September 29, 2024 by RSS Feed
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September 27, 2024 by RSS Feed
Probably the most fascinating thing about Unforeseen Incidents is the way the context surrounding its subject matter has shifted so dramatically since its original release in 2018. Outside of that, it's a solid point-and-click adventure game that does a few innovative and refreshing things but also falls into the same classic pitfalls the genre is known for.
Point and click fever
Unforeseen Incidents is an adventure game in which you play as a handyman named Harper who lives in a town beset with a mysterious illness known as Yelltown Fever. It is unclear what brought the illness about, but it is deadly, has no known cure, and has set off quite a bit of civil unrest.
Suffice it to say, some things happen in Yelltown that set you on a quest to discover the mysterious origins of the fever. The only thing standing in your way is a set of puzzles that largely involve the quintessential task of finding, combining, and/or exchanging items with your environment and the game's cast.
Pre-pandemic pandemic
The overall story in Unforeseen Incidents has plenty of twists and turns, and--given that since its release a global pandemic has actually ravaged this planet due to widespread political failures--it all bends into a narrative arc that feels like it comes from another universe. Without giving anything away, the big reveal of the Big Bad Conspiracy at the end almost reads as hopeful compared to what has happened in real life. It's still bad, but arguably better than what we got (complete denial and apathy).
All along the way, Unforeseen Incidents is a treat of clever writing and character quips. Even in these one-liners, exposition points, and incidental dialog, there's an interesting throughline about community tribalism with implications that I'm not sure I agree with, but feels like something the writers were intentionally going for while writing some legitimately funny jokes. I am not sure I can say something like this about a lot of other games, though I wish I could!
A practical man wants practical solutions
What excited me most about Unforeseen Incidents when I first started playing it was its down-to-earth puzzle design. In addition to its tasks being somewhat straightforward, they all also felt in line with Harper's character as a handyman. You start the game by fixing some wiring and eventually get to car repair and even radio triangulation. It's neat stuff that is all mechanically satisfying and tangible in a way that lets you always see what your next step needs to be.
Unfortunately, Unforeseen Incidents strays away from this kind of puzzle design for certain segments of the game and they just feel awful by comparison. There are hallucination sequences, vague directions, and--in the case of the game's final puzzle--sometimes both, and they lead to frustrating results. That final puzzle in particular is such a far cry from so many of the other puzzles in terms of practicality that I was convinced it was bugged. I almost wish it actually was, because I maintain that the solution is bullshit.
The bottom line
Will I let a few bad puzzles tarnish my entire perspective on this game? Well, yes. But I will also say that despite those glaring and frustrating flaws Unforeseen Incidents is quite enjoyable and has more to say than a lot of other adventure games I've played.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/unforeseen-incidents-mobile-review/
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September 27, 2024 by RSS Feed
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As soon as Balatro made its initial splash earlier this year, my initial thought (which I'm sure many others also had) was "this would be very nice to have on a phone." Well, now it's here, and it's definitely nice. Do yourself a favor and pick up Balatro so long as you don't mind holding your phone sideways.
I will not describe how Balatro works
That opening paragraph is about all I have to say about what Balatro is. If you want to read a good writeup about it, might I suggest this piece by Chris Person over on Aftermath. As for the port, it's a bummer that the game came to mobile and doesn't have some kind of portrait mode, and it seems like the touch controls just track your finger as if it was a mouse cursor, but hey, it works.
Now with all of that out of the way, I want to talk about why Balatro is so good. And I don't mean this in the way that every multi-layered roguelite develops its own brand of sticky gameplay loop that makes it hard to put down. No, I mean why does this game--with its one looping song and playing cards aesthetic--stand out in what is now easy to classify as a veritable ocean of high-quality run-based games.
I will instead talk about why I think it works
The answer, to me, can be boiled down to one word: preparation. In many great roguelites, players learn how to twist tactical advantages into an overarching strategy to clear some of the game's hardest challenges. This is also true in Balatro, naturally (and it is perhaps the most successful title I've played at facilitating this mentality), but the game feels almost equally prepared to thwart you.
In almost every one of these games I've played, either the thresholds for success are so narrow that every run feels like you're scraping by or so wide that you can blow the whole game wide open if you know what you're doing. Balatro, quite fluidly, is extremely capable of both. It feels incredible to put pieces in place such that suddenly you are clearing blinds by orders of magnitude with single hands, but you cannot enjoy this success forever. Balatro has more than enough tricks baked into its own challenge systems that it will almost certainly catch up to you, sooner or later. Combine that with a gambling aesthetic (and mechanics) and some tempting ways to mutate each run, and it's no wonder time disappears every time you play it.
Also a note about Apple Arcade
The only other thing worth addressing in this review is Balatro's split availability on iOS. It seems Apple has fully abandoned the notion of timed exclusivity for Apple Arcade and so both Balatro and Balatro+ released at the same time. For my money, I would stay away from Apple Arcade, a service that has altered what it set out to do significantly since launch, removed over half of the amount of games currently released for it overall, and reportedly does not treat developers well.
If, for some reason, you have Apple Arcade, having access to Balatro is great. What's even better is that if your subscription lapses or Apple Arcade removes Balatro+ from its offerings, the paid version in the regular old App Store is there and your progress tracks between them. What it doesn't do is sync with any non-mobile versions of the game, so perhaps if you already played it elsewhere you might want to take that into consideration.
The bottom line
If you've reached the end here and are wondering what my score has to do with these words, I guess I can break it down here: Although Balatro looks great and is clearly very well designed, I do in fact wish there were some more options to make this mobile version friendlier for the small screen. There are other games that do Balatro's thing with enough of the same kind of flair while also adapting better, and if I'm going out of my way to play the mobile version, that is more important to me. Outside of the hype surrounding this game--which will fade--it shakes out to feeling like another great game to add to a pile of similarly great games.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/balatro-review/
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