"If there is an app for that"

Unhappy Raccoon review

October 14, 2022 by RSS Feed

XD Entertainment is getting a lot of attention for Torchlight: Infinite at the moment, but shortly before that game released, they also put out a free-to-play roguelite on the App Store. This game, known as Unhappy Raccoon, feels like a mashup of Torchlight: Infinite and Gunfire Reborn, but there are some rough patches in the experience that unfortunately keep it from being a truly satisfying experience.

Raccoon roguelite

Unhappy Raccoon has you choosing one a few anthropomorphic critter heroes to run through increasingly difficult dungeons full of traps and enemies. You can be a cheetah archer or a brutish canine, among other things, and each of these characters have specialized skills that give them unique combat options in these dungeons.

On top of that, your character will also earn upgrades and gear throughout their adventure that may grant specific elemental infusions on their attacks, set bonuses that grant passive abilities like lifesteal, or even little companions that follow you around and help you attack and kill enemies. All of these upgrades come somewhat randomly from completing combat rooms, encountering shops, or defeating bosses, and you need to hone and develop your game knowledge to figure out winning combinations that work with your hero character and current build.

Atypical action

All of Unhappy Raccoon's action emulates that of classic isometric action rpgs, meaning you have an overhead view of your character that you have direct control over for movement and unleashing attacks and special abilities. The amount of things happening on screen at once can get quite chaotic, but Unhappy Raccoon never overloads you with too many active abilities to pay attention to, making it feel very manageable to play despite using touch.

The primary appeal of Unhappy Raccoon is its incredibly varied systems of upgrades and gear. You don't have to get very far into a run to be able to make your character spawn tornadoes when they dash or have access to an ultimate ability that creates a ring of lightning, for example. Mixing and matching all of these powers is fun from both a novel and strategic standpoint, and each new run enables you to try out some new combination of these things.

Rough rodents

Unhappy Raccoon is totally competent at serving up its action roguelite action, but there are a few rough spots across the experience that can be off-putting. The first and most important thing of note is the game's free-to-play design. A lot of weapons and additional characters are only unlockable via in-app purchases, as are character skins, which can grant special abilities that default versions of said characters wouldn't otherwise have. This isn't the worst type of monetization, but it does mean that you only get to experience a subset of the game's main selling point if you choose not to spend money.

The other big sore spot here is just how ramshackle a lot of Unhappy Raccoon's visuals and user interface are. Stylistically, the game looks pretty sharp, but every character model has literal rough edges and some menus extend beyond the limits of your screen. This kind of visual sloppiness ends up affecting some of the gameplay, too, where it can be hard to tell where you are aiming skill shots or if you are facing an object or enemy in a way that will let you hit it in the way you expect. None of these things make the game unplayable by any means, but they can lead to occasional frustrations.

The bottom line

There are a lot of neat ideas going on in Unhappy Raccoon, and for the most part they justify why you might wade through some of the game's messiness. With how it plays right now, I say it's definitely worth downloading to dink around in unseriously, as it can be easy to have a fun time doing that, but if you want to take on some of Unhappy Raccoon's harder content or explore its free characters, maybe wait to see if it gets some updates to make it a smoother experience first.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/unhappy-raccoon-review/

Road Redemption Mobile

October 12, 2022 by RSS Feed

I definitely have fond memories of the iconic motorcycle combat game known as Road Rash, and it has struck me as odd how some major attempt at recreating that experience hasn't really happened. Road Redemption Mobile definitely takes a crack at recreating some of Road Rash's magic, but it largely falls flat for a wide array of reasons.

Road Rash roguelite

Much like Road Rash, Road Redemption Mobile is a racing combat game featuring motorcycles. This means that as you tear down open roads full of normal, vehicular traffic, you'll also be coming into contact with competitors that you might decide to pass by hitting them with a wrench or kicking them into the path of an oncoming car.

There is a story explaining all of this violent road racing, but it largely just feels like light set dressing to justify the gameplay. Structurally, the game is like one, giant point-to-point journey that is broken up into legs where you are asked to complete mini missions like dispatching a certain amount of rival gang members or just flat-out racing.

Ride or die

Upon completion of these missions, you either receive rewards like money for being successful or lose some amount of your health for failing. From there, you can purchase upgrades from a shop that can grant things like increased experience gain, higher boost capacity, and more before moving on to your next challenge.

Across all of these challenges, your health bar determines whether or not you get to keep pushing forward on the journey. If you wreck too much or are killed by enemies, your run ends and you just have to start the game over from the beginning. After the end of each run, you may have achieved some milestone that unlocks new bikes or riders to play as or earned enough bankable currency to purchase permanent upgrades on a skill tree to give you a boost on each subsequent run.

Motorcycle mayhem

In theory, all of these concepts sound great, but Road Redemption Mobile seems to find ways to bungle almost all of them. The biggest sore spot of the game is definitely its controls. Although this is a port from its console/PC counterpart, there are actually a surprising number of control customization options. Unfortunately, though, none of them feel right. Even if you opt to play with a controller (which is heavily recommended by the game's main menu), you never really feel like you are driving a vehicle. I know this is an arcade game so I shouldn't expect (and don't want) realistic controls, but the driving should feel like driving and it doesn't.

On top of that Road Redemption Mobile is littered with bugs. I've driven clean through cars with no penalty, seen motorcycles spawn right on top of each other and float in air, and had auto-steer controls send me headlong into walls. You can try the first few stages of Road Redemption Mobile to see if you get the same issues, but beware if you decide to purchase as well, as my attempt to buy the full version of the game simply did not work and attempts to use the Restore Purchases button validated my purchase but did not unlock the full game.

The bottom line

Road Redemption Mobile is a pretty big mess, and only partially in the way you want. A spiritual successor to Road Rash should be chaotic and involve a lot of collisions and other shenanigans, but that's only enjoyable if the game feels and plays the way you expect, which is simply not the case here.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/road-redemption-mobile/

RUNNER: PREAMBLE review

October 06, 2022 by RSS Feed

When I picked up RUNNER: PREAMBLE, I was not aware that it is apparently a tie-in game that provides some background to an upcoming VR title called RUNNER. In hindsight that makes a lot of sense, but I decided to play this game on a whim because I saw it was free and looked really cool and stylish. And, as it turns out, RUNNER: PREAMBLE is indeed a very cool, very stylish, very free, and very short visual novel experience that is worth checking out for its vibes alone.

Neo noir narrative

RUNNER: PREAMBLE is a visual novel set in a dystopian sci-fi universe where a giant megacorporation builds up settlements on planets in order to strip mine them of resources, leaving everyone who inhabits these planets to be subject to their oppressive will. The game puts you in the shoes of Vice, a man who previously acted as a smuggler but now works for said corporation.

The story begins with Vice coming across some concerning information regarding the planet he resides on and finding himself needing to turn to the smuggler friends he ditched for his corporate gig. It's an all too common setup for these kinds of settings, but luckily the writing behind RUNNER: PREAMBLE gives its world and characters some unique personality traits to keep the entire thing from reading as generic.

Slick style

With this setup you can expect a lot of neon lights, futuristic motorcycles, mechs, and just about every other trope you can think of found in cyberpunk stories. Similar to the writing, these things are all presented with a unique blend of low-poly visuals and 90s-style anime character portraits, both of which are occasionally glitching out as if your own screen is a piece of cyberpunk tech, which is a nice touch.

To add to that, RUNNER: PREAMBLE is fully voice-acted and well directed for the most part. This gives the game some high production values that you don't typically expect from visual novels generally, much less free ones.

Too short, but still sweet

The biggest thing working against RUNNER: PREAMBLE is its length. This is an experience that's pretty comfortably under an hour. In that time it does a great job of establishing its world and the main players in Vice's story, but it goes no further than that. As soon as you are on the cusp of pushing the story forward, the game ends (presumably because the developers want you to be enticed enough to play RUNNER to find out more).

That said, there are a number of neat ideas layered into RUNNER: PREAMBLE's brief runtime. There are action sequences with time-based decision points and some branching dialog that can lead to unexpected dead ends. Through the game you can maintain a ton of different save files and go back and explore choices to see how things play out if you do things differently in ways that are more convenient than many other visual novel titles I've played.

The bottom line

RUNNER: PREAMBLE is a really cool promotional game for RUNNER and I'm glad I played it. Even though it is very unlikely that I will ever play the game it is supposed to be advertising, I had a good time soaking up RUNNER's world for the brief time that PREAMBLE allowed me to, and all without paying anything.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/runner-preamble-review/

Tallowmere 2 review

October 04, 2022 by RSS Feed

On paper, Tallowmere 2 is right up my alley. This dungeon-crawling roguelike has you mixing and matching a deep variety of gear and getting into some pretty goofy encounters as you try to rescue Lady Tallowmere's kitties. There's a ton of stuff to discover, but I quickly found that its lengthy runs mostly either end abruptly or grow dull depending on how lucky you get with its procedurally generated gear and levels.

Disorganized dungeons

Tallowmere 2 is a very straightforward dungeon-crawler. You are a hero sent on a quest to perform a ritual that involves venturing through a dungeon and rescuing Lady Tallowmere's cats. This involves walking into rooms full of traps and enemies and fighting your way through everything to get a key that unlocks the door to the next combat room.

All of this action is in a 2D pixel-art style that is somewhat crude but effective. Dungeons can be sprawling with high ceilings and lots of branching paths, but traversal is relatively easy as the game provides a goofy, unlimited jump that lets you float around to wherever you might need to go. The challenge in each floor is more about managing the enemies that can easily swarm and overwhelm you, whether that's through the use of your shield to outright block attacks, use terrain as cover, or utilize ranged weapons to pick foes off from a distance.

Loot lottery

Scattered through nearly every room in this dungeon are also treasure chests. These chests contain randomized loot, including new weapons, shields, and potions that can help you on your journey. If you ever find anything that you don't like or is worse than what you have, you can also take it back to a merchant using a teleport waypoint to sell for gold which you can then use to purchase other items.

The sheer variety of things you can find in Tallowmere 2 is pretty surprising and entertaining. There are your standard swords and shields, but you can also come across acid bows, lightning grenades, and more. There aren't a ton of different gear types, but there are tons and tons of modifiers that get randomly assigned to gear, such that you may find a sword that heals you when you hit enemies with it or a shield that increases the likelihood of finding rare loot.

Grind it out

I applaud Tallowmere 2 for finding a lot of fun ways to assign stats such that you aren't always focused on dealing the most damage. For instance, my time with the game has revealed I have a high preference for ranged weapons that grant lifesteal to the point that I'll pass up a lot of high rarity loot just because it doesn't fit that preference.

That said, it's really easy to find a formula for success in Tallowmere 2 and just stick with it. Rarely will enemies do a whole lot to force you to change your tactics, which leaves a lot of the driving force behind the game stuck behind what loot is waiting for you. Tallowmere 2 will definitely not disappoint in how much stuff it will give you, but the amount of time you spend tearing through dungeon after dungeon to find what ends up being mostly middling loot doesn't always feel worth it. This becomes even more grueling when you die and have to start your run all over again. I know this is the nature of roguelikes, but Tallowmere 2's runs can be hours upon hours, which makes any defeat more painful than those in similar titles with tighter run times.

On a final note, Tallowmere 2 is free to download, but in order to unlock all of its features and engage with some of its deeper systems, you will need to spend $4.99. This feels like a fair monetization model, as the free version gives you more than enough game to play around with to determine whether you want to buy-in to a lot more of it or not.

The bottom line

When I first started in on playing Tallowmere 2, I was ready to give it some rather high praise. It makes a lot of really fun decisions upfront, but those give way to a pretty long, grueling, and repetitive core that leaves me less satisfied the more I put time into it.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/tallowmere-2-review/

lettermon review

September 26, 2022 by RSS Feed

There is no shortage of free-to-play word games on mobile. lettermon is certainly another to add to the pile, though there are no strings attached to its price. That's right, there are no ads, no microtransactions, or any other junk stopping you from picking up lettermon and having a good time with it. The only question you really have to ask yourself is if you still have the appetite for yet another word game on your phone.

BYOL

lettermon is a fairly straightforward game in that its levels give you a word and then asks you to spell as many words you can with those letters. It almost feels like the equivalent of rearranging the tiles on your Scrabble rack. You tap and drag down letters until you've formed a new word, hit submit, get score, and repeat.

The twist lettermon puts on this is by also having a collectible critter system attached to this simple level structure. On any level, you choose an additional letter to add to the mix from a roster of colorfully designed letter monsters you earn as you play. Each of these monsters also have some added abilities that can help you get though certain levels a bit more easily.

Monsters just chilling

This all sounds like a neat idea. Adding some light rpg and collection mechanics gives what is otherwise a pretty flat letter-rearranging game some teeth and provides some reasons to want to return to the game to level everyone up and get new monsters.

While all of this is true, the monster component of lettermon doesn't actually feel all that necessary to engage with. You can absolutely just find words with the letters you are given and they are more than enough to pass levels with a perfect rating. The monsters certainly can help by providing more spelling options, but they can just as easily be ignored if your spelling skills are on point.

Good for a spell

In a way, it's refreshing that lettermon kind of lets you play it however you want. It also does this without really asking anything of you. There are no ads or currencies to manage, nor is there any ask for players to come back for a daily challenge or pay for a more premium experience.

This breezy approach to game design is a double-edged sword, though. A lot of systems baked into free-to-play games may be annoying, but they also exist because they are effective at incentivizing you to keep playing a game that you might otherwise drop. lettermon doesn't really have any kind of gravitational pull baked into its design outside of hoping you appreciate the lack of free-to-play hooks.

The bottom line

If you're in the market for a new word game then it's hard to say no to lettermon. It serves up some breezy puzzling with an entertaining collecting system that you can engage with on your own terms. It does this all for free, but that might not be enough for anyone who already gets all they need out of Wordle or wants a word game with some more depth.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/lettermon-review/