"If there is an app for that"

Roia review

February 25, 2025 by RSS Feed

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270144/

Zenless Zone Zero review

February 25, 2025 by RSS Feed

I am no stranger to gacha games, though since 2020 I've only really had eyes for one of them.Genshin Impact completely surpassed my expectations for what a satisfying gacha game could be and I am still a daily player of it to this day. It's still great, and its ability to compel me has made me curious about Hoyoverse's other titles. None of them really grabbed my attention until Zenless Zone Zero, though. Although I do not think that it has the same level of ambition or staying power as Genshin, I do think ZZZ plays in a similar space and can reach some of the same heights.

Hollow heroes

Zenless Zone Zero is an futuristic action rpg where you play as a proxy known as Phaethon. In this game world, there was some kind of calamity that caused spheres of dark energy to envelop parts of the world. These spaces, called "hollows," are extremely dangerous, though there are people who venture into them to complete various missions or jobs. The role of a proxy is to guide these adventures through hollows safely.

This is the stage upon which Hoyoverse crafts what is basically a dungeon-crawler with fast-paced action combat and light puzzle-solving alongside a steady release schedule of agents to entice players to gamble in-game currency for. It's at this point I'm supposed to make some kind of value judgement about gacha games, but I won't. These games are pretty commonplace now. You know what you think about these models already. Play them or don't. Enjoy them or don't. I'm not your dad. All I'll say instead is that--for the purposes of this review--I spent my time clearing all but the absolute hardest mode in the game (i.e. Shiyu Defense Critical Nodes) without spending any money, and confirming that all of it is doable and satisfying as a free player.

Closed world, open possibilities

When compared to something like Genshin Impact, ZZZ feels more like a companion and response to shortcomings of the former as opposed to something meant to push things forward. There's no open-world here, and the adventures feel a lot less grand and mysterious. You aren't even a stranger in a strange land, but rather someone who lost their primary proxy account and has to start grinding their rep back up to where they were. As such, the vibe of the game is much more like that of a daily routine, though the game's story mode certainly has eventful setpieces that disrupt the regular days of running a video store, hanging out with friends, and playing in the arcade.

By being a somewhat more contained and subdued world, though, Zenless Zone Zero is able to really focus in on its style and combat system, which are the game's highlights. The result is a game that overall is super sharp and expressive, capturing the vibes of playing the equivalent of an anime you discovered on Toonami in 2000, albeit one that animates at 60 frames per second. The combat here is also fast and fluid, with a focus on teambuilding and strategy in addition to fast reflexes, pattern recognition, and combo mastery. Of course, skill alone will only get you so far, as there are multiple layers of leveling and gearing that you also have to grind out, but the level of challenge presented at every point in the game besides one (Shiyu Defense) is completely manageable without spending money or even premium currency that is doled out for free.

Cheap thrills

It's this level of tolerance for free players that I am finding myself enjoying perhaps the most with Zenless Zone Zero, at least in a way. The limitations of not being able to get every character or even max out the ones that I have adds a layer of difficulty that I enjoy overcoming specifically because the game allows for it. Optimizing all of the resources, prioritizing characters, and making the most of what I have and actually succeeding feels great. It's a formula that also helped Genshin Impact click for me, but here it feels more pronounced since there isn't nearly as much exploration to do on the side.

Outside of the gacha system, there are still limiter systems in place like multiple currencies, stamina, and even a player rank that you have to grind up even if you only want to play ZZZ for its story. These limitations don't feel especially better than they do anywhere else, so I could see this being a dealbreaker for folks with little tolerance for this kind of gameplay design. The goal here--as always--is to get you playing regularly, which can be satisfying if you enjoy acquiring and building up new characters for evolving endgame challenge content, but otherwise comes off as rather annoying.

The bottom line

There's nothing about Zenless Zone Zero that will change any set feelings about gacha games. But, assessing it for what it is, it's a great one of those games that offers something different from this new wave of gachas that reward dedicated play as much (if not more) than those with deep pockets.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270155/

Resident Evil 7 biohazard review

February 25, 2025 by RSS Feed

Capcom has now ported three fully-fledgedResident Evil games to iOS, and--although none of them are especially high watermarks in the series--RESIDENT EVIL 7 biohazard is probably the best of the bunch. Despite having a lot of goofy "we did this bit to show off VR" moments and a back half that plays like a different, less appealing action game, there's still plenty to like about Resident Evil 7 overall.

Mobile marauder

Resident Evil 7's been out for almost eight years, so you probably have a sense of what the game is (or can find out pretty easily). With that in mind, I'll start with how it plays on mobile: fine. Or, at least about as fine as the other Resident Evil games on iOS have played. It is about the same level as impressive and has the same amount of somewhat screwy technical issues that crop up on rare occasions.

In my experience with this game, I had two noteworthy bugs I ran across. The first is an audio bug that is very similar to the one I recorded for my impressions video of Resident Evil Village. The other was a late-game lock-up that would happen when trying to reload a save, which seemed to coincide with an iCloud backup timeout problem. Both of these bugs were annoying, but relatively easy to work around, which is to say that if you have the hardware that can run this game, you should be fine.

Comparing corpses

I say at the top of my review that Resident Evil 7 is the best title between it, Village and RE4 Remake because it actually feels like a survival game, its controls mesh the best with the kinds of actions you're asked to do, and it does the most actual scaring of the three. On the flipside, if you are just looking to shoot a lot of gross enemies and barrel through bombastic setpieces, then it's pretty easy to make the case that Resident Evil 7 is actually the worst game of the lot. It just depends on what you are looking for (and, for the record, I think Village is the most preposterously over the top, action-wise).

To call Resident Evil 7 a subdued survival-horror game, though, would be an overstatement. Although this one starts with a very focused and refined approach to the genre, it flies off the rails just like every other Resident Evil game does. That's just what these games do. In its defense, I'll say that Resident Evil 7 does seem somewhat at odds with doing this, as it shows at least some restraint around its bigger encounters by not making them pure gunfights.

Two names, two games

As is now clearly the standard model for Capcom with these releases, you can download and try out part of Resident Evil 7 for free and opt to pay $19.99 for the full game. For titles that push hardware and are basically only playable with a controller, I think that pricing games this way is a boon for players who need to figure out whether they actually want to (or even can) play games in this format.

What I don't love about this model for Resident Evil 7 in particular is that the first half and the second half of this game feel like two fairly different experiences. The game's opening that has Ethan investigating a rundown property in Louisiana is where this game really shines. Everything beyond that (and there's quite a bit of it!) feels forced and a lot more generic. It ends up giving the impression that Capcom knew--rightly--that they couldn't make a 10 hour game out of the Baker property, so they decided--wrongly--to just bolt a bunch of other stuff onto the end of it instead of just making a shorter game.

The bottom line

My feelings about RESIDENT EVIL 7 biohazard are almost perfectly summed up by the opening moments of booting the game. Before you reach the game menu, there's this opening cinematic that plays set to a cover of "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." Choosing a centuries old folk song that has decidedly creepy vibes is a really inspired and evocative song choice, but this performance of it is so melodramatic and over-the-top that it loses all of its impact. Looking back on my time with RESIDENT EVIL 7 biohazard, it's fairly easy to see this pattern of excellent decision-making getting kneecapped all over the place. It makes for an uneven, and sometimes frustrating--experience, but one that is nonetheless easier to enjoy than its less-inspired counterparts on the App Store.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270161/

Balatro review

February 25, 2025 by RSS Feed

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/review-270197/

Unforeseen Incidents Mobile review

February 25, 2025 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/review-270198/