Repelstale

Battleheart Legacy is a great little game. I just spent over 20 hours in order to finish it, and I enjoyed it a great deal. However, there is a "but": you have to know what this game is about before investing time in it. Battleheart Legacy is not an overly complex, story-rich RPG, so for those of you seeking engrossing epic tales, look elsewhere. It's not about "twitch" action, like for example Wayward Souls. The action is pretty straightforward, and success is not depending on your knowledge of sliding walls or crumbling platforms. It's not a sandbox game, in which your responses and choices shape the outcome of your story. The game world is pretty linear, and different locations on the world map even have their recommended experience level mentioned, for your convenience. Oh, and you DO have different ways to respond to characters, but it really makes no difference. Battleheart Legacy is ultimately all about character customization. From the start, not only do you have the choice how to distribute your experience points among stats like "Strength", "Endurance" and "Skills", but you also have the freedom to follow the teachings of diverse classes, like Knights, Ninjas, Barbarians etc etc. Each one requires you to invest your experience points in a certain stat in order to develop your skills. And you can combine whatever you like. You also have a huge assortment of weapons, armours and items at your service, which have their direct impact on the looks of your avatar. It's actually this character customization that makes the game so enjoyable. However, the action is not exactly button mashing either. You have to find out nice combos of skills, and find out what's the best timing to use any. It is however very "Arcade-ish": Each area of interest consists of several "rooms". Upon entering the room the enemies inside attack you, you kill them. Then you follow the big green arrow to the next room. Of course there are some - not so well hidden- treasure chests here and there, but it's all pretty much about fighting your way through, finish the area, and seek out the next. There are some simple and humorous quests along the way, but mainly in the early stages of the game, but don't expect too much storywise. I realize I'm sounding a bit negative here, but actually I'm not: Battleheart Legacy is the perfect RPG to play in small bitesized chunks. And the challenge of it lies in the AVOIDANCE of grinding. Sure, you can level up to level 20 before taking on a level 12 area, but where's the fun in that? I actually managed to complete most areas 2 levels below the recommended experience level, which brings about a certain pride. So, should you get this game? My answer would be a resounding "Yes", .... IF you realize what kind of game you're getting into.

This is the game I just keep coming back to. I was really looking forward to the release of this game, but then I hesitated because of its permadeath. I'm not into roguelikes, and I'm used to games that only move forward, games that may have you stuck at some point, but never have you start all over. It turns out that's the best part of the game! Once you get the hang of it every attempt at reaching home feels like a journey telling others about. Sure, you'll die. A lot. Probably you will never finish the game completely. *SPOILER* I got to the easy green ending rather easily, and I've crossed the blue ending a couple of times without anything happening (you probably have to destroy the enemy's star with a Death Seed, which I didn't have at those times). I even got to the red ending once, but it turned out to give you another mission, for which I didn't have enough resources anymore.*END OF SPOILERS*. I guess I'll be playing this game for some time. I just hope the developer will be adding new stuff. That would be perfect for a game like this.

With Sorcery! part 1 Inkle studios managed to raise the bar for digital gamebooks on any device. With Sorcery! part 2 they manage to raise the bar for any game. On any device. Sorcery! part 2 has the same great atmospheric sounds and music beautiful map layout and wonderful illustrations. Most of all though, it has that same great fairy tale story telling vibe, that you just don't get with other games. This isn't some randomly generated dungeon crawler with tons of enemies to battle and loot all over the place. While a lot of today's mobile games tend to strip away all the magic and story and leave a bare mechanical experience, Sorcery! heads exactly in the other direction. Every road you take, every person you meet, every battle you face, every object you find, it all has meaning, substance. Like a great fable it taunts you with choices, sometimes with a clear right or wrong answer, but sometimes not so much. The paths taken to complete your quest may differ significantly. And it's that sense of quest where part 2 has greatly improved compared to part 1. While part 1 was basically just about getting from A to B (preferably with the greatest amount of treasure), part 2 actually has you completing a quest that needs a lot of persistence. My biggest gripe with part 1, the fact that the game (very much like a book relentlessly) moves forward without the option to revisit places, has been resolved with some very clever tricks the game pulls on you. This game is one of the best games I've ever played, easily the best game of 2013. To new players I strongly recommend playing the game without using the Rewind option. Make every decision you make count. Maybe you'll make some mistakes, loose something or miss something, but it'll make your feeling of satisfaction that much greater if you finally succeed. Enjoy!

Hah! I just completed the game on my very first go, without dying once! But enough with the self-satisfaction. Sorcery is just a great game. If this becomes part of the future of mobile gaming, instead of just the endless horde of match-3-crap, physics puzzlers and enless runners, the future looks very bright indeed, my friends. The presentation is absolutely gorgeous, with a simple but beautiful 3D-map taking up most of the screen time, engrossing ambient sounds, wonderful music, and beautiful illustrations. The game is truly about storytelling, which has pros and cons. On the one hand you've got excellent writing, scenes that keep your interest, and a tale that really takes you along for a ride, instead of bothering you with all the statistics "under the hood". On the other hand, the game is still very much a book: if you've made your choices in a certain scene, that scene is over and the story moves on. Don't expect to revisit villages you've been to before, or walk back to a certain weapon's dealer. So while the story itself and the vivid descriptions of what's happening, including your own mental and physical state, truly immerse you in this world, the way the game unfolds still has its boundaries. Still, I was strangely okay with that: being in a gameworld where everything matters brings much more significance to your actions and choices, compared to just roaming some sandbox RPG. There were just two gripes I had with this game. One, it's too forgiving. I get that some gamers will be pleased to be able to go back to every decision they made in the game, just to see what the unchosen path might have brought. But in my opinion this seriously decreases the aforementioned feeling of significance: nothing really matters, because in one tap you can "re-choose" another way. I seriously advise new players to stick with their decisions. Trust me, it'll make your experience so much better, and your sense of accomplishment so much greater (Did I tell you I finished the game in my very first go without dying once? I did? Sorry...) Two, it's really short. Maybe I should have waited for all four books to have been released on iOS, like I did with the Walking Dead game, so I could have had a more continuous experience. Then again, the sense of yearning to find out what happens next is the biggest compliment a storytelling game can get. Highly recommended!

Limbo is the kind of game that's just perfect for mobile devices. It's perfectly playable in small chunks, but has this "just one more level" edge to it as well. I've never played it on other devices, but I can't imagine better, highly intuitive, controls than the touch controls that are used here. If you're considering getting this game but are a little uncertain because of some reviews saying the controls are imprecise, don't be. As for the often mentioned high difficulty and frustration level, I seriously don't know what they're talking about. The game is certainly challenging, but with a little perseverance and some wit it's very beatable indeed. Death is frequent, and there's a lot of trial and error, but that's just how this game tests your intellect. Failure is never cheap, and never the result of impossibly sharp timing. I'm not an avid platform gamer, I actually shy away from anything that involves too much fast finger action, but even I could handle these challenges. Maybe it's because I grew up in an age of games where limited restarts where a rule (yes, I'm that old...), but the fact that Limbo picks up the game again just a couple of seconds before your demise, and lets you do so infinitely, feels very forgiving to me. Add to that a highly engrossing atmosphere, very inventive and varied puzzles, a great physics engine, just the right kind of morbid humor, and just the perfect game length and you've got one hell (or should I say purgatory?) ****.