Also on: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Publisher: Lightwood Games
Developer: Lightwood Games
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E
There was a time a few years ago when the release of a new word game from Lightwood Games would’ve been cause for rejoicing on my part. I’ve played more than my fair share of their games, and, with one or two exceptions, I’ve been a pretty big fan. Consequently, I was excited to see that they were coming out with their first game in nearly a year, Word Web by POWGI.
That excitement lasted right up until the moment I started playing it.
The problem is that Word Web isn’t particularly interesting. It’s a logic puzzle with a 5×5, 25-letter grid – everything but the letter Z – and you have to place all the letters in such a way that certain letters connect to spell specific words. There’s no theme to any of the puzzles, and for the most part, it feels like there’s a certain amount of guesswork – though it’s entirely possible that can be attributed to me and my lack of logic.
Still, it gets really tiresome, really quickly to put down a letter, check to make sure that you haven’t placed it in the wrong place, then put down another letter, and then check again…and so on. Basically, the game goes place-check-place-check for about five minutes, then you’re done and it’s on to the next puzzle.
Strangely enough, the last game I played from Lightwood Games was also a logic-based puzzle game – though in that case, my complaint was that the game was too easy, and I finished all the puzzles the game had to offer in less than a hour. I certainly didn’t finish Word Web by POWGI in less than a hour – but finishing the puzzles dragged on so much, it made me want to quit the game and give it up after just a few of its 120 puzzles. Hopefully next time out, Lightwood can try a word game that’s not also a logic game, because the results so far aren’t great.
Lightwood Games provided us with a Word Web by POWGI Nintendo Switch code for review purposes.
