App Army Assemble: Honeycomb - "Will this new word puzzler give you a buzz?"

Honeycomb is a new word puzzler from the team behind Hexicon. However, while the previous game was a multiplayer affair, Honeycomb is for puzzle fans who prefer tackling word-based conundrums solo. So, we decided to hand the game over to our App Army to see if it successfully teased their brains.

Here's what they said:

Brian Wigington

I had a bit of a slow start getting into Honeycomb as word games sometimes require (for me at least) a bit more concentration to really connect with them. Once a got back into the game after a busy weekend I was pleasantly surprised. The puzzles take the form of a honeycomb grid where you are given a starting letter for each word. You must connect the starting letters to other letters adjacent to them and build the words with other connecting letters as you go. The sounds that the game makes with each letter selection are like a musical note and finishing a word or complete level almost makes a little tune.

It reminded me a bit of Peggle and its musical sound effects. Some groups of levels have a theme like Animals, where all the words are types of animals. I found this to be great as it offers a little bit of a clue as to what the words might be while still being challenging. The daily challenges offer new levels each day that may not have clues and can be quite challenging. Sometimes you see a word but it may not be the right word. It is easy to start over and doesn't feel too frustrating once you get the hang of it. I love that there are no timers as it adds to the fairly relaxing flow of the game.

I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a fun game that uses your brain. One tip: if you feel frustrated you can replay levels from the tutorial to get more familiar with the gameplay. I found myself playing around 20 puzzles before I realized it. The game is well worth the small asking price for so many levels and the puzzle creator mode.

Pierpaolo Morgante

Honeycomb on Samsung Galaxy S8+. Honeycomb is a word-finder game where the different tiles are shaped like hexagons and hence form a honeycomb. The game is fun, really well-made, and it is challenging enough that you want to keep playing. As you progress, the levels give suggestions on which words to look for using their titles. We are expected to find from two words to five or six (for the levels I played). It's a cute game, challenging enough without being frustrated, and I happily recommend it to the fans of the genre

Mark Abukoff

This is a cute and appealing word search kind of brain teaser that gives you a theme and a honeycomb structure full of letters, and you’re given the starting place for every word you need to find. I like that this game doesn’t give you more than a general idea of what you’re looking for, or even how many letters each word has. But I like brain teasers and don’t find many that have as good a balance of difficult/workable as this unique one does. Then there’s the daily challenge that gives you a puzzle and starting letters but doesn’t reveal a theme- which makes things more difficult but a fun challenge. Honeycomb is simple and appealing and quite honestly there’s nothing I don’t like about it. Happily recommend this.

Oksana Ryan

This is a really great word-finder game. There are sections with puzzles which are each made up of words along the same theme or, interestingly, puzzles made up by fans. The puzzle is shaped like a honeycomb and the start of each word is highlighted with a colour, so you have a starting point. Then it’s just a matter of finding a word and matching its path, then finding the rest. What I liked about it was that if you can’t find a starting word for one section you can move on to the next and go back. It’s a novel game and as a big fan of word puzzles, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it.

Jojó Reis

The game is similar to Word Hunt. It gives you several letters and you have to guess which words these letters will complete, you have to click on the letters until you form the word. The graphics system is very simple, for obvious reasons, the audio is pleasant and the gameplay works well. Now here is the biggest problem, the game is only in English, in this case, if you do not have any kind of knowledge in this language it is almost impossible for you to have fun with this game and you will probably be stuck in the first challenges, it was a very big mistake not to put more language.

Jim Linford

Honeycomb is a very nice word puzzle game. In the best way possible it feels like a game my mother would play. So it’s got a wide appeal. You have to search for your words. Sometimes you have only a few keywords to look for which are given by the colour of each word. The game is mellow and relaxing the only thing is I kinda suck at some of these games so a hint system or more specific themes would help, maybe or something to stop me from getting stuck.

But other than that it has great controls. Lovely sound. It’s a good game to check out. (I mean if you are decent at these games. Even if you are not. You should check it out). You get levels with word themes socle enough to unlock the next level and the daily challenges mean you will have a lot to play. I’m hoping it becomes like the next wordle in that it deserves a lot of people to know about this game.

Torbjörn Kämblad

Word games can be of a wide variety: fast arcadey or slow and tactical. Honeycomb is of the slower kind resembling classical crossword puzzles. It demands quite a lot of word knowledge to succeed. It is my personal favourite kind of word puzzle that doesn´t stress me out. I can feel a mellow kind of calm playing this colourful little game. Recommended.

Robert Maines

Honeycomb is a charming word puzzle game, where you spell out words on a grid of letters. You must spell out the correct words to fill the grid and complete the level. You are always given the first letter of each word you need to find. There are a load of levels, some themed to help you out and a daily challenge. The graphics and sounds are simple but do the job. If you are a fan of the old word finder games in magazines you are going to like this game.

Jason Rosner

Honeycomb: Word Puzzle is a new word puzzler from the devs behind Hexicon. The premise is rather simple, you have a grid of letters with the first letter highlighted in the word(s) you are searching for. There are varying amounts of words to be found per level, and the degrees of difficulty will vary. You’ll notice some levels have a concise theme which helps out quite a bit, while others don’t. Everything is set up with a nice clean look, with a simple redo button if needed.

There are some musical notes that play when you either tap or swipe through the letters and a friendly bee pops up between levels. You can even create and share puzzles with friends. My favourite feature, however, has to be the Daily Challenge which gives three new levels per day. All this adds up to some great replayability. I found Honeycomb to be a very fun, relaxing app that can be played in short or lengthy sessions all while exercising your brain.

Eduard Pandele

Honeycomb: Word Puzzle is a honey-flavoured alternative to classic “word finder” puzzles. This time, you’re not crossing words off a square grid, you’re searching them into a hexagonal grid. To make things simpler, you’re given the starting letter of each of the words you have to find. And… that’s it. No timer, no pressure. There are a lot of levels to beat, and three new levels are added each day in a 24h “Daily Challenge” section. Simple, efficient, and fun - at least until bugs strike.

For example, I solved today’s challenge, but the game wouldn’t recognize my solution (I checked, all board tiles were covered, and all words were valid in Merriam-Webster). Also, on my tablet, the game is weirdly offset - about a third of the menus are off-screen. At least the main game board is fully visible, so I can still play. If you love word puzzles, this one is different enough to warrant your time. Just don’t play it on a Samsung tablet. Oh, and there's a level editor, so if you have friends that love word puzzles, you can send them your own puzzles to solve. Of course, they'll need to own the game.

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