April '20 Play Log I

Overall comparable to Artifex Mundi HOGs, but with easier hidden object scenes.

Pros:

• There’s a reason for the HOGs to exist
• Most of the puzzles had a reasonable difficulty

Cons:

• Voice acting isn’t always great, but no worse than Artifex Mundi
• Storyline is probably slightly weaker than the better Artifex Mundi games, but not awful

Verdict: 6/10

Overall meh. The scenery was really nice, but there wasn’t really any point to the game, even for a walking simulator. I don’t regret playing it given that I got it for free, but I’m not going to bother buying the other games in the series.

Pros:

• Really nice relaxing scenery
• Background music was good for the most part

Cons:

• No real story, which was it’s biggest weakness IMO

Verdict: 6/10

I have pretty much the same complaint as other people. You play through an unnecessarily long tutorial, and then… roll credits.

Pros:

• There’s a story
• Has a happy ending (or as happy an ending as you can have in a game about death)
• The addition of a minesweeper-like minigame was kind of neat

Cons:

• The entire game is a tutorial with nothing afterwords
• Expensive for little more than an hour of playtime

Verdict: 4/10

I haven’t played Subnautica yet, but I imagine this as a poor man’s Subnautica. It’s short, but since there’s not much too it that’s good. It’s not too bad, may be worth it on sale but if you skip it you won’t be missing much.

Pros:

• Really neat seeing all the life and scenery underwater
• The different types of fish at different levels are cool

Cons:

• Had issues starting it, I had to go into the launcher options (which Steam doesn’t seem to like) and make it windowed mode, then boot the game and go to options to fix the resolution and re-enable windowed mode
• Early game it’s too dangerous to go out at night, but there’s nothing to do inside and no way to pass the time (sleep/wait/etc)
• Not really much to do beyond explore and find the parts for your sub

Verdict: 6/10

If you’re into management games like Stardew Valley you’ll probably enjoy this, though it’s not as deep. You don’t really develop relationships with people, beyond them liking you more when you do them quest related favours. Just don’t expect much from the story.

Pros:

• Unique, tongue-in-cheek concept works well
• Has some funny/shocking moments
• There’s always a ton to do

Cons:

• The ending was disappointing
• Fishing felt like a chore, especially since I frequently found pressing to reel in a fish didn’t register, resulting in me loosing both fish and bait
• There’s nothing stopping you from doing things in unfortunate orders, or to suggest looking at something. For example, I unlocked the printing press near the end expecting it to help with writing, instead it only makes flyers I no longer need. Another example is experimenting with combat potions when you’re most of the way to the bottom of the dungeon.

Verdict: 8/10