Containment

Simple puzzler game where bacteria grow randomly each turn in a hex grid, and your goal is to control and eventually eliminate them all by curing small areas at a time with individual "doses" over the course of 10-15 turns. One of the key mechanics is and saving doses and delaying curing on the current turn to make the curing action on the next turn even stronger. A good risk-reward mechanic.

Can be quite tough, especially some levels, which will involve many retries until the randomness works in your favour, which can make the game at times feel less like a puzzle game, because even the best strategy cannot default bad luck in this game. Sometimes you have lost even on the first turn (e.g. Bonus level 4).

Feels like there is a lot of depth that is left unexplored with the game. Different map structures, more types of bacteria, additional ways to gain research and doses, etc. This game could provide a much wider variety of maps than the current set of 12 or so.

Fair price when on sale, and can provide a few hours of entertainment.

This game has some really neat, clever, and fun elements to it, but the core of gameplay is NOT "try your best to eliminate the bacteria". It is "let the bacteria multiply enough so that when you wipe them out, your score hits the thresholds for earning more stars". 3-starring levels is not, ultimately, a matter of clever strategy, but a matter of correctly judging the inflection point where you need to stop letting bacteria grow so you can wipe them out. Every turn, you determine how many to kill / leave alive either by (a) seat-of-the-pants estimation or (b) really tedious calculation. This is clearly intentional; the game even has tips reminding you about it.

There's more nuance than this to the game (much of it neat and clever) but that's the beating heart of gameplay, and I found it kind of hollow - the tension feels contrived. (And weirdly athematic.)

Good little puzzle / strategy game - that is a great value at even at full price ($2 US). I was able to beat the base campaign in ~4hours... probably will take ~8-10 hours to beat the bonus levels and see if I can improve a high score or two. FYI if you want a more 'sandbox' game it will unlock after you 'beat' the campaign.

I personally found this less than enjoyable. You are challenged to get big scores by allowing the bacteria to grow to a big size before attempting to curtail it. The act of removing the bacteria however isn't all that fun, so you end up making anti-fun before each level and it can be quite stressful. There are no rpg elements, or different tools/bugs to use.

In short: This is a fun light-weight casual strategy game for a few hours. It has an incredibly polished surface, but lacks a bit in depth. Fortunately this is more than adequatly reflected by the price tag.

In long: The specific mechanics take a while to grok, but the basic gist is that bacteria will spawn and increase in strength on a hexagonal grid. You can either administer doses to certain tiles or pass the turn. Once your turn is over every tile loses 1 strength and every isolated tile dies off, but then the remaining bacteria multiply. If you have doses remaining, they will count towards reasearch, making your antibiotics more powerful.
Your strategy lies in balancing your needs. Do you attempt to beat the bacteria down early or do you save up to make each dose hit harder later-on? Overcoming the bacteria is just part of the challenge and usually quite easy. The whole game instead revolves around scoring the highest number of points, partly to achieve a full 3-star-rating and also to get onto the leaderboards. So your goal is actually to keep the bacteria alive for as long as the turn limit allows, so you can score the maximum points off of killing them repeatedly. This is where the game honestly loses me a bit. It took me way too long to wrap my head around the growth mechanic, but that is partly the fault of a now-fixed bug. Worse though, the distribution of bacteria during the growth phase and even during the initial setup of the level is heavily randomized. While this arguably adds replayability, it feels really bad, that how good your start is and how big of a score you'll be able to get is up to RNG and not skill.
This neatly brings us to the levels. The game comes with the original 9 maps, with 5 bonus maps added recently for free. As the reference to heavy RNG has probably already tipped you off, these are not hand-crafted puzzle/challenge levels. Instead the whole game is bascially 1 sandbox level with different pre-set parameters (grid size, growth per turn, doses per turn, etc). At least after beating the 9 original levels the game gives you direct access to said parameters in a so-called "creative mode", which is essentially a level generator. I found the bonus levels to be a lot more interesting, where the developers thankfully decided to mix it up with more interesting map layouts.
With respect to the difficulty, the game is a bit of a rollercoaster. Some levels are very easy and open-ended score challenges. Others have very tight tolerances that basically require a certain near-optimal strategy just to survive and will necessitate several resets to score well. Overall beating all 14 "pre-made" levels with full 3 stars took me a little more than 4 hours. If you are into highscoring or into experimenting with the level generator, there's a lot more hours to be had for sure.

The presentation is done very well. The game looks slick and polished with good attention to detail. Sound effects are great and the music is good. I'm equally satisfied with the technical implementation. The options left literally nothing to be desired: volume sliders, windowed mode, animation speed slider, ability to turn-off animated backgrounds - I love it! Seriously, this should serve as a shining example for other games' option menus. Two bugs I reported were also fixed within a day, which is quite impressive.

In conclusion I can't say much more than that I had fun and that I enjoyed the concept. While I definitely have minor gripes with the game, I had an over-all mostly enjoyable experience. Looking at the price tag, even the developers seem to know that their game is a little shallow, so I can hardly fault them for that. The game is well worth the full price of merely 2 bucks for a few hours of casual fun.

Containment is a wonderful little puzzle game. Such a simple mechanic, just click on a cluster of the board and do damage to the viruses. However, the addition of a risk/reward system by trading attack moves for research to make your attack more powerful is really neat. Each level has a new tweak to the rules that make them unique encounters.

It has a wonderful look, both in the UI as well as the general art of the game. Everything is moving, like its alive. A really neat style.

Especially for the price, this is a great value puzzle game.

Neat little puzzle game with an optional, but effective risk vs reward scoring system. At first it seemed strange to purposefully let more bacteria spawn to score more points, but as I played more it started to feel more natural. Lots of little details in the UI and animation add up to give the game a good bit of personality, and it's surprisingly relaxing. RNG in the bacteria spawning is both a blessing and a curse, as it shakes things up and adds replay value, though sometimes you just get dealt a bad hand. Fortunately, restarting is very quick if things go south. It's not super long, but the RNG and level editor add replayability, and the experience is ultimately very polished and fun. For the asking price, I recommend it!

Deceptively simple game, it requires putting in some thought before making a move. If you enjoy squeezing your brain a little on single-focus mode (getting rid of those maddening bacteria -_-), you'll probably like this. Cheap and very entertaining.

The game is rather frustrating since it does not explain its mechanics. This would be fine, if this was intended as a casual time-wasting clicker. And the game does give this impression. However, one of the three tutorial levels is on achieving a high-score. Apparently, the devs intended the game to have a strategy element. Also fine. But, please, do explain the whole mechanics! At the start of each level a number of stats are given for the bacteria. What do they mean? How is the strength of the bacteria each turn determined? And what is it important for? Questions, over questions, over questions.

And what is with the 5 turns limit per level? Give unlimited turns and award stars for finishing withing certain amount of turns, if you like that. Or introduce difficulty levels that control the amount of turns available. And giving stars just for score? Honestly, I do not understand why the others so much like this game. It is a strategic nightmare.

Well, maybe I approached the game with the wrong expectations.

Really charming puzzle game that's always refreshing itself with new mechanics. Can't tell if I love seeing the leader board at the beginning of each level or hate it, because it makes me want to just stay on that level till I can place (I didn't, but i tried :)) Definitely worth the price.

This is another one of those small cute logic puzzles that fall into the same genra like the Cat Machine or Evo Explores. However, unlike those titles, Containment offers some random elements and options to customize levels that make each game unique, taking it beyond the "play once and you're done" limitation of those games.

Gameplay itself is rather simple as you simply have to decide which bacteria to kill with your antibotic dosages each turn. However, clever application of the dosages can help you kill more than just the bacteria it was applied to. Also, saving your doses for future turns can make them more powerful, but does so at the cost of allowing the bacteria stronger growth. Finally, since the score is based on how many bacteria you kill, there is a benefit in letting them live. So the game is constantly forcing you to create a balance between letting bacteria live for a higher score, but needing to kill enough to prevent them from growing out of control.

At the end of the day, I wouldn't consider this complex or deep, but it is entertaining and unique if you are looking for a casual puzzle game. For the $2 price tag you will easily get your money's worth provided you enjoy these kinds of games. The developers are also still offering support and making updates for the game, which is more than I would have expected from a low cost title. Two solid thumbs up!

An engaging puzzle game, with simple, but challenging mechanics. The game is highly polished and relaxing to play. You can see the top 50 scores for each level, and it's fun seeing how high you can reach. There are only a small number of levels, but there is more than enough content to justify the very reasonable price.

A few years ago this would've been a flash game (probably free, probably completely surrounded by ads). Flash is on its way out and it's not 100% clear what (if anything) is going to replace it. I think there's space here for small games that you can explore for a few hours. I think with a nicer coat of paint and some more content this game could easily push up into the $5-$10 range.

This is a strategy game with simple rules, but it's very challenging and deep. I found myself thinking like a turn based strategy game, with doses being like resources that I have to gather and spend with intent. All of the built-in levels are very tightly tuned and twist the strategy in different ways, so you always have to try new approaches in order to win. The game is also super polished, and the animations feel great!

Containment is a unique and inventive design and super polished. I love minimalist games. This is a minimalist strategy game. Normally, I gravitate to puzzle games but I'm really enjoying "puzzling" out the strategies for combating the bacteria. Some of the levels are tough and require iterating on your plan. It has a few minor launch niggles (leaderboards), but I'm sure they will be addressed in short order. Bottom line: a bargain...money well spent. Highly recommended.

The game is based around a concept that’s simple to understand, but surprisingly complex and much more challenging than initially expected. I love games that demand puzzling out how to win in the most efficient way possible, and while I was originally looking forward to picking something up as a quick time-killer, I found myself getting fixed on working my way through each stage trying to get to the top of each leaderboard—Containment is incredibly addicting, and I could see myself buying it for my phone if it ever hits mobile platforms. I absolutely got more than my money’s worth out of this game, and would recommend it to anyone looking for something simple, replayable and enjoyable at minimal cost.

I like board games and strategy-style games so this is my kind of game. I enjoyed it enough to play for several hours, and I'd recommend it.

It was easy to learn the basic mechanics. The differences between the levels due to the weighting changes mean each level feels like a new game. I rarely achieved the high score star. Some were infuriating, with too few doses and massive growth rates. A couple of levels are "science projects", where you score poorly if you eradicate early, and that is counter-intuitive. It's more like you're meant to farm the bugs rather than eradicate them in those cases.

I haven't played with the custom level that lets you select your own weightings, but it's there.

100% must buy for all ages. Unique and interesting puzzle game with a undervalued price. The visuals have a simple charm that pop really well. Well developed and great buy for anyone looking for a lite game that you can chill with.

Incredible level of depth for how simple the game is. Fantastically teaches math for younger ages, yet will hardpress adult-level problem solving for high scores.

Keeps things fresh throughout the game by introducing new concepts.

This game drips polish and is harder than it looks! Clever mechanics and increasing difficulty keep you playing. Well worth the couple bucks. <3

Super chill puzzle game with challenging puzzles and relaxing music. The puzzles are challenging, and the build your own feature is a great addition