18 seconds into a level in
Enigma, I have to pause the game. This is
Advancing, the eighth stage in the seventh set of levels, and at first glance, it looks like it’s going to be a hellacious version of the puzzle
Rush Hour. A series of long blocks stand between me and the rest of the stage, and I have to slide them around in the right order to get to the end. It soon becomes clear that there’s another layer to this level: I can also push the blocks into the water to make bridges. At the moment it hits me, I pause the game and mutter “Oh my god.”
It’s gonna be another one of those levels. They’re
all one of those levels. There’s over 2000 of them.
[...]
Most levels in
Enigma are so complex that they barely resemble the original premise. It’s like the game was created by a level designer drunk with power.
[...]
Collectively, the game is impossible. The most recent version of
Enigma from 2014 lists a total of 2541 stages, and many of them even have an additional hard mode – yes, in this game, a harder mode. As of this post,
the top score on the official Enigma leaderboard belongs to someone named Medimaster, who’s almost five times as far ahead as next player and claims many of the in-game world records… and they only have credit for beating 2030 stages.
No one has completed the entire game. Given its obscurity, possibly no one ever will.
The Enigmaparcour stages have to be a joke, right?
[...]
What do we even want out of
Enigma, though? Why do I keep going back to it so often that it actually delayed me from finishing this post? I’ll never complete a single one of the Chessopals, but I sure appreciate knowing they exist.
Attempting to solve a level is an act of defiance against a gargantuan, immovable, unknowable object, like throwing a rock at the sun.
Enigma is undefeatable. It is the last puzzle game.
