Preview: Hidden Oxygen by Meek Bits

Do you desire a small break so you can take a relaxing breath? Inhale gently. This game is all about oxygen. The mobile game Hidden Oxygen gets you thinking with fun puzzles. At first glance, it sounds boring and only fun for the average chemistry geek. And I hate chemistry! But if that’s your assumption, you’re wrong. I will tell you more about this relaxing free puzzle game in the Hidden Oxygen preview.

Puzzle time with Hidden Oxygen

Hidden Oxygen is an atom arranger puzzle game. In this mobile game, you have to figure out the correct layout of oxygen atoms on a square board. At the start of the game, the puzzles won’t be that challenging. You will find the solution at ease by using simple deductive logic. Still further on in the game, it can become much more challenging to combine each carbon atom with 2 adjacent oxygens. You often have to rethink how you could order the oxygen without placing too many oxygens in one column.

The game features 5 difficulty levels with 100 levels each. The levels will be consecutively unlocked as the player progresses through. When a level is becoming too hard, you can simplify it by buying a hint. Buying a hint looks fine at the start, but you will get a reduction of your points at the end. You might want to consider finding the solutions without using the advanced hinting system at all. The hint system is a nice addition for people who are not able to find the solution themselves, still, most of the time not using the system will definitely improve your level of enjoyment while playing Hidden Oxygen. It also provides a higher score in the end!

Improvements to be made

Although, at the moment does not mean that lot for me personally. The scores of the levels are added together for a total score, but that’s it. You will be rewarded with sound effects, flags, and a score when you complete a level. Outside the levels, you don’t really feel that you are being rewarded and that total score feels like a random number. Questions arise: how good is that score compared to others (online or local high scores?), how many points could I have achieved with a better time and not using hints? There are many ways to make that score more meaningful and rewarding.

Another point of frustration is one element that occurs when you don’t want to be disturbed during your moment of rest. Hidden Oxygen is an enjoyable free game. Free often also means that there is something in return. In this case you cannot continue to play the game in succession without encountering an ad every time. That ad ensures that the maker earns something, but is so in your face for the user like me that it is a point of irritation. Personally, I would not pay for a mobile game quickly, but for those who will, an option is nice to remove ads for a fee. A loyalty system would work too.

Nevertheless, it is free to play and I enjoyed it. I shouldn’t moan since developing a game cost time and time costs money. The puzzles are fun and the game has a lot of content to enjoy. The final game can really take hours to finish. The developer definitely worked hard to make challenging puzzles that do not need guessing, only logics. That is a good sign. It is good to see that the maker takes the effort to keep it simple but effective in terms of UI and almost unnoticeable sound effects that do not disturb but still support the game.

Try it out yourself!

Although the game does not do groundbreaking new things, it is still a nice free puzzle game you can pick up whenever you want. Hidden Oxygen will launch June 27th, 2020 on Android devices only. If you want to play the game as soon as possible, you can pre-register this game now in the PlayStore!