Instead, paths in these directions, and any other path that does not bisect one of the six cell edges, will "zig-zag " since no two directions are orthogonal, it is impossible to move forward in one direction without moving backwards slightly in the other. As a result, no hex cell has an adjacent hex cell lying directly east or west of it, making "horizontal" movement in a straight line impossible. Commonly, cells will form continuous straight lines "up" and "down", or "north" and "south", in which case the other four adjacent cells lie "north-west", "north-east", "south-west" and "south-east".
One disadvantage of a hex map is that hexes have adjacent cells in only six directions instead of eight, as in a square grid map. The other advantage is the fact that neighbouring cells always share edges there are no two cells with contact at only a point. This equidistant property of all adjacent hexes is desirable for games in which the measurement of movement is a factor. By comparison, in a square grid map, the distance from the center of each square cell to the center of the four diagonal adjacent cells it shares a corner with is √ 2 times that of the distance to the center of the four adjacent cells it shares an edge with.
The primary advantage of a hex map over a traditional square grid map is that the distance between the center of each and every pair of adjacent hex cells (or hex) is the same.