Clutter Evolution: Beyond Xtreme

REVIEW #124 Clutter Evolution: Beyond Xtreme ---------- Being a fan of casual puzzle games, I was pretty surprised to have come across the Clutter franchise last year, especially since the series is almost 15 years old at this point and getting close to having 20 entries in total (which is impressive, by the way!) I decided to start out with one of the older titles that were available on Steam, and I ended up landing on Clutter Evolution: Beyond Xtreme, the tenth entry in the series. Since I'm new to the Clutter games, I don't know if I selected the best starting point, but I'm very glad that I began exploring the series with this title. Clutter Evolution: Beyond Xtreme is a casual puzzle game that features 1,700+ (!!) puzzles, all of which are divided into 24 different categories. Most of the puzzles involve matching objects or tiles, but CE:BX doesn't limit itself to just that. Other puzzles types include swapping letter tiles to spell out quotes or sliding around pieces of a chopped-up picture with the goal being to rejoin the fragments properly and recreate the image. I initially favored some puzzle types more than others, but I eventually found myself bouncing around between each of the different categories and enjoying them all. How Clutter Evolution: Beyond Xtreme starts off is my favorite aspect about the game. It starts the player in the category, "Clutter Quest", which contains 100 puzzles that offer a very good and thoroughly varied sampling of what the game has to offer in full. As puzzles are completed in this set, text dialog from the developer (known as Joe) is interjected in between, detailing the history of every Clutter game up to that point and the development plans, struggles, and successes that came with each title. I found this to be a fun and fascinating way to present a "behind the scene"-style overview of the series, and for someone who was brand new to Clutter, I highly enjoyed getting to know the developer and his creations in this manner. Aesthetically, the game looks and sounds pretty polished, and while there's normally a lot on-screen, I never felt overwhelmed with the amount of features and options at my disposal. In fact, it's my opinion that the developer has gone above and beyond to cram a staggering amount of options to suit any and every player, and I applaud the amount of work and care that was put into making this game easily accessible to play. The game is also technically very sound, never once giving me a bug, glitch, or crash. My complaints about Clutter Evolution: Beyond Xtreme are small and few. One aspect that I found a bit unhelpful is that the in-game options menu (for adjusting sound, music, etc.) becomes unavailable once a puzzle has been started, and there's no pause feature for timed puzzles. Also, the difficulty curve in some of the categories has some abrupt spikes and valleys in places, and I sometimes felt like the difficulty indicator on some puzzles was overtly inaccurate. All of these aspects, however, are more mild annoyances than actual problems. Again, I'm quite happy that Clutter Evolution: Beyond Xtreme was my introduction to the Clutter series. I've completed almost 450 puzzles so far, and I've had a blast every time that I load it up. Casual puzzle fans need to check this out, and I'll even state that many (like myself) will undoubtedly find it's more than worth paying full price for (currently $10 USD).