What is both enticing and frustrating about 2048 is the remarkable simplicity of the concept. Like many games before its time, from Rubik's Cubes to Sudoku, the actual operations of the game are devilishly simple, but mastering it is as much a function of luck as skill, and in just the right proportions to keep a person playing like the fiendishly entertaining Skinner box that it is.

The basic game play is incredibly simple. Start with a box subdivided into 16 smaller boxes, each with a number in it. You can move boxes around by pressing up, down, left, and right, and a box moves as far in that direction as possible. When it runs into another tile of the same value, it gives you the next power of two (two 4s become one 8 tile, two 16s become one 32 tile, etc.). The object of the game is to eventually build up to two 1024 tiles and smash them together, keeping in mind that 2 and 4 tiles will randomly spawn on the board, eventually making movement impossible.

It's the random spawning that adds both a challenge and a frustration to the game. If movement were free, then it would have no difficulty and cease to be a game at all. Moreover, you would quickly run out of tiles before reaching 2048. On the other hand, you will doubt the non-sentience of the game when tiles start appearing that prevent you from making the winning move.

This game is a Skinner box in its most pared down form. The player is given just enough sense of reward and just enough skill is employed to keep them going, but it ultimately keeps you running around in pointless circles. This is not to say that it's a bad game, but the random factor to make it challenging also makes it as skill based as a game of Solitaire.  It can be really enjoyable, but it's a time waster, not a skill builder like the games it tries to ape.

If you have a few spare minutes to kill, 2048 is the perfect online game to keep you from being bored. It won't make you a better or more strategic thinker, and it will start to get annoying after too long, but in small bursts you have something that can enjoyably pass the time. Just don't get sucked in too far if you have anything else to accomplish, or you're looking at hours of annoyance with no escape.