Professor McLogic Saves the Day

"Professor McLogic Saves the Day" sells itself as a logic puzzle game that randomly generates its puzzles "on the spot." If the title didn't catch your eye, perhaps the promise of a challenge did.

The concept of the puzzles are simple. A each "level" has their own set of logic rules where the player must match up the speakers with their categories by comparing one speaker's statements to the others. If one failed to do so, the round simply resets with the same number of speakers, but with possibly different categories for which they belong as well as different set of phrases.

Each level provides a nice little background text that motivates the player character to make accurate judgement while the NPC sprites and maps flavor the experience with visual representations. The scenario and background change in each level allows the gameplay to feel a lot less repetitive and the locked levels motivate the player to continue to progress throughout the game. As the player advances further into the level, the number of NPCs increase, escalating the level difficulty gradually.

While the concept of "random generation" is a popular tool to give replay value to games and forces the user to develop their own strategies for success, the way in which Prof. McLogic utilizes it may not be optimal. Players may find that often at times, the phrases posed may not provide enough information to discern each and every individual. In other cases, the phrases presented may isolate the speakers into 1 of 2 groups, in which there is no way to know which group belongs to that category.

The installment of the timer may not be an accurate measure for skill or success and should not be displayed outright during the level. The environment generation and NPC movement paths may obstruct the player's movements and the timer may frustrate players who have trouble completing the given round. Taking into account the random generation of phrases, rounds may be quick to complete or may need some time to think about.

Since failing a given round resets the round and does not seem to penalize the player in terms of time or numbers of failure, some people may simply fail on purpose when the conditions are not favorable until the game generates one that is. Because of this, the promise of a "Hall of Fame" with a speedy completion does not motivate the player to solve the question, but to fail until an easy answer is presented.

All in all, the puzzle mechanics are sensible, and the level design keeps the player interested, but the neat little features that make the game unique may cause frustrations for the player. Since failures are not counted nor do they affect the game, players are not motivated to solve each and every puzzle.