2048Blocks:

In Brief:
2048Blocks is a numbers puzzle where you combine pairs of like numbers by adding a third number of the same value the combined numbers are double the value of the original numbers, this is repeated on a grid to attempt to reach a value of 2048 utilizing 24 spaces.

You can see a video of game play HERE.

Introduction:
To redeem the game you may be required to create a free account with the indie game site Itch.io. Once added to your account, you can download the game at any time.

The 2048Blocks game is a puzzle created not on the principle of the tag game known to us, but on the principle of connecting identical tiles with numbers to get a tile with the number 2048. The meaning and essence of the game 2048 is to get a tile with the number 2048. Have a nice game!.

Reference accessed HERE 11th October 2021

The Game:
When you receive your email the link you get will download the games executable. Clicking on that exe file will open the game. There is no installer included. You have to place it into the folder you usually install your games to then create a shortcut from the executable. I created a folder that I labelled 2048 then placed it in my games folder which I always install to a different drive than my System drive (C drive); but you can place the executable anywhere you wish; even on your desktop.

There are two modes to choose from; endless and challenge mode. Your best score is recorded in the top left of the game screen and your present score, during a round is shown in the top middle of the screen. The question marks to the left and right of the start button take you to three different information panels that tell you briefly how to play the game, (but it's not explained very well IMO), also about the reward system and the perks (Grenades and Joker)

The game starts with a 6 x 4 grid. On the left are two decks that include a grenade that clear any cards that surround them i.e. up to eight cards can be cleared if the grenade is placed in the centre of a 3 x 3 grid of already placed cards (with the centre space empty for the grenade). You can move a grenade to any part of the grid that has an empty slot until it is activated; once activated, by double clicking on it, it becomes locked in place and can no longer be moved. It will start to count down when you double tap it.

The second deck on the left is the joker that can change any card already on the grid to the card currently on top of the deck on the right of the grid.

When placing the third card with the same value next to a pair of the same value, only two cards are counted towards the score and the third placed card is where the new valued card will be placed, e.g. two cards with a value of eight each, when the third card is placed that position will receive a new card to the value of the first two cards combined e.g. 8 + 8 with a combining card with the same value of 8 = 16 (not 24) i.e the last card added does not count.

The deck to the right of the grid shows you the next card that can be placed on the grid. The aim of the game is to get a score of 2048 by combining cards as low as 2
This can be accomplished by placing the cards strategically so that as they combine they can be contiguous with other cards of the same value. When cards combine, as previously mentioned, they combine to the last card placed.

You can combine more than three cards by placing the correct card between sets of two and a one or a two, combining either four or five cards in total, but they only count the combined total of two of the cards for example if you placed a four between two sets of four cards you would still get a new card valued at eight , not the combined total of 16 (not counting the last card placed, which is basically the catalyst that combines the cards.

Every time you complete a game, even if you don't win a round you earn coins. I could not find anywhere in the menu or in game where it showed how many coins I'd won following two endless rounds. Also, the gift Icon located below the Start button appears to be inactive. When clicking on it nothing happened. To win a round you have to reach a score of 2048; on my second attempt at the endless round. that took me at least 30 minutes, I only managed to get one tile to 128 (a far cry from 2048; that would require creating pairs to create 256, 512, and 1024.

The Endless mode is very challenging. You start with only 40 seconds. Every match you manage to make adds several seconds to the time you have left to complete the match.

The high score remains for both the endless and challenge modes.

Conclusion:
2048Blocks appears to be a simple numbers game, but is actually quite challenging with ten groups to combine to reach 2048. My first attempt was an abject failure as I hadn't understood the rules until I'd almost filled the 6 x 4 grid. So I quickly filled in the last few spaces just to complete the game then restarted. This time I spent a good 30 minutes combining tiles to reach a single tile with 128, but failed to get any further, partly due to using my joker and grenade early in the game and partly due to some bad placements.

Overall 2048Blocks quite a reasonable time waster; though I would only try one full grid on endless mode at a time as I think it would become too repetitive playing it over and over. The challenge mode on the other hand gives you far too little time to be able to get to the magic number 2048 (IMO) and is extremely challenging.

Not all the functions detailed in the help section appear to be functional, i.e. the reward system and you only get one grenade and joker. When I restarted a new game for a third time in endless mode, the grenade and joker slots were not regenerated, nor were they when I tried the challenge mode for the first time. Whether this is a bug, or I have to reboot my computer I've not ascertained yet.

The game could be much improved if you were able to select different difficulty modes for example the hardest mode could have no grenades or jokers and the easiest would have a slider that enabled you to select a number of each perk. Also the ability in challenge mode to change the time up to a certain limit (say for example 5 minutes) and any thing in between the lowest and highest times.

Overall a keeper for me. :)

Notes on Security

I scanned a zipped copy of the installed game using Virus Total and it found 2 hits (Sophos & Zilliya) from 63 antimalware engines. Zillya & Sophos are two of only several that often tag these games from all the others; most of which are better known and more reliable, but 61 other antimalware engines found the installed game safe, so it's very likely to be a false positive.

The executable does NOT inject any malware into your system.

You can see the results of the scan via the following link:

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/44928fa442d2ce9a93b8b188cb7e81a6500c52af19f58f3152ec9031f752269c