January 12, 2017 by RSS Feed
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January 11, 2017 by RSS Feed
rymdkapsel ($3.99) by webbfarbror AB is a strategy game that is not like anything you’ve seen before. It’s almost like a hybrid of Tetris and Star Command, yet it’s much more relaxing, hence the “meditative” part of the description. It features elements of base-building, tower-defense, and puzzle, all in one complete package.
I had been hearing a bit of commotion about this game, which has also earned a prime spot in the main screen of the App Store, so I knew I needed to check it out. I was a bit confused at first, as this is one of those games that kind of babies you vaguely in the beginning, but then lets go and expects you to figure it out on your own. However, the moment you understand how this game works, you will find it to be an excellent experience.
The biggest thing that I love about this game are the visuals. It’s flat, but still has some depth to it because of the angle, making it appear in 2.5-D. Additionally, everything is color-coded with eye-catching colors, so you know what is happening at-a-glance. Animations in rymdkapsel are smooth and fluid, with absolutely no lag. Even the transition from the game to the main menu is flawless — your game will freeze and become a dimmed out background to the menu, a bit reminiscent of iOS 7. To go along with these calm, soothing graphics is an amazing, tranquil soundtrack. I recommend putting on a good pair of headphones so you can fully enjoy the tunes, which will also help you feel immersed in the game itself.
The objective in rymdkapsel is to create and build your own space station, complete with minions. With this spacecraft, you will want to explore the galaxy that you’re in, which means dealing with other lifeforms as well. This is a strategy game where you don’t need to worry about selecting units and how to attack your enemies — all of the focus is on building.
As I mentioned before, the game will guide you in the beginning, explaining the seven different components of your craft: Corridor, Extractor, Reactor, Gardens, Kitchen, Weapons, and Quarters. To build a room, just tap-and-drag on it from the menu bar into the spot on the grid that you want it placed in. It can be rotated by tapping on the screen with a second finger while dragging it. Each piece will be in a different shape that is inspired from Tetris, and you can see the shape of the next room in the top left corner. If the room can be placed in a spot, it will have a white outline; if not, it will be red. Your rooms will need to be connected with corridors, so make sure you have plenty of those.
Now, each room will not appear right away. Rather, you select the spot to place it in, and then you will need to have your minions perform construction on it. The minions are the little white blocks that move around on your ship. By default, they may be idle, but you can assign tasks to your minions by dragging their icons to the task you want at the bottom.
Construction for each room will vary, and you can see at the top how many components are needed to make it. The components will be generated from other sources, such as the extractor and reactor that you get in the beginning. Once the minions deposit the required elements to the room, it will be complete and used for resources.
Of course, since you’re out in space, you are definitely not alone. Rymdkapsel will have a gray/red bar at the bottom that will show you how much time you have until an imminent attack. To defend yourself, you will need a weapons room, where your minions can arm themselves and attack any intruders that come in. The enemies appear in waves, increasing their numbers and strength as you progress.
You start out with only two minions, but you can get more by building Quarters, which will require food from the Kitchen, which originates from sludge from the Gardens. See how intricate all of this is? Everything in your ship is connected in one way or another, so it’s vital to have everything, as well as multiples in case resources are depleted.
There are also missions for you to accomplish, which are shown on the game’s main menu. These give you an incentive to keep playing the game, and are rewarding when you do complete them.
Rymdkapsel is definitely something else, providing a magical experience once you understand the fundamentals of the game. This is definitely the type of game that you need to experience yourself to know what makes it so good, but it’s definitely worth it.
The only thing I wish that the game would improve on is to have a confirmation dialogue for the “New Game” option, as tapping on this will erase all of your previous progress without warning. This can be quite dangerous, so I think it would be best for either a confirmation dialogue, or at least multiple game saves.
Still, I recommend this game if you enjoy puzzles, strategy, and tower defense games, as this is a mix of all of those. You can get rymdkapsel in the App Store as a universal download for $3.99.
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January 11, 2017 by RSS Feed
Milkmaid of the Milky Way ($3.99) by Machineboy is a point-and-click adventure game that has a focal point on the story, which is also done entirely in rhyme. If you enjoyed games like Sword & Sworcery, Machinarium, and Broken Age, and love something as quirky as constant rhyming, then you will appreciate what Milkmaid of the Milky Way brings to the table.
While my genre of choice when it comes to mobile gaming is the puzzle game, I like to lump in point-and-click adventure games into that category as well, since most of them involve puzzles that need to be solved to make any progress anyway. And as a person who grew up in the golden age of gaming with the retro, pixelated art styles, I can’t help but love games that modernize the vintage look. Finally, as someone who went to school for the art of words, while I may not have been the best at them, I admire when rhymes are done well by others, as they always seem to bring a smile to my face. So naturally, when I saw Milkmaid of the Milky Way on the App Store, I had to check it out for myself. And if you’re a fan of any of the things that I just mentioned, then this game is a gem that you should check out.
Visually speaking, Milkmaid of the Milky Way is beautiful and features a completely pixelated, retro look that is reminiscent of Sword & Sworcery, but done in a pseudo 3-D way. The game shows off bright and vibrant colors that appear rather soft because there are no harsh outlines on anything, and everything just looks natural. Despite the pixelated art style that not everyone may be fond of, everything in the game looks highly detailed and the character models for protagonist Ruth, the animals, and everything else that you come across look as realistic as they can be and the animations in the game are smooth and fluid. To top off the overall quirkiness of the game, there is an atmospheric soundtrack that is rather whimsical and fitting for the tone of the game, which goes from normal to weird pretty quickly. Overall, Machineboy did a great job with Milkmaid of the Milky Way in terms of the visuals and audio.
If you’ve ever played a point-and-click adventure game before, then you know how this goes. You start off in the beginning of the story, and things seem pretty normal at first. You’ll be introduced to Ruth, who is just a young woman living alone on a remote farm. Her job in life is to take care of the cows and make delicious products (butter and cheese, anyone?) that her friend sells in town. Things just seem all hunky-dory and routine until weird things begin to happen to Ruth and her cows, and then eventually, you’ll come across a mysterious ship that descends from the skies. When this happens, Ruth will wish that it didn’t, as life was much simpler before then. Throughout the game, players will have to guide Ruth through the strange events that are happening and solve puzzles along the way to uncover the secrets and hopefully return back to a normal life at some point.
Controls in Milkmaid of the Milky Way are simple and intuitive, and should feel natural if you’ve played any kind of point-and-click game before. To move, just tap where you want Ruth to move to. You can also tap-and-hold to have Ruth run to speed things up. When you find something peculiar in the environment, you can tap on it to try and interact with it. Ruth will pick up the item and keep it in her stash, which is accessible from the space at the bottom of the screen. Whenever you interact with anything in the game, the dialogue text will always be in rhyme, so it’s like a constant riddle when you play. When the time comes to use an item, just drag it from the stash to the environmental item you want to use it with. If it works together, you’ll be able to tell from the text; if not, then you’ll be told in rhyme that it won’t work. Like any point-and-click adventure game, there will be a lot of back-and-forth exploration going on, because you may have missed something that you need in order to progress.
For those who care about getting their money’s worth, Milkmaid of the Milky Way features about 2–4 hours of gameplay if you play it straight through and don’t have any problems with the puzzles that it presents. However, even if you’re a complete newbie to the world of point-and-click adventures, the game is fairly fail-proof, so you can’t necessarily die and it’s not infuriating. The game also saves your progress automatically as you play, but there is also a manual save option in the game menu if you prefer to save after every five minutes like I do sometimes — can’t risk losing data!
I’m still fairly early on in the game, but I’m finding Milkmaid of the Milky Way to be quite relaxing and fun to play when I have some downtime to kill. The graphics are beautiful and rather soothing, the music is charming and delightful, the controls work well and are responsive, and the puzzles will keep you busy. The only improvement that could be made is to make some puzzles more clear, as other players have reported that there are some possible flaws in logic for some, so be aware.
I would still recommend Milkmaid of the Milky Way if you are a fan of point-and-click adventure games and enjoy rhymes. You can find Milkmaid of the Milky Way on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $3.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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January 11, 2017 by RSS Feed
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January 10, 2017 by RSS Feed
Shards of Memories: an Art Puzzle Adventure ($1.99) by Milos Micakovic is a puzzle game that tells the story of a troubled professor as he goes through one of his most difficult stages of life. If you like philosophical games that have a deep meaning behind them, such as Stay, Mum and Sally’s Law, then you’ll enjoy what Shards of Memories has to offer.
While I love all kinds of games on all platforms, I think the best genre to play on mobile is definitely the puzzle game. These are the ones that make you think and keep your brain stimulated, but are also challenging and sometimes they can tell you a heartfelt story and appeal to your emotions. Plus, they’re the type of game that you can enjoy in short play sessions throughout the day, rather than having to sit down and spend several hours at once to feel like you’ve made any progress. I feel like I’ve gone through almost all of the puzzle games that matter on the App Store, but I can’t help but check out a new release when it hits. I saw Shards of Memories show up on the App Store just this week, and knew that this was a game I had to check out for myself.
Visually speaking, Shards of Memories is a fairly photorealistic game that looks downright gorgeous. The game features a dark and rich wooden texture background that represents a table, and the classic Polaroid-style photographs that represent each stage have a realistic aesthetic. The puzzles themselves also sport pieces of glass that have a frosted texture to them, and everything is complete with cracks once you put them together to fit the object that is the focus of the level you’re on. There are subtle animations in Shards of Memories that you’ll notice when the broken glass is put in its proper place, and the transitions from one puzzle to the next are smooth and seamless. This is important, because each photo tells part of the story behind of the professor, so the conversion from one to the other means everything flows together. Story text is presented in a simple but effective serif typeface that goes well with the overall serious tone of the game. The slow, ambient soundtrack feels rather emotional and the sound effects represents shattered glass well. The developer truly did a great job with Shards of Memories in terms of the graphics and audio, so kudos.
Following traditional puzzle game fashion, Shards of Memories has three chapters and there are about 91 levels total in the entire game, so do get a good amount of game for the price. The goal in each puzzle is rather simple: rearrange all of the broken pieces of glass so that they fit the object that symbolizes that part of the professor’s life at the time shown in the photograph. Each photo will have a line or two of story, and the bigger picture reveals itself over time. However, to make things interesting, Shards of Memories has multiple endings that can unfold, depending on how the player decides to go about playing the game. I’m still pretty early on in the game so I’m not sure how the endings are determined, but this is a great way to keep players coming back even if they beat the game once but still feel emotionally invested in the game.
Controls in Shards of Memories is a simple affair. Each puzzle features a cutout of an object, and several broken pieces of glass. Your job is to get those shards into their proper place in the cutout, and this is done by dragging them where you think they go. If it’s the right spot, it will snap into place. Sometimes pieces will have to be rotated before they can fit in the image properly, and this is done by tapping on it to make it rotate clockwise. Once you think it’s properly upright, drag it onto the board with your finger and see if you can find the spot for it. If you’ve ever played tangram puzzles before, you’ll understand that Shards of Memories is similar to that, and there may be a lot of trial-and-error involved before you figure it out, especially since things get more complicated as you go on.
Besides being a beautiful puzzle game, Shards of Memories is a deep, thought-provoking experience. As you unravel the story behind the professor, you’ll discover that he is fighting anxiety and depression as he is trying to get over a meaningful relationship with someone else. Since we are all adults, I think this is something that we’ve all been through at some point in our lives, and I’m glad to see that it’s being expressed through a game. As players watch the professor learn to deal with the emotional events he’s experiencing, it can also help out people who are going through something similar. Even if it doesn’t, it’s still offers a unique perspective of psychological insights and visual thinking.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m still early on in the game, but so far I’m loving every moment of it. The visuals in Shards of Memories are exquisite, superb, and incredibly realistic, which is fitting considering the nature of the game. The background piano music is soothing to listen to, despite casting a dark tone overall to the game. Sound effects are a nice touch, and the puzzles start off easy enough but do pick up in difficulty as you go, so it’s never too easy. And the multiple endings that you can get give you a good reason to go back and replay the puzzles as you try to get an alternative ending to what you go before. Plus, there are no time limitations or move restrictions, so you play and go through the emotional story at your own pace. Overall, Shards of Memories is a great visual storytelling experience in a puzzle game.
I highly recommend giving Shards of Memories a try if you are looking for a meaningful mobile puzzle game with a fairly relatable, emotional story to go with everything. Shards of Memories is available on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $1.99. There are no in-app purchases, so you just pay once and play forever.
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