Cell Lab: Evolution Sandbox 103

Evolution games are normally very simple and entertaining. Bacteria evolution games, in particular, normally focus on having a layered gameplay where there are multiple levels and a variety of bacteria but the core of the gameplay is not exactly challenging or difficult. Cell Lab: Evolution Sandbox takes a different approach to the genre and promises to be a challenging game that requires a lot of concentration, experimentation and persistence. The developer, Petter Säterskog, focuses on the game's difficulty from the outset to scare away anyone looking for a simpler challenge. We look at the app's gameplay to assess the difficulty level and help you decide if the game is entertaining or not!

The evolution game has a very text-heavy homepage and navigation pane. The launch page or home page of the app has five main tabs named 'Challenges', 'Experiments', 'Gene Bank', 'Settings' and 'About'. The main game is played through the 'Challenges' tab while the 'Experiments' tab is useful for practicing your skills in genome development etc. The other tabs are useful in looking at progress and in altering the app settings to suit your style.
The Challenges section offers two tutorials at the start in order to get you accustomed with the game and its rules. A third tutorial is unlocked after a certain level and teaches you something that would prove beneficial in the more difficult challenges. There are 66 challenges to complete in the evolution game with each challenge's difficulty level identified as well. The first four challenges are unlocked at the start and other challenges get unlocked as you progress further and hone your skills as a scientist within the game. The difficulty levels are hilariously named and include undergrad, PhD, Superhuman AI and Mad Scientist.

There are three tabs for each challenge named objective, microscope and genome. The objective shows you the numbers of cells that you need to generate in order to complete the challenge. Details about the challenge and a particular hint are also provided to help you in completing it. The microscope tab is where you can look at the petri dish and insert the genomes to see if they survive or not as required in the challenge. The genome with its characteristics and properties are defined through the genome tab. The actual challenge is to understand the different options in genome development and to use them correctly to create a genome with the properties that can help you achieve the objective as laid out in the challenge.
The controls of the evolution game are simple and easy and are introduced in detail in the tutorial as well. From zooming in or zooming out in the tutorial to see how the genome develops with time, you can do this all very easily once you have understood the instructions provided in the tutorial. The game obviously is very difficult but the hint of the challenge helps with the clue provided proving useful in completing the challenge.

You can customize many of the evolution game's options through the Settings section. You can decide on seeing the cell type and microscope cell motion while you can also change the setting of genome preview. The option of sterilizing and reloading the petri dish can sometimes be mistakenly tapped and therefore, 'ask before sterilize and reload' is a good option to tick if you tend to make such mistakes.

Features:

• Simple and easy user-interface
• Extremely detailed gameplay with genome development options very well-created
• Difficult challenges with hints serving as clues to create a genome that would pass the challenge
• Well-created tutorials introduced at different stages to help understand the various nuances in the game

Conclusion:

Cell Lab: Evolution Sandbox is a great evolution game for people who can be patient and persistent. If you like challenging games and have a knack for solving combinations and puzzles; you would find this to be a different yet entertaining game!