Perplexed Download

• Developer: Scott Entrikin
• Genre: Board
• Works On: Windows 95-98, Windows XP

Reviews

Gohst
Starting on easy with a simple Ludo-looking board, two tokens and no defined goal, Perplexed seems to be, on first appearance, a basically simple and uninteresting game. Then it begins – you play.
If you land on an empty square (very frequent for the first few dozen turns) you’ll get to put down a “card” from your “hand”. You always hold eight cards and can put any of them down anywhere. Pretty soon it becomes obvious that “Yes” cards are good. If you land on one, you get closer to the goal of ten points (customizable). Landing on a “No” card takes a point away from you, landing on your home base gives you a point and takes one from the other player(s).
Other cards you can get and scatter anywhere on the board include “Move forward X” and “Move backward X” cards, where the X stands for a number up to 24. With these you can plan double, triple, quadruple jumps around the board. There is, yes, the possibility of setting up a paradox. For example if you put a move-forward-2 card exactly two spaces away from a move-backward-2 card, you will be stuck in a loop – fortunately the game notices this and stops you mid-cycle. Also there are roll again cards, prison cards and teleporter cards, which can all be placed anywhere on the board, provided its an empty space.
Not only is the game itself completely and thoroughly flexible, there are other settings as well, such as seven goal point levels, five board sizes and up to six players at once. Perplexed is a great surprise wrapped in basic paper. Unwrap it and see what you get.