AR-K: The Great Escape

AR-K: The Great Escape

After playing the first 2 episodes I can safely say that this is the best episode so far!!! The developers certainly improved the game quality in both ways: technically and direction-wise. The following points sums up the following:

Pros:

  • Gameplay quality much improved from first 2 episodes

  • Puzzles more interesting

  • Protagonist given more depth in character

  • Story development much more natural

  • Render quality improved

  • This episode is much more bug free than previous 2 episodes

Real player with 27.8 hrs in game


Read More: Best 2.5D Dynamic Narration Games.


It’s great when you come to a game and it’s a lot better than you thought it would be. While I enjoyed ar-k 1 and 2 and I do recommend those games to play first, this for me is a lot better - story, graphics, setting. The writing was very good and if you didn’t want to read everything, you didn’t need to click on that character’s bit of conversation but could come back to it if you wanted. I liked the humour, and it was witty in parts. It is the perfect balance of not just a good story which is vital in an adventure game but also good interactive gameplay.

Real player with 18.4 hrs in game

AR-K: The Great Escape on Steam

AR-K

AR-K

I received this game as a part of some bundle I bought way back.

I want to like this game. I wish the development team the best. But unfortunately I cannot recommend it, not even for $8 USD.

There are good, or at least decent, things here. There is some humor, including physical humor, that works. The actual voice lines are mostly fine, and what faults there are there in this audio itself are much more likely on the VA director and/or scriptwriters. Barring one jarring segment of lines I noticed in the 2nd episode where something obviously went wrong in recording or compression or something, but the team decided to use it anyway, which… fits with some of my suspicions about how out-of-time/energy/money they were feeling at the time.

Real player with 16.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best 2.5D Point & Click Games.


AR-K may be a study in how to have an okay story, okay graphics and good voice-acting and still come out with a bad game - soo manyy problems.

This title consists of the first two episodes of the game, “Gone with the Sphere” and “The Girl Who Wasn’t There”, and the second feels way better than the first. Still, we see a lot of beginner’s mistakes in the handiwork. Basically every aspect of the game is flawed in some way or another.

Note: Review was rewritten to fit Steam’s transparent character limit.

Real player with 15.9 hrs in game

AR-K on Steam

Captain Pegleg

Captain Pegleg

On their journey across the South Pacific, something incredible happens to Captain Pegleg and his crew. They find themselves stranded on an island, where our Captain goes on a treasure hunt and tries to hijack a new ship to escape while his crew is…. doing absolutely nothing!?

Captain Pegleg needs you to join him on this challenging journey. Help him find treasures and escape the island.

*** IGDA Rating 8.2/10 ***

MAIN CHARACTERISTICS:

• 2.5D platformer

• 40+ levels - challenging and fun


Read More: Best 2.5D Pirates Games.


Captain Pegleg on Steam

MEIRIN IN FISTS OF FIRE

MEIRIN IN FISTS OF FIRE

Wanted it be good its not

Real player with 0.3 hrs in game

MEIRIN IN FISTS OF FIRE on Steam

Angelo and Deemon: One Hell of a Quest

Angelo and Deemon: One Hell of a Quest

This game had been on my radar for a long time but bad reviews always put me off. I finally saw it on sale for just over €2 and bought it.

The dialogues are a bit simplistic but there are a couple of funny moments. The game flows well, the in-game help is good (no need to look for walkthroughs) and, thanks to the nice voice acting, the two and a half hours or so are worth the full price of the game.

Although the game is short, there is never the impression of seeing something cut or rushed. Everything is very clean, without bugs. Most of the game follows a sharable logic, except for a couple of points where you have to read the mind of the developers. Points that we can solve thanks to the (aforementioned) in-game help.

Real player with 10.3 hrs in game

Very nice, but somewhat flawed game.

Pros:

  • Artwork. It’s top-notch. Splendid characters on splendid backgrounds. Animation is somewhat simplistic, but nice nonetheless.

  • Voice acting. Very good for an indie game. Even the Ben’s voice matches the original perfectly.

  • Puzzles. Very good. Challenging enough to please a seasoned adventure gamer. Rare find nowadays.

  • Plot. It’s OK. Good pace, nice ideas.

Neutral:

  • Writing. Some characters and their stories aren’t consistent enough. Some are plain silly.

Real player with 7.6 hrs in game

Angelo and Deemon: One Hell of a Quest on Steam

Ruine

Ruine

The potential of this game is incredibly strong. The art style, world and characters are making me eager to see more from this game. There’s a solid gameplay loop that’ll keep you experimenting with different builds throughout different playthroughs. Very good stuff!

Obviously, there’s a lot to improve and balance. Combat isn’t as in depth as I feel it could be. Ruins, while fun to progress through, are quite basic in level design and detail, and the game can be finished in under an hour if you know what you’re doing and/or lucky enough from the RNG loot.

Real player with 37.3 hrs in game

Bias: I’ve playtested this game.

While my “hrs on record” do not reflect it, I’ve spent hours and hours playtesting this game - breaking it, finding bugs, dying over and over and over… and I love this game. The art, music, atmosphere, and humor all work together in creating this wonderful game world filled with intriguing NPCs and clever enemies. I am not particularly good at this type of game, but I enjoy the hell out of Ruine in spite of that. I highly recommend checking it out.

Edited to Add: The dev continues to update this game with new content - enemies, areas, treasures, equipment… Ruine just gets better and better.

Real player with 14.3 hrs in game

Ruine on Steam

Dracula: A Gothic RPG

Dracula: A Gothic RPG

Dracula is back in this dark but cute RPG.

Collect souls for more powers, learn alchemy, and cast your dark magic in battle.

Black cats, werewolves, zombies; he’s buddies with all types of Halloween friendlies – and he’s going to go questing with them!

Story:

After thousands of years, Dracula has been summoned for a grand purpose by ghosts and dark magicians. They require his resurrection to fulfill the prophecy.

After he has awakened, he meets a quirky cast of characters that will get him in a lot of trouble and comical shenanigans.

Features:

👻 Party members include ghosts, zombies, and many types of Halloween friendlies.

🦠 Collect Souls to increase your power, or talk to the dead to learn their skills.

🎁 Collect items to decorate Dracula’s Mansion.

⚔️ Explore and adventure the world with some … rather unusual quests… as a dark hero.

📺 Classic role-playing style

Explore areas in classic JRPG style

~Victorian Forest~

Future Updates:

⚗️ Craft items in the Underground Alchemy Lab.

📜 Randomized side-quests

🍪 Come to the dark side. We have cookies.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1563670

Dracula: A Gothic RPG on Steam

SushiParty

SushiParty

Grade = D?. Worth a buy, if you enjoy shooting and dodging. But if you’re looking for score attack or time attack, don’t buy it.

⚖️Check Scoring Scheme

| GRADE | SCORE (9) | WORTH BUYING? | OVERALL | DISCOUNT |

| A+ | 57 ~ 70 | Worth a Season Pass / Deluxe Edition |

Real player with 2.1 hrs in game

I didn’t hate it nearly as much as I expected.

It’s an ok videogame but it lacks polish.

I recommend receiving it for free from a friend.

Real player with 1.1 hrs in game

SushiParty on Steam

Beach Volleyball Competition

Beach Volleyball Competition

Beach volleyball simulator.

Details:

  • x2 game modes, 3D or 2.5D isometric projection;

  • easy game play controls;

  • realistic ball physics and speed;

  • several levels, with several music

.

Features:

  • styled characters;

  • internal control for vfx, sfx, music;

  • partner AI character behavior customization;

  • training mode for learning correct action execution;

  • story mode have progress for increasing team skills;

  • versus mode vs bots configured using net orders from other real users teams or teams of story mode;

  • multilingual translation for general settings

.

Concretely:

3D game mode.

Planned replacement of background stuff to use completely 3d stuff.

2.5D game mode.

Court projection is isometric, that increase playable area.

Easy game play controls.

You need one click per action, on right or left side of playable area, that control game play.

Click on upper screen area show/hide modal menu.

Styled characters.

Available skin color, hair style, clothes, customization inside “PLAYER” menu.

Change at least the color of the skin of the character, not to be confused where you are in the team.

Internal control for vfx, sfx, music.

Visual effects can be turned on/off using “?” menu, that decrease cpu load of slow devices.

Sound effects and music volume, can be controlled using “VOLUME” menu, and using match popup menu.

Partner AI character behavior customization.

AI behavior can be controlled using “PARTNER” menu.

Story mode have progress for increasing team skills.

Next story level unlocked - dope capacity increased.

Versus mode vs bots configured using net orders from other real users teams or teams of story mode.

“VERSUS”- “CREATE NETWORK AI ORDER” , when complete, your team simulation was added on server, and other real users can take order and play versus your bots. Behavior simulate your behavior, less or more.

“VERSUS”- “TAKE NETWORK AI ORDER” , when complete, you can play vs other user team simulation.

That start match vs network AI use “TRAINING”- “USER VS AI”. That observe match of your team simulation vs other user team simulation use “TRAINING”- “AI VS AI”.

Multilingual translation for general settings.

Visual effects setting description inside “?” translated to few languages.

Beach Volleyball Competition on Steam

Life Goes On: Done to Death

Life Goes On: Done to Death

Life Goes On: Done to Death is a neat little puzzle game that I picked up a while ago and recently replayed to confirm my opinion of it.

The core concept of Life Goes On is quite unique and well-designed. Essentially, the game revolves around killing your knights in order to progress through the puzzles. The simplest example is creating a pathway across a spike pit with the knight’s bodies. However, this alone wouldn’t be enough to flesh out a full game, so the developers incorporated all sorts of mechanics that make the player think in a certain way to solve the puzzle. Life Goes On’s mechanics include but are not limited to: Checkpoints, toggleable spike pits/walls, saw blades, flamethrowers, buttons, conveyor belts, cannons, tractor beams, and more.

Real player with 24.6 hrs in game

I first played the demo months ago and instantly fell in love with this game.

The full game did not fail to deliver.

The whole concept of (literally) standing on the shoulders of those who came before is presented wonderfully. See a deathtrap? Die on it, then respawn and walk on your corpse. Switch that has to be held down? Die so that your corpse falls on it, then respawn and walk past. Et cetera, et cetera.

The controls are a bit inaccurate at times, and will most likely leave you dying slightly more often than intended. Although since this game is all about sacrificing one knight to make a path for another, a few more corpses lying around aren’t that much of a problem. (And if you’re finding it difficult, a few more corpses aren’t a problem at all.)

Real player with 19.6 hrs in game

Life Goes On: Done to Death on Steam