Game Reviews

Impossible Draw

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Impossible Draw
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| Impossible Draw

Impossible Draw has its moments. When it's flowing, when you're scribbling out symbols and passing through gates by the skin of your teeth, it feels great.

But then it starts to frustrate. There's too much inconsistency in your digital etchings. Sometimes a vague squiggle gets you through, other times it demands pixel perfect sketches.

It's a shame, because there's a neat idea here. It just manages to trip itself up too often to wholeheartedly recommend.

Missed lines

That core idea is a strong one. You're moving inexorably down a futuristic tunnel in a testing centre. Symbols pop up in front of you and you need to sketch them out before you hit them.

Things start off simple, with a few lines or a curve, but once you've unlocked the tougher difficulty settings you're frantically scrabbling to draw Maltese crosses and arrows.

Things play out like a fast-paced puzzler, and it only takes one mistake to turn a reasonably sedate run into a frantic, curse-fuelled scramble. When it hits its mark, Impossible Draw has all the trappings of an App Store classic.

But the problem is those mistakes sometimes don't feel fair. Often you'll score a perfect for drawing a shape that doesn't really match the one you're supposed to be copying. Other times you'll fail because you got the curve of a three-quarter circle slightly off.

Drawing close

And the inconsistency breaks the rhythm of the game, kicking you out of the compulsion loop it was starting to build.

There's a good game here, and fun to be had as well. It's just a shame that it's spoiled once too often by problems that are outside of your control.

Impossible Draw is worth a punt then, but just be warned that any enjoyment you're having is likely to be kicked down at the worst possible time.

Impossible Draw

A game that sometimes shines, but remains handicapped by some inconsistent failtures
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.