In addition to getting one heck of a great console, and the ticking 'red-lights-of-death' time-bomb, gamers who purchase the Xbox 360 get an ultra-addictive puzzler known as Hexic HD for free; well, at least those who purchase one with a hard drive. Nearly two years later, the blossoming Xbox Live Arcade finally brings gamers who have mastered the original a sequel. It appears as though the 'HD' being left off the title was no mistake though.
Where the original was a shiny, glossy affair, the sequel has quite literally lost its luster. Gone are the bright, vibrant gems of the original game, replaced here with drab, dreary gems that look badly in need of a good polish. The game's original large gem style made for a bright, easy to see layout. The new version of the game shrinks the size of the gems considerably, making the board look not only ugly but also cluttered with more gems than before. In addition, it now seems quite a bit harder to see the highlighted gems that you are trying to move, making the game rather frustrating to play. The second version definitely feels like a major step backwards for the game.
The game brings back the same original three modes, Marathon, Timed, and Survival, and throws in an additional fourth mode, Battle. Those original three modes of play remain largely untouched, so Battle is where the game really earns your MS Points and all its replay value, with slightly tweaked gameplay addictive enough to want to fight through the eyesore graphics. While the original three modes come over relatively untouched from the original, Battle changes the game quite a bit.
The game opens with one large screen and a divider line at the center. You play against either the computer or another gamer, on the console or over Live. Each player works one side of the board, and must continually clear similar colored gems, just like in the original. The difference in Battle mode is that the game is a clever head-to-head battle, where gamers struggle to become the first to fill their 'power meter'. The meter fills with each gem that you clear from your board. Along the way, gamers are constantly filling the four-colored reservoir for the four main colors in the game. As the game progresses, once you have enough in your pot, you can begin looking for similarly colored attacks, color-coded at the top of the game board. When the attack icon in the front of the cycling wheel matches a color that you have enough of, you can hit Y to use the special attack.
There are several special attacks, all of which either clean up your own board or cause destruction on the opposing player's side. The clear attack drops off about a quarter of your board's gems, refreshing your side of things and making it easier to find new matches. Players can shrink the board of the other player to a smaller than normal space, or drop countdown bombs, which now count down seconds rather than turns. In a great twist, the bomb attack can actually backfire, as if the opposing player clears the gem before it blows up, it ends up on your side. This continues until the bomb finally blows up. This results in quite the game of 'hot potato', especially when more than one bomb is counting down at once. The game ends when one player has successfully filled their energy meter, at the outer edge of their board. While the gameplay itself has not changed, the newly added head-to-head play, and specifically the attack feature, adds a nice wrinkle to the standard puzzler.
