Unearthed: Trail of Ibn Battuta - Episode 1 - Gold Edition
TL:DNR: A noble, but much flawed effort. Buy it very cheap ( us$1), or="" for="" the="" achievement="" 100%="" ( us$1.50) br="" Okay - so this is one of those games that the “comedians” of Steam just go on about either with brutal comments about it giving them cancer, or racist/sectist crap, or they do the lame sarcasm.
This isn’t one of those.
What I like about this game, is their intent. To make a Arabic/Northern African themed game of adventure and discovery. I like the characters most of the time, and would really like to see more games coming from Arab countries make it into the mainstream (Semaphore is a Saudi game studio), as I am intrigued to hear their cultural voice applied to gaming. The graphics are generally pretty good, though the ATV escape ‘chapter’ had some odd graphics quality, I think to mimic a sandstorm, but looked like a bug. The brother and sister team is a great idea too. /us$1),
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action-Adventure Cinematic Games.
“Oh look guys, it’s Timothy writing a review for that one game everyone on youtube makes fun of! I can’t wait until he tears it a new arsehole, because he’s a cynical bastard and that’s what cynical people do!”
If this was your reaction when you noticed this review, then I’m sorry to tell you that I will not write a funny 9/11 Allahu Akbar type of review. I respect the dev team, who put a lot of work and effort in this game, too much for that. Well yeah, this game is inspired by Uncharted, Tomb Raider, what not, they won’t deny that. But at least they are enthusiastic about it. What’s the last time you saw people this happy about making a game? Even if the game is buggy (and oh, trust me, it is, I’ll elaborate) I still had fun playing it simply because I know the devs had fun making it. They really want to make an amazing adventure series where you explore the arabic world and its many fascinating places (which it truly has, no doubt about that). The dev team knows that they’re not making GOTYAY material and doesn’t say they are. They try to stay positive while everyone on the internet’s too busy making fun of them and their “worst game ever” (a title that many other games I’ve played deserve more). They respond nicely to often assholish or ‘funny’ behaviour and criticism, which I think is something most developers can learn from. So yeah, kuddos for that, guys.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Evil Tonight
If Resident Evil Village hadn’t come out in July, Evil Tonight would be my personal Game of the Year. ET is the whole package; excellent art direction, great music, fun characters, and intriguing storyline, and a simple but sweet and satisfying gameplay loop.
Evil Tonight is a kind of survival horror action adventure, just without the horror. Think of it as more of a supernatural survival thriller through a whimsical anime lens, and you’ve got a good idea of what to expect. Sharp writing and clever puzzle design alongside simple but fun combat describe the experience perfectly.
– Real player with 15.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action-Adventure 2D Games.
This is a wonderfully challenging game. Great spritework, solid animations and character designs to boot. Just bear in mind that all the enemies hit like trucks so do expect to die a lot. The bosses I feel are challenging, but I do think that the stamina system isn’t necessary considering you already need to get close and personal with enemies most of the game if you want to conserve ammunition and you get hurt if you run into enemies anyway. Plus, you don’t deal a whole lot of damage with the knife, so most encounters you should expect to swing at your enemies at least four or five times to take them down at a minimum.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality
A great Doctor Who game brought down by the second level!
This game is honestly a really fun mini adventure for any Doctor Who fan, with 6 fun and genre diverse levels. Remembering this is an indie game on a BBC budget, it really does show there is a chance Doctor Who can be adapted a a AAA experience on console. This isn’t a AAA experience, but is the bones of what could be.
It doesn’t need to be a AAA experience to be fun, and that’s exactly what this is, however the quality of the game falls to a dramatic low during the second level.
– Real player with 16.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action-Adventure Exploration Games.
TL;DR - Very little actual gameplay, lots of fan service. Wait for sale.
Edit from my original Review.
First time I played one of the first major puzzles, a needed item never spawned.
After several failed attempts at solving the puzzle without it, another needed item stopped re-spawning.
Reloaded the game the next day, got through that puzzle without issue because it randomly decided to spawn properly, only to find a very glitchy elevator that left me needing to jump down an elevator shaft to progress.
– Real player with 6.7 hrs in game
Joe Kowalski Chronicles: Murder in a flat
Joe Kowalski Chronicles: Murder in a flat is a dark detective neo noir point and click adventure game. You take the role of a police detective Joe Kowalski who gets tricky case just as he was about to pass out on the bed. Woman was murdered in Joe’s neighborhood and he’s the closest detective sent to investigate. As you set on your journey lies, mystery, deceit and horror awaits in this atmospheric neo noir detective story.
Game has all standard point and click mechanics and additionally you can pull out a gun and use it to solve some puzzles, and in rare cases maybe even shoot people. Your main job is to find killer and solve mystery around dead woman.
This game is first episode, free to play prologue to four chapters that will follow afterwards where Joe will go on journey from police detective to private detective.
This chapter will be fully playable from start to end, mystery will be solvable and story will continue afterwards.
TIERRA - Mystery Point & Click Adventure
I am a novice player and I am enjoying this game. It is pretty basic –point and click to move round, etc. The graphics and audio are just right imo. Perhaps the puzzles and gameplay might not appeal to more seasoned players but I like it. Actually, I am stuck at a puzzle at the moment and am hoping the developer will read my plea for help lol. I hope I can finish this!
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Great and enjoying mind challenging game. Loved it!
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
KEEP OUT
I’ve spent a long time debating my feelings on this game. When I first saw the demo and some of the artwork, I really thought this would be an amazingly fun game. But, instead, it mostly fell flat. While the visuals are pretty chef’s kiss beautiful… the gameplay and actual storyline (if you can call it a storyline?) was unfortunate. So many points were boring and beyond the few “EEP” moments in the beginning, once you recognize the sounds or enemies it’s just dull and repetitive. The game doesn’t do well to guide you in some points, like the water “level”, so you spend too much time watching the same death scene over and over again. Let us not forget the very strange hit boxes sometimes. I definitely do not recommend this game and I greatly wish I could’ve gotten a refund. Weaveractive, if you’re reading this… I hope you use that money to make a better storyline and overall game. Please and thanks.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
This game is so bad. The controls make know sense. Arrow keys and space bar?? I don’t have arrow keys so i had to hold FN the entire time. TERRIBLE. I think this is the worst 20 dollars i have ever spent in my life. Dont play this game unless its on sale.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Paper Dolls 2 纸人贰
Update: I have published a guide with translations and solutions to the compass. It is currently awaiting approval. Hope this helps anyone who was stuck!
This game is not for everybody. Avoid if you’re not a fan of puzzles, because there are a ton. Some of which are exceptionally esoteric and obscure. You may end up having to work your noodle a bit harder than normal(giggity) or consulting a walkthrough/video.
There were so many things about this game that tugged at my heartstrings for so many reasons. The biggest one being that it gave me serious Silent Hill vibes.
– Real player with 49.3 hrs in game
It is a great game, the atmosphere is amazing for a horror game and the graphics are nice. I would recommend playing the first game before this one for a better understand of the deep and interesting story. But if you just want to play without much of a care for story, just look up a Youtube video on the story for game 1 and play this one. This game is for any skill level gamer, you could be a casual gamer like me and enjoy it or you could be elite gamer and still enjoy it on a higher difficulty. I’m kinda dragging on but I genuinely love this game and I feel it should be shared with others. So if you play it alone or with some buds, you’ll have a good time, quite a few scares and moments where you go “how tf did I miss that!” Btw this is a puzzle game with a nice combat system. So when you finish reading the review I hope I convinced you to get it. I rate it 20/10.
– Real player with 17.8 hrs in game
Sunflower Code
The dev released the game on Linux when asked about it, which is great! At least on Linux, the game runs in windowed mode only and in hardcoded resolution. While the setting is nice, especially due to Van Gogh paintings, the game is clearly made by beginning gamedev. It’s not bad per se, it’s just good to set your expectations right. The story is simple, the rooms are mostly similar to each other. Some puzzles and hints are somewhat illogical. There are translation bugs and graphical glitches here and there, but the thing really hard to pass over are problematic click targets. These sometimes make it very difficult (still possible, though) to pick up or activate objects, because placing cursor directly over them does not trigger action. You just have to circle your crosshair around to find a right place to click. This is really annoying especially in the last level and for this reason I can’t recommend the game yet.
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6tbPI1V5-0&t=1s
Gameplay Video
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Sword of Hypotenuse
The bloody truth of the Pythagorean Theorem lies along the Sword of Hypotenuse. Become a squishy tofu ninja and battle your way through the broken Number Line.
Walk, run, skip, dodge, jump, flip, and dive head first into this isometric 3D (+2.5D?) world filled with weapons - and a bunch of squishy Pythagoreans that want to stop you!.. from stopping them. Its umm, ok let’s back up.
So, the Pythagoreans want to reconnect the Number Line, but they’re sorta interpreting information they stole - so you know - kinda sketchy - its a whole thing, you’ll see. Talk to some of the characters, it’ll make sense. No math pop quizes, but you will need to think! There’s some different worlds and different permutations depending on how you break stuff, then reconnect it, then brake it again if you need to.
Find the rare missing Alogon pages from the Sacred Book of Math - err, not the count-y add-y stuff - the fun stuff! Traditional 2D pencil-test animations that help you interpret the story… depending on the interpretation of course!
In addition to the Story Mode you can also just battle your fellow humans in Battle Mode, or have them pop in to help you fight - maybe even as a squishy tofu shield! There’s also a Classic Mode where you battle waves of increasingly difficult enemies - stop talking and ship the game? OK, got it!
So, hope you enjoy it! Good luck fixing the broken Number Line Pythagoras broke. May your booleans always be true!
Security Guy vs AI: The Dawn of AI
“Security Guy vs AI” is a really nice top-down shooting game!
The game is far from be great, but it is good enough for a free game, it is short but with nice graphics. The enemy AI is not very challenging, but I struggle more with the aiming in game, especially with some of the weapons.
But is playable and enjoyable! And best of all, is free… Fully recommend it.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
This one is hard. I say yes with some slight reservations. The game is not very optimized. It lags quite a bit, even when you turn the settings down. That being said, it looks good. There is hardly no story, but it is still good what is there. It is very deadly combat, but if you know how to properly shoot (The target is a bit to the right of your actual aim.) it isn’t too hard. It is very short but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Overall I enjoyed it very much. Hopefully once I get a better computer it won’t lag so bad. I haven’t replayed it yet so I will update this review after that to reflect its replay value.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game