On the basis of £1 = 1 hour of play, this beats it by some margin. It has a difficulty setting so if, like me you want to lose a couple of days without frustration it's excellent. There's oodles to do and discover while there's also a lot of game mechanics to get your head round. Some of it is not explained very well and there's no tutorial so it's very much 'that didn't work, let's start again'. The graphics are brilliant, the music's unobtrusive and fitting, and while there's a storyline, it's not too strict. Best of all, if you die, you can set the game to just dump you back at base with no losses, if you set the game to do so. It's fun, great value, and the difficulty settings make this far better than I was expecting for a survival game.
This has scratched the itch that Stardew Valley left. While this is similar to SV in some ways it's also similar to Spirit Of The Island. Good - 1 - Easyish to get into. You start by getting run over in a hit and run accident/murder, then wake up in Everafter Falls. You have a farm whose size you can determine [up to a point] and a world to explore. 2 - The UI is pretty good and relatively easy to get to grips with. 3 - The gameplay is sensible, well thought out, and comforting. 4 - You can play at your own pace as the important tasks have no 'complete by' date. I've had one on my 'to do' list for nearly a year. Irritating - 1 - No in game help menu. You have to figure out way too much, such as where people live. There are no map labels on houses or shops. Nor are there any 'mouse hovering tips' that will tell you what kind of tree is in front of you or how long it will take to grow. Nor for the crops. 2 - The collection range when you do chop/pick/hit things is too narrow. After chopping a tree several items fall outside of range and you have to do a quick circular walk to get everything. And you still miss stuff that's hidden by grass/trees/animals/you. 3 - No indication if an item is going to be of use later. The artificial sunflowers are the only way to get pink bees and if you sell it without knowing this, there's no way to get another one. As one player found out to their cost. Given the above I would give it 3 stars, but the developers are working on improvements and listen to the players, mostly on Steam and Discord, hence 4. It's certainly worth the £15 they ask for it as you will easily match the 1 hour of gameplay per £1 I use for determining value. I've spent over 30 hours so far and am enjoying it despite the irritants.
I always think if you get 1 hour of good gameplay for £1 spent, you've done well. I've had over twelve hours of fun with this DLC, so it's more than worth it. Some things are different. The drinks for one. You now have shelves of bottles you have to restock each night instead of barrels. Don't let the pirate theme throw you. There's no battles to take part in. The pirates replace the explorers from the base game and go hunting for upgrades and new food types. However, you do have to improve the ship to go hunting for the more expensive upgrades. There's only one type of visitor, common, but they come in two flavours: Navy and Pirate. Not sure why they've done this, but I played it on easy mode so fights could occur on the more difficult settings. All in all, a pleasant addition to the game and at £4 plus shrapnel, well worth it.
This is a big improvement on the previous version. There are still issues with wages/transfer fees [that's the same in FM], but the gameplay itself is far better. For one thing, when you move clubs you may be able to take some/all of your staff with you, not just your assistant. Which saves all the hassle of rebuilding an excellent backroom staff from scratch each time. For those who want an easy time of it, or at least easier, you can build the team and then let the assistant take charge while you sip pina coladas. The only drawback to this is that your assistant has a nasty habit of selling players you would keep. But you can make sure that they keep your chosen formation. You can also ensure your Reserve team plays the same way as well, so there are fewer players suddenly changing position half way through the game. There's still the option to build impressive training grounds and gain more supporters through events, and you get to choose how difficult you want to make it. Yes there are still irritants. You get fined for not filing tax data because your finance team is understaffed, but you can't hire any extra staff. Players and department heads ask for stupid wages. Outside of central Europe, Reserve teams are fairly pointless. Despite that, there are enough improvements to leave people satisfied and hopefully enough sales that the development company keep the series going. It's NOT a simulation, it's a game. And it's fun.
Run your own tavern, get people drunk and have the Monarch come and visit...and get the Monarch drunk...or just visit your toilet. Fairly easy to get into and surpisingly difficult to stop playing. Four hours shot by before I realised. You can expand the size of the tavern, add new bars, cook, hire staff, hire researchers and a number of other things. You can reshape your tavern and its rooms at any point, though I'd recommed pausing at the start/end of the day and doing it then. The early part of the game has some good, helpful pop ups, the rest of it hasn't, which is why this is only 4 stars. Research can be a bit tedious once you get through the half way point as it takes an awful lot of doing to get the later ones while you build up an excessive amount of cash and nothing to spend it on. Overall, for the price, it's worth it. It's entertaining, chilled, and fun.
The first game I've ever got five minutes into and get fed up with. - Music is annoying. Switching it off, switches off all sounds - The profile pictures are stunning, the graphics are 8bit - No hints or help - Difficult interface, not there's much of one - Your first job is to get water at which point you're attacked by snails and killed as you don't have a weapon - Did I mention that there are no hints how to fight the snails? Or do anything? - I had the water bottle, but no idea how to fill it...even if I had survived the running snails. The developers needed more thought put into the game and less on the profile pictures.
The three stars reflect its shortness, not the game. The first complete run through took me 5.5 hours, the second less than 4. It's not bad game, the fact I ran through twice should give you that hint, but it's not endlessly replayable either. I doubt I'll play it again, but I won't be asking for a refund. Bad: - You can investigate a lot of items, but very few give anything at all. The weirdness in Rufus' house is one example. - You are forced down one track and there are no real side quests to undertake. - The surface world can be ignored and not affect the gameplay - You can't plan ahead on a second run. I could not pick up a chair I knew I needed until I had spoken to the person who needed it - I picked up 20 logs, then had no use for them at all. - I could NOT put the music player down and free up space. Good: - Graphics are well done and do not detract from the game - The story is interesting. - The puzzles are solveable fairly easily, but can get frustrating - The characters are well thought out and executed Hopefully the developer will develop add ons which allow you to take the game beyond the initial storyline. All in all it's worth playing if you're stuck inside on a rainy day and at £10 or less is worth it.
It's cheap and fun. It's one of those games, like townscaper, that will allow you to pass the time pleasantly. The soundtrack is relaxing, the graphics gentle and the game itself chilled. You go from island to island, placing items. You place them to get the maximum number of points each time. Placing a brewery next to a field gives more points than placing the brewery with no fields nearby. You can also get negative points if it's close to something else. If, after placing all the items, you don't meet the minimum number of points on the island, the game ends. Replayability is high. Very high. For those of us who want to while away half an hour in peace, with a mild challenge, this is a game that will suit.
I spent an hour playing the demo and enjoyed it but for one teensy fact: I couldn't get out of the mines. Called the escape pod after collecting everything I wanted, then so many monsters appeared it was impossible to last long enough to get out. Five times i tried, five times I failed. So, still some work to do on the game, but I WILL be keeping an eye on it as it has the makings of a superb game.
There are elments of this I like, and elements I don't. That being said, no game appeals to everyone. I enjoy the look and feel of the game and that I can turn off the military side, as well as the goblin villages. For me it makes it a pleasant village building game. I also enjoy the part of making sure people are happy through having them build various items. The research is well implmented, the vocations are also well thought out. As for feeding people, a lot of thought has been put into it and it works really well. BUT... There is no useful tutorial and the help pages in the game need an overhaul. It took ages to discover how I can get the people to mine iron. Wood is plentiful, as is food, but stone and iron are far too scarce. You can build a mine for each of those but the cost to do so compared to the amount you get out are unbalanced. You can automate the order in which jobs are completed, but there is nothing in the help pages about how to do so. Eventually I worked out it's via the 'star system' in each sims page. Navigation is a bit awkward, especially when trying to click on a pillar you need building so you can expand upwards. Which leads me back to the tutorial. I only discovered you can build upwards by clicking on the up and down arrows to the left after wondering what they were for. Back to some good points. The difficulty settings are near perfect. You want constant war and a battle for survival, you got it. If you just want to build till your heart's content, you got it. You can manipluate them to your heart's content. With only a few people, sim management is challenging, but enjoyable. I've spent 20 or so hours on this game and had some fun, but I'm going to wait for updates/additions before I play anymore. There's no demo version, so wait for a price drop, then try it.
