Ninten_Dom

OVERALL - 6.5/10 An innovative idea with mediocre execution. STORY There's no real story for this game. You control a band of heroes who fight off monsters. GAMEPLAY - 8/10 Gameplay is an interesting blend of turn based strategy, lane strategy and tower defense. The battlefield consists of 3x7 tiles. Enemy units enter/spawn on the right side. Your band of 4 heroes occupies the left side, with 1 inactive/healing hero in the leftmost column, and 3 active/attacking heroes filling the second column. Each turn you have to swap two of your heroes, then the units with valid targets attack, then the enemy advances towards you and/or attacks. Your units can't move towards the enemy. Swapping the inactive hero activates him with a special attack. Each hero has a different set of skills, and you can upgrade your heroes between levels. The map consists of the same 8 levels in the same order, but 3 difficulty levels are available. You pass levels by killing a preset number of enemy units displayed on the UI. You lose if a single hero dies. After losing, you can permanently upgrade your heroes, buy items to take with you to the next battle, and collect rewards for any missions you completed. You can also change your squad of 4 from a pool of 8 available heroes. CONTROLS - 6/10 Game plays in handheld, tabletop and TV modes, texts are easy to read. Pro Controller is supported, Single Joy-Con control is not possible, neither is touch controls which would be really suitable for this game. No narrative. GRAPHICS - 7/10 The models in the game look good and are easy to distinguish, but the menus look too cartoony for my taste and could have been a little more polished. AUDIO - 7/10 The background music is pleasant, but sadly randomly stops sometimes, and you are left with the basic sound effects. Overall, it's acceptable. OTHER The game mechanics are not properly explained in the tutorial, and you have to figure some things out yourself, which is not a good trait for a strategy game like this. Translation is a little off in some places, but understandable. Sometimes you'll need upgrades/luck to progress, and there's a lot of boring grinding to that. There's a good amount of replayability due to the 3 difficulty levels. I really wanted to like this game more, but I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it, it is a really fresh, new take on turn based strategy, but there are a few annoying flaws that make it just eh. It's not expensive, though, so if you like the gameplay mechanic, get it, maybe on sale?

OVERALL - 9/10 Inside is an amazing experience with a highly thrilling atmosphere seasoned with a puzzling story and action packed gameplay. STORY - 7/10 The player controls a young boy in a post apocalyptic (?) world. I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers, but the story is interesting, although very puzzling. The main story takes roughly 4-6 hours to play through. GAMEPLAY - 10/10 Gameplay is basic in principle. The game is in 2.5D, you can walk, sometimes swim, and push objects. However, there are various puzzles that require different techniques and problem solving to pass. The gameplay itself is not what makes Inside shine, though, but rather the thrilling atmosphere it creates and keeps you on edge until the end. I would go as far as to say this was in my top 3 gaming experiences in the last 5-ish years. CONTROLS - 10/10 Game plays in handheld, tabletop and TV modes, texts are easy to read. Pro Controller is supported, Single Joy-Con control is possible. No subtitles (and hardly any text). One with impaired hearing could technically play this game, although the music and sound effects add a really high level of immersion to the game, without which it wouldn't be the same (for me at least). GRAPHICS - 9/10 The graphics perfectly fit the game's atmosphere, textures are detailed and look great on the TV. I believe the game runs at a steady 30 FPS. The shading, the colors and the models are all in harmony with the story and atmosphere, however I find some areas too dark. AUDIO - 10/10 This is where the game really shines. There's no constant background music, it adapts to the current area. The composition of the music and sound effects with the current situation really makes you feel like being part of the game and plays a huge role in creating the highly thrilling atmosphere. OTHER (possible SPOILERS) . . . The game has an alternate ending that requires the player to find multiple secret areas and solve a difficult puzzle in the end (which I wouldn't have figured out myself). The ending (especially the secret ending) is a little surprising and "open to interpretation", meaning the story is not completely explained and is left to your imagination. The game starts right in the action, there's no main menu or cinematic, which is a nice touch in this case. There's no replayability, one could say this is a walking simulator with extra steps. If you're really not into this genre, don't buy.

OVERALL - 4/10 A huge open-world with absolutely nothing to do in it. STORY - 3/10 There's virtually no story to the characters, only a small background of each charachter at the beginning of a new game, although I only played one class. The little audio snippets with historical info upon entering cities is a nice touch, though. GAMEPLAY - 2/10 Gameplay is very bland. Essentially it is a literal walking simulator with extra steps. You take a caravan in a first-person manner across the Silk road at around 200 A.D. to trade, wage war, whatever your quest is. The world map is divided into square-shaped fields, you can walk through them in 8 directions in a turn-based manner. The map is a mostly accurate representation of Asia approximately spanning through today's Turkey till China and Kyrgyzstan till Nepal. This is a huge map, but about half of it impassable mountains/deep water, and the rest is boring. There are some towns, cities and encampments where you can trade goods, obtain cattle and hire troops and heroes for your party. The goods change in price throughout the map, silk is for example cheap in China but expensive in Rome, making trade feel authentic, but there's no overview of past transactions to keep track if you're actually making good deals. The heroes each have different levels of skills like Trade, Rituals, Battle etc. These can level up, but there's again no way to keep track of your experience and there's no real impact of these skills on the game. There are also temples to make rituals at and gain morale. You need to rest each night, consuming food according to caravan size, and must to do an action depending on terrain - hunt, fish = gain food, keep guard = lose morale, sacrifice = gain moral etc. Length of day, as in how many tiles you can walk before dusk, depends on caravan speed. About every tenth night a storm comes, which makes you lose some of your goods/cattle. Then there are some random encounters of wolf attacks, hostile troops, and catching stray cattle. All of this however is just text, a confirmation, and then outcome, with no animations and no player interaction. Progression is non-existent, you do get quests for your main character with a deadline, but they seem to be random and not adjusted to your travel route. Failing them has no negative consequences, you just get a new one, and completing them gives no real reward. The game is vast and has an interesting concept, but it's just too empty and has too little content to be enjoyable. CONTROLS - 7/10 Game plays in handheld, tabletop and TV modes, texts are easy to read. Pro Controller is supported, Single Joy-Con control is not possible. Some options react to touch, but you can't navigate menus, walk, and confirm choices on the touchscreen. No subtitles available for history snippets upon entering a city. Controls are explained at the beginning and are fine, however, there's no option to hold the UP button for continuous walking, you have to press it every single tile. This feature is apparently present in the PC version, though. GRAPHICS - 7/10 Terrain feels a little like Minecraft with pixeled fields. Everything els is hand-drawn and looks good. All models in the world, like cities, wolves, troops and mountains are 2 dimensional cardboard-like models that always rotate to face you like in old FPS games. AUDIO - 4/10 The music in the menu is fantastic, it is a shame that the whole game is completely silent afterwards. As said, there are history snippets upon entering a city, cricket chirping at nightfall, some oboe sound effects at temples, and tense music when you are nearing hostile troops - meaning 90% of the game is silent, which make it ever less appealing to play. OTHER I really wanted to like this game, but it just feels like a chore to play. The lack of in-game music, any kind of progression system, and even remotely rewarding quests take away all the fun. Performance is good no crashes/lags even in handheld. There is a full color digital manual that you can find on Google, explaining all rules and containing a map and history about the areas.

OVERALL - 8/10 A point-and-click adventure exploring serious subjects. A story that keeps you hooked, an amazing soundtrack and suiting graphics. STORY - 10/10 Spoiler-free. The player takes on the role of detective Michael Stone assigned to investigate a case in the town of Pineview. To stay spoiler-free, I won’t go into any more detail. The story is consistent, engaging and keeps the player hooked. The characters are unique and interesting, and make you care for them. However, it can be mentally exhausting – it is not for the weak nerved. GAMEPLAY - 7/10 Gameplay is classic point-and-click. All areas are two dimensional, you can only go left and right, rarely up- and downstairs. Some actions require you to have an item, but there is no inventory system. This is not too disturbing, as all items are to be used on the same screen, within seconds of pickup. As a detective, you interact with and question the townsfolk. There are sometimes multiple dialouge choices, but the outcome is ultimately the same (sometimes with different wording). There are no puzzles or challenges, so it could be considered a walking simulator with extra steps. CONTROLS - 7/10 No touchscreen controls available. Game plays in handheld, tabletop and TV modes, Pro Controller is supported. Single Joy-Con control is not possible. Text can be easily read both in handheld and on TV. Controls cannot be rebound. The left analogue stick is used for movement. This would be more comfortable on the d-pad, but that is used to open the map, the journal/notes and tasks. The same applies to dialogues, where you choose options with the analogue stick. If you go back in the menu, the cursor jumps to the topmost option, and pressing „Up” there doesn’t take you to the bottom, making menu navigation awkward sometimes. ZR can be used to run, but there’s no toggle available, although you’re most likely to run whenever possible. GRAPHICS - 7/10 The hand-drawn visuals are beautiful and perfect for the game. Running at the border of the screen looks awkward. Models sometimes load after cutscenes and then „teleport” to the intended location a few frames later. There was one area where a scaled down version of the screen was shown for a few minutes at the bottom of the screen, however it didn’t interfere with the gameplay and disappeared – didn’t try to reproduce it, might be a one-time bug. Overall, the artwork is gorgeus and the mentioned bugs don’t lessen the experience. AUDIO - 9/10 There’s no narration in the game. Music is pleasant, but stops after a few minutes if you stay in the same area (which won’t happen unless you go AFK). Sounds effects are good. There’s nothing extraordinary to mention. OTHER Only English language is available. As said, game is not narrated, thus can be played without audio. There is a bug in the first area where if you start interacting with objects you already have interacted with before, new journal pages start appearing practically spoiling the story. This happens every time, I already reached out to the developer, might be fixed later. This doesn’t occur in later areas of the game, so you can always just restart if you encounter this bug. There are a few misspellings, but nothing that prevents understanding.

OVERALL - 7/10 An innovative strategy game with an engaging story, suiting visuals and soundtrack that unfortunately turns dull and boring at points. However, the ending kind of makes up for this. Replayability is close to none. I find the full price to be too high, get it on sale for the story. For the gameplay though, just get Dicey Dungeons. STORY - 7.5/10 The game explores the fictive backstory of the discovery of America through different threads of action. The story is seemingly a mess at first, but everything comes together in the end. The game itself is packed with jokes, occasionally good ones, but mostly mediocre (at least they flew over my head). Overall a fun story with a great ending, and some sea mythology lore. Total playtime between 4-10 hours depending on playstyle, 6-7 hours on average. GAMEPLAY - 7/10 Here Be Dragons is a turn-based strategy game seasoned with creative elements, such as dice mechanics, dynamic squad and many more unique ideas. The game is divided into chapters, each chapter has 3/4 missions. The player plays a different squad in each chapter, so progress is lost after each one. The first third of the game introduces the various mechanics with each new chapter. I found these introductory stages too easy and a little boring, even with all the "fast" settings turned on. Things only got interesting to me in the last third, where actual strategy and planning starts to matter in order to win. As said, squad progress is lost between chapters, but basic upgrades are available after successful missions that carry on within that chapter. Performance is smooth, with no lags, crashes and game breaking bugs encountered. CONTROLS - 6/10 No touchscreen controls available. Game plays in handheld, tabletop and TV modes, Pro Controller is supported. Single Joy-Con control is not possible. The controls are unusual at first, but can be gotten used to. Text is easily readable in both docked and handheld modes. Pop-ups sometimes cover important info on the screen, but they can be closed. Unit and menu control (especially in the settings) is counterintuitive at times. GRAPHICS - 8/10 The artstlye and visuals perfectly match the setting of the game, with beautiful hand-drawn models and animations, making it feel like it's played on the pages of a book. Player actions always indicate the target with the visual effects, while opponent actions mostly not - potentially a bug? AUDIO - 9/10 Sound effects are pleasant and memorable. During missions ocean wave sounds can be heard along with various sound effects. Music is only played during "cinematics" and in menus, it has a piratey/sailory vibe to it, fitting the theme. Volumes can be set separately fr0m the settings menu. There's no voice acting, storytelling is purely through text. OTHER Original language is polish. English translation is sometimes gramatically, and rarely contextually incorrect - this is frustrating when you realize mid-mission that some mechanics work differently than expected, forcing you to restart. Luckily this doesn't happen often. The term "Here Be Dragons" comes fr0m medieval cartography where it was used to refer to the unknown - making it a smart title for the game. Bestiary is complete since the beginning with lore and abilities, and silhouettes of the monsters. It would be more cunning to leave undiscovered pages blank, especially since it pops up automatically every time a new monster is encountered. The game screams for roguelike/roguelite elements that are completely absent, so after one playthrough every mission is exactly the same again, the difference only being in the randomness of dice rolls. Basically no replayability at all.