Prose & Codes is a puzzle game where the player solve words cryptograms. These are simple letter substitutions, where a phrase or a few sentences all use the same substitutions and the player solves each substitution to reveal the “prose”. In this vein, Prose & Codes is a lot like solving a Wheel of Fortune (TV game show) puzzle. In fact, on the hard difficulty it is very similar, as only 3 hints are available to start.
Prose & Codes has the usual sound and graphics options, the most important of which is the ability to turn down the music volume. Fullscreen and windowed mode are supported. There is also a flicker fx mode and a dark mode. Once a game has been started, it’s possible to set the difficulty and a few other options like large text, or cursive writing (instead of the typewriter style font). There is a tutorial, which is short and shows the basics of play.
The game play is straightforward, but the difficulty setting makes a huge difference on how easily a puzzle will be solved. On easy, several letters will be solved already. On medium, fewer letters are solved. On hard, none of the letters are solve. With no letter solved, the player can try to go after common words and try different combinations to see what might work. In all of the modes, three hints are available to use for each puzzle, so even on hard it is possible to get a few letters solve as a starting point.
There are 52 puzzles per category, and 7 categories. Each category is a genre is literature. The puzzles are all excerpts from classic literature. Interestingly, Prose & Codes gives further information about the solved puzzles and even has web links that will open a browser and make the book the puzzle came from available for free. The opening credits show some association with Project Gutenberg which is a library of over 60,000 free books. [b]Prose & Codes is a well-made game and is recommended for any players that like word puzzle solving games.[/b]
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Jacmac is an ancient gamer that loves open world, strategy, FPS, and tactical sims, but will play almost anything.
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