As a programmer, I’m always a bit fascinated when I see games that tackle logic in novel ways. These are puzzle games of some sort, for sure, but there’s an emphasis in them on raw structure and reasoning that I can relate to. That said, while most of these titles do work well enough, I’m also not sure I’d consider them terribly fun, and most of the time the means of reading, interpreting, and controlling the logic can be tricky. I’d say in the case of Electronics Puzzle Lab 2, though it does have a smart way to try to make its problems approachable, all of the above perils and challenges are true.

Your goal will be to set up your board in a way that you’ll light each of the red LEDs, making the current flow from your battery through a number of switches and different logical operators along the way. The game actually does a pretty sound job of getting you started with this, explaining each thing you’ll be working with, letting you work through a simple example, and then expecting that you’ll begin applying all of those concepts to work out the solution to each board. Every few stages some new element will be added, including blue LEDs you want to keep off, wires that you can optionally cut, and quite a number more, continuing to pile on new complexities as you go.

The thing is, even as a fan of logic and all of the principles this game is asking you to learn and apply, at some point of complexity I just started losing interest. It isn’t so much that it’s too hard or even too easy, just at some point it begins to feel redundant. Yes, you’ll need to begin tracing the way to each blue LED, finding the key to either turning it off completely or remembering which switch must be left a certain way. Yes, you’ll want to work carefully backwards to understand where your issue is with a specific light or spot, and yes, it’s a good way for people to learn some programming logic if it isn’t something they’re already comfortable with. All that said, it’s also not terribly fun as much as a mental exercise.