indie_playerka

Creatures of Ava (Inverge Studios, 11 Bit Studio) intrigued me with the idea that it might be like Pokémon. It turned out I was somewhat mistaken, but I definitely wasn’t **** Vic, we arrive on the planet Ava, which is threatened by “withering” – a mysterious disease gradually consuming everything: Naam (the native race), creatures, and vegetation. Our mission is to save the planet. We explore various biomes, send animals to a facility on Earth, and collaborate with the natives. Over time, the game becomes more engaging, and I started noticing clear references to ecological issues and humanity's impact on Earth.Positives:+ An immersive world with a beautifully designed village, the planet, and especially the natives.+ A captivating story that draws you in. The mystery of why the planet is “withering” kept me playing more than the gameplay itself. There were emotional moments, even tears.+ Interesting and amusing side quests that let you learn more about the Naam.+ The Naam themselves – they’re wonderful. We should approach life and respect the planet the way they do.+ The ability to control animals by playing a flute. Each has a unique set of skills that help solve environmental puzzles, like breaking a wall.+ Four different biomes, each with diverse flora and fauna.+ Pleasant music.+ A beautiful, open world that often made me stop just to admire the scenery.+ Discoveries: notes from previous researcher visits and spots where you can play the flute and enjoy the landscape.+ Plenty of references to human behavior – both good and bad – and how our decisions affect Earth.+ You can pet the creatures!+ A talent tree, a few spells – overall, combat is fine. - I encountered a bug with one of the animal-return bots – it allows you to farm infinite experience points but doesn’t register the animal deliveries.- At some point, the constant battles and animal taming became repetitive – I just started running away XD.- While I enjoyed the humor, Vic sometimes made strange remarks that broke **** answer the question – I didn’t find Pokémon here, but I did find a very good game. For ecology enthusiasts, it’s a must-play. Completing Creatures of Ava took me 17.5 hours. The game is available on Xbox Game Pass. You can check out my gameplay on my YT channel.

Monarchy by Brain Seal Ltd is impossible to discuss without mentioning and comparing it to Kingdom Two Crowns—the inspiration is strong, which is why I was so eager to try it. We play as the ruler of a 2D kingdom, riding back and forth on horseback to build a base from scratch and defend it against nightly bandit raids. I only played the cooperative mode, so that's the aspect I’ll focus on. However, I suspect that solo gameplay is simply more challenging because everything has to be managed alone. Pros: + The ability to choose where to build structures and walls, though the number of spots is limited. + Diverse objectives, enemies, and seasons in missions. + Cooperative gameplay. + Well-balanced difficulty, even without the option to select a difficulty level. + Pleasant soundtrack. + Character designs are varied, offering several "skins" for builders, archers, our heroes, etc. + Upgrade options after each castle expansion—4 out of 8 available upgrades. Cons: - Our heroes have no unique abilities. - Limited number of missions—only three—which reduces replayability. - Earning money is too easy. - Few special buildings around the castle—these tend to repeat across missions. - The game can be completed very quickly; it took us about 5 hours, so I’d recommend buying it on sale. Players unfamiliar with Kingdom will likely appreciate this game more. I couldn’t help but compare the two. The developers introduced plenty of fresh ideas, and they worked well, but they also simplified or omitted some elements, which left me feeling like something was missing. We’re hoping for further development and more missions because the game has great potential. We had fun, but it just wasn’t enough. Score: 6.41/10 I received a review key for the game from the publisher—thank you very much!

I recently concluded my career as a walrus lighthouse keeper in the game Diluvian Winds (developer: Alambik Studio, publishers: @Goblinz Publishing and **** have you been in games lately?Diluvian Winds is an utterly charming resource management game where you assign tasks to workers and build a base. As a walrus lighthouse keeper, your main task is to keep the fire burning so that travelers (various animal species) can reach our island. These travelers help us gather resources and construct new buildings. Occasionally, an apocalyptic phase occurs, bringing various natural disasters to our settlement, and we must prepare for them.Pros:+ Charming graphics, animations, interesting buildings, and machines+ Day divided into phases: in the morning, a caravan arrives to bring and take guests; later, we assign tasks to them, and at the end of the day, we cook for them and maintain the fire+ Various dishes to cook from 3 ingredients: fish, vegetables, and insects, providing different bonuses to our guests+ Each guest has unique characteristics, preferences, and skills (some gather more wood, others more metal)+ Two modes: a story mode, which took me less than 10 hours, and a score-chasing mode that lasts about 2 hours in-game for 50 days, where we try to achieve the best results, allowing for multiple attempts+ Each animal species can construct different buildings for us+ Our settlement is divided into air, land, and underwater zones+ Occasional natural disasters like tsunamis that we must secure our buildings against+ Expeditions to other islands to gather resources and artifacts+ Maintaining relationships with merchant guilds (buying items and filling our bellies)+ Various events, sometimes guests find lost resources or ask to celebrate birthdays+ Development tree, fulfilling our guests’ requests to earn pointsCons:- I found it lacking in challenge; I played the story mode on normal difficulty without paying much attention to which guests I selected because I had an abundance of everything; it was simply too easy. In the score-chasing mode, I played on hard and initially felt a bit challenged, but ultimately, it wasn't too difficult.- A bit too expensive at the regular price- I feel the potential wasn’t fully realized; I was very excited after reading the description and seeing the graphicsLess cozy, more survival-oriented, where analyzing guests, resources, and weather would have a bigger impact, and it would be an excellent game. As it stands, it’s just pleasant and good.Rating: 7.29/10.I received the game for review from the publisher – thank you very much!You can watch my adventures on my YouTube channel – feel free to check it out :)

The Thaumaturge is the best game I've discovered this year. After finishing it, I felt a void and couldn't stick with any other title for a while.Have you tried our Polish game? We play as Wiktor Szulski - a Thaumaturge who sees and feels more than others. Just by touching an object, he can sense the emotions and thoughts of the person who previously held it. We pursue salutors, which are otherworldly beings that cling to human flaws and weaknesses, magnify them, and cause turmoil in the given society or group. Pros: + The atmosphere of the game, set in Warsaw in 1905, playing as a Pole+ We meet historical figures like Rasputin + The plot and dialogues, relationships between the characters. + Multiple different endings, depending on our choices during the game. + The skill tree, which consists of heart, mind, action, and word - we use these in conversations, battles, and finding clues. + Great turn-based combat, we attack with Wiktor and the salutors, creating our "deck" of attacks. The abilities impose various negative effects and are interdependent; if we strategize well, even battles on the hardest difficulty level will be almost effortless - I played on the highest level. + The ability to change the character's appearance - barber and tailor.+ Humor - the poet Abaurycy is my crush <3 + The appearance of the salutors, graphics, and the detailed environment. + Vividly portrayed scent of Rasputin, nothing else from this game will stick with me as much as that Cons:- The environment loaded in front of my eyes - first Wiktor, then everything else. - No Polish dubbing at launch, although polish names "Grażynka" and "SATAnisław" mixed into English sounded funny - I'm waiting for the dubbing and will definitely play it again <3 - Despite the city being lively, I didn't feel it. The populace always stood in the same places and said the same things, often even different residents had the same speech bubbles over their heads, and I could run through them. These cons did not detract from my enjoyment of the game at all. I fell into this world and got lost in it, playing for several hours daily, nerding out like I hadn't in a long time. Some might also dislike that there's a lot of walking from place to place - this only bothered me when it came to collectibles because, for example, when I went to a dance lesson, I really wanted to see Wiktor dance but got only a sketched postcard instead :D 9.47/10.

Here's my review of the cooperative game Speed Crew from @wildfieldsgames, available on #pc #xbox #switch #ps (we played on ****'s like a more difficult Overcooked (it's also possible that we've already mastered cooking), but with cars. We work as pit crew and have to repair cars as quickly as possible. It took us over 5 hours to complete the main campaign, which consists of 4 championships with 10 races each. We didn't win 1st place in every race, but we had enough points to win the overall championship and complete the **** you ready to risk your relationships and friendships again?Pros:+ Great and funny cutscenes with dubbing+ Several characters to choose from, and we can unlock new ones during the game by fulfilling certain conditions+ The repair process - first we identify the damage, then we repair it+ Increasingly interesting ways to repair cars - polishing, screwdrivers, drills, automatic repairs of damaged parts, etc.+ Championships take place every 10 years or so, and you can see the progress with newer cars+ Nice graphics+ The first 3 championships had a perfectly balanced difficulty level in terms of gameplay enjoymentCons:- The last 4 championships were torture, the levels lasted 6-10 minutes and were so hardcore that we were mostly annoyed, because there were also the most bugs in those races. We got stuck where there was a passage, or the engine suddenly teleported under a bridge that was inaccessible and there was no way to repair the car and we had to reset the round - but the developers are constantly updating the game and fixing bugs, so you might not even encounter this anymoreFor fans of Overcooked, co-op challenges and teamwork in front of the TV, this is a must-have. We had a great time. Let's have more games like this.Rating 7.97/10.I received the game for review from publisher - thank you very much!

I didn't expect that another purely skill-based game (like a platformer) other than Mario would be able to captivate me so much. Anomaly Agent by @phewphewhgames broke that expectation; I played every night before sleep and whenever I had a free moment, as it's perfect for short sessions on #switch. Also available on: #pc #xbox. I gave the game a chance because of its pixel art <3We play as Agent 70, whose task is to restore order to the world by eliminating various anomalies. It took me over 5 hours, and I had a blast.Pros:+ It's a challenge for agility; with each death, you want to try again.+ Great visual and musical presentation.+ Intriguing storyline and characters.+ Dialogue choices result in collecting good or bad faces, for which we can earn money or life - you can guess what's for what :D+ Challenging and amazingly designed bosses; I struggled with the guy in a crop top and roller skates for 2 or 3 days.+ Skill tree.+ Various combat methods: guns, combos, skills, melee weapons, utilizing the environment, etc.+ Anomalies - giant hand, gravity disturbances.+ We influence the game's ending.+ Easy logical puzzles.+ Humor.+ Frequent autosaves.Cons:- The skill didn't always trigger for me, resulting in my death because I clicked several times waiting for something to happen while they were attacking me.- The ending was surprising; I didn't realize it was already over.Anomaly Agent has been receiving excellent reviews, and I join them; it surprised me greatly, and I want more. I recommend everyone to give it a try. 9.24/10 More reviews on my instagram indie_playerka

Before the holidays, I played a short game (around 3 hours) called Bear's Restaurant by Odencat, available on Android (free with ads), PC, and Switch. Despite its unassuming name and graphics, it conceals a story about love, loss of loved ones, life's injustice, and brutal death. We take on the roles of a cat and a bear who work together in a restaurant on the border between Heaven and Hell. Our task is to prepare the last dream meals for people and animals just after their death before they head to Heaven. Often, we don't know what it could be, and we have to immerse ourselves in their memories. I can't write too much because I'm afraid of spoiling the most important and best aspects of the game, which are the plot and reflection.Which game made you think the most? Pros: + We learn the story of the death of each "customer," but there's a warning for sensitive individuals, and it's not necessary to complete the game + Everyone will find something that moves them, a reference to their own life or loved ones, leaving them with reflection, and if not, the rest can be jealous + Nice pixel art, and some places were very well done. I had moments of awe, but unfortunately, there were also times when I felt a lack of effort, so there were ups and downs+ Occasionally, there's humor in the midst of it all + This game is an interesting experience; it's worth focusing on Cons: - There are not many different interactions; mainly, we walk and read, begging for some variety, maybe a kitchen mini-game (although they can be annoying too). This game is certainly not for everyone; sensitive individuals should think before playing. Although I get emotional fairly quickly, it treated me gently, only squeezing something from my eyes once I wondered whether to evaluate it with my points at all, but I took on the challenge. It wasn't easy, but I'm getting better at adjusting my Excel for the type of game or category. 6.6/10 I received the game for review from the publisher; thank you very much

I won't pass by a beautiful pixel art indifferently. That was the case with Verne: The Shape of Fantasy; just from the screenshots, I knew I wanted to play it. I don't think I've seen such beautiful graphics of this type **** game is developed by Gametopia in collaboration with Assemble Entertainment and Whisper Games, available on #pc. We play as Jules Verne, a renowned writer who wrote, among other things, 'Around the World in 80 Days.' Alongside Captain Nemo, we travel on the submarine Nautilus, searching for the power source of Atlantis - the Flame of Hephaestus. This will help us save the world from destruction. Our hero is the perfect candidate for this task, and only he can discover it using an item powered by his incredible imagination that can change events and the environment - **** you like pixel art, and do you have a favorite game in this style? Pros: + Beautiful pixel art, I was constantly amazed + Intriguing storyline + Fantastic voice acting and good dialogues + IMAG is a cool device + References to books or Verne's life; if someone doesn't know, various findings help us understand what's going on + Usually enjoyable puzzles + The game makes you want to explore Jules's works + Side quests, e.g., bringing seaweed to help develop a vaccine Cons: - Despite IMAG being a cool device, I feel its full potential wasn't utilized, and I would like more situations to use it - Puzzles that were not enjoyable, for me, lacked any logic (encountered two of those) - but I'm bad at puzzles - lack of patienceThe game is mainly narrative-driven, with walking, and occasionally we have to come up with some solutions, so it's perfect for fans **** story. For me, it was a pleasant story with decent gameplay, but my entire common sense was captivated by pixel art. I especially enjoyed looking at it, and with the dubbing in the background, it made an even greater impression. Rating 7.5/10. Gameplay available on my YT. I received the game for review from the publisher - thank you very much!

Something for tile game fans - this time it's Growth from VoodooDuck and Assemble Entertainment for pc. In this logic strategy, we have to explore and populate a procedurally generated world with creatures. It's perfect gameplay for breaks between longer and more narrative titles. If we play well, victory takes about an hour. But it's not easy; we have a limited number of creatures, and if we don't plan our moves well, we can end the gameplay in just 5 minutes. I managed to achieve victory after a total of 4 hours of defeats. Sometimes I felt like I was playing Minesweeper, as I had to blindly aim whether this area needed my attention (undiscovered places are covered in fog). On the positive side: + Animals have different habitats, the larger they are, the more units we have to place. + You can win, it's not endless. + Each species of animal has unique abilities.+ Obstacles appear, such as mountains, and only one type of creature can pass through them. + Habitats can be connected, and each animal on their area increases its range.+ Without thinking, we won't achieve much; I often thought that nothing could be done, but after thinking, I found a solution. + Simple and understandable rules, but it doesn't mean the game is easy. + We slowly discover new animals and habitats; they are not all available at once. + List of achievements to unlock. + Special places with bonuses to discover. + Relaxing gameplay, pleasing graphics. On the negative side: - Lack of a ranking system to compare with other players. - It would be great if, after winning, a new world with different animals and habitats appeared - here, I see potential for future development and improvement. The game is very enjoyable and engaging; when I got lost in the gameplay, I didn't even realize when that hour passed. Rating: 7/10. Gameplay available on my YouTube: indie_playerka

The day has come when I will tell you about my favorite indie game - RimWorld by Ludeon Studios. It's a colony simulator. In the classic scenario, we crash-land with 3 characters and 1 pet on an alien planet with resources that will last for a few days. We must survive, build a base, gather food, discover new things, and not succumb to random events.I have the impression that in this game, you can truly do everything, and if it turns out that you can't, the Steam Workshop is full of mods, and you will surely find whatever you can think of I'll focus on the base game, but there are also 3 DLCs that I'll review soon. On the plus side: + 3 different storytellers who influence how often and what kind of events will happen in our gameplay, from peaceful idyll to continuous tragedy + Different game scenarios, e.g., "Naked Brutality" - starting completely naked and "happy" as a castaway, the ability to create your own scenarios + Extensive research tree - from lack of electricity to building a spaceship + Diverse flora and fauna; we can have animal husbandry+ Weather that affects the environment, e.g., we need to sew warm clothes for winter + Our initial castaways are generated randomly, each with their own statistics, personality traits, childhood and adulthood descriptions, mood, injuries, missing limbs, illnesses, and addictions + Hostile and friendly factions; we can fight and trade with them + Everything needs to be produced by ourselves or bought + Relationships between colonists + Quests + Prisoners that we can recruit, kill, release, harvest organs from, or worse, turn into, for example, a hat or food (and here's the hat puzzle in the picture solved; Rimworld players often joke that the game's biggest feature is the ability to make a hat from human skin) + Enormous replayability, and thanks to mods, we can create an entirely new game; some mods are like separate DLCsAnd I could go on and on. I also have a series on my YouTube channel - feel free to check it out :) There's no better game for me - 10/10.

The Fall of Porcupine by Critical Rabbit and Assemble Entertainment is an adventure platformer where the focus is mainly on the story. It's available on #Switch #PC #xbox #playstation, and it took me 10 hours to complete. In terms of style, it strongly resembles 'Night in The Woods,' but I felt like I was in my favorite TV series, 'Grey's Anatomy.' Finley (the pigeon) moves to the charming town of Porcupine and starts his career as a doctor at St. Ursula's Hospital. Along the way, he forms friendships and gets to know the residents, gradually uncovering various secrets. On the plus side: + characters with strongly outlined diverse personalities; it's hard for me to pick a favorite because each one was worth getting to know + it presents the hospital in challenging moments from the perspective of frontline workers + by the end, I was torn and had mixed feelings.beautiful, touching moments (one story brought me to tears) +daily rounds in the hospital, where we have assigned patients and treat them through enjoyable, quick mini-games + engaging storyline; I couldn't tear myself away, and I was curious about what the next day would bring + it's not lacking in humor +interesting choice of animals for professions; for example, a dog is a mail carrier.charming graphics and a great atmosphere On the downside: - there were instances where characters repeated the same dialogue twice - i couldn't finish the story of the bull (I don't remember the name) because the game would always freeze in the same place in the dialogue - towards the end, the game completely froze on me 2-3 times, and I had to restart it - it's a pity that the mini-games didn't involve diagnosing; I really wanted to showcase my knowledge or lack thereof about possible illnesses. :D Despite the technical issues, the game was excellent for me, and the story was engaging, perhaps because I partly identified with the main character. Bugs prevent me from giving it more than 8/10. My tiktok, youtube and instagram: indie_playerka