Today is seven years to the day since J.U.L.I.A. was released, so it feels right to applaud this game so many years later for still being enjoyable. A simple point-and-click, made even easier by being able to highlight areas of interest on the screen if you're stuck, J.U.L.I.A. provides a mystery for you to uncover and make some moral decisions. It's a pleasant experience with gorgeous settings and good voice acting. The interface is intuitive and I rarely felt stuck in a puzzle. Ultimately, the feeling I got from this game was "peaceful". If we buy games to be enjoyed in some way, then J.U.L.I.A. certainly fits the bill. And while I enjoyed the story, I felt it lost its way a little and so I have deducted a star. Apart from that, this game was so relaxing for me. You are free to travel around and piece together the story. I definitely recommend it.
Pretty graphics. God-awful interface. Laggy mouse cursor on an i7 Geforce 950M system (runs smoothly in the menu). Communication from the game to the player is terrible. "John is feeling bad" and then he disappears. Turns out he froze to death while fetching lumber. There is a lack of different game elements tying in together, e.g. I can set the game to run at fast forward but hold a character in place by hovering the mouse cursor over them. The rest of the world keeps running but they are frozen in place. For a game with a hair's breadth between living and dying, that's pretty strange. Monologues are not tied to much in particular. You may think they're trying to tell you something based on what's currently happening, but it's just a timed script. For a much better space disaster experience, try Tharsis. It may just be a dice game, but you'll have more interesting choices to make and your characters won't kill themselves because they don't know that it's not a good idea to freeze to death.
What is essentially a dice game includes a whole lot of control over what you're doing. Sometimes it's better to ignore the obvious problem and try to improve something else. When you first start, it might seem like the dice are against you. But then you start making more intelligent decisions and realise the dice are now working for you. Edgy artwork for the cut scenes is very eye-pleasing, but the story is laughably bad. Almost anything else would have been better writing. That said, I still give the game 5 stars for balancing variety and choice against randomness and fun. A very good game which you can sit down to for 10 minutes or a few hours. Plus, you get to eat dead crew members.
Battlevoid: Harbinger is aimed for mobile use, and that doesn't spell good news for PC play. The defining aspect of this game is to "cycle, rinse, repeat." It's ultimately mindless. If you want a mindless game, for example when you're working out of phone reception, this fits the bill. But you'd be better off downloading a few episodes of your favourite TV show to your phone and watching those.
Wooed by the fawning reviews, I dipped my toe into a genre that I usually don't touch. It's a beautiful game, and the storyline is a little intriguing, but I never reached the end. I was too bored in some parts and too frustrated in others. Without combat, other challenges are created for us. But when I've done everything I need to do and I just want the train to move, and it won't move, things start to go sour. The story wasn't enough to sink my teeth into, and the underwater sequences drag on. And then the story started to drag, and that's when it went downhill. Without an interesting narrative to push me forward, or interesting puzzles, or interesting interactions… you get the idea. Ultimately, I was disappointed by this game. I kept meaning to go back to it and push until the end, but I never looked forward to it. I guess that's what defines any book or game: are you looking forward to going back to it, or is it a chore just to say, "I reached the end"?
This game defines "cool". No single opponent is enough to take you down. Stun them from above, disable all enemies with a shuriken throw, kill from the shadows until you're spotted, and then it's turn-based hair-trigger action. Throw your sword to kill someone, and then recall it through the chest of another enemy. Jump from five storeys up to escape on your motorcycle? This game does it all. It's exciting when it works, which is a little more than half the time. There are bugs which might turn some people off. Half the time I'm afraid that, when I retract my grappling hook, I'll end up on the other side of a wall. Or worse yet, stuck inside a wall. If it happens during a 9-second countdown before an alarm is triggered, you can kiss your lead goodbye and you'll probably have to reload the last checkpoint. The jump arc is a little inaccurate, which makes your planning a little difficult. Worse yet, sometimes enemies shoot where there was no bullet trajectory marked, making the planning a complete gamble at times. When the game works, it's a lot of fun. If the controls were tightened, and the bugs ironed out, it would be a great little game. The level design is excellent. Oddly, the final level changes the rules suddenly, which isn't really great for feeling like you've conquered the game. However, it's designed to get you in the mood for a rampage, which isn't a bad way to end the game.
5 stars and "flawless" are high praise indeed. Let me tell you why. The grandiose intro music sets an adventurous tone and really gets you ready to be shipwrecked on an isolated beach. The learning curve is perfect and there is little to be confused about. You are entered into a world of combat and puzzles, which range from "find the button" to esoteric riddles. (If you reach a particularly difficult puzzle or do not know how to proceed, there are walkthroughs online.) You guide a party of four around the island through different zones, with movement happening on a grid. It's like a cross between a live RPG and your standard dungeon grid. You get to choose from the standard characters classes, as well as the strange "Farmer" class, which adds an excellent twist to your standard adventuring and experience gathering. You can customise your players starting stats and abilities, which means you can employ many different strategies to win. A mysterious story drives you forward as you attempt to survive and escape the island, which gives you a wonderful mix of underground dungeons and the outdoors. This is a great blend of thought and action. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it. There were zero bugs. None at all. This is important because it means that you are never pulled out of the game world. You're sucked into the enigma and you'll want to replay it again and again until you've figured out your favourite strategy. I recommend this to anyone who likes light RPGs, puzzle solving with combat, dungeon crawling, or general strategising. To be honest, I think anyone who likes good games should play this game.
I bought the game based upon other reviews, and I'm pleasantly surprised. It only takes a minute to start picking up how the game works. However, while the learning curve is nice, the lack of a help file or thorough wiki might discourage some. The graphics are colourful and cute, and almost all items are easy to understand from the pictures. The flavour/story text has a few grammatical errors, but are only mildly distracting. You essentially explore a dungeon by clicking squares on a grid, which contain either empty space, monsters, traps, or other places like shops or shrines. Standard RPG stats are used, like attack (ATK) and dexterity (DEX), with levelling up and items granting bonuses or debuffs. It's nicely challenging, and somewhat addictive, so you can easily sit down for a quick game and end up sinking a couple of hours before you realise it. More complexity is added because you die, over and over again, and restart the dungeon without losing your gold. Each time you restart, you can choose to spend money in order to unlock runeword bonuses, add experience and health bonuses, or buy new items to aid you right from the beginning. Furthermore, you can unlock new character types, who have completely different styles of play. One star was deducted for the cumulative lack of in-game info or help file. I feel that understanding how things are supposed to work can help you strategise better. Overall, a nice little surprise.
Finally! Carmageddon 2 is here. You *could* race around and pass the checkpoints. You'd get time extensions and score points. But wouldn't it be more fun to ruin every other car instead? That's no problem in these very open, sandbox-type courses. There are a tonne of different power-ups (and power-downs) for your car that will help you achieve whatever goals you've set for yourself. The name of this game is destruction, with many funny ways to murder pedestrians. My personal favourite is the car spring, which flings people far, far away from you. You can also drive other cars. Or a plane. Yeah, that's a thing. The humour touches all aspects of the game. Lastly, the physics of car destruction make this so enjoyable to play. Your car will crumple; you can have a bumper bar hanging off the back, dragging along as you drive. This is an instant purchase for anyone who enjoyed the game originally, and a high recommendation for anyone who: • likes to explore • loves a bit (or a lot) of reckless destruction • enjoys winning challenges.
