October 17, 2023 by RSS Feed
Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free
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October 16, 2023 by RSS Feed
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October 13, 2023 by RSS Feed
Subpar Pool is a new puzzle game from the developer behind holedown and rymdkapsel. In concept, it's a billiards game, but it also combines that with a little bit of mini-golf and a whole lot of video game nonsense. The end result is a game that gives you nearly endless possibilities for golf challenges on iOS, though some of these possibilities are more entertaining, rewarding, and functional than others.
Cues from golf
Rounds of Subpar Pool ask you to sink pool balls into pockets that also resemble golf holes. On each table, you have a certain number of shots to clear the table to get par, subpar, bogey, etc. Completing tables or hitting the shot limit moves you to the next table until you've completed a preset number of tables, or--if you go over the shot limit too many times--prematurely ends your run.
Your general goal is just to be efficient and effective at making shots, both to get some satisfying feedback from the game about your performance and to survive through the progression of tables. But this is also just the very tip of what Subpar Pool offers in terms of challenge. As you play, you also start unlocking "cards" that modify the game that include new types of balls, different courses, different rules, and a whole lot of sub-challenges that encourage and--of course--challenge you to play the game differently while still shooting efficiently.
Choose your challenge
As opposed to being a linear flow of challenges, Subpar Pool allows you to activate a certain number of cards per run, and each challenge is attached to a different kind of game modifier. With this structure, you can load up to mix and match challenges as much as you want given your card limit, or just focus on a single challenge at a time.
When you first start the game, you have just a couple of card slots and challenges to choose from, but as you get further into the experience you get a larger card limit and unlock a lot more modifiers and courses. Once this starts happening, certain challenges start having card requirements for completion that keep Subpar Pool moving along some semblance of a difficulty curve. The more varitey you unlock also leads you to learn certain card synergies that work well for completing challenges, which creates a fun meta-puzzle that allows you to find fun workarounds achieving certain objectives.
Fun when functional
All of this variability and variety of challenge makes Subpar Pool very compelling and replayable. I often find myself playing more rounds than intended to see what challenges will unlock next, and even without that incentive the intuitive control scheme and satisfying physics make knocking balls into holes feel like good, simple fun. It also helps that Subpar Pool has some charming and colorful visuals and is really easy to play on any iOS device thanks to its great landscape and portrait layouts and seamless iCloud syncing.
That said, there are definitely things about Subpar Pool that are somewhat baffling and can put a damper on the experience. There are times when playing where I really wish there was some kind of glossary or in-game resource that explained certain terminology like "long shot," for example, because there just isn't enough information to know if you are doing the right thing to complete a challenge or even know how a certain mechanic works.
It also doesn't help that Subpar Pool seems to have a few bugs that just add to the confusion. Challenges associated with achieving a certain amount of "flawless" tables in a run seem to move up and down, and certain ball types like the "splitter" that are supposed to break up into multiple, smaller balls on contact sometimes just don't, among other things. Between the lack of explanation and unexpected behavior, it's hard to tell how much of this is intentional, but in either case it can make some sessions with the game annoying.
The bottom line
Subpar Pool is packed with a ton of great ideas that mesh into a really neat experience when they behave the way you expect them to. The only problem is that this doesn't always happen, and it's very hard to parse exactly how or why this disconnect happens. It's still an enjoyable game, especially since the simple pleasure of making shots doesn't really get old, but it would be nice if the overall experience as a bit more consistent and clear.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/subpar-pool-review/
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October 10, 2023 by RSS Feed
I have built up a pretty high degree of skepticism heading into experiences like The Wreck over the years. Games focused emotional narratives are all well and good, but I've played a few too many that feel content to just make emotive moments without doing much with them or saying much about them. I had some amount of hope knowing that this game was from the developers behind Bury me, my Love, though, a game that I really enjoyed for its strong writing and compelling story despite being pretty visually bland. As it turns out, I had good reason for my optimism, as The Wreck tells a brilliantly crafted and meaningful narrative with incredible art direction to boot.
Family emergency
The Wreck tells the story of a woman named Junon arriving at a hospital to learn that her mother, a famous artist, has had a medical episode leaving her impaired and unable to make decisions for her own care. This kicks off a series of conversations, flashbacks, and other vignettes that examine familial relationships, misogyny, generational trauma, grief, and more.
The story plays out through a kind of "stop-motion" polygonal style where people and scenes are 3-D modeled but generally switch poses or make simple movements as opposed having full range of smooth motion. Your viewpoint acts as a camera on the action, though, and typically does move smoothly and cinematically through scenes as needed. For the most part, gameplay consists of making dialog choices for Junon, though certain sequences will also have you using limited camera control or tapping on words written over scenes to activate the next narrative sequence.
No puzzles, just pacing
The primary focus of The Wreck is on storytelling, to the point that there aren't really any puzzles or other moments where you aren't just moving to the next set of dialog. Certain scenes are somewhat interactive, but even those are directed to the point that you can only activate certain things in a specific order. This may sound somewhat dull, but it helps ensure The Wreck doesn't lull around and drag out, which ultimately works in its favor.
In the moments where you do get player agency, it's typically around choosing how Junon responds to a certain situation or continues down a certain line of thought. With so many dialog choices, you may think that The Wreck is this branching narrative that can reveal different stories or content based on what you choose, but again, this isn't really the case. The choices are the way you end up connecting with and embodying Junon, and making these choices helps prepare you for some of the late-game reveals and make them that much more impactful.
Stylish and smart
Describing how The Wreck plays makes it sound pretty uninteresting, and it probably would be if not for the games impeccable sense of style and sharp writing. Over the course of playing this game, there are countless examples of perfect little visual flourishes or surprisingly cinematic framing. These things act as the backdrop to some intense and deep writing of a style that takes a little bit time to warm up to and doesn't always land the way it feels like it should, but definitely has more highs than lows and is capable of being quite funny, insightful, or even devastatingly sad (and sometimes all of these things at once).
The Wreck is also fully voice acted and is generally well done. There are some small moments where it feels like characters drop or change their accents on some line reads, but otherwise all of it is really well delivered and further heightens the drama that plays out. The only real complaints I have about The Wreck are its somewhat uneven start (before you really get a sense of what the story is about and how the game is structured, which is also basically the free portion of the game) and the fact that this mobile version controls fine but seems to have an invisible cursor that will sometimes highlight dialog choices in ways that can be a little distracting and confusing.
The bottom line
The Wreck is exactly what I was hoping for as a next step from the creators of Bury me, my Love. The same high quality writing and storytelling is here intact, but now with a budget that allows for much more compelling visuals and audio. More importantly, it tells a meaningful story of painful introspection and does so with grace, style, and a lot more nuance than most other games that have tried to do something similar.
Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/the-wreck-review/
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October 07, 2023 by RSS Feed
Source link: http://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free
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