly okay. The problem is, the gameplay doesn't feel satisfying. It expects (and rewards, scorewise) big combos and long term strategy. It also expects you to be fast and responsive. This should theoretically work, in that zen-like way games like this work, but it doesn't. The rythym and pacing feels all off, it feels like the speed jumps from 1,2,3,4,5 to 50 to 150. Once you get into the zone and start planning ahead for later big score combos, it feels like you blink and the game jumps speed, asking you to go for quick, "just don't make a mistake" placement. That may be totally subjective of course, or it could be that the feeling gets exacerbated by the clunky cube placement process. It simply isn't visually always obvious or easy to correctly target the location you want on a constantly rotating cube, which really hurts the game when it picks up speed. People misplace blocks on tetris too, but usually feel it's their fault, here it feels like the cube jumps place three times before you can be sure it's where it should be. By which time the game has jumped two speed gears and you're basically done with.

Again, not a bad game, in theory. I just never feel like playing it long, because it doesn't feel very enjoyable. The thumbs down is just trying to balance a "very positively" reviewed game, with an 80 something metacritic score that few people seem to actually play much (notice the curiously short play times of the majority of the positive reviewers?). So I'd suggest to approach with caution, and at least play the demo first.

Too many puzzle games rely on complexity--Critical Mass addicts you with absolute simplicity. If you've exercised you hand-eye coordination with FPSs and have a good mind for 3D objects, you'll love this game.

This game is immediately very fun, that is the first thing to note. From the very first moment you start it, you'll be hooked, and an hour will have passed before you know it. Along with the great core game, the audio and visuals are sublime. After my first session of playing this game, I started looking on Steam for it's soundtrack. The art, as well, is execlent. I haven't spent much time playing it yet, but that's going to change very soon.

My only issue with this game is that the cubes won't appear if you're using Mac OS and have the in-game overlay turned on. It is, however, a very easy issue to remedy; under your games library, right-click the title, select properties, and disable the in-game overlay. Then, everything will run fine.

Picked this up on sale for $.50 - worth every penny and then some.

Critical Mass is an action puzzler in which the player races to eliminate all of the colored puzzle pieces by placing incoming pieces straegically to connect four connecting colors. Despite the description, it's not particularly "innovative." The game is similar in style to something like Tetris in which you have to manage the incoming colors in order to reduce size before it reaches, well, critical mass. Everything works smoothly, and the menus are swift. All works together perfectly to keep you in the action. I only have two complaints for this game. First, the player is unable to rotate the shape (it slowly rotates on its own), so the camera angle can sometimes obscure the best place to insert a block. Secondly, every time I lauch the game on my MBP, it searches all available drives - I launch and then my optical drive fires up. I have no idea why this would ever be necessary for this game (or any other). Regardless, it's loads of entertainment for the prce. 12/13

Fun puzzle type-beat game, if these types of games frustrate you then it may not be the play for you. If you love puzzle games then I recommend this one, it is well made and quite fun to play around with.

I must admit, that i got this game because i had 77 cents on steam! But, i din't expect such an addictive and fun game! The video and pictures might make the game seem hard, but it's easy. (at least the controls are) But, there are many so many challenging levels and addictive puzzles, that you want to come back for more! Never makes me bored! It's like the next gen tetris! I highly recommend this game! Get it while it's at it's cheapest! Btw, the music is AWESOME! What's better than placing blocks and watching cubes EXPLODE!

If you like "mindless" puzzle games to relax your brains and give it some break from normal games, you should get this or just atleast try demo to check it out. Totally worth of 2 euros, I like these kind of games (+ music is awesome :3)!

Critical Mass is an action puzzle game where you match colored blocks to remove them. The more of a color you remove, the bigger the combo. This review is from a disabled gamer (I only play with a mouse).

http://youtu.be/a6Kdsyvsaks

Loading the game, you can easily access options and change the game to Windowed Mode. Windowed Mode is borderless so you can change windows without exiting the game. There's multiple resolutions you can set the window too. It also has Colorblind Mode which adds a symbol in addiction to the blocks color. Another option I was impressed with was the Mouse Button option that let's you swap each buttons role. There's also a single option for the mouse but it seemed to be picky on exactly where I cllicked which slowed me down. I opt'd to keep using the reversed option.

Actual game modes include Classic, Survival, Meditation and Rush. While most modes do require you to work within various time tables, Meditation is a completely untimed relaxing strategic gameplay. To play the game, rotate the mass with your left mouse button and place blocks with your right mouse button. Many games actually didn't require much rotation so I completed many levels using only 1 mouse button.

If you're a mouse user who can left & right click gameplay should be a breeze! Colorblind gamers should also be fine with colorblind option enabled. It's actually my favorite way to play.

They weren't kidding when they wrote up the description for this little gem. Brutally simple to learn, simply brutal to master, Critical Mass is the kind of game literally anybody can just pick up and waste hours upon hours of their lives playing, all in a vain attempt to top the charts. And don't think for a second I mean any of that in a bad way. Far from it; Critical Mass possesses a fun, addictive quality rivaled only by the likes of Tetris and similar titles.

In case you still have doubts, bear in mind that this game only costs a measely two bucks, so it won't be a serious dent in your pocketbook even if you turn out to be one of the four or five people globally who don't enjoy it (you know who you are). With that in mind, what do you have to lose? I pride myself for being more discriminating than most when it comes to choosing which games to buy with a rather limited budget, so believe me when I say Critical Mass is a nearly fool-proof purchase!