Pekka
Level: Smiter
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Registered: 09-19-2007
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I recently played Sokobond and completed all the 100+ puzzles. It was quite all right. Some may consider the price tag a bit high for how simple the game looks, but I found it worth it because the puzzles were well designed and got harder towards the end.

What is it about? Well, you are an atom. You get to move on a square grid and push other atoms around, which makes up for the Sokoban-like part of the game. You will also make the atoms bond with other atoms by moving them to adjacent squares, if they have available electrons for bonding. The goal is to make complete molecules without any free electrons. You cannot rotate anything and you need to mind narrow corridors and other obstacles to avoid getting your incomplete molecules irretrievably stuck. (There is unlimited undo.)

Mind you that because all this happens on a square grid and it doesn't go into the details, it's not really a game with actual chemistry in it. You get only five different kinds of atoms that have from zero to four possible bonds. The game starts with easy intro puzzles, but as the game progresses you have more choices for what to try next.

There are a few other interactions that the game adds on later levels that make for more complex puzzles. Overall it's just this one basic puzzle idea, but executed solidly. I enjoyed playing it. There is maybe 10 to 15 hours of puzzle solving for someone fairly good at puzzles, if I may rank myself as one. It'll take less if you don't get stuck as often as I did (Actual listed time I had the game open: 13h 31m. It includes a nap.)

I have the Gog.com version. I suppose the one on Steam is the same and has some Steam achievements in addition. Right now GOG is showing me a lower local price in Euros, so make sure to compare your prices too.

https://www.gog.com/game/sokobond
http://store.steampowered.com/app/290260/Sokobond/

(I did a search for Sokobond before posting, so I believe no one has mentioned this before. I vaguely remember a similar free game that came pre-installed in some Linux distro years ago, but I have forgotten its name. I'm pretty sure it had atoms and bonding too.)

uncopy2002
Level: Smiter
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I played and finished Sokobond a long time ago. Things get really complex in the late levels, and for some levels there are alternate final forms. It's also very easy to stuck in tunnel vision for this game

PuzzleMeThis
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 11
Registered: 09-27-2017
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I played that a while ago and got stuck on some of the later levels, might download it again and see how my GF likes it. She is way better at those kind of puzzles than I am.

Pekka
Level: Smiter
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Registered: 09-19-2007
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Just a heads up about GOGcom, in case you have this game on your wishlist or own it on GOG. You might want to get a copy before it's gone.

They are removing Sokobond along a few other games from the catalog owing to difficulties contacting the owners/partners. This has to do with the company moving from Cyprus to Poland and legal issues related to this. The games might come back later, but you shouldn't count on that.

It will probably stay available on Steam. They aren't moving anywhere as far as I know.

Here's the announcement with the list of games going away from GOG. I'm not certain if you can still download the game after it's removed from the catalog (Generally you can, says Tuttle below), but you can download and back up the installer before it is removed.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/announcement_regarding_few_games_being_removed_from_gog/page1

EDIT: Tuttle confirmed you can download games you own even though they're removed from the GOG store. Thank you, Tuttle

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[Last edited by Pekka at 10-26-2017 06:27 AM : I now know a thing I didn't know about GOG]

Tuttle
Level: Smitemaster

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Generally you can still download removed games from GOG if you owned them before the removal.

However, if the game is updated later then the GOG version probably won't be.