I finished this game a few weeks ago on Nintendo Switch. I'm not normally a fan of card-based games like this, but as a fan of the other Steamworld games I thought I'd give it a shot to support the developers. To my surprise, I really enjoyed it! There aren't so many cards in your deck that you need to rely much on luck. Each of your party members has his or her own pool of HP and they can be buffed or debuffed individually, but your other resources are shared. These include your hand of cards, the three actions you may take per turn, and your mana pool. Weaker cards add mana, which you can spend to play stronger cards. Also, if you play three cards from the same party member, they get to play a special fourth card that's based on the weapon they have equipped. Each member of your team has a different color associated with them, so it's easy to remember whose cards are whose. Defeating enemies earns you components you can use to craft or upgrade your cards. Be warned: it requires a lot of materials to do this, so make sure you carefully consider before spending materials. Otherwise you'll be doing some grinding to build up your stock again. When I finished the game I still had a ton of cards left to craft and upgrade. I think it took me around 20 or 25 hours to beat on the normal difficulty and without finding all the secrets or completing the optional Colosseum-type battle arena. I think it would take many, many hours of grinding to make it through that, but I managed to finish the main quest without grinding much at all. I thought the difficulty was balanced very well, with some bosses being tricky, but not overwhelming. The story is pretty light, but the characters and world are full of charm and personality (which won't surprise you if you've played any the other Steamworld games). All in all, a great game and a worthy addition to the Steamworld lineup! (Now can I please get a Steamworld Heist 2?)
VVVVVV has one simple gameplay mechanic: press a button to reverse gravity. There's no jumping, no attacking, no life meter, just falling up or falling down. What the game does with that one trick is nothing short of incredible. The level design in this game is pixel-perfect and rivals the best AAA platformers in terms of elegance and creativity. The art and music are both fantastic, as long as you're a fan of old-school Atari. If on;y every game exhibited this level of attention to detail.
There are a lot of NEW-era throwback games in the indie scene, but none of them have succeeded at making me feel like a kid again the way TAW did. It's simple, it's exciting, it's challenging, and it engages the imagination. This is one of the best games I played this year. The fact that it's free is absolutely crazy!
Most people who read the description and see the screenshots of this game will know right away whether it's for them or not. I'm probably in a small minority who was disappointed with it. Don't get me wrong, I love adventure games and wasn't put off by the "un-game-like" nature of To The Moon (make no mistake, this is basically an interactive animated movie). The style of storytelling is strongly influenced by JRPGs, which I've simply grown a distaste for. It's just a little too "on the nose" for me. The music is very good, but too schmaltzy for my taste. The graphics are fantastic if you like SNES-era sprites (I do). All in all, I'm glad I played it, but will probably skip the next Episode that's alluded to in the end credits.
Let's be honest: this game would never be released as a AAA title by a major publisher. It's too niche, too difficult, and not by any means an action FPS. Instead, it's a confident, polished game that knows what it is and what it wants to do, and does it extremely well. It's a hard-as-nails roguelike--meaning it has randomized levels and permadeath. Each playthrough is designed to last about an hour or two, and whether you die or win, you start your next playthrough from scratch. Nothing carries over except perhaps any new ships you've been lucky enough to unlock. And yes, due to the highly random nature of the game, you will need luck. But that's not to say there isn't a lot of strategy required. There are many different approaches you can take, each with their own drawbacks. For example. relying on boarding parties gets you more scrap (the game's currency), but risks losing crew members. Is it for everybody? No way. This is what indie gaming is all about. A small team of developers made a game with a laser-like focus on a very specific vision, without worrying about appealing to the mass market. If that vision doesn't interest you, then move along. But if it is, then this will become one of your favorite games, period!
If you love the fighting and exotic settings of RPGs, but don't care so much for talking to every villager in town to find out who needs you to deliver a package to his neighbor, then Icewind Dale will be your new favorite game. For all intents and purposes, the story boils down to "go to the next dungeon and kill everything." Of course, there is more to it than that: traps to disarm, locks to pick, equipment to upgrade. But it's mostly fighting. Based on 2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons rules (the same as the Baldur's Gate series), there is a bit of a learning curve for the uninitiated. There are guides online for recommended party setups and general gameplay tips to get you started. Once you're past the initial party creation screen, the game will have you in its grip. Oh, and it has one of the best soundtracks in video game history!
Defender's Quest is a tower defense game the mixes in some RPG elements--namely, that you can level up your "towers" and outfit them with new equipment--with a big dose of humor. If that description sounds at all appealing to you, then this game executes the formula perfectly. The only criticism I can muster is that there comes a point when you simply need to grind experience/money in order to advance. Still, it scratched my itch for tower defense for a good 30 hours before reaching my threshold for grinding. This included finishing both the standard and "New Game+" modes, although not on the hardest difficulty setting.
