Wordscapes is a clever mobile game that requires you to have a good vocabulary, do a memory jog every time you play it and also practice thinking out of the box sometimes. With its approach to guessing words different from Hangman, this is a good treat too all fans of the intellectual game genre.

Gameplay

Wordscapes makes you think. And search with a flashlight through every corner of your brain parts, responsible for speech and memory. The idea is simple: guess a number of words, filling the blank crossword presented to you on the display.

Beneath the crossword, you have a pale-white transparent circle. It features a number of letters, of which you must compose the missing words. Seriously, you'd be surprised how many of the naughty speech & writing elements (i.e. words) could be hiding in 7 letters: C, U, O, E, P, R, R.

Gameplay quickly becomes challenging as you progress. Simultaneously with that the words to guess grow longer as well. And you'll spend at least one afternoon deciphering the blasted crossword, sometimes saying very crosswords.

In case you stumble upon a rare word or two that aren't in your vocabulary - Wordscapes can provide help. Tap on the hint button and it will highlight a letter, which an obscure word begins with. The hints are limited though: if you just keep tapping on the button, you'll quickly waste them and have nothing to support you through the harder levels.

The games go easy on your wallet. There are microtransactions - to restock your hints - but you can beat the game without having to pay a penny.

There is, of course, a website that features answers to all the crosswords: fungamesarena.com/wordscapes. But you are above that, aren't you?

Visuals

Every stage in Wordscapes is represented as a scenic nature view or a season. There are such themes as:

• Autumn with beautifully animated falling leaves,
• Ocean,
• Mountain, colored by the pink-and-scarlet sunset rays,
• Winter,
• Jungle,
• Sunrise etc.

And every stage has sub-stages. E.g. in Desert you'll find Rock, Spire, Dune, Sierra, etc.

Apart from gorgeous backgrounds, Wordscapes features a nice, non-intrusive and soothing soundtrack. It does help you concentrate on guessing another horrendous word you never knew even existed. And every word you've guessed correctly is punctuated by a satisfying sound of digital silver bells, letting you know: "Hey, you did a good job".

Controls

Wordscapes is easy to control since it features no frantic gestures or time-limited missions, in which you regularly have to move your fingers across the display in panic. No, the smooth gameplay allows you to swipe, selecting the letters in a right order or tap to use the extra features. All goes peacefully in this calm, relaxing game.