Lew Pulsipher’s Doomstar
Doomstar is a nice, space-themed, turn-based casual strategy game with easy graphics and pleasing music, from a friendly dev.
This game was made for pvp, the whole campaing is just a long tutorial, so buy it only if you plan to play it with friends or community members.
The mechanics are partly close to chess - move with one unit at a time on a grid, fleets come out face to face - but it has significant luck factor too. If the opponents dont hesitate too much, a battle isnt longer than 1/2-1 hour, but Doomstar supports Steam Turn Notifications therefore you are able to play it considered and slow.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Strategy Games.
The game features a small campaign full of unbalanced missions (the AI is given powerful ships in greater quantities), more fair skirmishes against the AI, and asynchronous online multiplayer. Doomstar incorporates the basic game rules of the classic board game Stratego (simple attack ratings, unknown ship attributes until attacked, highest ship number wins) with a reduced number of units for faster gameplay. The goal is to destroy the enemy command ship with any vessel. Mines don’t move but destroy everything except light fighters and carriers. Fighters can move as many spaces as they want across the board. Battle cruisers and dreadnoughts are the most powerful units on the board. Black holes allow units to move multiple spaces in a single turn, and two set of fighters can attack the same enemy in the same turn. The AI is decent enough at the game to provide a good challenge, although online multiplayer is where the true action lies. Fans of Stratego will enjoy Doomstar, but the feature set is fairly basic.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
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 Historical 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
Hexa Path
Simple minimalist game that’s calming and involves some strategy.
It could use better keyboard controls though.
– Real player with 10.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Abstract Casual Games.
Nice and casual little puzzle game with 60 levels to burn through on a Sunday afternoon. :) Most levels are pretty straight forward so easy achievements for achievement hunters. Logic puzzle game but a few levels are based more on trial and error and remembering the right path for subsequent tries. I found it quite enjoyable and relaxing.
Wanna see some gameplay or need help with a level? Check out my 100% achievements walkthrough here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrwy72Xn3DZwRUZM-aFY1PzM0GbEFVgEa
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Militia
I was on the fence about buying this because I wasn’t sure that it could keep me engaged for very long. I was pleasantly surprised to find that underneath the minimalist presentation there is a game with a surprising amount of depth that has the potential to suck you in for hours on end. I found myself saying “just one more level” until 3 AM. It’s also great if you just have a couple minutes to play.
The leveling system is a great way to measure your skill, keep the game at just the right dificulty, and raise the stakes of a single player game. It feels like climbing the mmr ladder in Dota. The puzzles are procedurally generated, so the replay potential is really limitless.
– Real player with 39.2 hrs in game
My warrior took an arrow to the knee - now my mage is wielding his battle axe…
It’s simple - simple genius.
The comparising with chess is close even though it is not 1 after 1 but 1 faction after the other. The movement patterns are simpler with their limited range but those attack patterns, swap spells and refresh abilities of your units combined with the amount of enemies vs your 3 ones makes you think - or lose. This part makes Militia much more like a table top or the fight part of a classic RPG…with 1 HP units…
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
symeCu8e
This game could have some potential, but I found it too grindy. The amount of effort to obtain a substantial amount of hormones could be toned down a lot. With the addition that the cost of suggestion goo conversion increases with each turn you are left trying to discover ways to push your goo multiplier up to 100 and at the same time have spent your society points to increase the entelechy count per round as well as the monads. But without the means to do so if all you have gotten are society points up front.. which is pretty easy to do if you aren’t super careful in the forge.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
I have never been more confused. You click things and press buttons, then stuff either happens or not. What kind of stuff? I don’t know. For what purpose? I don’t know. I was unable to extract any meaning. I’m not even sure that this is a game at all, but it can’t be anything else either. I guess this is some kind of experiment if players can find meaning in something that was randomly thrown together.
If you are looking for an alternative to drugs, go for it. This… thing is cheaper and probably healthier. Otherwise, can’t recommend.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Kenshō
Kenshō is a tile-sliding match3 puzzle done right:
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Simple enough that anyone can play it. No need for complicated tutorials.
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It is aesthetically pleasing, beautiful even and the soundtrack is great.
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New elements are introduced on every level. The game eventually becomes challenging, but very forgiving. If you fail a level, the tiles get reset but you don’t lose your progress.
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Just the right length to feel that you got your money worth but short enough without becoming a chore. The levels are randomized so you can replay them as much as you want or don’t if you don’t want to. There are no unnecessary achievements or goals to force you to keep playing over and over.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
It’s a good game. When I finally understood everything about this game, it became immensely more satisfying to solve. It doesn’t overstay its welcome, and is incredibly well-priced. Personally, though, I think it would be best played on mobile devices, especially considering the lack of uncapped FPS and edge-aliasing. All in all, though, this is a little gem that needs more attention.
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
Life’s Playground
It’s pretty bad
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
Overview
Life’s Playground is an indie board game that draws inspiration from Monopoly, Pay Day, and LIFE, and puts their characteristics into one single randomly-generated board game which appears to go only in a single direction, but once the player passes the sunset square at the end, they magically appear at the sunrise square at the very beginning. Games allow for two to four players, and can be set to have a time limit of twenty-four, thirty-six, or sixty laps (“months” as the game calls laps) or “survival” which has no time limit and ends when only one player remains. Players have jobs which earns them money upon completing a lap around the board, and properties can be purchased which can be upgraded on a player’s very next turn. (The player may purchase all three upgrades for a property at the same time if they so wish, and upgrade multiple properties at their discression.) Apart from money, the game also features Fortune Points which can gained and lost through chance and used to either count towards a player’s final score or used to cover costs if the player does not have enough cash to otherwise make a payment.
– Real player with 0.8 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
Hop Skip and Thump
Playful Thump sprites chase Hop and Skip in a tricky, turn-based strategy game.
You play this turn-based, puzzle-like strategy game as a rabbit named “Hop”. Your AI opponent is “Skip”. The object of the game is to jump around on the game board, score points, and beat Skip. Also on the board are playful AI creatures called “Thump".
Some Thump move about randomly while others actively try to block your moves. And beware the red ones. If they touch you, you are thumped and lose a turn.
Super charming and relaxing, but deceptively tricky. Lots of hidden strategies and ‘gotcha’ moments. Fun for the whole family.
Gangster Empire: Vendetta
IN A WORD: MAYBE
IN SHORT:
WHAT TO EXPECT: Crime enterprise simulator. Mature themes. Low budget production. Basic graphics and audio. Simplistic, limited gameplay. Good range of random dynamic events provide core strategy depth. Minimal supplemental gameplay mechanics. Very repetitive. Clicker like tempo. Played on fixed-resolution window. No settings apart from muting audio. Singleplayer only.
ACHIEVEMENTS: NONE.
STATUS: COMPLETE. A FEW BUGS. ONE CTD.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Overview
If anyone seeks out REXCurse for an opinion about a gang-themed game (especially a gang-themed game involving management) you know ol' Il Pallino is on the job. With no sort of backstory and a mostly casual experience, Gangster Empire: Vendetta doesn’t have anything in the way of a “vendetta” against anyone or anything. Instead, there’s just turn-based strategy gaming in which the player controls a gang with a maximum of eight people and looks to complete the game by either satisfying requirements for money or reputation. Crimes involve petty theft, violent assaults, hacking, drug dealing, long-term schemes (which can be either violent or non-violent), and good old fashioned legitimate businesses. Sometimes the player may be asked to assign gang members to complete various tasks for outside bosses who provide large amounts of money upon completion and an increase in reputation the player can either hoard in hopes of reaching their overall goal or spend on attacking a rival crime boss who occasionally schemes against the main character’s gang.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game