Octomaze is a lovely 2D logic puzzle game for your phone or touchpad. As the first game developed and published by Octagon Games Studio, I would call this release a massive success. With its polished graphics, well thought out mechanics, and soothing musical score, I can see people playing Octomaze for hours on end.

An A-Maze-ing Game

The basic story to Octomaze is that priceless treasures were stolen from the octopi by terrible parasites. These parasites went underground, infesting the entire realm. In order to stop these parasites and save the world, the octopi must steal back their treasures. 

Honestly, you don’t need to know all of that to play and enjoy Octomaze. You send your tentacles underground into the puzzle and have to navigate around enemies and obstacles to either reach the coins or press the objective button. In the later levels you are limited to the eight tentacles that octopi are naturally born with, but the early stages of the game is forgiving and allows you endless tentacles while you’re learning the ropes. And believe me, you need that grace period. 

While relatively simple, it’s very important for you to figure out the right timing. Spikes will spin and mash into your tentacles, and poisonous parasites will spit out toxic gas. Red parasites patrol given areas, and flamethrowers do their thing. Octomaze is a very apt name for it, since you will have to twist and worm your way around every danger. There are also various items that you pick up to interact with the map. There are bombs and mines to destroy hostiles and fragile walls alike. Scissors will cut your way past cobwebs, and ice will cool fires. Every level introduces or expands upon new mechanics in ways that will challenge even the most creative thinker. 

Relaxing and Vibrant

Despite the complexity of the puzzles you have to solve and the high death count, it’s hard to get mad while playing Octomaze. That, I put down to its soothing soundtrack. The tutorial area is filled with peaceful piano chimes, flutes, and violins, all set against natural woodland birdsong. As you progress, the music changes. The junkyard area is filled with acoustic guitar against the sound of crows cawing and dogs barking. The city? Jazzy tunes and rainfall. The underlying sounds match the type of area you’re playing in, as you progress through different overworlds. Sometimes it’s like listening to an orchestral low-fi and makes Octomaze a rather relaxing experience.

The graphics are also very nicely done. The colorful, high saturation gives Octomaze a cartoon aesthetic that is softened by gradient shading. The overworld images are three-dimensional and quite attractive, though they are not what you spend most of your time focusing on. The underground is set flat to the screen and the cartoon style is more pronounced. The enemies are helpfully color coded, so you know at a glance what you’re up against threat-wise. Some of the walls and boxes can get a little confused against the general brown tones of the underground, but it’s not hard to figure out what you’re looking at once you see the patterns that differentiate them.

Overall Rating

Overall, Octomaze is a very nice experience with great mechanics to elaborate on. Although the game is on Early Access in Steam with an early 2022 release planned (its 2024 now), the mechanics are completely finished. According to Octogon Games Studio, they just want to be able to receive player feedback and add some minor features in response to user experience. 

If you’re interested in challenging yourself during some downtime, then I highly recommend picking up Octomaze and giving it a try.

Octomaze is available on PC through Steam and retails for $3.99. You can try out a free demo on Steam and Google Play. A review key was generously provided to NeverMore Niche by Octogon Games Studio.