Have you ever thought to yourself as you were playing Obra Dinn: "You know, this might be one of the greatest detective games ever made, but wouldn't it be improved if you were playing as a hard-boiled detective, that was also a duck?" Probably you haven't but someone did - and then they made this wonderful little game. Duck Detective follows in the footsteps of games like Obra Dinn and the Case of the Golden Idol in that it consists of a series of fill-in-the-blanks challenges that you solve by carefully observing the environment for clues. It parts ways from those classics in playing a bit more like a point-and-click adventure (you the move the titular duck around the screen, interacting with objects, etc.) and in having a much more light-hearted tone. The characters are cute cartoon animals, the tone is light, slightly absurd and often genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. A lot of love clearly went into this game, which is inventive, gorgeously drawn and written, and full of charm. The voice actors in particular are superb, hamming it up in the best possible way to sell the kooky characters. The game might look like it is intended for kids but the puzzles pull no punches and will require skillful "de-duck-tion" (as the titular character of course calls is) on your part. The only complaint I have is that it is much, much too short! I finished it in about two hours ... but they were two of the best hours I've spent with a game recently. Do yourself a favor and pick this up.
This is just fantastic - a lovely 15 hour-long jaunt on the high seas that reminded me pleasantly of Sunless Skies. It is not really anything like that game, however, except in its Lovecraftian 'horror on the high seas' vibe. The writing and story especially are de-emphasized compared to Sunless, in favor of the fishing and sailing gameplay. The story is evocative and satisfying - just not all that elaborate. Gameplaywise, Dredge straddles an interesting contradiction in that it is simultaneously a 'cozy' fishing game where you put-put around in your boat admiring the landscape catching fish via just-hard-enough minigames but also offers a more intense horror experience once the sun goes down and the seas start getting more threatening. What you think of this combo will depend largely on how attached you are to the horror aspect of the game, which is definitely not what's in the foreground here. While there are definitely some very tense moments once creatures of the deep start attacking your defenseless boat, the gameplay leans strongly towards coziness and probably by about the mid-way point you've upgraded your ship to the extent that nothing much will seriously threaten you. For my tastes, I think this would have been a little better with a more punishing economy and more challenge in the back end of the game - in other words, gameplay to better mirror its horror elements. If you're looking for a challenging game, this is probably not the right fit. Still, on its own terms, this is very hard to fault. It sets out to deliver a bite-sized voyage on the seas, with a mild horror vibe, and it delivers on this perfectly. A lovely morsel of a game that does not overstay its welcome - perfect for the holidays.
Can't believe this hasn't had any reviews. It is a real joy to play and captures brilliantly the feeling of planning a heist, having things go wrong and escaping in the nick of time. I highly recommend it. Think of it as a stealth-focused x-com and you won't go far wrong. Invisible Inc is an obvious influence as well (though I haven't played that so can't compare the two.) The basic idea is that you're a thief with a ghost companion. Each mission is divided into two parts. First, controlling the ghost, you scout out the building you are about to rob - figuring out the location of the guards, loot and so on. Then, controlling the thief, you go in and do the heist. As the ghost, you can take your time and getting seen by guards only teleports you back to the starting area. As the thief, you're racing against the clock, as each turn ticks up a counter that makes the guards more aggressive. Getting seen by guards ticks up the counter as well, and staying in their cone of vision means insta-death; staying hidden is essential to success. Helpfully, the game shows you where any guard you can see is going to be next turn, and what direction they will face. You also have abilities like bonking a guard on the head or turning yourself briefly invisible, but these use up one of your two actions (each action can be used to either move or use an ability, in classic x-com style.) Abilities have long cool-downs or limited uses per mission, so using them tactically is important. Each mission has an item you must steal to win, plus optional loot. There's locked doors, which require finding a key, levers that open doors elsewhere on the level, teleporters, etc. etc., making each level a complex puzzle. The game has 25-ish levels that are hand-designed (rather than procedurally generated) and a basic but serviceable story unfolds over the course of the campaign. There's about 30 hours of playtime here. I'd recommend playing on hard if you are used to turn-based strategy games.
Ok, so five stars is a bit generous, but this is seriously good and deserves to be played more. The game is similar to RPG deck building games like Banners of Ruin, Deep Sky Derelicts or Darkest Dungeon (ie. you control a team of dudes that battles other teams of dudes using cards and levels up in-between fights, with this largely reflected in getting better cards), except it plays out on a hex grid with positioning adding an extra dimension of tactical complexity. The tactical battles are the heart of the game and are so, so much fun. Deciding which cards to sacrifice in order to generate power to play the remaining cards is a serious chin-scratcher in most battles. While there is an RNG dimension (mostly in what cards you draw from turn to turn, as damage is mostly fixed) the game has a generous redraw mechanic and the RNG will rarely get you killed. The excellent AI often *will* get you killed, however - it'll walk right past your armored tank and go for your squishy spellcaster that just did 20 damage last turn, if you let it. In between battles you travel around on a map, making your way towards boss fights, visiting various locations that contain shops, battles and text-based events that can help or harm you. You need to rest periodically so there is a tactical dimension to not running out of food and balancing risk and reward in the text-based events but it is pretty basic compared to the tactical combat. The story is nothing special, sadly - if you want a narrative-driven game in a similar setting, check out Vargus. Graphics are serviceable but very much low-budget indie with minimal animations, so check out some gameplay footage if that's important to you. The game is a roguelike, so each 'run' lasts a couple of hours (if you're good enough to get to the final boss, that is!) and there are a handful of different scenarios to try, with different bosses. Easily 30-40 hours of content, more if you want to beat the harder difficulties
Got this on sale and it was much better than I expected - a really elegant little strategy game. The basic gameplay is typical for turn-based tactical RPGs - move your dudes on a tiled board, take out enemies while avoiding damage (think Regalia, Fell Seal, etc.) but with a tower defense flavor. Enemies come onto the board in waves, you can place a few automated towers or cast some spells to help your guys, and the objective is to survive five waves, so you can move on to the next level. There is a strategic overlay, however, in that between each wave and each level you choose upgrades for one of your three characters (they 'level up,' basically.) The powers you get in these upgrades are essential to dealing with the escalating difficulty of waves and levels, so there is a nice interplay between the strategic (how-you-level) and the tactical (how-you-survive-this-particular-wave) aspects. Beat all five levels and you've won the game! But this is where the rouge-lite thing comes in - beating the first few runs is fairly easy but every time you win a run, the game ratchets up the difficulty a little bit. Enemies get stronger, upgrades get more expensive, etc. You also unlock new characters and upgrades, however. Balance is a bit of an issue as certain upgrade combos are clearly better than others while some are outright broken. But the randomness of which upgrades you are offered and which specific enemies spawn in each wave keeps this from making the game too easy. Ultimately, like most rougelites, the basic loop gets a bit boring after a while. The game does mix it up a bit between runs (will you have to beat the ice level or the undead level this time?) but about five or six runs in you've seen everything it has to offer and the only motivation is to see if you can beat the higher difficulties, which wasn't enough for me (I stopped at about 7 of 10.) Graphics, sound and story are ok but pretty basic, so this is really one you play for the actual gameplay.
As the title says, this is basically a text adventure and thus won't be for everyone ... but if you don't mind the reading and minimal pixel-art style - this is fantastic! It reminded me of the Sunless Sea/Skies games or something like Vargus. You are a Roadwarden, exploring the frequently hostile environment of a rugged peninsula you've been sent to explore by a distant merchant guild. As you explore, you need to keep yourself in relatively good nick, keeping fed, healthy and clean, stats which are lowered by the various scrapes you get into and are for the most part restored in towns by paying for a meal and somewhere to sleep. Coin is scarce, however, as is your time - you have only 40 days before you need to head home and most actions tick down the clock. You also need to manage your time so you end each day at a safe resting spot, for the night is dark and full of terrors. So the actual game bit is about managing these kinds of issues - careful management of resources to enable you to keep exploring without running out of food/money/health etc. - very much like managing fuel/food/money in the Sunless games. The real focus, however, is on your adventures in the peninsula, which take place in a text-based choose-your-own-adventure interface. The writing is strong and the world of the peninsula is evocative and interesting, and peopled with complex, believable characters. There are mysteries to uncover (what happened to your predecessor? What's the story with the ruined village?) but for the most part you're exploring and winning the trust or enmity of the various inhabitants. The game also reminds me of Disco Elysium in that it really goes all in on roleplaying and letting you create a unique character and story by your decisions. You make both big decisions about your overall motivation and the fate of the peninsula but also many small ones, about how certain interactions make you feel and even what kinds of toothpicks you prefer. Highly recommended!
If you liked Sunless Seas/Skies or the Banner Saga this is very much in that style and well worth the asking price. Vargus is set in a dark fantasy/post-apocalyptic setting and you play the leader of a humble merchant convoy, travelling from settlement to settlement across grim and inhospitable deserts. Like the sunless games, exploring this dark, dangerous world while managing your resources (money, food and your caravan's morale being the key ones) is the meat of the game, and you'll spend much of your time travelling between locations of interest, buying low, selling high and schlepping people and goods across the desert on behalf of various factions to maintain an income and upgrade your caravan and crew. There's stories, secrets and quests aplenty to discover and spice up the trading routine, all navigated via a sunless seas 'choose your own adventure' text-heavy interface. The world is really lovingly-made and fun to explore - it'll really suck you in. Different to the Sunless games, everything is turn-based, including the two combat mini-games which are serviceable but not the focus of the experience - combat is in many ways discouraged and you gain the game's version of XP by discovering new areas and secrets rather than through combat. The trading system is much deeper and more robust than the sunless games and strategizing profitable routes that also take you past your quest objectives makes up the bulk of the early to mid-game. The game is quite hard to begin with but later on money is less scarce and you're mostly exploring to uncover more story. As other reviews say, there is quite a lot of reading so if that's not your bag then give this a miss. Graphics and music are minimal but serviceable and evocative of the setting. The game-world is quite large too - I'm at least 50 hours in and while I've discovered most of the main outposts by now there are still a lot of quests to explore. All up, well worth the asking price if this is your kind of game!
Ok, so, first of all, like the more positive reviews say, there seems to be quite a good game in here somewhere. However, for me (and many others from what I can glean from searching around on various forums) performance issues make the game totally unplayable. Framerate stutters like crazy even on the lowest graphic settings and nothing I tried made the slightest difference.
Thea 2 is a mix of different genres, so a bit hard to describe. Basically, we're in turn-based strategy land with elements of 4X, card-based combat and fantasy RPG in the mix. The basic experience is you move your party around on a hex-based map, gathering resources (food, fuel and crafting stuff) and triggering various encounters. The encounters are short, text-driven, choose-your-own-adventure sorts of things (think Sunless Sea/Skies) which usually involve various kinds of challenges. These challenges are resolved as card-based "battles" and there are three kinds - physical, verbal and magical - with the different characters in your group being strong in some and weak in others. Effectively the challenges are all resolved as combat encounters - your goal is always to whittle the opponents' cards down to 0 hp. These 'encounters' generate experience, items and resources, which you use to beef up your dudes in traditional RPG style. There is an overall story to the campaign but you also just spend lots of time exploring in an open-ended way. In a nod to the 4X genre, you can also establish a village that gives various bonuses, there is a simple research mechanic and there are other 'factions' out there you can befriend or wipe off the map, as you please. This is not really a 4X, as these are sidelines rather than core gameplay. The game is a bit daunting at first with a lot of mechanics going on that are fairly poorly explained by the in-game tutorials. Once you figure out the basics, however, this is a deep and rich experience. The story 'encounters' are based on an interesting Slavic lore and well-written, the card combats are pretty deep with a lot of variety to unit types and strategy. The gathering/crafting is a bit of a chore at times but never too grindy. The game imagines itself as rouge-like but I'd had enough after my first play-through. There's not really enough variety in the events to stop things getting repetitive. Still, had lots of fun!
My idea of a good Western RPG is something that is tactically challenging and interesting to play and also tells an interesting story with compelling characters set in an interesting setting. In practice, it is rare that even well-regarded games will excel in both of these dimensions - Divinity: Original Sin has great combat but weak story; something like Deadfire is mostly the other way around. Solasta is a very good indie RPG that will scratch that Divinity: Original Sin itch for complex, rich and challenging turn-based party combat but the story is a fairly generic and predictable, and characters are little more than cardboard cut-outs. Quests are thin on the ground and are mostly fetch-affair type things. The setting shows some promise but the game doesn't really explore it very deeply. It reminded me of pre-Baldur's Gate old-school RPGs in these respects - this is more about bashing in heads than telling a good story. The game is short for an RPG but still a decent length for an indie game - I think my fairly complete run-through clocked in at about 40 hours. Environments and combat encounters are designed well and present interesting challenges for most of the run-through (like many RPGs, once you're high level the game becomes a bit of a walk-over, except for the boss encounters. The final quest is particularly disappointing in this respect - final fights are much too easy!) There is a kind of thin-ness in the strategy after a while, too; most monster attacks target AC and monsters don't switch targets often so once you have a well-armored tank it just becomes a matter of sending them up ahead to soak blows and having the rest of the party clean up the monsters. We could have had more saves-based attacks later in the game to force you to adapt away from the tank n' grind. However, if you like tactical RPGs there is a good amount of fun to be had here and, let's face it, games like this don't come along too often! Recommended, esp. on sale!
