Secrets of Deep Earth Shrine could’ve been an okay puzzle game if it weren’t for the darkness gimmick or the fact that quite a few solutions are “go back to earlier levels and grind for upgrade materials.” I gave up the third time I got all the items in a level and ran out of energy right before reaching the goal. Speaking of puzzle games that were almost okay…

• Shattered Legacy
  

  3 hours playtime

  no achievements

Sokoban clone. You move in the four cardinal directions, one unit at a time, and can push (not pull) blocks. Fragile blocks can hold down switches just like regular blocks, but they break when pushed into water or are hit by a crossbow.

Most of the game is pretty boring, and it doesn’t help that there’s no undo. Plus, a bunch of levels lag, exacerbating the game’s issues. There’s also a chance that starting the game will cause it to lock up immediately (before it even reaches the company logos), forcing you to close it with Task Manager. There are some tricky puzzles here, but even that is undermined by the fact that a couple levels obscure crucial elements necessary for solving the puzzles, so you’ll only be stumped because you simply don’t have all the info. EDIT: For example, one level has the fence tiles (can shoot through) oriented vertically, so they look like wall tiles (can’t shoot through).

Oh, and when you beat all the levels, you’re unceremoniously booted back to the world map; no ending.

It’s free, but it’s still hard to recommend.