Divide and Conquer: The Board Game
I’m really enjoying this game. The AI is challenging, but not impossible. Fun to play and exercise the brain.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Strategy Games.
DeadOS
DeadOS is less a game and more a really entertaining toy where you generate a city, populate it with people, and watch a zombie outbreak of your creation slowly take it over. There’s no win/loss state, and your only task is to keenly observe as zombies convert the living, civilians run in droves from the impending horde of undead, and cops create blockades around infection zones to slow the spread.
Though the graphics and presentation are simple, the scale of the simulation impressed me; up to ten thousand people can be simulated in the city. It’s oddly satisfying to watch a fleeing crowd of hundreds, abstracted as a bunch of scurrying yellow dots seen from a bird’s-eye view.
– Real player with 10.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Simulation Games.
There’s no other game on PC like this. It’s already a pretty nice little sandbox game as it is now, can’t wait for all the features that come out for it over time. I completely recommend this game.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Abstractanks
Edit: More bigger maps!
My first!
Just played the first handful of missions and a random battle and I am enjoying it immensely. The type of game I wish I could make if I had the time and the patience. The quick pickup and play gameplay is awesome, I am never one who enjoys the tedious aspect of resource management (I prefer Sudden Strike to Starcraft). At 7 bucks, give it a try to help encourage more of this in the future.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Minimalist Games.
A very cool neon rts game. I could only reccomend to brighten up the levels a bit, because it’s a bit hard to see what you’re doing.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
Ancient Go
Early Access Day 1 review:
Edit: Thumbs up because it looks promising. (I’d hold off getting it until counting method issues are resolved, hopefully.)
Project seems promising. It includes basic tutorials for rules and scoring, a VS. AI mode and an Online multiplayer mode.
The AI is not particularly strong on any setting (Hard is when it starts playing slightly better moves, maximum tends to take a bit more time to play moves, but not a LOT of time.) So (at least at this stage) the AI is really meant for beginners. It would be nice to get a stronger one later down the line, but I’d rather see good multiplayer added than the focus be on AI.
– Real player with 20.5 hrs in game
“Ancient Go” aims to be an app for total beginners to Go, which is great. Currently, outside of “Ancient Go,” the only other app out there on Steam is “Crazy Stone Deep Learning -The First Edition-,” which is $79.99. However, “Crazy Stone” is arguably meant for committed Go players, who are much stronger at the game. So, “Ancient Go” is a cheaper alternative for “Crazy Stone” that allows the Steam community to start playing Go at a cheaper price. That said, “Ancient Go” has its strengths and weaknesses.
– Real player with 20.0 hrs in game
Acolyte: Prologue
My play through of the prologue here (once it uploads) if you get stuck and need help: https://youtu.be/9GET1gsMWZ0
I had so much fun with the prologue I’m super stoked to see what comes next also the link for the transcendent edition brought up a 404 error on itch.io. Check this game out for sure also it’s very easy to get stuck on a tangent if you make a mistake figuring out part of the puzzle. I had to close and reopen the game to get back to what I needed, luckily it saves your progress. I love games that make you think outside the box and use outside resources. I had two things that might have been glitches? I rated a haiku and the task didn’t complete I got information for a evidence database but I couldn’t find the evidence database I had two messages I couldn’t find in my message log and all messages were shown as read but regardless I still made it to the end of the prologue so nbd
– Real player with 8.7 hrs in game
so.. this sucks. don’t get me wrong, i LOVE this game, i just found it yesterday and I loved it. I beat the prologue, then went and bought the transcendent version to continue the story. (weirdly enough the transcendent edition has more actual bugs and not fictional bugs than the steam version, including spelling errors, but c’est la vie)
i’ve reached the part now where i had to fill my contacts list, and figure out the passwords to unlock the cosmetics. there are 0 hints for either. for the latter, the hints that ARE given, are extremely vague and i am unable to find any references for them that correlate to the actual game, and it’s extremely frustrating. what does “dog” mean in this context? the cosmetic was related to hair so i put poodle, nope. i also put cat, thinking back to the personality test, also nope. what does QR @ 0:40s mean? and the postal code? where would i even begin to find that? i understand this game is new, so there’s not a lot of info out there, but i’m stuck. (yes, i’ve looked through the discussions and reviews here for any hints, i’ve looked at the itch.io forums for this game, i’ve looked at twitter, ive looked at youtube, i’ve looked at reddit. i’ve even looked at your patreon to see if there was anything there.) i’m unable to progress because i have no idea what to ask, what the passwords might be for the cosmetics, or how to progress the storyline.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Fumiko!
As far as platfromers go this one is quite unique and extraordinary. First off its 3D, usually we have 2D pixel platformers, but with Fumiko we have a beautiful but abstract environment.
The game looks and feels great, it handles pretty well and every minute spent ingame is a joyous one, this game really is a unique platformer well worthy of it’s price tag.
The backstory or actual story of the game is rather complex and as you play it it starts to make sense to you, first off you play as a Female A.I who doesn’t know who she is where she is or what her purpose is, and that is where a fun feature comes in, something not always present with platformer, exploration; To put it simple it’s pure fun and entertaining. our region is some form of virtual security network mainframe that we get to explore, a lot of detail and creativity went into creating the perfect atmosphere really going the extra mile to present us with a form of authentic of what it would be like to explore a system in such a sense. The music really adds to every function of the game, enhancing it and setting a tone that really just soothes you into the game.
– Real player with 41.0 hrs in game
Where to start? The art. The aesthetic. Fumiko! is at once a simplicity and a pleasure to behold. Its low-poly style conveys exactly as much as it needs to, and its vibrant colors illuminate the world in a beautiful and satisfying way.
Meanwhile, the music is always on point to convey a great sense of atmosphere. Are things chill? Got it. Panicked? Also got it. Focused? Warm? Somber? Check, check, check.
The story is revealed in bits and pieces, sometimes through collectibles called memory fragments, other times through dialogue, sometimes simply through the aesthetic of each world. It is chilling, disturbing, familiar. It conveys grand and simple ideas in their turn. It asks the hard questions. It presses us about identity, artificiality, alienation, will, and many others.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
Essays on Empathy
Incredible. I wholeheartedly recommend this release.
If you enjoyed The Red Strings Club, you will definitely love these as well.
They’re so much more than just games (maybe apart from Underground Hangovers, it’s the odd one out), they depict real, relevant issues, the characters feel so genuine and relatable; and the graphics together with the music and the sound design work together perfectly with the narratives.
Quoting the developers in reference to their style in one of the notes, you can expect “thought provoking concepts and stimulating questions and decisions”.
– Real player with 15.6 hrs in game
- Short Review -
Essentially a collection of short stories that cover a wide range of topics.
I will say there are strong themes in most, if not all, of the games present in Essays on Empathy. There are warnings before you play each one so you will not be blindsided. A lot of these games hit close to home, so please play with care.
- Toasty -
11.45 A Vivid Life
Eternal Home Floristry
Behind Every Great One
A Bookshelf Limbo
De Tres al Cuarto
Dear Substance of Kin
Supercontinent Ltd
- Burnt -
– Real player with 12.2 hrs in game
Hnefatafl
This game the most fun I can find these days (coming from an experienced hobby chess player). Different rules and game types are available for the ancient Hnefatafl game that was played in the viking area before the advent of chess. Hnefatafl is an unbalanced game where the strategy for each side is very different. One side plays the defender and must escape with the king while the attackers rush to capture him. Because of this unbalance in the rules the computers are still no match for decent human players. Try for example the mode legacy berserk and you will find yourself at the top of the food chain in no time. The number of possible moves to play increases faster than in e.g. chess and go, making it hard to calculate and predict far ahead, especially for the larger boards. Because of this complexity and the unbalance in the rules it will take time for the computers to play well leaving the arena for us humans to compete using intuition to guide us. Maybe you have what it takes to come up with a new way to play and beat the current top ranked players?
– Real player with 912.2 hrs in game
This appears to offer everything you need if you are interested in this ancient game, including all the main variants, the ability to customise the game and rules and create your own variants. online play, synchronization with with the mobile phone version, decent graphics and interface, graphical mods, and great developers who listen to feedback and strive to keep improving the game.
I suggested an interface/display change to make the game look better on my monitor and screen resolution, and with a day or two an update was released with the idea implemented. Fantastic!
– Real player with 117.4 hrs in game
Bot Colony
Bot Colony is an ambitious title, maybe even too ambitious for what it’s worth. So far, playing it is more of a struggle than entertainment…
I am aware that Bot Colony is an Early Access Game, but still, this build is not playable by far. I’m afraid i wouldn’t even be wrong if i would say that there is literally almost nothing in Bot Colony that works as it should… Let’s start with the game’s motto: “The Game You Speak With”. This is the main reason why anybody would pay attention to it, but unfortunately in the end the player will find out that this is actually “The Game Which Doesn’t Understand You”. That’s it. I’ve said it. Natural language understanding is just not ready to be implemented in a game. It wil get you right about one time out of ten. Other then that you’ll get replies like “I don’t know what you mean”.
– Real player with 55.8 hrs in game
Review after June 18 major upgrade
Introduction
Bot Colony is an ambitious title, aiming to provide a non-scripted story by allowing you to freely converse with robots. If you enjoyed literary works like ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep’, Isaac Asimov’s Robot series, movies like ‘Space Oddysey 2001’(not one of my favorites though) or Anime like ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and ‘Psycho-Pass’, you’ll find a similar setting here.
An important remark is that most of the gameplay is text (or speech) conversations, which at times can be both agitating and humorous, and that might not appeal to everyone.
– Real player with 27.4 hrs in game
One4
Ever wanted to play Connect 4 in a Rubik’s cube? Me neither!
Strange as this game is from visual style to game mechanics, there’s still plenty of fun to be had for a free to play game!
The UI is a little janky, but it’s still easy to set up a multiplayer game with a friend, and different modes that change the game’s mechanics keep the game interesting.
Highly recommend this game if you and a friend are looking for something new to play.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
I’d recommend this game, it’s a nice take on the classic connect 4 type of game with a cool concept added.
Your goal is the same as the classic game to make a row of 4 of your characters, but this time in a 3D puzzle.
The controls and interface are well explained and works well.
The game visuals and animations also are really pleasant with a nice music.
You can play solo or against a friend in three different modes with their own settings also detailed ingame.
When you play solo, you can chose between three difficulties (easy,medium and hard).
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game