Finished in June (5-10 +1)

I got lazy with reviews again, so I have little backlog. Lets get on with them

• The Technomancer
  

  5 hours playtime

  4 of 40 achievements

The Technomancer

Quick mention. I won this on Steamgifts. I thought it would be my big game for a month. I gave it a solid try, but I really don’t like the fighting. There is something off with it and after a while I gave up.

• Heal
  

  2 hours playtime

  12 of 14 achievements

Heal

6/10

Little puzzle game, clearly meant for mobiles. It was fine - nothing particulary new, but a nice little distraction for an evening. It has a nice theme of “being old is sad”, but I wasn’t particulary moved by it.

• Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
  

  4 hours playtime

  9 of 9 achievements

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

8/10

A very nice little environmental adventure, very good for kids, but I had a lot of fun too. You are a young teen (12-13 years?) on holiday in your grandparents house. They are living on little mediterranean island. I think it’s Spain, but it also can be Italy - I heard a few spanish worlds so that’s my conclusion. What I know It’s that they capture the feel of small spanish/italian/greek village perfectly - the architecture, the sound of cicada - I felt as on holiday. Gameplay wise - you are running through the island and hunting for animals, mostly birds, to make photos of them. There are some extra things to do, you can fix bird houses, help wounded animals… There is a bigger plot including a nasty businessman who wants to build a hotel on a reserve for birds. I had mixed fillings - I know that protecting nature is very important, but such hotels exists and there are many places, where they are the main income source for local people… I don’t know - I wish they do it a bit smarter than Hotel Bad Nature Good! But I had a very good time, and it is a nice little game.

• Creepy Tale
  

  3 hours playtime

  13 of 13 achievements

Creepy Tale

6/10

An adventure game with a bit of platforming. It is allright, I really liked the dark fairy tale theme. But I don’t like games, when you are dying 10 times to discover, what you are really supposed to do. I was using a solution here quite heavily.

• The Great Perhaps
  

  2 hours playtime

  14 of 14 achievements

The Great Perhaps

5/10

Another adventure game. I played quite a lot of them. I really like the main idea of this one - you have ability to time travel and you are jumping between two timelines - dystopian future, and today world. But I feel it was a bit of waste opportunity - the puzzles were ok, but there weren’t many which were really using the time jumping mechanicin clever way. Mostly you are avoiding enemies by jumping to other reality. Also - you can jump to the past only for a while and then you are going back to the future automatically - sometime to jump right into monster’s mouth, or to fall into a pit. Plotwise - OK, but the ending was a bit disappointing - it is trying to be smart, but explain so little, so I was left with a lot of plot holes and missing world building. All in all - I feel it is a bit of waste potential

• Yoku's Island Express
  

  9 hours playtime

  23 of 31 achievements

Yoku's Island Express

8/10

Extremely cute and fun mix between metroidvania and pinball. You are a dung beetle and well, you have your ball. This ball is used as a vehicle on a map which has a lot of pinball arms you can control. So you are running through one big map based on a tropical island, helping animals living on this Island. There is a main plot, but also a lot of sidequests, so there’s a lot to do. My only problem was, that sometimes I wasn’t sure where to go next, which is a common problem for many metroidvania games, but overall I had very good time.

• ISLANDERS
  

  3 hours playtime

  21 of 26 achievements

ISLANDERS

8/10

I love a simplicy of this game - you are given an island and a couple of buildings. You need to arrange them so that you have the most points. Every building has a list of buildings that are good for them if they are near, and a list of bad - you are giving points based of those lists. You’ve got enough points - you have another bunch of building to place. A lot of points? You can jump on new random generated islands. Run out of buildings? Game over. That’s all - no plot, no campaign, just placing cute looking buildings on islands. Simple and relaxing.