7 Grand Steps: What Ancients Begat
Ok, I’ve played this game over a period of years and I’ve stared guiltily at the ‘Mixed’ ratings for about as long.
Simply put, I love dynasty builders, so I’m gonna recommend this game. There are so few games that allow me to try to play through a bunch of historical family drama and this is one of them.
It’s a strange game, to be sure–but in gaming, strange is never a bad thing. But it does mean that this game is niche and just because I recommend doesn’t mean I have any illusions that everybody will enjoy this game. Either you’ll love it or you’ll hate having spent money on it. I don’t know if you’ll completely hate it outright: it’s too hard to categorize. It’s a weird, simple, arcade-style game about an ancient family trying to move up through the ranks. The mechanics have been explained well in other reviews, but the gist is you play out entire lifetimes, getting hitched (or not), giving birth to children that are a pain to feed and keep from hating each other, and you’ll be prompted with all sorts of story events. You’ll often go up and down. An entire arc (pushing through each age, last I checked I think there were about three) would take 15 hours. Plenty of replay value, simply based on choices in story events.
– Real player with 23.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Turn-Based Games.
Towards the end of the Copper Age, things were finally looking up for my family. After many years of being bottom dwellers in the social caste system my family discovered the “alphabet” and the art of being a “physician”. This thrust us into the upper middleclass, and my only daughter, Senet, became the best child this family had ever seen. She was above the other children in the village with an absolute understanding of science and literature. When Senet left to discover herself she took a sizable inheritence with her.
– Real player with 20.7 hrs in game
Dark and Bright
In Dark and Bright you play Gourchweasel and his friends and you help them to find out more about that weird world they’re travelling through. The game combines some RPG elements with arcade or puzzle elements, but all in all it is a story-driven game with a focus on what’s happening to the four friends in that abstract world.
And that’s what I like about the game the most - the story is good! Really. I enjoyed it a lot, also a lot more than in some other, bigger and well-known RPGs. The game does a great job in telling the player the right amount of information (or only vague hints in the beginning) so that I was always interested in how the story continues. It all starts with a mysterious cutscene about two unknown characters at a bonfire - then we’re following Grouchweasel on his journey. And that journey is weird, confusing, but interesting and also thrilling at the same time. There are many things that made me enjoy it so much - things happening again with small changes to the dialogues, the memories becoming more and more intense as you progress, mysterious characters who sometimes totally confuse you, the whole tone to everything with these simple but weird graphics which fit well to the overall atmosphere. I can’t write more about that without spoilers. Maybe this story will also make you think a little bit about your own life, which I find amazing. So, if you’re a fan of good stories in RPGs - this might be the right game for you!
– Real player with 12.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract RPG Games.
This is a good game, I enjoy it very much! This game has just a tone to it that makes it feel intense in a way, like you’re playing something funny and weird in the beginning, but you’re well advised to prepare for something big to come. I was thrilled to experience there actually seems to be a deeper meaning behind many of the things that happen. So, after revealing the first memories in the game, I was totally into the story and I’m excited for the outcome of everything, and the fates of the lovely written characters. Totally recommend!
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
Progress Bar Simulator
5 Minutes “gameplay” but 1000 hours of grinding. There is really no reason to buy this game, since you’re ending up with using autoclickers or some idiotic shit like that anyway at some point.
I get it, this game is a joke. But there is nothing clever about it. No stunning secret or anything that would surprise you. It’s literally just hammering the keyboard to watch loading screens. In fact, it’s a mess. Except for the idea of having loading screens there is not even ONE good idea that went into this game. It’s trash and a waste of time, nothing else.
– Real player with 42.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Simulation Games.
This is a bit of an oddball of a game. The game itself is pressing a button to increment through various historical loading bar screens. If you were born before 1990 you’ll recognize most of them. But to me, past the novelty of running through the progress bars a few times, most of the “game” is meta in order to get the achievements. I ended up using AHK to complete several. Some were through figuring out the console commands or other in-game tricks.
Ultimately I was torn how to rate this game, and gave a thumbs up, but barely. If you were born after 1990, you won’t get half the progress bars most likely, and the game won’t mean as much to you.
– Real player with 24.0 hrs in game
Fake Illusions
Amazing game to train your eyes. Some of the illusions gave me a really hard time.
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
are those illusion books actually lying to you
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Orbi Universo
It’s Democracy meets Civilization.
Still a work-in-progress, and from a part-time indie dev, but what you see here shows promise.
If you’re a Civ/Paradox/Democracy fan, it’s an easy recommendation.
If you’re not too sure about it, grab it on sale, or wait until they finish all the ages that make the core gameplay.
Pros:
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Less intimidating upfront than Democracy, you start from humble begginings.
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You can start at any place in the globe
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Many different paths to take your civilization through
– Real player with 81.2 hrs in game
This game is unique. Maybe not much replayability, but there definitely is some. In the bronze age I had a shining civilization, the entire Iron Age was a time of unparalleled ascension, but I quickly over expanded and then the disruption caused by the immense amount of minorities quickly destroyed my stability. I kept undermining the power of the clergy in order to stop them from toppling my republic, which caused the number of heathens and heretics to rise to such a point as to ruin my stability even further. There was this entire collapse scenario very reminiscent of the fall of the Roman Republic, culminating in a coup d’etat by the military which led to a quickly fragmenting military dictatorship that saw a snowball of decline that just kept rolling and rolling.
– Real player with 36.9 hrs in game
The Unbreakable Chain
could have more content, I enjoyed the music
save yourself some trouble and keep left to avoid saturn and jupiter
– Real player with 5.7 hrs in game
Game Of The Year
LSG and Wainstop have done it yet again. To say the unbreakable chain is a masterpiece, would be an understatement.
I argue there is a second meaning to this game that takes a bold take on the human psyche, showing what it means to be human. It does all of this with a beautiful medley of music by Yasushi Kaminishi, ghxyk2, and Bankbank, and animation produced by LSG.
SPOILERS!!!
In the first level, you are a worm. Aimlessly worming around with no direction, much like humans do. You wander until you find a whole, a gateway. This represents childbirth, The worm immediately killed, just like how a child is ejected into a cruel world in which he can die at any moment.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Chess Knights: Viking Lands
It’s been a while since I played chess and when I tried this game I could remember that beginner feeling.
I Recommend this game for those who like chess and also likes a good mind challenge.
I liked some scenario items left behind … buckets, wooden decks and wagons that block areas in board, these kind of things got rid of predicables movements and make things more challenging. I also liked the way some parts got half-covered by snow, this increase the challenge and make me think twice on choosing where to move … specially against Bishops. A little suggestion to improve a sense of progress could be some kind of icon or text that tells the current chapter and stage.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Move chess knights across varying boards to pick up pieces from one square and return them to home squares while avoiding being taken by AI driven enemy pieces.
There are a lot of issues here, the difficulty wildly varies, though ultimately never gets particularly clever and many of the puzzles become just a matter of moving one of your safe pieces back and forth until the board state lets you win.
Some levels try to limit that which is where you feel a sudden difficulty spike which just ends up being more frustrating than challenging.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
Feud
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From a quick look at the game, being a game developer myself, first of all I think the mechanics are really, really good for a game like this. They don’t look all that good at first glance, but are unbelievably fun to actually play.
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I think that in a way the game feels a lot worse than it is because of the UI, and I think a reskin would really improve the feel of the gameplay in general.
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An undo would be useful, but i think a confirm before moving might be a better option, especially as a small mistake can end the game. That way you get to see what will be caused by your actions.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
Fun game! As the other reviews say, it is comparable to a much simpler version of chess.
The AI (even on hard) is pretty easy, though, and the only option for online multiplayer is 24-hours per turn, which makes it difficult, since player on player games can easily last 20+ turns. I’d recommend at least trying this game (it’s free!) and it’s even better if you have a friend to play it with (as there is a hotseat option).
If there were online, 1 minute turns, (and maybe a ranked system at some point), I think this game could really take off.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Germany at War - Soviet Dawn
Germany at War - Soviet Dawn
Only just started ( i understand it’s an older game - 2013 moved from Matrix to Steam ) and i love the options given - lots of settings to choose and customize your gameplay experience - clean presentation on map , ultra wide screen support , different units ( ranging from battalions to divisions ) - the abbility to switch to nato symbols + fog of war = a winning combination for me - hope the AI is competent enough ;-D - totally recommended for ww2 turn based fans !
– Real player with 87.0 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