Hack and Augment Your Way Through a Conspiracy in Deus Ex GO
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Deus Ex GO ($4.99) by SQUARE ENIX INC is the third installment of the GO series of games, which also includes Lara Croft GO and Hitman GO. For the uninitiated, the GO games take popular Square Enix franchises and distills them down into beautiful strategy puzzle games. Whether you’re a fan of the original game series titles or not, the GO games are definitely all worth checking out regardless.
Even though Deus Ex has been around since 2000, I never got into the games myself. In fact, I have a copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution somewhere, but I just haven’t gotten to it yet because I have a large backlog of games and not enough time. Despite this, I know the gist of the Deus Ex games, since it combines stealth and role-playing elements with FPS action and features a lot of cyberpunk themes, hacking, and all that good stuff. I’ll get around to the real games one day, but since I loved the previous GO games (I didn’t play much Tomb Raider or even Hitman titles before), I had to get my hands on Deus Ex GO, especially after I had a demo of it at E3 this year. Now that it’s available on the App Store, I must say that it’s one of my favorite games so far this year.
Visually, Deus Ex GO is gorgeous, as it is a stylized interpretation of the Deus Ex universe. If you’re a fan of the main games, then the world will be instantly familiar to you. Even if you’ve never played a Deus Ex game in your life, you’ll be in awe because of how good the game looks. Like the other two games, Deus Ex GO features 3-D graphics with an angled, top-down perspective so you can see all of the action that happens. The futuristic, dystopian environments are packed with fine details and textures, and the colors are bright and vivid with a subtle vignette effect going on around the edges of the screen.
Your character, Adam Jensen, will be sporting his signature black trench coat and sunglasses, while moving fluidly on each turn. His enemies, including guards, turrets, and more, have their own unique appearances, movements, and abilities that you have to watch out for. All animations in Deus Ex Go are smooth and flow seamlessly with no lag on my iPhone 6s Plus. There’s also an intricate plot to uncover as you go, which will be told through dialogue boxes that aren’t intrusive. The artwork for each character’s avatar in dialogue boxes is beautiful, as it’s done in 2-D but with a stylish low-poly look to it. The game’s atmospheric soundtrack immerses you in the Deus Ex world, and the sound effects are realistic.
Like the other GO games, Deus Ex GO is level-based, and players must go through each stage in chronological order to advance through the story, which involves a conspiracy behind a terrorist plot. The objective in each puzzle is to help Jensen get from the starting point to the portal at the end that takes you to the next area, but you can’t be detected by the enemies. There’s a line path on each level, and you move Jensen one space on each turn. If you’re detected by an enemy, they will activate their Titan Armor and come after you in a straight path, but only as you make your move. Turrets shoot you on sight, and later on there will be drones, walkers, and other crazy enemy types. Since everything is a puzzle and things happen on a turn-by-turn basis, it’s important to make note of where enemies are going and time your movements for the perfect opportunities to strike or escape using hacks and augmentations.
The controls in Deus Ex GO are simple, and you should know how it works if you played the other games. To make Jensen move, just tap on the point adjacent to where you are to have him walk over there. If enemy guards detect you, they will activate their Titan Armor and the path you’re on (in their line of sight) turns red. With the Titan Armor active, you can’t strike them, but if it is off, you can attack them from the sides or even behind to get rid of them. Other enemies like turrets can be disabled by sneaking up behind them, or you can even hack the computer systems (yellow icons) by tracing paths to have the turrets shoot down foes for you instead, or activate floor panels to get where you need to go. You can also get items like Invisibility, which you activate with taps to get by otherwise impossible spots, but don’t confuse invisibility with invincibility (this is an achievement).
The amount of stealth gameplay combined with environment-manipulating puzzles mean a ton of challenging stages for players, which is a great thing. Deus Ex GO starts out pretty easy, but things get much more complex and elaborate as you have to use enemies to block other ones, take control of turrets, use invisibility to get by tricky spots, hack computers and change the flow of electricity so you can cross gaps in the floor, and much more. Fortunately, since there is no time limit or move restriction on the puzzles, you can take as long as you need to solve them, and if you fail, just try again — the game doesn’t penalize you.
In addition to the main story mode missions, the developers have a “Live Content” section, which includes new puzzle events every weekday, and you can play puzzles from previous days of the current week. However, these puzzles are incredibly complicated and hard to solve, and it is recommended to play through the Story mode first, though nothing stops you from taking them on.
I had been looking forward to Deus Ex GO for a long time, and needless to say, I’m not disappointed. The game has an exquisite and stylish aesthetic that represents the Deus Ex universe nicely, the ambient music is great to listen to, and the controls are simple enough for anyone. The puzzles themselves are hard and challenging, especially as you get further into the story, and having daily puzzles that aren’t part of the storyline adds to the replay value of the game. Like Lara Croft GO and Hitman GO, I’ll be keeping Deus Ex GO on my device for a long time to come.
I highly recommend checking out Deus Ex GO for yourself, whether you’re a fan of Deus Ex or not. It’s a fantastic puzzle game nonetheless, and one that you should not miss. Deus Ex GO is on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $4.99. There are in-app purchases for more hints if you are truly stuck (but trial-and-error goes a long way).
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Fractions Can Be Fun in Diffission, a Mathematical Puzzle Game
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Diffission ($2.99) by Filament Games is a mathematical puzzle game that is both educational and fun at the same time — yes, that is entirely possible. If you enjoyed other games like The Mesh and Noda, then you will get a kick out of Diffission as well. Be warned — the game involves good old fractions.
I’ve never been a real big fan of math in general, but I managed to do well enough in all of the different math classes that I took back in high school and college many years ago. Despite that, I still didn’t like it, because I found it somewhat boring and not fun. But nowadays we are in an age where anything can be turned into something fun, which is a great thing if you think about it. Fractions were also the bane of my existence in math classes, and I’m rather rusty on them since so much time has passed since I had to deal with fractions. But I can’t resist a good looking puzzle game, so I had to give Diffission a spin when I saw it on the App Store, even though I honestly had no idea it was a math theme at first. I’m glad I tried it out, because I’m not disappointed with the quality of the game itself.
Visually, Diffission is beautiful with the simple and clean minimalistic graphics. The game is flat with basic shapes and structures floating on top of a colored, subtly animated backdrop that gradually changes colors over time. It’s rather hypnotic and relaxing, so it does have the effect of helping you focus on the fractions that the game revolves around. Animations are smooth and fluid as you break the shapes down, and the game is fairly responsive overall. The ambient, atmospheric music is definitely soothing, and helps put your mind at ease while you play. Filament Games definitely made something great in terms of visuals and audio with this game, so props to them.
Diffission is a puzzle game with two modes: Endless and Challenge. On the first launch, you’ll go through a short tutorial that shows you the ropes before you get the full Endless mode available to you, and it’s important to read through the introduction, because otherwise you’ll be a bit lost. Endless mode lets players play at their own pace, just solving the puzzles with no end goal in mind. Challenge gives you a set amount of time and you must reach a specific goal (number of diamonds) so it counts as your score. Each time you solve a puzzle, you can either add to the diamond goal or add more time to the clock. It’s a bit more frantic and faster pace than Endless, because time is of the essence.
The diamonds that you collect from solving these puzzles will unlock different types of blocks. Getting more block types opens up a new set of puzzles for you to solve in each mode, and you continue this process until all possible blocks have been uncovered. For example, you’ll eventually unlock the dissolving block, which disappears once you highlight it. This can be used to your advantage to get rid of other blocks, or you can just isolate the dissolving blocks to make life easier, but leaving these special blocks behind nets you more diamonds for more blocks later on. The mechanics that get introduced with each new block type keeps things fresh and interesting, since it adds an entire new layer of depth to the game’s core gameplay.
The gameplay is a bit confusing at first, but you quickly get used to it. Your goal is displayed in the bottom left corner, and it’s a fraction. The total number of blocks that make up the shape or structure is shown in the bottom right. To make the objective, you’ll have to cut down the shape into equal pieces. This is done by slicing them with your finger, in Fruit Ninja fashion. To make more precise and specific cuts (some shapes need to be broken down into certain pieces to be equal), just drag your finger slowly along the edges of the squares you want to breakaway from the rest. Once things are broken down into equal pieces, tap on them to highlight them until you’ve selected enough to match the fraction goal.
While the game starts out easy enough, things get trickier as you go, since you’ll deal with a larger number of squares to break down, as well as more block types and more complex fractions. And with Challenge Mode, you have to be fast and find solutions quickly in order to get the best score. Out of the various mathematical puzzle games I’ve played so far, Diffission is the hardest of them all, but that’s a good thing. Fractions are something we don’t think about too much, and we forget that sometimes it’s important. This game is making me think pretty hard about fractions again and it’s fun rather than boring.
While I am not too far in the game, I’m finding Diffission enjoyable, despite being an educational game. The minimalist visuals are nice to look at, the music and sounds are tranquil and calming, and the gameplay itself is challenging and truly makes you think. The only improvements that could make the game even better are more game modes (perhaps puzzle mode with one solution) and blocks. But no matter how you look at it, Diffission is a fun game with a lot of replay value due to the procedurally generated nature of the puzzles.
I recommend giving Diffission a try if you don’t mind fractions (or want to brush up on them) and want a challenging puzzle game. You can find Diffission on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for just $2.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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Snap Pics of Legendary Dinos in Jurassic GO
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Jurassic GO - Dinosaur Snap Adventures ($3.99) by BebopBee, Inc is an on-rails photography shooter and simulation game. If you are familiar with Pokémon Snap, then you will know how Jurassic GO works, as the two are similar, but this title deals with dinosaurs, of course. Whether you’re a kid or adult, there’s a lot of fun behind Jurassic GO.
Back in 1999, Pokémon Snap was released to the masses in Japan and North America. While I was a Pokémon fan back then with collecting the cards and watching the anime, I did not have Pokémon Snap at the time because hey, I was 12-years-old with not a lot of money to spend and my parents weren’t always buying me video games. Plus, I wasn’t too into spinoff games at the time anyway, so I didn’t think too much of Pokémon Snap. As I look back on it now, though, I wish I played because it definitely looked like a fun title, and who can resist snapping pictures of Pokémon? You can now do that in reality with Pokémon Go, but if you’re still looking to replicate the original Pokémon Snap feeling in an iOS game, well, Jurassic GO is a nice alternative, plus, who doesn’t like dinosaurs?
Jurassic GO is definitely one of the cuter games I’ve played recently. The game is fully rendered in 3-D and the four environments are lush and packed with enough detail to immerse you in the prehistoric world. Colors are bright and vivid with realistic shadows and lighting, so it’s real eye candy for everyone. The character models for all of the different types of dinosaurs that you’ll encounter are cartoonish and adorable, but they stay true to the roots of real dinosaur models at the same time. Animations and movements of the dinosaurs and the on-rails mechanic are smooth and fluid with no lag on my iPhone 6s Plus, so there won’t be any issues when it comes to finding those great photo ops. Jurassic GO also has a fun and whimsical soundtrack that is rather upbeat and catchy, so it’s fun to get your earbuds and just dive right in to the game.
In Jurassic GO, you take on the role of a photographer who is hired by a Dino Museum to venture out to different environments for tours and snap photos of the dinosaur creatures that you happen to come across. Since the game is a simulation, you will be there as you watch the museum grow in size and popularity, and you’ll have to help build things around the island to attract more tourists. There will also be plenty of various NPCs that you’ll meet who will provide you with useful tools for your tours and upgrades to your camera once you meet their requirements and criteria. There are four different environments that you can take tours of (Swamp, Crater, River, and Badlands), and you’ll have to unlock them as you progress with Exploration Funds. While it may not sound like a lot of environments, the dinosaurs that you find on each tour will be randomly generated, so while you may think you’ve seen all that the Swamp has to offer, sometimes you’ll find brand new finds that you weren’t expecting. It’s also a good way to get even better shots than the ones you’ve taken before.
To set out on a tour of a land, just tap on the hot air balloon button in the bottom right corner. Then choose the setting you want to check out, and you’re off! Like Pokémon Snap, you will be moving forward automatically since it’s an on-rails experience. As you seamlessly move, you can aim your camera by swiping around on the screen. When you find something that is worthy of a snapshot, just tap anywhere on the screen to capture the moment. You’ll also get items that you can use to interact with the dinosaurs, such as the Goofball, and you can use this by tapping on the button in the bottom right corner. And once you have camera upgrades, such as the zoom lens, you can activate them by tapping the button in the bottom left corner. To use things like zoom, just pinch the screen.
While each environment has a set path for you to go through, the creatures that you’ll encounter will vary on each run. Sometimes you’ll just see the same ones you’ve seen before, just in different spots or even in groups. Other times, you’ll encounter something rare or uncommon, and there are even legendary dinosaurs that you can find too. You never know what you’ll find, so the replay value with going back to each of the four areas is high and full of excitement. You can view information about each species that you find in the museum, and who knows — you can totally end up learning something new here, unless you’re already some kind of expert on dinosaurs.
After each tour, whether you just reach the end of the path or run out of film (you start off with just five snapshots for each run, shown in the top left corner), you’ll have to pick just three of your best shots to show the captain. He will check your shots and grade them to see if they’re worthy of being in the museum or turned into a postcard. If your shot ends up being a postcard, it will be sent back to your loved ones but not displayed in the museum. Each picture will be graded on size, spot, and angle with a number from one to 10. The average of these three scores determines the overall score for the shot, and you can get up to three stars as well. Having museum display or postcard status helps boost the score too. The main goal during the tours is to get perfect shots, which are harder than they seem once dinosaurs start moving and reacting to you, sometimes too fast for you to catch.
Even though most of the fun is going out and finding the dinosaurs for photos, you’ll have to keep an eye on your island as well. Pay attention to the number of tourists who arrive to check out the museum, and build new buildings to make it an even bigger tourist attraction and rake in those exploration funds.
I’ve only just started Jurassic GO this morning while sipping my coffee, but I’m finding it to be an incredibly fun and relaxing experience, as I’ve never played Pokémon Snap before. The graphics in Jurassic GO are super cute and charming, the music is soothing, and the controls are intuitive. I’m having a blast just finding new dinosaurs in each environment, and it’s always exciting to watch your park get fame and fortune as a result of your work. I think the only improvement that could be made to the game is more environments, so hopefully the developer considers adding this in the future. Still, the game is solid right now, and proving to be rather addictive.
I highly recommend checking out Jurassic GO if you are looking for a Pokémon Snap-style game on iOS, or just want to take pictures of dinosaurs that are way cuter than they should be. Jurassic GO is on the App Store as a universal app for your iPhone and iPad for just $3.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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It’s Time to Get Hooked on the Zelda-esque Legend of the Skyfish
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Legend of the Skyfish ($3.99) by Crescent Moon Games and MGaia is a gorgeous action adventure puzzle game that is akin to the likes of The Legend of Zelda franchise. If you are a fan of other Crescent Moon titles like The Deer God and Almightree: The Last Dreamer, or just enjoy Zelda games, then you’ll get a kick out of Legend of the Skyfish.
For as long as I can remember, the Zelda games have always been around for me as I grew up, though I did not play all of them when I was younger. In fact, I believe I jumped into the Zelda series with Twilight Princess on the original Nintendo Wii and Phantom Hourglass on the Nintendo DS. I picked up a few more Zelda games after that, such as the Ocarina of Time 3DS remake, though I don’t think I’ve beat them yet. Regardless, despite my later start with the Zelda games, I have found them to be enjoyable games (even if it takes me forever), and I always like to see Zelda-inspired titles on iOS, since it’s unlikely we will ever see a real Zelda game on mobile devices. Fortunately, Legend of the Skyfish does not disappoint.
Visually, LotS is beautiful to behold on your Retina screens. The game features hand-painted art so it has a unique style to it, and it shows that the developers put a lot of care into creating the game. Each environment you’ll be coming across with have its own distinctive appearance and tone, and you can see all of the fine textures and small details painted in. Your character, Little Red Hook, and all of the other creatures that you’ll be encountering, have fantastic character models that are bursting with their own special personalities and movements. Plus, with each equipment upgrade, you’ll see the changes reflected on your character model. The colors in LotS are stunning, ranging from the soft and light tones to rich and vibrant hues. Animations are smooth and fluid with no lag on my iPhone 6s Plus, and the sound effects are fun to hear. On top of it all, LotS has an amazing adventurous musical score by Sean Beeson that is atmospheric and fun to listen to, and it truly immerses you in the world of Skyfish. The developers did an excellent job in terms of the audio and visual depeartment with LotS, that’s for sure.
Unlike Zelda games, though, LotS is not an open-world adventure. Instead, players will watch the opening cinematic that kicks off the story, and then you have to go from area-to-area, conquering all of the stages in chronological order. The formula is pretty straightforward: explore the environment, beat up some baddies, solve tricky puzzles, and then face off against a boss at the end before moving on to the next level and doing it all over again. As you make progress, you’ll also find chests that contain powerful upgrades for your hood, fishing rod, and grappling hook that will be permanently unlocked, even if you decide to go back to certain levels. In addition to completing each stage, you can find hidden items scattered around if you look hard enough. This keeps things fresh and interesting, and adds to the replay value if you’re a perfectionist.
The controls in LotS are simple enough: use the virtual joystick in the bottom left (can be changed to a D-Pad) to move Little Red Hook around on the top-down level map. When you go into the next zone of the stage, the screen will scroll to go along with you. Since your weapon of choice will be a fishing rod, you can use it as a grappling hook to get from island-to-island. Just use the button on the right side of the screen to aim your hook, connect it with something that works (like the yellow squares), and then release your finger — your rod connects to the block and you’ll get pulled over to that section of the map. You’ll also use your fishing rod to attack enemies, and that’s done by giving the attack button a tap. You can also push objects around just by walking into them and pushing, which is useful when you need to place a heavy object to hold a switch down. If you have a MFi controller, good news: the game fully supports them for an even better experience.
The game pretty much holds your hands throughout the beginning, since you have a fairy-like creature that gives you hints on what to do. The first part of the game is also a bit slow, because it is teaching the player the basics of the game. The puzzles seem easy at first, but things will pick up quickly as you go, so don’t be fooled. It’s truly Zelda-esque in terms of difficulty.
I’m still pretty early on in the game, but so far I’m enjoying it a lot. LotS looks beautiful, has a delightful and whimsical soundtrack, has great controls and MFi support, and the challenging puzzles will make you think and keep you occupied. It’s a great Zelda-style game for iOS, and one that you shouldn’t miss.
I highly recommend giving Legend of the Skyfish a go if you enjoy action adventure puzzle games like The Legend of Zelda franchise. You can find Legend of the Skyfish on the App Store as a universal app for your iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV for just $3.99. There are no in-app purchases.
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Solitaire and Roguelike RPG Come Together in the Amazing Solitairica
November 08, 2016 by macjeff
Solitairica ($3.99) by Righteous Hammer Games Inc. is an insanely fun mashup of roguelike RPG and solitaire. If you are a big fan of RPG combat, roguelike progression, and traditional card games, then you are truly in for a treat with Solitairica.
Solitaire is a game that everyone has played numerous times at some point in their life, whether you were just killing time before leaving work or school, or just to give your brain a bit of stimulation. I’ve played solitaire on old PCs whenever I had a chance as a kid, and I just found it satisfying. In recent years, I’ve also developed a fond appreciation of roguelike games because they’re mostly RPGs, which I spent most of my high school years on. So when I first heard of Solitairica about a year ago, I was excited and eager to play it. The game launched on Steam earlier this year, and now it has arrived on iOS. I’ve spent time with the Steam version, as well as an iOS beta for a few weeks, and let me tell you — this is one of my favorite games so far this year, and one you should not miss.
The graphics in Solitairica are beautiful and unique, as everything is done in a rather humorous and cartoonish style. The backgrounds for each environment appear hand drawn and have a nice canvas-like texture, which make the enemy monster avatars and cards look crisper on your Retina screen. All of the enemies have their own distinctive appearance and little details that make them stand out. The colors in the game are bright and vivid, and the dark, gloomy hues on the main map give nice contrast with the card backs and upcoming monsters. The animations are smooth and fluid with no lag on my iPhone 6s Plus. The soundtrack has a rather eerie tone to it, and the sound effects of the cards and monsters are comedic and fun.
In Solitairica, you take on the role of a warrior who is the last chance that the land of Myrroid has to defeat the evil Emperor Stuck and his dark forces and recover all of the stolen hearts. To do this, you’ll have to reach the castle, but there will be a lot of enemies who will make sure that doesn’t happen. You’ll have to engage in turn-based battles through solitaire and collect the four energies (attack, defense, agility, and willpower) to overcome your foes and continue forth to the Castle of Stuck. There are different areas that are represented by the color on the back of the face-down card on the map screen, and you’ll encounter many different types of foes. Each one has their own speciality that you’ll have to strategize and plan ahead for. Each run you go on in Solitairica will be different, and when you die, you’ll have to start over on your journey. But the real fun with roguelikes is watching your progression get better over time and with practice.
So how exactly do you battle in Solitairica? As I mentioned, you and the enemy take turns. On your turns, you will check the current card drawn and then tap on the card stacks that show cards that are one higher or one lower than the drawn card, just as you would in solitaire. Once all cards are eliminated from the board, then you win. If you can no longer make any matches for the card sequence, then you’ll have to draw another one, and then the enemy draws a card from their own stack. But if you look closely at each card, they are each colored differently: orange for attack, blue for defense, green for agility, and purple for willpower. As you successfully stack cards, you’ll collect energy for that attribute, which is shown in the bottom right. When you have enough energy of a certain kind, your equipped spells along the bottom will be available for use, and a tap activates it.
These spells help you get rid of unwanted cards, set up shields to prevent taking damage to your health (once it reaches zero you lose), check the next card, and even heal yourself. After you clear a stage, you’ll earn coins depending on how you did. The coins can be spent in the shop between battles to buy new spells and equippable items (increase energy gained or maximize your health points, for example) that help you in fights. It’s important to read what each spell or item does as well, so you can use it to your full advantage. If you can’t afford a spell or item in the shop, you can also spend 10 coins to hold it for the next visit, since the shop will rotate spells and items after each round. Your character can have up to four items equipped, and have a maximum of six spells in battle. If you have bought more than the allotted amount, you’ll have to pick-and-choose what to take with you before each level.
As you get further in the game and closer to Castle Stuck, you will find tougher enemies, more cards in battle, and much better loot in the shop, though it ends up being more expensive too. You also earn Wildstone after each journey that can be spent to upgrade cards (Ace, King, and Queen boosts) and even purchase new decks that change your play style. Along with the procedurally generated run each time you play and achievements to earn, Solitairica has high replay value.
I’ve been playing Solitairica for a while on Steam, but I’m super happy to see that it’s finally on iOS. The graphics are stunning, sounds and music are delightful, the humor is spot-on, and the mashup gameplay works incredibly well. There is high replay value due to the different decks, card upgrades, spells, items, and randomly generated levels, so it’s a game that one should be spending a long time with. In fact, you will have a very hard time putting this one down. I just wish that it weren’t so expensive to upgrade cards and get new decks, but that adds to the longevity of the game overall.
I highly recommend Solitairica for anyone who enjoys solitaire, roguelikes, and RPGs. Or if you just want an interesting new game that’s unlike anything you’ve tried before, this is it. Solitairica can be found on the App Store as a universal app for your iPhone and iPad for $3.99. There are no in-app purchases. The Steam version is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and SteamPlay for $11.99.
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