I wasn't following this game before launch, so I was never **** in by the hype. I bought it once I saw a few gameplay videos because I was interested in the exploration gameplay. Overall, No Man's Sky isn't great. It's okay. Certianly not worth $60, and it's not worth spending nearly as much time in the game as I did. Most of the gameplay consists of aimless wandering and exploration. You need to be interested in exploring for its own sake to get anything out of this game. As you collect resources, you can upgrade your various systems to help you survive and explore more easily, and to get off your starting planet, and eventually to other star systems. There are goals in the game, but there's little incentive to pursue them. Also, there's little diversity in the game. The planets are procedurally generated, but the number of interesting things you can do on any planet is more limited than you might expect. My computer's only barely capable of handling the game on minimum settings, so the sound was usually either choppy or absent. The graphics were okay, but the game handled far-off objects weirdly. The control scheme was sub-par: it was often confusing or cumbersome. And there was some kind of memory leak that forced me to restart the game every hour or so, with long load times. My worst experience was when I made a hyperspace jump and lost the story path between systems. It took me probably thirty jumps to randomly find another anomaly and get back on track. Do not reject Atlas at the start, and don't stray too far from the path of anomalies/black holes/interfaces that the game starts you on. I had fun playing it for a little while, but it eventually became a slog, and I only continued playing to get the last few achievements. Overall, I'd recommend picking it up for no more than $15, and expect it to wear thin after maybe 10-20 hours. If this game interests you, I'd recommend Spore instead, which I really enjoyed. Spore has better-defined goals and better gameplay overall, though the exploration is a little weaker than in No Man's Sky.
140 is a music-based puzzle platformer that uses abstract shapes for all of the game objects. This game is pretty, but lacks substance. The shapes are distinct enough that you can tell what's going on, and the game certainly is going for an interesting style, but it's all devoid of any meaning or significance, especially because the game has zero story. The music provides a nice beat for the game to go by, but it's repetitive and not very memorable. The controls work fine and the levels are competently built, but the game is very short, there's not a whole lot of challenge, and no part of this game stands out as being better than "competent" or "decent". There's not much in this game that's done poorly, but there's also not much that's better than average here. It's really just kind of a waste of time. There's nothing worthwhile to experience in this game. It's not worth your time, and it's certainly not worth your money.
Cook, Serve, Delicious is a restauarnt management game where you have to set up you restaurant and prepare a whole bunch of meals for your customers. The art style of this game drew me in, but it was the game play that hooked me and kept me playing for a very long time. Most dishes are somewhat simple to prepare. Click a few buttons, try to replicate what the customer asked for, let it cook, and send it. The difficulty is in perfecting the dish so that you can serve it many times over the course of the day, and do it quickly and correctly. Choose your menu items carefully, because some dishes might really trip you up when you're presse for time. The farther you get through the game, the harder it gets, and New Game+ mode is pure insanity. Insanely tough and insanely fun. There's really not much to complain about with this game. The controls are pretty solid (I recommend a game controller), the music is very nice, and the art is stylish and pleasant. This game is surprisingly well polished for an indie game. Cook, Serve, Delicious is absolutely worth buying, and I could recommend it to just about anybody. It's honestly among the best games I've played in recent years.
Please, Don't Touch Anything is a puzzle game, and a very interesting little curiosity. You're asked to watch over this box with a large, red button, and asked not to touch anything. The magic begins when you press the button, and more controls open up. Doing certain things opens up more controls and more ways to interact with the box, and your goal is to get each of the possible endings by performing specific tasks. The problem is that the things that need to be done are not at all straightforward. You'll have to use your puzzle-solving skills and your curiosity to see all of the content. You'll have to hunt for clues and find out what to do with them. I enjoyed this game, but I don't think it's for everyone. If you don't have the patience to work through riddles, this game probably isn't for you, but if you do, then it's probably worth the $5. I'd definitely recommend avoiding walkthroughs until you're really stuck... there are some pretty tough ones, though, and some of the clues are difficult to find. As for the soundtrack, I think I'd recommend playing the game before making that decision. The tracks are nice, but most of the game's music is fairly ambient. With full hindsight, I probably wouldn't have spent money on it, but that's because it doesn't appeal to my tastes... your mileage may vary.
Science Girls is an RPG where six girls that study different scientific fields come together to stop an alien invasion. This game is not good. Really, the only notable things about this game is that the protagonists are female scientists. It's nice to see media that supports women in science and technology. That's it, though. The protagonists are shallow, and offer very little personality beyond their chosen field. They look very similar (uniforms don't help), which makes it tough to remember which one is which, and after a while, I no longer cared. Sadly, the player-controlled character is just as interchangeable as the others, with the only difference being that she wears a dumb mask. Couldn't I have at least chosen which of the six to control? Also, most of the science the girls use is either basic high school knowledge or completely fictional, and I think the dialogue is actually a bit disrespectful to the scientific fields represented (though, as a CS graduate, I have spent time in a computer lab playing Nethack before). As for the story, I found it uninteresting and a bit too padded out with all the battling. As for the gameplay itself, it's boring and horribly unbalanced. Your characters' basic attacks are worthless. I found I just kept relying on multi-target skills, with the occasional heal. It's awkward that there's no place that I could find to just recover HP/SP... I kept having to do it in battle by putting one enemy to sleep and defending/healing repeatedly. The battle and level up system are really pretty inelegant. This game would've benefited by keeping things simpler (like the Mario RPGs). Also, I hate it with a passion when skills in RPGs become harder to use as you level up. The saving grace is that all six characters are usable in battle and they all receive XP... at least that's one pitfall avoided. The art is not very good. The pixel work is okay. The illustrations do a poor job of making the girls distinct. The alien homeworld looks particularly bad. As for the sound, well, apparently there's supposed to be some sound? There are options for sound, but I didn't hear any. I turned the volume way up and made sure my speakers were working, but no sound or music. The controls try to work for keyboard, mouse, and controller, but the keyboard controls were crap, and for the mouse, the buttons were a bit small and all over the screen, making it tough to use the mouse comfortably. I also found a number of small graphical bugs as I played through... this game really needed a bit more polish. I was really hoping to like this game, especially from the publisher that brought us Long Live the Queen (which was great) and Magical Diary (which was not very good, but I still enjoyed it), but for me, this game was pretty much a miss on every level. I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone. If you know a small girl who is aspiring to study a science/technology field, have them play a good game instead. I wouldn't want her to think that science is as boring as this game is.
Magic 2015 is a game based on Magic: The Gathering where you collect cards, build decks, and battle opponents. They've made several Duels of the Planeswalkers games, and I've played all of them. Magic 2015 is a huge step forward for the series, yet also a huge step back. It's really pretty frustrating. This game finally implements the one feature people have been asking for since the beginning: the ability to make a custom deck from scratch. You get a pool of cards that builds over time, and you can build your own deck out of the cards you have, and it's a major improvement. The game has several ways of helping you build a deck, or you can hand-select each card, like I did. If it wasn't for that, though, this game would be among the worst in the series. There's a somewhat diverse selection of opponents, but the difficulty curve is all over the place. It puts you against a big green deck really early, and that's a tough deck to face with only a handful of starter cards. The puzzle mode from previous games is gone. No alternate play modes either, such as Archenemy or Sealed from previous games. What's worse is that the card pool, even when you've unlocked everything, just isn't quite diverse enough, so there aren't that many great decks you can build out of it. If my opponents can make a Sliver deck, why can't I? As a side note, the menus in this game are really slow and animation-heavy. Magic 2014 had way better UX design... what happened? The microtransactions in this game aren't as bad as the infuriating Sealed Deck mode in Magic 2014 (I'm still mad about that), but they keep a few cards locked out of the main game unless you pay more to unlock them. They're good cards, too. The white Paragon, for example, would be an amazing inclusion in the Convoke deck. I think they're usable in multiplayer too, so this could be called a pay-to-win mechanic (you can still build acceptable decks without those cards, but they really help). There are two other pluses that I haven't brought up yet. Fighting random opponents in single player is a good inclusion. I wish there were more, though... there are only a small number of opponents per location. Also, as someone that follows the card game's storyline, it's nice to see what actually happens to Garruk (and Ob Nixilis). Ultimately, I would still recommend this game if you're interested in Magic, though I don't think I could recommend it over Magic 2014. They're not asking for much with the $10 price tag, and I don't regret having spent the money on this. Magic is still fun. Also, it's nice to build decks from scratch for a change. For now, steer clear of the extra paid content.
Go! Go! Nippon! is a visual novel about a guy from an ambiguous country that takes a sightseeing tour around Japan (mostly Tokyo) with the help of two Japanese girls. This game is a bit of an oddity. There's actually very little gameplay here; you make roughly five choices throughout the whole experience. Most of this novel consists of an animated, factual tour guide of Japanese hot spots, complete with history lessons. I found it pretty interesting, if a little dry at times. It was pretty neat to see Shibuya, which I rember from two other games I've played (The World Ends With You and SMT: Devil Survivor). This game tries really hard to capture the feel of everyday events in Tokyo, and it was cool to see all of these things described in great detail and in a way that points out things that foreigners would find unique. You might also expect some romance from this description, and if so, you'd be correct. The places you visit determine which girl accompanies you, and you end up with the one that accompanied you the most. I only played through once, and I saw a little over half the content. The romance plot is not that interesting and ends before it really blooms. I kind of wish it was left out, especially the more, well, risque images. (Ecchi, I think. Not quite hentai.) So basically, if you're looking for a fun game, this isn't one. This is a visual novel about being a tourist in Japan stapled to a romantic manga story. It only took me about 90 minutes to get through one playthrough, so it's a pretty quick experience. All in all, if you can enjoy a visual novel and you have some interest in Japan, I can recommend this. Not at $10, though... wait for a Steam sale. If my description didn't sound interesting to you, then this simply isn't for you and it won't be worth your time or money.
ReignMaker is a match-3 game similar to Bejewled or Candy Crush Saga, where your matches are used to kill invaders coming after you. Overall, this game is a mediocre time waster that falls way short of its promises. I'm going to copy/paste the first line of its Steam store page: "ReignMaker is a city building political strategy game with match-3 tower defense combat." Calling this game a city builder, a political strategy game, or a tower defense game is a serious insult to those genres, and this is coming from someone who enjoys those types of games. You technically build a city, yes, but the "city building" is little more than waiting to collect resources and upgrading buildings. The only choice you make is what order you build things in. There's no real planning, no infrastructure building, and really, nothing interesting at all about this city building parts. They only serve as a vessel to get you upgrades, and are absolutely no fun on their own. Also, resource collection is really annoying. I never had nearly enough lumber, so I had to wait for hours, checking in every 30 minutes to harvest. Another annoyance is the gold, which appears on the ground as you fight. It spawns so frequently that it's a huge distraction from the puzzle, and you won't get nearly enough if you don't pick it up. Scouts are a necessity if you want to progress since they take that element out, but that's one fewer person you can take into tough levels. There is technically political strategy, yes, but it amounts to a series of questions, one per level, that almost never have any consequences at all. When there are, they're minor at best. It has all the depth of an Internet quiz. After making choices, you can find out your city's "culture", which matters none at all, really. When it says it's a "tower defense" game, though, that's completely misleading. In a tower defense game, you place towers strategically to impede and attack units that are trying to get through, and that's not what this game has. In this game, you defend towers with match-3 combat. Now, for the match-3 elements. The core match-3 gameplay is present in this game, and it does provide some challenge. The spells and the people you hire are interesting additions that shake things up. This game suffers from poor design decisions overall, though. The difficulty curve is a mess, with a huge spike at level 10 before varying wildly between really easy and very difficult. The boss battles are mostly luck; you have to attack very rapidly with matches and spells and hope that you get enough combos to win before your opponent murders you (even worse, you can defeat the boss but still lose the match and be forced to replay). Also, some of the levels are excessively long, which really **** when you run out steam and lose 20 minutes in to a level. This isn't the worst game I've played, not by a long shot. I still played this game to the end, probably just because the match-3 combat was enough to hold my interest for a while. This game is really heavily flawed, though, and it spectacularly fails to deliver on its promises. Sadly, this game is little more than a time waster, which isn't good enough for me. It looks like this game is still being worked on, however, so hopefully some things can be ironed out, but it will never be a "city building political strategy game" with "tower defense combat". Ultimately, this game is just a second-rate Puzzle Quest. This game's a joke at $15. I think I can only recommend this game if you can find it for $2 or less.
Alpha Kimori is a sci-fi Japanese-style RPG set on a planet that humans have colonized and fled to, and home to two warring factions: one that wants to reclaim Earth, and one that wants to live in peace on their new home. This game is really bad. In a good RPG, combat requires some tactical decisions and creative use of skills and abilities to beat tougher enemies. In Alpha Kimori, combat is purely a grind, with 99% of fights requiring nothing more than mashing Attack, 1% requiring the occasional Defend command to heal, and 0% of the fights requiring the use of a skill. The sole exception to this rule is the final battle, which is the game's only interesting fight. I highly recommend using JoyToKey and setting up a turbo controller so that it will do the button mashing for you. In a good RPG, characters are deep and memorable, live in an interesting world, and take part in a grand story. In Alpha Kimori, the plot is dumb and predictable, the heroes have no interesting qualities, and the world is shallow. Here's the plot: one faction likes to kill animals and people to drain their energy. Our heroes are the only few people that think that rampant murder might be wrong. So, after murdering a few hundred bunnies and birds, the heroes decide to abandon their home for another faction that is only a little less bloodthirsty. A few times, they remember the one defining moment in their lives (the one time someone said that killing was mean) in the form of about ten flashbacks to the same event. There's supposedly a romance in there too, but our leads have less chemistry than oil and water. I should also mention that the quest design is awful. It mostly consists of running through the same dungeons over and over again, sometimes taking the long way around just to stretch out the game. The graphics look decent, except that the character won't stay anywhere near the center of the screen. The music is upbeat but not at all memorable. The controls are sub-par, and the game is in desperate need of a sprint button. I really only continued this game out of a morbid curiosity to see how bad it would get. The bad news is that this game really just isn't even entertaining. For most of my playtime with Alpha Kimori, I was actually playing Mario Golf and letting the turbo controller do all the heavy lifting. This game is a tedious mess, and I can't recommend it to anyone, even if you get it free. The developer needs to get the first game right before continuing with this "trilogy".
BIT.TRIP CORE is a music/arcade action game where dots are flying around the screen, and you have to shoot them down by firing from the center of the screen. CORE is the second game in the BIT.TRIP saga, after BEAT. If this premise sounds similar to Bit.TRIP BEAT, well, the similarities don't end there. Like BEAT, doing well in CORE makes the music sound better and the graphics look better, but more distracting. Doing poorly makes the music worse and the graphics simpler, and when you're close to death, the game drops to black-and-white mode and removes all but the basic beat of the music, so nothing is left to distract you. I think BIT.TRIP BEAT is wonderful because of the game's elegant game design. CORE is more of the same, but clunkier. To hit the dots, you have to hold a direction and fire, and the fact that you have to worry about two button presses per shot makes all the difference. It's hard enough keeping with the rhythm when the dots start hitting your line of fire on the off beat (which can be difficult even when there's enough warning, but is much harder when CORE starts throwing them in with no warning), but it's a lot more work also figuring out which direction to fire in when the game starts moving the dots around in an erratic pattern. I feel that the gameplay in CORE is a bit too unfair... you have to either have incredibly quick reflexes or simply memorize the tough parts to do well. Some of these same criticisms apply to BEAT as well, but the superior game design in BEAT makes up for some of those issues. Ultimately, BIT.TRIP CORE is still a decent game, and if you liked BEAT, you'll probably like CORE well enough to tolerate its faults, because when you get right down to it, CORE is really just more of the same. Get BEAT before CORE, though. BEAT is much better.
BIT.TRIP BEAT is a music/arcade game where you basically control a Pong paddle, and your goal is hit all the little dots flying around the screen, and you'll do it in time with the shythm of the song. If you do well, the music picks up a few more instruments, and becomes more pleasant to listen to, and more things start happening on the screen. The flashier graphics actually make the game the game more difficult, though. If you do poorly, the music will get worse and the graphics become simpler, making the game easier. If you're close to losing, the game will drop into black and white, with the music just reduced to the beat. This is the sort of game that is be much more interesting to watch if played by a master. I love the elegance of this game. The controls are very simple, which really lets the rhythm gameplay shine. The game is difficult, and most of that difficulty comes from having to move the paddle quickly and precisely. (Actually, this game was originally on Wii, and the motion controls made this game a lot easier to play.) This game does get pretty frustrating, especially because if you're stuck on a certain part, you have no option except for playing the section until you memorize it. This game's other problem is that there actually isn't a whole lot of content. The game is only as long as it is because you're unlikely to get through without dying many times. Overall, I'd recommend BIT.TRIP BEAT as a short, but fun experience. Fans of music games and of older games are more likely to enjoy it. It's not a must-play, so wait until it goes on sale.
BIT.TRIP Runner 2 is a rhythm/platformer where you run along a path, collect gold, and avoid/defeat tons of obstacles along the way. Much like the first BIT.TRIP Runner, I just couldn't enjoy this game despite my best efforts. The art is beautiful, and it's nice to see that Gaijin can make a beautiful, non-retro game. The music is wonderful as always. The gameplay, though... I normally really love music games of all sorts, but the gameplay is incredibly frustrating. The levels still go on way too long, and they're pretty hard, even near the beginning, which means that you will end up re-doing the same parts of the same levels over and over. I don't think the first Runner has a checkpoint system, and that is definitely a welcomed addition to Runner 2, but it's not enough. This game is certainly challenging, but for me, it wasn't a fun challenge at all. The keyboard controls are baffling. You can use the arrow keys and space bar, which I highly recommend over what they tell you the controls are. The BIT.TRIP series is a cool experiment in rhythm games, but Runner, for me, was a failed experiment and I don't know why that's the game that got a sequel. If you liked Runner, you'll love Runner 2, but I can't endorse this game for anyone else.
I really didn't like this game. Got it for $2.50 some time ago, and this was one of the few games that I regretted spending money on. It describes itself as a combination of Lemmings and The Incredible Machine, and it's right to do so, in that it takes the most annoying aspects of both games. It combines the frustration of not having enough control over the things moving on the screen with the frustration of having to fling things in random directions and hope they do what you want them to. And unlike The Incredible Machine, your creativity means nothing; the only thing that matters is finding the solution the developer intended you to find. Playing this game truly felt like a chore, so I never went back to it, and I can't recommend it to anyone else, not even if it was free.
Long Live the Queen is a game with dating-sim-like gameplay that has you making the right decisions and learning the right skills in order to survive your first year as a young princess waiting for coronation. This game is actually surprisingly tough, and you'll need either a lot of careful planning or a lot of luck to get through the game at all. There are many interesting ways to die before the coronation. I played a lot of Magical Diary, another game by the same developer. While that game was objectively bad but still very enjoyable, this game is far better. The dialogue is much better, and much more focused on the politics and intrigue. Your choice of skills is incredibly important... not only how much you train them, but which other skills you choose to compliment them. On top of that, your mood has to be carefully managed, because that changes the rate of learning certain skills, so you may need to force mood changes in order to learn new skills. Once you realize how this game works, it becomes a careful puzzle of figuring out which skills you'll need at which times in order to survive certain encounters, but the nice thing is that there are multiple ways of doing it. As an example, when you go to a gala, you may have friends and enemies waiting as the result of previous choices. Do you have the courtly graces to appear poised and mature, or will you lose everyone's faith? Can you sense the magic taking place that night? Will you be challenged to a duel, and if so, can you leave the fight alive? The art style is usually pretty good, though some of the dress-up outfits are bizarre. The music is all piano, which fits this game pretty well. There aren't many different music tracks, but I found most of them pleasant and unintrusive. The control could be better. I picked this game up, thinking that if I liked Magical Diary, then I could find something to enjoy in this game. I had definitely underestimated Long Live the Queen, and it took me by surprise. This is a slow, strategic game, but people who like those sorts of games might really enjoy this one. I think this game is worth it at full price if you think you'll enjoy it.
Sonic and Co. Racing Something is a kart racer that tries to be very similar to Mario Kart. This is basically a SEGA franchise celebration, where they take characters from all sorts of SEGA games and mash them together. The have a few Sonic characters, but this is a SEGA game, not a Sonic game. Some of the characters are hilariously out of place in the kart racing world (except Danica Patrick, who is tragically out of place). The gameplay is mostly what you'd expect out of a kart racer, so expect tight kart controls, constant boosts, and projectiles flying everywhere. Compared to Mario Kart, this game seems to be a little less casual-friendly. If you're doing poorly, you'll never pick up a bullet or lightning that could rocket you into first place. There are some more helpful power-ups you'll get if you're behind, but if you start poorly, you'll never catch up. This is also due to the fact that this game offers many more projectile power-ups, and if you're neck-and-neck with a few other racers, you'll spend the remainder of the race blasting each other to bits. I did enjoy the land, sea, and air vehicle sections reminiscent of Diddy Kong Racing. Once I mapped the controller to Mario Kart controls, they worked pretty well for me. New players should probably pick characters with good handling. The sounds in this game are annoying, even more so than Mario Kart. The graphics work well enough for a kart racer. I should mention that this is a console port, and SEGA tends to make pretty bad ports in my experience (this game isn't an exception). This is about as close to Mario Kart as you're going to get on PC. Fans of kart racing games might enjoy the slightly different gameplay of SEGA and Someone Racing Whatever, but if you have access to a console that plays Mario Kart, you'll want to prioritize Mario Kart before SEGA Racing. Still, this is a decent game to break out with local players if you have a few controllers to share. Update: After playing some local multiplayer, there's definitely one more thing that has to be addressed: the fact that nearly any of the game modes can be played multiplayer. That adds a lot of value to this game. Several friends and I have been playing through the story mode to unlock things, and having more players really helps in some of the races, since you win if -any- of you fulfill the win condition. It's not perfect, especially because certain race types become much harder with the addition of more players, but thanks to this feature, this game becomes one of the best local multiplayer games on Steam (as long as you have some Xbox controllers to pass out). While I still prefer the racing mechanics of Mario Kart, being able to play more game types is a huge bonus, and a big reason to choose this game when friends are over.
Typing of the Dead: Overkill is a typing/rail shooter game, where you type phrases as quickly as possible to kill zombies. I've always kind of enjoyed typing games, and while I don't think this game has much merit in teaching you how to type properly, it's a fun game with an interesting sense of humor. There's not too much to talk about with the gameplay. You type as quickly as possible, using Tab to pick up secrets and power-ups. What's more interesting to discuss with this game is how it's presented: as an old, low-budget horror movie. It tries very hard to be as cheesy as possible. Sometimes the phrases you type relate to the level you're playing, which gets pretty funny in the strip club level. This game is a bit lewd at times, and the swearing is excessive... not saying that's a bad thing, but it's something you should know going in to it. Typing of the Dead: Overkill also includes House of the Dead: Overkill. The story is the same, but you play a standard rail shooter with normal controls instead of typing. I like switching between the two, just to change things up. House of the Dead is a little older, but as far as I know, this the only way to play the game on PC. If a rail shooter or typing game sounds fun to you, then this would be a good game to pick up. There's a lot of content in this game, so at $20, I don't think you'll be disappointed. Rail shooters and typing games aren't for everyone, and this game probably won't win you over to the genre (unless the movie aesthetic really appeals to you, I guess), but I've had a lot of fun with it so far, and I plan to keep playing it for a little while.
Angelica Weaver is an adventure/hidden object game that has you chasing a serial murdered in the present, while trying to solve a related, unsolved case in the past. The main character has psychic powers that are used for a few things, including seeing the crime scene of the past yourself. This game is pretty stupid on all levels. Most of the gameplay involves either clicking everything on the screen or trying all of your inventory items on every you can interact with. This game has plenty of adventure game logic too... there are several times where you're given multiple items that all have the same purpose, but you can still only use one specific item in each place. There are no interesting characters, and the story is just awful. This is meant to be a mystery, but it fails in that regard too, because you don't meet the killer at all until the end. The game has only two positive points. The first is that the art is nice. The second is that there are some actual puzzles, though they're so easy that this almost doesn't count. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone at any price above free. Even if it was free, I don't think this game will even be worth the time spent for most people, though if you're a fan of adventure games, your time may not be entirely wasted.
Gone Home is an adventure game where you play as someone coming home to a new house after spending time in Europe, only to find that nobody's home to greet you. The dark house with creaky floorboards and faulty electrical wiring makes it pretty spooky, and sets a dark tone that makes you wonder: was everyone just busy that night, or is there something happening in the shadows? As you explore the house, checking out objects and reading letters, you start to catch up on what happened in the year the protagonist missed, leading up to the secret behind the empty house. Maybe I'm overselling it. I certainly enjoyed exploring the house and piecing together the puzzle, but this is definitely an artsy sort of game, and it's definitely not for everyone. The game is slow, and you do little besides explore and read. But, the story is itriguing and the house is pretty realistic, so if you do enjoy exploring and reading, you may really enjoy this game. The controls are done well. There's generally no music, though you can listen to a few casettes you find along the way. The sound is pretty creepy between the thunderstorm and the house's noises. The entire experience is really short; I finished it in 2.5 hours. For such a short game, I don't think I could recommned it at all for $20, but this would be a great game to pick up on a Steam sale. I enjoyed it, and fans of exploration-based games will enjoy it, but Gone Home won't be worth it to you if you are impatient or have a short attention span.
7 Wonders: AAM is match-three puzzle game, similar to Bejeweled. I've never been a fan of Bejeweled... I've always found the game to be really boring, but this game adds a bunch of elements to the formula, and for me, this game succeeds where Bejeweled fails: in providing clear goals as you play. This is apparently the fifth game in this series, but it's the first I've played. As you play, you have several goals you have to keep in mind. You need to make a match of a certain color over the colored cells (optional), you have to get as many resources as possible by making matches with the resource tiles (optional), and you have to break away the background and make a piece fall to the bottom to complete the level. It was much easier for me to stay engaged with this game as I tried to fulfill every goal on the level. There's sort of a meta-game where you use the puzzles to build things, but it doesn't do much for me. The story is incredibly stupid, but it's unintrusive. This is definitely a game built for touch screens, and the keyboard/mouse controls suffer a little for it. But, the only reason you get a game like this is for the puzzles, and I found them fun. The game's tutorial is complete garbage, unfortunately, and it almost prevented me from playing at all. You must read the help screens to play. I'd pick up this game if you see it cheap. There's no shortage of good casual puzzle games, and I'd buy up games like Plants vs. Zombies or Zuma's Revenge first. If you enjoy match-three games, I'd recommend this one. If you don't, you might still find something you like here.
Ittle Dew is an action-adventure game that is trying very hard to be a 2D Zelda game, and actually, it succeeds for the most part. Your goal is to explore the castle and use the riches you find to enter other dungeons and find tools that help you progress farther in the castle. This game has two key strengths. The first is that the items are very interesting, and they each combine in interesting ways. The second is that this game has amazing replay value. You get three items, and you can use all three to win, but you only need two. For a challenge, try beating the game with each combination of two weapons. This game is also built for speed-running, and it will take a lot of planning to figure out how to get the speed run achievements. I'd say this game's main weakness is the bosses. It's a big difficulty spike, and the method for defeating them is never straightforward. The hints help a lot, but the battles can still be tough even when you know what to do. That leads to the other weakness: the controls. They're not terrible, and you'll get used to them as you play, but there were too many times when I died in combat because I wasn't moving the way I wanted to, and many enemies aren't knocked back when hit. A few other things to mention: the puzzles can get pretty tough, the death penalty is that you have to restart the room at full health (which isn't even a penalty most of the time), and the game has little story, but the humor was a lot better than I had expected from the previews. Also, the first playthrough will last around 3-5 hours. So, despite this game's rather stupid name, I enjoyed it, and I'd say it's worth picking up if you enjoy Zelda-style games (try out the 2D Zeldas first if you're not familiar with them). I'd wait to pick it up at half price, though.
Ticket to Ride is an adaptation of a popular board game, with the ability to play against AI, or local or online opponents. The board game has a pretty simple rule set that's easy to learn, and it has some good strategic complexity. I haven't been playing it for all that long, but I've definitely enjoyed what I've played so far. I found the voice acting obnoxious and turned it off immediately. The music grates after a little while, but you can turn that off too. The game controls pretty well and shows a lot of useful information on screen. The menus are a bit clunky, and this actually makes it a little difficult to get in to the online game lobby. But really, what matters is the gameplay, and Ticket to Ride has great gameplay. I had fun playing against AI and against humans, and there's tons of replay value. This game will definitely be worth it for board game enthusiasts at full price. I'd still recommend it to anyone that can appreciate a strategic, turn-based game. As for the DLC, it allows you to play on different maps, sometimes with different rules. If you like the base game, the expansions will add quite a bit.
The Stanley Parable is an adventure game, and the premise is that you play as Stanley, a man who is content at his job where he pushes the buttons he's told to all day, every day. When Stanley discovers that his office is mysteriously empty, he decides to investigate. He comes to a room with two doors, and according to the narrator, Stanley chooses the door on his left, but you're controlling Stanley, not the narrator. There are many, many choices in this game, and they all have interesting consequences. I'm not going to spoil any choices (beyond the first), because the magic of The Stanley Parable is figuring it out yourself. It also helps that the humor in this game is great. This game's demo is free, and you should play it. Seriously. Even if you plan to get this game, play the demo first, because the content is entirely different from the main game, and there's at least one joke from the demo that is referenced in the game. If you want more, check out the original Stanley Parable, which is also free. This game is a remake of that game with much more content. This isn't much of a "game", but as a piece of interactive storytelling, it's wonderful. If you're curious, try the demo, and if you liked that, you'll love the main game. For me, it was definitely worth $15 and I would definitely recommend it. If I were to rate this game from one to ten, it would get an EIGHT! EIGHT! EIGHT!
Escape Goat is a puzzle platformer with a simple premise: you are a goat in prison with a mouse sidekick, and you should escape. I didn't expect to get in to this game as much as I did, but Escape Goat has some solid puzzles, the platforming is tough at times, and I ended up really enjoying it. The story is basically non-existent. The music and sound are enjoyable. The graphics remind me of 16-bit-era PC games, and I think they look great. The game controls well on an X360 controller (didn't test keyboard). This game is really very elegant. There are only a few things you can do: double jump, rush, and teleport (if you have the hat), and the mouse can do a handful of things by himself as he runs around. Similarly, the level design only uses a few elements to pull together some interesting and tough puzzles. The game isn't terribly hard (unless you play the bonus content), but it makes you earn your prison escape, and it feels satisfying when you do. I'm probably going to keep playing a bit longer to get a few more of the achievements that I missed the first time. This game is a solid puzzle platformer, and if that sounds like something you enjoy, pick up Escape Goat. It's cheap, and for $5, this is a pretty good way to kill an afternoon.
The goal of CTHCC is to befriend the game's characters well enough to join the school club. If you've played Persona 4, the gameplay of CTHCC tries very hard to be the town segments of that game. You train certain skills to relate to people better, then talk to them as much as possible in order to become friends with them, see their stories, and finally convice them to join. Oddly, you never actually perform any comedy in the game, because it ends on the club registration deadline. CTHCC is definitely not anywhere near Persona 4, but most games aren't. Unfortunately, this game has the weaknesses of P4's town gameplay as well. It's very repetitive. The music would be decent for this game if it wasn't repeated over and pver ad nauseum. But, this game's strength is the character-driven story. While the characters are not near the level of P4, they were better than I expected them to be, though I wish they had more chit-chat dialogue. This game has some display issues. Alt+Enter is the only way to make it fullscreen, and even then it doesn't work well. The art is decent otherwise, for being 2D still images. CTHCC controls well enough. CTHCC is an okay way to kill an hour or two, but I was getting bored by the end of my three hour playthrough. I wouldn't pay much for it, though. Wait for a 75% off sale if this sounds interesting to you. If not, you're not missing too much by choosing to skip this game.
It's kind of surprising how fun this game is, considering the overwhelming feel of misery and oppression the game has. Papers, Please is a game where you play as a border inspector, checking over paperwork, looking for inconsistencies, and making choices that impact many lives, including those of your family. The gameplay can get intense at times as you hurry to process as many people correctly as possible. Papers, Please had me hooked very quickly, and never let go. I'm planning to continue playing even though I've beaten the story twice, just to get all the endings and maybe try out endless mode. There's not much music, but what's there is great and fits the game incredbily well. The graphics are beautiful. Arstotska is mostly devoid of color, and this game looks as it should. The game controls almost entirely with the mouse, allowing keyboard shortcuts if you have the money to buy them and increase your efficiency. I picked up Papers, Please at full price, and it was absolutely worth it. This is one of the best indie games I've played, and I think it's absolutely worth $10. I'd recommend it to just about anyone. Note: the game has a little non-sexual nudity that can be disabled in the options.
This game is a classic Japanese-style turn-based RPG featuring writing from the creators of Penny Arcade. You control 20's-style detective versions of Tycho and Gabe as they solve the latest paranormal mystery. Entries 1 and 2 in this series were made by a different developer, and from what I've played of Episode 1, I think that this episode is a much better starting place... it's a lot more fun. Zeboyd Games specializes in making classic RPG combat fun again, and this game features another amazing battle system. It's a classic formula that's not only nostalgic to those who have played early Final Fantasy games, but the strategy is a lot deeper. The battles get very repetitive once you've figured out your strategy, though. The graphics are really well-done, though the sprites are borrowed heavily from FF6. The music is pretty nice, though I would've like a longer battle theme. Though the humor is very strong in this game, the story's a little weak. There's not much actual plot... it's just very drawn out. If you like classic RPGs, get this game, along with every other Zeboyd Games title. This game's humor is also a great reason to pick this up. If you never cared much for turn-based RPGs in general, then this one probably won't convince you. If this is your type of game, the price is definitely right... there's a lot of content here for $5.
Reus is a sim game where you control four giants capable of terraforming the planet to make it a place where human villages can thrive. But, if you give them too much, they may turn against each other or against you. Each time you play, your progress will allow you to build bigger, better things the next time around. I love these types of sim games, and I've had a ton of fun with Reus. I love trying to figure out the best way to give my village as much food as possible so they can build the next upgrade in the small amount of space they have. There are many ways to go about playing, and lots of viable strategies. Greed can make the game tough at times, though, because some of the villages will gain greed without provocation and start burning other villages down, which gets annoying at times. The graphics are simple and colorful, and they do their job well. The sound and music are fine. The game controls fairly well. My biggest criticism against this game is that the tech tree is pretty complex, and there's no way to pull up a map of it inside the game. If you like sim games or slower-paced strategy games, Reus is definitely worth buying.
McPixel is a point-and-click adventure game with a very simple premise: in each stage, prevent a bomb from exploding within 20 seconds. The gameplay usually consists of interacting with various things on the screen and figuring out what the solution is, usually by deduction (there aren't that many possbilities per stage). If you lose, no problem. The pace is pretty quick, so you'll be back in the action soon enough. It's definitely a refreshing take on the genre, sort of like Half-Minute Hero. A major part of this game is the crude humor. There's a ton of it. This is the sort of game that a 13-year-old boy would love to play but probably shouldn't. That said, I enjoyed the humor quite a bit. When you interact with something, the character normally tries to be a huge jerk. The default interaction with people is to kick them in the groin (male or female). If you're holding something, you'll probably hit them in the face with it too. McPixel rarely does what you expect him to, and that's a lot of what's so funny about the game. The graphics are bad, but still charming. The music is a little grating. The controls are simple and effective. Keep in mind that this is a short game. I finished it 100% in three hours. Overall, I'd recommend McPixel if you find it cheap, especially for adventure game fans. It's not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
Magic 2014 is a continuation of the Duels of the Planeswalkers series of Magic: the Gathering video games. You can play a number of pre-made decks against computer or human opponents, which unlocks more cards that use can use to tweak the decks. The big improvements to this version are the music, which is pretty good now, and the story, which reveals something about the greater MtG storyline for a change. The graphics are nice as always, and the control is decent as always. The new decks are fun to play with, but most of them are very similar to decks in Duels 2013. New encounters make the single player campaign more interesting. Sadly, the challenges are much easier this time. A new addition this year is Sealed Deck mode. There's a huge caveat that they don't tell you, and it was almost a dealbreaker for me: you can only play Sealed twice. I mean, you can use your deck from Sealed as much as you want, but you only get two pools to make decks from. The rest will cost you $2 a piece. Unfortunately, I was done with Sealed very quickly, and it didn't add much to the game for me. At least it's better than Magic Online? If you're going to buy a Magic: the Gathering game, Magic 2014 is the bet one so far, and it still had tons of content for the $10 price. It's definitely worth getting, but don't buy any DLC for it.
The Path in an arthouse exploration/horror game where you control one of six girls as they make the trek to grandmother's house. You're told to stay on the path and avoid the wolf, but if you do what you're told, you don't get to experience anything this game has to offer. The Path is a mystery that needs to be unraveled. As you explore, you find more things and learn more about each of the girls, and you may bump into the "wolf". For each of the girls, meeting the wolf is a life-changing experience. The game is a very interesting mystery and an engaging metaphor, but when held to the normal standards for a video game, The Path is severely lacking. The controls are completely awful. The aesthetic is nice, but the actual graphic quality is pretty poor. The sound is odd, which is fitting for this game. The gameplay is slow. Really, really slow. You'll need a lot of patience. The game description on Steam should be taken seriously. This game is not for children. The Path is definitely not for everyone. Pick it up if an arthouse title with difficult metaphors interests you, but if you're looking for a fun game, this is not it. $10 is probably a bit much; wait for it to go on sale.
They Bleed Pixels is a platforming/brawling game with beautiful pixel art set in a Lovecraft-esque nightmare realm. The game's platforming is brutal, and is generally much harder than the fighting. This game is also very deep, and it has many rewards for taking extra risks. The control in this game is pretty tight, and that's a good thing, because the platforming is completely nuts. (Note: I played with arrow keys, and I had no problem controlling the character at all.) Even the game's first level is brutal. This is not a game to play to calm down, since it will frustrate you very quickly. Not even Super Meat Boy ramped the difficulty up this quickly. That said, the game does give you the opportunity to save at many points during the levels, and you will need all the help you can get. The fighting system is very fun and rewards style. It's a nice break from the platforming. The graphics are beautiful. I never really noticed the sound because I was so focused on the game. This game is not for kids, and it's not for the inexperienced player. If you're looking for the satisfaction for beating a tough level, this might be your game. I'd recommend Super Meat Boy over They Bleed Pixels, though. I think SMB was better designed overall. Either way, if this sounds like fun to you (you masochist), it will definitely be worth the $10.
Hotline Miami is a brutal top-down shooter where you're instructed to kill a whole bunch of people and you really don't know why. The game is incredibly unsettling, between the genocide, the creepy music, the graphics that look like a terrible VHS recording, the terrible sense of increasing loneliness and desperation, and the sense that maybe all of it isn't real, even by the game's standards. The gameplay is tough. The action is frantic, since one shot kills you and enemies move quickly, yet requires a lot of planning as you decide how to take on heavily-guarded buildings. The harder battles are ridiculously difficult. The sound is creepy and very fitting. The graphics are simple 2D, but the aesthetic is also unsettling. The controls are tough to get used to, but ultimately work most of the time. The story's somewhat minimal, but the story that is there is very interesting. I think this game is worth the $10 purchase, and if this looks interesting to you, I don't think you'll be disappointed. If you enjoy it, there's a lot of replayability here too. Definitely get it if it's on sale. The soundtrack is very good, but it's not exactly feel-good music. Either way, consider picking up the soundtrack too.
Really Big Sky is a side-scrolling space shooter/bullet hell game where you go through procedurally-generated levels, blasting enemies and upgrading your ship for the next time you play. It seems like this game has a lot of strategic depth to it, but I'm having a hard time telling for sure because the game doesn't tell you anything. The tutorial is fine for getting the basic controls, but the game is terrible at describing anything else. I have little idea what most of the upgrades actually do, so I can't really make informed decisions. It's cool to blast stuff and all, but I feel like 90% of the game is going over my head, and the game itself is just fine with that. The game, at least, is very pretty, and the music is nice to listen to. The narrator's somewhat entertaining. The controls really **** at first, and I had to do a lot of customization in the options before they were even passable. Overall, this game seems like it has decent gameplay, but it's completely ruined by overall poor execution. I wouldn't recommend Really Big Sky to anyone but the most enthusiastic of bullet hell game fans.
Dear Esther is an interactive adventure that stands on the edge of what can be considered a "game". The entire experience consists of walking around an island, exploring it, and hearing pieces of a story from the narrator. This is absolutely a game for explorers. Much of the appeal of this game is simply taking in the beautiful landscapes and letting your curiosity. This game is incredibly, ridiculously slow. You can only move at a slow walking pace, and for me, the amount of time it took me to get anywhere ended up discouraging me from trying to do much more exploration than what was needed. The music is nice, and it's appropriate for a lonely island. There's a lot to discover with the story, and Dear Esther intentionally leaves many questions unanswered. Personally, I found the story to be too boring to care about, so I had little interest in teasing out the game's many mysteries. This game is absolutely not for everyone. It's an interesting think to think about and discuss, but there's little fun to be had with the game itself. The people who enjoy this game will love it passionately, though. If you would enjoy a super-slow, thoughtful experience, then maybe you'll like this. Then again, I normally do, and I feel ambivalent about this game. Don't buy Dear Esther unless it's cheap.
Anodyne is a Zelda-style action game where you explore surreal areas and crawl through dungeons. I really couldn't bring myself to finish this game. While the environments are neat and a bit unsettling, the game's puzzles are really poorly designed and the controls are sub-par, which made this a really frustrating experience. In addition, the map is completely labyrinthine. I had no idea where I should be going, the map was useless, and I pretty much immediately got lost. The star of this game is the aesthetic. It mostly sticks to the 16-bit style, and it does it well most of the time. The music is mostly ambient and a little creepy, which really hammers in the unease. Ultimately, though, I found I couldn't forgive the game's serious gameplay flaws. If you think the aesthetic alone will be worth the price of entry, then you might really enjoy this game, but otherwise, there are many better ways to spend your money.
Thomas Was Alone is a puzzle-platformer where you control a bunch of rectangles and get them through each level. The platforming is pretty well done, but the magic of this game is in the story and the characters. Each of the rectangles is an AI running through a maze, each with a different personality and different jumping physics, and the story involving this group of rectangles is really very engaging. The gameplay is well designed, but experienced players won't find too much of a challenge. I was able to beat this game with all achievements in under 4 hours. The graphics are really simple, but the aesthetic is nice enough. The music is very nice, and the narration is entertaining. This is a neat little indie game, and it was worth the time I invested. I do think the game was a little overhyped from I saw, though... this game is good and it's worth playing, but it's not a masterpiece. It's priced at $10, and I'd say it's worth it, but I'd personally wait for a sale.
Little Inferno is a game where you progress by purchasing and burning various objects while getting combos and earning more money. I had expected a terrible game after reading some of the reviews. I hated Doodle God with a passion, and Little Inferno has similar gameplay. However, I found myself loving this game for its short duration. The game's atmosphere is wonderful, and the story is short, but very enjoyable. I love the items too... they're funny and they're entertaining when they burn. The gameplay is a bit lackluster. The combos make sense most of the time, but a small handful of them require some moon logic. A bit of the time is spent waiting for items to arrive... you really have to manage time well to avoid sitting and doing nothing. Thankfully, everything else makes up for the gameplay. The story, graphics, and sound are on par with World of Goo, which was phenomenal. Overall, I found this to be a very enjoyable experience, and I'd recommend it to anyone that can enjoy a more patient game. Wait for it to go on sale, though... I beat it in only a few hours.
Slam Bolt Scrappers is a hybrid of Tetris-style puzzles with aerial combat thrown in. You control a person on a jet pack who collects pieces and assembles them into blocks to make weapons to destroy the other side, but to get the pieces, you need to fight aerial monsters and you have to wrestle them away from the enemy player. I really didn't find much enjoyable about this game, really. As an avid fan of puzzle games, this was really a let-down, because the aerial combat is so much more important. You're not really given any time at all to strategically plan your board to get awesome weapon combos... even if you knock out your enemy, he'll be back in seconds to hassle you again. The only thing that might be worth it is the multiplayer, just for the fun of beating the crap out of your friends. The graphics are cel-shaded and look alright. The music and sound work but aren't memorable. I used keyboard controls, and they seemed to work just fine. The only thing this game is really missing is fun. If you're a big fan of frantic fighting-type games, then maybe you'll get more out of this than I did. I was really hoping for more puzzle-based gameplay from the screenshots, and I was let down. I certainly wouldn't recommend it at full price. If this looks good to you, wait for a sale.
This game's description tells you a whole lot of nothing, so let me fix that. Super Hexagon is an arcade-style action game where you need to guide a little triangle (the one right outside the center hex if you look at the pictures) to avoid the incoming hexagon fragments. This game is frantic and it's difficult. You'll need perfect speed and precision to make it even part way through the first level. You will lose many, many times before you succeed, but you're instantly thrown back in the action. As you play, the hexagons start coming at you in new, interesting patterns that will throw you off. You'll bob and weave, and then suddenly the hexagon becomes a pentagon and your careful plans need to change in a split second. The pace is really intense. The graphics are basic but neat. The music is great; it's high-quality chiptune music, but that should be no surprise from the developer of VVVVVV. It's an interesting game that's done very well, but it's just not for me. If you're looking for a unique, challenging game, you can do a lot worse than Super Hexagon, especially for the price. This game is cheap enough that there's really no need to wait for a sale if you're interested.
Thirty Flights of Loving is a first-person interactive story. The story's incredibly short, and can be experienced in about 15 minutes. The story itself is told in short, disconnected segments requiring you to fill in the blanks yourself. 30 Flights is definitely an arthouse game. It has an interesting approach to interactive storytelling that may be worth seeing, but unfortunately, the story it tells is unremarkable. From what I could tell, there just isn't much substance there. What's much more interesting is playing with the developer's commentary on, so you can see some of the thought that went behind the experience. The game's prequel is also included, and while it's a longer game with more gameplay elements, it's designed clumsily, and you might be left with no idea where to go. This game has a very niche audience, and to them, this game will be worth far more than the asking price. It wasn't for me, though, and I get the feeling that it's not for most people, especially because the price doesn't pay for much content. It's worth experiencing if you have a few extra minutes, but I wouldn't pay over a dollar for this. If this looks interesting to you, I'd recommend checking out The Stanley Parable instead.
Half Minute Hero is an old-school RPG with one twist: you have to win in 30 seconds. You can pay the incredibly frugal Time Goddess to reset the clock, but you can't do it forever. The result is a fast-paced game that cuts out the fluff and has you figuring out how to best spend your last precious seconds. The story is simple and very goofy, but effectively told. The music and graphics are both very good. Controls are bad, though... this game was ported from consoles poorly. You basically need a controller for some modes (not Hero, thankfully). The game comes with six modes, but Hero 30 is the big draw: the rest pale in comparison. Evil Lord 30 and Princess 30 are fun distractions and don't take long. Knight 30 was okay once I figured it out. Hero 300 is the big climax, and gives you a big payoff for playing the other modes. Hero 3 is infuriating. I didn't try the multiplayer. Anyone who has enjoyed 8- or 16-bit RPGs needs to pick up this game. Other RPG and puzzle game fans will probably enjoy it as well. It's definitely worth the money.
FTL is a very strategic spaceship simulator, where you must survive a harrowing trek across the galaxy with an army chasing you down. You have to decide how to configure your ship with what's available, and make tough mid-battle decisions that could mean life or death. And in this game, death is permanent. This is one of those indie games that gets everything right. The gameplay is lots of fun. It's not hard to learn the basics, but winning is incredibly hard, even on Easy. Luck plays a big part, but skill can offset bad luck. There are lots of ship configurations, and with each, a new way to play. The music is very good, and fitting. The pixel art is beautiful. Controls are fairly easy to use. I found myself playing this game over and over until finally getting my first win on easy on the 20th try. This game is definitely worth getting, and for strategy fans, it's a must-buy. The soundtrack is also worth the money.
Saints Row 3 is a sandbox third-person shooter, in the style of GTA. However, where GTA has become more serious and realistic, Saints Row 3 is ridiculous and, at times, completely insane. Sexual content and violence is not only common in Steelport, it's completely normal. It's true that the humor is a bit juvenile, but they take it to such extremes that I couldn't help but laugh at how silly the whole thing is. I loved this game. I found that most of the game's mechanics were a lot of fun. There were some amazing main missions, and the side activies were enjoyable (I loved the Genki ones). One downside is that a lot of the guns ****. Instead, I used the basic pistol until the endgame for its accuracy. The controls and camera are fine. The story is stupid but it works. The varied music appeals to many tastes. There's lots of character customization, which I am grateful for. SR3 requires the stomach for sex and violence, but if you're okay with that, this game is really fun and can keep you busy for quite a while. It's a great co-op game. Get the DLC if the price drops; Genkibowl and Special Ops Vehicle Pack are my top picks.
I really thought that Puzzle Agent 2 really fixed a lot of the major flaws from the first. Fewer ambiguous puzzles, more substantial hints, and better explanations. All around the puzzles were much better designed, and as a result, I had a much better time with this game. The major downside, however, is that this game is easier than the first. Even the game's hardest puzzles only took maybe 5-10 minutes. A few puzzles might be more difficult for people with no background in math... something to consider. The story continues from the first and I thought it was decent, but it's more plot-driven and loses some of its charm in the rush. If you were able to stomach Puzzle Agent 1, then this will be a welcome improvement. If you're a fan of puzzles, this isn't as good as the Layton games, but it's cheaper and still fun.
Detour is a real-time strategy game where your goal is to get three trucks from your base to the opposite side of the map. Watch out for dynamite that destroys road, missiles that take out your trucks, and other hazards that others may send at you. It's kind of an interesting premise, that leads to some interesting, fast-paced gameplay. That said, when there were four players desparately fighting for the middle ground, it was incredibly hard to figure out what was going on at any given time. I'd be repairing roads in one part the map while the other half was getting shredded by the AI. Half the time, the bridges and tunnels didn't work as I expected, and I didn't realize my roads weren't connecting. Sadly, this ends up as an amateur attempt at a strategy game. There's a good idea here, but it's not well-designed, and as a result, really isn't all that fun and not terribly engaging for fans of strategy. It seems like it would be mildly entertaining as a dumb multiplayer game, since the frantic action could make some fun moments with friends, but I think that's about the only value you'll find here. If this looks interesting, check out Sid Meier's Railroads!, which is buggy and flawed but much more fun.
Magical Drop 3 was one of my favorite puzzle games of all time. It's simple but fast-paced, and it's surprisingly deep. I didn't even know this game was coming out, so I was very excited to see it on Steam and picked it up immediately. Magical Drop V has been something I've wanted for a long time, but sadly, it's a huge step backward for the Magical Drop series. It's definitely worse than #3 in all aspects, and I'd even put it behind #2. The gameplay works sufficiently well, HD graphics are nice, and the music is mostly unchanged. Unfortunately, the controls are bizzare, the single-player mode is lacking, there are fewer characters, and the game must have been translated by a third-grader (insultingly bad at times). The inclusion of a different puzzle game's mechanics is interesting. I couldn't figure it out, though. If you're interersted in this, I'd highly recommend looking up Magical Drop 3 instead. It was a Neo-Geo game, but there have been a few ports. Magical Drop fans will be disappointed. It's still a decent action-puzzle game, but it's far short of its potential.
Majesty 2 is a real-time strategy game, despite the game's pleas that it's a "fantasy kingdom sim". I found it to be very similar to Warcraft 2 in play style. I'm a big fan of RTS games, but this game just isn't worth your money. The game is based on a proven formula, but Majesty 2 is poorly executed. Most single player games end up the same way: you frantically fight for your life before you get your first buildings built, hope nothing major is destroyed, try to get up a few key buildings as monsters swarm your town, then all of a sudden, your heroes are mopping the floor with the enemy. It swings from frustrating to boring in seconds, never hitting the right balance. The tutorial is okay but doesn't quite teach enough. Controls need a little work. Music is boring. The game does have some decent dry humor. This game just isn't worth getting. RTS fans should boot up a Blizzard game instead.
A Virus Named TOM is a puzzle game, where you play as a virus trying to bring down a Jetsons-style "City of Tomorrow". You do this by connecting all of the lines to the source of the infection. The game is very well made in almost every aspect. The puzzles are challenging, and require a combination of skillful maneuvering and careful planning. The game continues introducing a bunch of new elements as you play, taking time to introduce each, and it demonstrated the game's depth and its finesse in how it introduces each. The style of the game is really neat. I adored the game's art, and I laughed a few times at the humorous story. This game has local multiplayer, both cooperative and competitive, which is something you don't see that often anymore. On top of that, it's pretty fun. I hadn't heard much about this game before getting it, which is sad, because more people need to hear about A Virus Named TOM. This game is excellent, and it deserves a place among the best indie games.
Puzzle Agent is a puzzle game, much like the Professor Layton series. Naturally, being a Telltale game, the story is pretty interesting and fairly goofy. It's short; I completed it in 3 hours. However, the tragedy of this game is that it's a puzzle game with sub-par puzzle gameplay. Several of the puzzles are very poorly made. They're ambiguous, and you need to make odd assumptions about the puzzles for them to make any sense. Most of the rest of the puzzles are dead simple. There are one or two genuinely difficult puzzles, but it's hard to identify them among the poorly-made ones, and you just start assuming that they didn't tell you enough on every hard puzzle. It's really just a sign of incredibly careless puzzle design, and it would make Professor Layton cry. The puzzle's solution, as described by the "How?" button, almost never actually describes the solution. Ultimately, I can recommend the game's short story, but it's sure to piss off any puzzle enthusiasts. Try not to pay any money for this one... should be easy since Telltale loves giving it away.
