"If there is an app for that"

Slice & Dice review

March 28, 2024 by RSS Feed

There is no shortage of roguelikes on mobile, and great ones at that. I feel like I'm writing about some new hotness in this space every other month. It's a pace that feels unsustainable, and yet, the hits keep coming. Slice & Dice is yet another incredible run-based dungeon-crawler that is more than capable of standing out in front of its excellent competition.

Rolling deep

In Slice & Dice, you "control" a party of adventurers as they battle their way through a set of increasingly challenging combat encounters. You do this by rolling dice for your team and choosing to lock in specific abilities before using them to deal damage, buff your team, etc. Each of your party members has unique sides on their individual die that is determined by their particular class and the items you have equipped on them.

After each battle, your party gets stronger through gaining a choice of item or a somewhat random offer to evolve one of your heroes' classes. Through these layers of chance, you are supposed to try and create some degree of order that allows you continue to survive fights and forge on. But, if you don't, there's always next time, and chances are good your next run will have some new unlockable to play with.

Variable variety

It may seem like Slice & Dice is a total crapshoot given how chance-based every facet of its gameplay is, but if that was the case I probably would have stopped playing it well before writing this review. There's some design magic at work here that I can't quite put my finger on, but you never feel totally out of control or unable to right the ship on any given run of Slice & Dice. At the same time, you always feel like you're on a razor's edge, as one bad turn or roll can also spell disaster and stop even the most promising runs short.

If at any point you do feel like you're starting to master (and grow weary of) the game, Slice & Dice offers a ton of different ways to prevent that. Between different hero classes, new modes, harder difficulties, and several other modifiers you can mix and match together, there is a whole lot of game to explore that will feel fresh for a really long time. Oh, and if the prospect of playing Slice & Dice to unlock all of these things also sounds draining, there's a little check box in the settings menu that can just unlock everything for you.

Dice pocket

Slice & Dice is available on PC as well, but I can't imagine a better home for it than on mobile. The pacing of the combat and overall run structure fits incredibly well for on-the-go play, and layout of the action looks great in both portrait and landscape mode. The game doesn't have cloud saving for retaining progress between devices, but that doesn't feel all that important for a run-based game where unlocks can all be bypassed.

Something else nice about Slice & Dice is you don't have to take my word for all of this. You can try it out yourself for free and see what up to 12 fights of a run feel like, which should give you a really good sense of whether this game is for you and if you like it on mobile. If you decide you are all-in on it, a single $8.99 purchase unlocks the full game.

The bottom line

There's so much possibility space in Slice & Dice and the game is designed expertly to let you explore all of it on your own terms, all while delivering a super satisfying and strategic roguelike experience. There's not much else I could ask for from a game like this, except more ones like it, I guess.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/slice-and-dice-review/

Methods: Detective Competition review

March 19, 2024 by RSS Feed

Something I had an epiphany about last year was why so many visual novels go out of their way to lose focus or just get a bit goofy with their storytelling thanks to PARANORMASIGHT's deficiencies in that department. Methods: Detective Competition has no problem doing this while being strange from the jump, and it makes for a jarring entry into what ulimately becomes a charming adventure, at least for being the opening chapter in a larger series.

Mysterious mystery competition

As its name implies, Methods: Detective Competition, is a story about super sleuths who have been gathered together to try and decide who is the greatest detective of them all. This creates a structure where you are regularly investigating staged crime scenes and using deductive reasoning, but as you go you also start to peel back layers about the competition, the people in it, and why it's being organized to begin with, which ends up serving as a larger mystery and driving force for the game.

If you've played any visual novel games before, the gameplay should be entirely familiar. For the most part, you are simply tapping to advance dialog between characters, though for investigation segments you may need to tap on points of interest or make dialog choices to lock in your deductions. There is a fail state for arriving at the wrong conclusions, but this game makes it very easy to reverse course and change your choices to keep the story flowing.

Curious characters

The plot setup is not the only aspect of Methods: Detective Competition that feels odd. Every character in this game is full of quirks and mannerisms in a way that is borderline offputting at first, but--by the time I finished this first game's twenty chapters--they turn into endearing qualities that also lead to some legitimately funny moments.

To match these strange personality traits, all of the game art is similarly cartoonish, with many characters often seeming misshapen or even warped. I wouldn't say this style really suits my tastes, but it does a great job of meshing with the writing style and solidifying the overall tone of the game, while also making it visually distinct from any number of other visual novel mysteries with more conventional character art.

Playing the long game

Methods: Detective Competition is a port of a PC game that came out 2020, and it's more or less the same game with one important distinction: This release on iOS is just the first part of a much larger game. As noted in the App Store description, buying this app version for $2.99 grants access to the first 20 chapters of a game that spans 100 chapters total.

For the price, this is definitely worth it, but it is important to note that there isn't a satisfying close to playing this game as a standalone experience. By the end of Methods: Detective Competition, I have more questions than answers about the mystery competition. Luckily for Erabit Studios, I am interested in seeing where things go from there.

The bottom line

Methods: Detective Competition is an enjoyable and intriguing opening to a much larger narrative that will come to iOS in the future. If this game is any indication, though, I can expect more zany reveals, clever mini-mysteries, and some pretty funny jokes and bits that are all broken down into manageably-sized chapters.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/methods-detective-competition-review/

Ex Astris review

March 12, 2024 by RSS Feed

I've always been of the mind that the stories that video games tell tend to not matter all that much. There are various reasons (and a fair amount of nuance) for this that I can't get into here because I have a game to review, but it just so happens that this game is a perfect example of my point. For a large portion of Ex Astris, it is practically impossible to tell what is going on, but this rpg still manages to impress thanks to its inventive combat system, fascinating aesthetic, tight pacing, and surprising mobile-friendliness.

A true mystery

In Ex Astris, you play as an investigator from Earth visiting an alien planet. This planet has been previously discovered and had contact with humans before, but for some reason that relationship got cut off for awhile and now your character, Yan, is here anew to investigate... something.

If this sounds pretty vague, just wait until you dive further into this game. Very little gets explained, and--when it does--it is with proper nouns that also have very little explanation about what they are. If the vibe Ex Astris was going for was to make its world as mysterious and confusing as it might be to a young investigator that had never been there before, then mission accomplished! Even if you are able to piece things together, Ex Astris definitely avoids filling in blanks and often will skip moments of action or transition that might explain how your character arrived somewhere or what certain character motivations are.

Build a combo, dial a combo

The good news about all of this story stuff is that it largely doesn't matter. I blazed through Ex Astris because it looked cool, ran at a smooth 60 frames per second, had nice, tight dungeons, and--most importantly--an expertly-crafted combat system.

In many rpgs, there's a point at which I feel done with combat. It becomes a thing I have to do to continue progressing, though the actions associated with it lose quite a bit of luster. This did not happen with me for Ex Astris. I could not wait to hop into fights with new enemies and try to puzzle out new combos or hunt all over environments for materials I could use to build new gear or cook food that could change the interplay of my characters. It was very much a driving force throughout the game, thanks in no small part to the careful attention-to-detail given to each interlocking system--of which there are about a half dozen--including heavy emphasis on reaction-based defense and combo-inputs that make you feel like a constant, active participant in the action.

Mobile mastery

Outside of the specifics of its combat, Ex Astris is a very conventional rpg experience. You have party members, side quests, little items tucked away in corners, some light puzzle-solving within dungeons, and even an in-universe mini-game you might spend way too much time trying to get good at (as I did). It has so many of the things I’d expect from an rpg that if it weren't for the fact I was playing using touch controls, you might have been able to convince me that Ex Astris is an old and forgotten mid-tier Playstation 2 game.

Despite feeling very console-like, though, Ex Astris does a shockingly good job of being mobile-friendly. Even though the touch controls are just virtual buttons, they feel natural in the way they are placed and how they respond to inputs. Its environment design is also very open and detailed without being overwhelming. Lastly, Ex Astris is very generous with checkpointing, allows for quick restarts of fights, and handles cloud saves in a very clear way so you're never wondering where your save might be at any given time. All of this ties together into a package that feels immersive, but without being super unwieldy or overly long for mobile play.

The bottom line

By the end of Ex Astris, the story takes on a shape that explains enough stuff so that there's an ending that makes sense, but even if it didn't it wouldn't have made a difference to me. The systems at play in this game are so finely tuned, well executed, and portioned out that the entire thing could have been written in gibberish and I would have still enjoyed it immensely.

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

Shovel Pirate review

March 05, 2024 by RSS Feed

As the App Store gets increasingly overloaded with live service titles, ever ambitious gacha games, and bulky console/PC ports, its nice when something comes out and embraces a small, mobile-focused scope and sticks to it. Shovel Pirateis exactly this kind of game, and it's a refreshingly short, reasonable, and charming puzzle-platformer.

Quest for booty

In Shovel Pirate, you play as a naked, blob-like pirate armed with nothing but a shovel. Your goal is to traverse levels and dig up diamonds and other treasures hiding undergound, while being careful to avoid snakes, baseball-throwing monkeys, traps, and other hazards.

The game has a simple control scheme with virtual buttons that lets you move, jump, and dig at will and climb ladders, activate trap doors, or destroy obstacles when you are near any of those level features. In each of the game's 15 levels, your ultimate goal is to find three diamonds (and a bonus collectible) before hitting a flag pole with your shovel to move on to the next challenge.

Simple surprises

The beauty of Shovel Pirate is how clever it can get with its simple setup. You never know what you might dig up under a mound of sand and--even if its a new enemy--maybe instead of bashing it with your shovel it could be useful for setting off a nearby trap so you don't have to take the hit.

This kind of ingenuity isn't required for most of the game if you just want to make your way through it, though the satisfaction of figuring these kinds of things out and pulling them off are a fun reward. The result of this design makes Shovel Pirate delight to play without creating friction or challenge that leaves you retrying levels repeatedly.

Pay to finish

Shovel Pirate is a free game with no ads, but it does have a paywall of $ 1.99 to unlock all the levels. The curious thing about this paywall though is that it comes pretty deep into the game. I don't quite remember off the top of my head, but I think you can play nearly half of it before being asked to pony up for the whole game.

This is surprisingly reasonable and gives players more than enough time with the game to decide if they enjoy what it has to offer enough to pay a couple of bucks for it. Without just being completely free, I'm hard-pressed to think of a game that has had a more generous free-to-start model.

The bottom line

Shovel Pirate is definitely not a super meaty or deep experience, but it's really not trying to be that either. It offers some simple platforming fun that is all very colorful and charming that you can enjoy a large portion of without paying a dime.

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

Death Stranding iOS saves are as hard to detect as BTs

February 29, 2024 by RSS Feed

This isn't a review of Death Stranding on iOS so much as it is an announcement that I will not be reviewing it. I posted some impressions earlier this month about the release where I mentioned my intent to finish it, but I just... can't. This is not from a lack of desire, to be clear. It's from this port being particularly awful in a crucial way: managing saves.

Every time I boot up Death Stranding on my iPad, I have no idea if it will actually load my most recent save. Sometimes after the 90+ second load time I am right where I left off. Sometimes, the game seemingly accidentally loads an old save and I just have to go into the system menu to reload to the more recent one. And at other times still, my most recent saves appear to have completely vanished.

I have reliably been able to get to my most recent saves eventually, but doing so is always a frustrating process. It usually involves a lot of force closing the app and rebooting it to see if my save files magically reappear.

For this reason, I don't think anyone should really consider playing Death Stranding on iOS, regardless of your interest or affinity for it. It's a beast of a game that will push your iOS device to its limits, but--or perhaps because of this--it also just can't get the most basic thing right. At a $40 price tag, this is just unacceptable.

The strength of mobile devices is their ability to allow you to do things conveniently. I understand that this strength isn't leaned into quite as hard or in the same way on other platforms, so there's always some pain points playing console and PC ports on iOS. That said, I'm totally ok with playing a beefy console quality title on my iOS device as long as it works well enough. This is how I finished Resident Evil 4, Hitman: Blood Money, Alien: Isolation, etc. Most of these games I'd contend aren't event mobile-friendly, but they were made convenient enough to play through by not completely fucking up how you start or resume a play session, among other things.

If you like Kojima games or are just generally interested in Death Stranding, I recommend you play it literally any other way than on iOS. Not only will it very likely be a more impressive looking experience, but (presumably), you won't have to restart the thing several times over just to make sure you can pick up where you left off.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/news/death-stranding-ios-saves-are-as-hard-to-detect-as-bts/