Zasa

Artificial intelligence is making progress every day, thanks to all the scientists and programmers that continue the research in the field. Today’s AI technology is quite impressive already, especially when it comes to robots that manage repetitive tasks. However, the goal is to help them learn by themselves, which is currently done using neural networks similar to our own brains.

Zasa is an interesting puzzle game that puts you in the shoes of a newly awakened artificial intelligence unit, and it is your duty to help it grow and learn how to tackle a variety of visual and logical problems. Naturally, it is nowhere near as difficult as the real thing, but the game is complex enough to make you feel pretty inadequate in certain moments.

In short, the whole thing takes place on a cube, which is covered in a grid of nodes and lines. These nodes and lines represent your only way to communicate with your programmer, who asks you to perform a variety of actions using the said nodes. In essence, your job is to connect nodes and draw various shapes in a 2D or 3D environment by following the pattern and without crossing the same lines twice.

Although the first couple of rounds are quite straightforward and simple, not to mention the fact that you also have a few hints at your disposal, the puzzles get tougher and tougher later on. While the shapes you have to accomplish are not particularly complex, the way you trace them without going over the same line twice is quite tricky, and it may require a fair number of tries before you get it right.

Thankfully, the game allows you to reset the whole thing whenever you want, which is mighty useful. On the other hand, there’s no Undo button to cancel the last action, which is kind of a bummer. It is also possible to rotate the cube and draw in more than two dimensions, but that is obviously part of the more complex puzzles, because you really need to stretch your mind in some cases.

All things considered, Zasa may appear to be quite simple at first, but the game is tough enough to be the cause for a handful of early gray hairs. On the other hand, it should be exactly what hardcore puzzle solvers want.