Fine Sweeper
50 hours in and I think it’s time to write a review. Been playing it on and off rather addictively for the last month or so, most of that due to my unrelenting addiction for minesweeper (and achievements) as well as just wanting to top those leaderboards to make my life seem less worthless…
This is the best minesweeper remake I’ve ever played, it is a hell of a lot better then the windows remake that was on the windows store (not sure if they actually made it) which was a tragedy.
Like that one this too had pickups, which is an obviously new addition to the classic minesweeper formula and whilst I was pretty skeptical at first it’s a very well incorporated addition unlike the other version. There is also classic mode where you only have 1 life and therefore you hit a bomb you die (just like in real life!).
– Real player with 254.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Puzzle Games.
It’s a good Minesweeper remake! There are dozens of levels now instead of just three, Steam leaderboards to show off with, and the options and controls are just like how you remember them. (Plus, it’s got a nice background track that sounds roughly like a cat playing Team Fortress 2.)
That being said, Minesweeper is much more boring than I remember it. It’s mostly just a game of matching: spotting which numbers on the board are equal to the amount of adjacent tiles or flagged mines. The only real puzzle aspect to Minesweeper comes when you’ve spotted all the possible matches, and the only way to progress is to use some deductive reasoning on the remaining numbers. But no matter how hard you try, if there are too many mines clustered together in the wrong way, you’re eventually going to have to start guessing, and that’s ultimately Minesweeper’s biggest downfall.
– Real player with 54.4 hrs in game
Seers Isle
To sum this wall of text up: this is not a “every choice matters” game, it’s a “none of your choices truly matter, here have some cheap drama instead.”
This had looked so promising and then it all fell apart because we’re drowning in fake choices and that mass effect-y “whatever color you choose, your ending still explodes in a steaming pile of manure” thing.
First off, there are 7 characters in total, but one of them does not matter at all, one is there to help justify one of the ending variations of your sad unfulfilling outcome, and one is the reason you can’t have nice things and always get your life ruined, and you can’t do anything to stop it. Out of the remaining four who can be your “soulmate”, 2 are friendship-only (Connor, Freya), so don’t get your hopes up. The game does not care whom you, the player, like or want to succeed (or romance – what meager amount of interaction is supposed to pass for romance here before boom, let’s have sex since we’re running out of screentime). It cares about the number of answers chosen in four rather non-transparent categories (I’ve played through all 4 paths and I still sometimes don’t get why a choice gives you points in something). Each two-stat combo correlates with one of the main 4 characters – and the path you get is determined by the 2 highest numbers, not your choices. Even if you want to connect with a chosen someone, unless you pander to their assigned answers set, you WILL be booted to another path no matter how many times you try to indicate you want this other companion during special events. You think you can determine who among the rest of the group accompanies you to the endgame point? Wrong again, it is always a one male, one female exact combo depending on your “chosen one”: Arlyn-Duncan or Freya-Connor. And then the lower numbers person literally vanishes into thin air before they can make any impact on anything, because screw your attempts to save the group or use extra companions to change the ending.
– Real player with 27.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Indie Games.
Pros:
1.) Variety of characters. Most of the characters in the game came from different backgrounds and have different motives on why they are here.
2.) Multiple endings. I like how an ending of the game was based on all the decisions you have made and how it showed you the payoffs and the consequences of those decisions.
3.) Choices. Compared to “Along the Edge”, “Seers Isle” had more choices to choose from and how the characters interact with one another.
4.) Artwork. The visual designs consisting the environment, the characters, and the choices placements felt fitting and not out of place.
– Real player with 22.4 hrs in game
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You
Preface
This review is being written before the conclusion of the game in episode five. I’ve played through the first four episodes a couple times exploring different outcomes, however, as episode five is not out yet I’m not able to comment on the totallity of the story.
The Machine
Orwell has a very close Person of Interest vibe. The government of the fictitious country has obtained a Machine, or System, that surveils the populous gathering information however it does not act on the gathered information. The idea of the game is that the system, aptly named Orwell, isn’t able to decern human subtlety, sarcasim, or deciet. As such, the fictious government has outsourced the task of resolving conflicts in the data, and identifying what is relevant and what is not. You as the player take on this role as an outsider to the country, tasked with sifting through the data that Orwell gives you access to inorder to identify person(s) of interest. This is a role somewhat like Person of Interest’s Harold Finch.
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Political Sim Games.
My playtime: 10h (based on steam, 100% achievement; 2.5x playthrough)
Grindy Achievement(s): No.
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (17 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.
Intro
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You is a massive information gathering system where you, an investigator, is taking a role in sorting the relevant data and fix conflicting data that the system gathered to assist a crime. The game has story branching that persists over 5 chapters.
– Real player with 10.5 hrs in game
Along the Edge
Foreword:
A few hours ago a friend of mine logged to tell me about this visual novel. I checked the game title, I never heard of it. I checked the development company, I never heard of them. I looked at the trailer, and the art style intrigued me enough to try it out.
Along the Edge is a visual novel that tells the story of a Ph.D. student that due to certain circumstances is forced to give up on her research and move from the city to a town. It is a fairly interesting story of self-discovery, of family grudges - possible ways to solve them (Stabby! Stabby! Or other more boring venues of conflict resolution…) and between scientific reasoning and the occult.
– Real player with 14.6 hrs in game
So Along the Edge is interesting but the characters fall a bit flat and I don’t really find the romances compelling. The art style is nice and you are capable of taking many branching paths. One of the things that I find interesting is that you can take the skeptical route and never see confirmation of anything occult or magic. You get different' alignment choices but none are considered evil or good inherently, which is a nice detail. However the “60 endings” is misleading. In a way, yes, you do get that many but it plays it off like they are all very different. They are not. There’s only a handful of majorly different endings and then the DETAILS of each of those major endings can be varied. But they are not full stop completely different, most of those details are easily forgettable and not very impactful.
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
Perfectly Balanced
Although very simple, the game’s proposal is very solid “Distribute the weights in the remaining blocks”. It was a longer game play than I expected, but it was a plus for me as the game has a window mode so I just played casually while doing other things.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
A interesting game with a clean art and good sound, the concept of this reaaly caught my attention
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Luckless Seven
Luckless Seven is a card-game RPG set in the enchanting island paradise of Arithia. Choose your words and strategies carefully in this first-of-its-kind story-rich adventure!
Join the development journey
Wishlist/follow the game and join our mailing list to receive the latest updates on the big steps we’re taking to make the first ever card game with a story! No spam; just love, pretty pictures, and good news!
Tell your story // A narrative-rich experience
Luckless Seven is the story of Mark Vesco’s coming of age. Once an inspired youngster, Mark finds himself living a listless, dutiful existence just two years out of high school. When an old friend contacts Mark about reuniting for a competitive card tournament, you’ll take control of his words, actions, and destiny.
Dive into the adventure // Plentiful, diverse sidequests
In the country of Arithia, there’s no shortage of eccentric and interesting characters to meet and defeat in card battles. By branching from the beaten path, you’ll be rewarded with a rich storyworld full of serious, dramatic and comic escapades.
Play your card // Exciting, fast-paced card battles
Choose your strategy, pick your opponent, and draw your hand. It’s time for Ekosi, the radical revival of Pazaak! Inspired by the iconic minigame from Knights of the Old Republic, Ekosi takes the hit/stand dilemma of Blackjack to a new level of strategy with an array of special cards to manipulate the score in your favor. Easy to learn and endlessly challenging, each turn in Ekosi is a strategic choice!
Go your own way // Customizable deck
Strategizing extends beyond the card interface. Take your deck with you and shape it over time by finding, purchasing, and winning new cards. Visit card shops to turn match winnings into new cards as you build the perfect deck.
Steer the conversation // Complex dialogue trees
Everyone likes options. In Luckless Seven, get outside the familiar binary options and choose from up to six possible choices in any given dialogue. Whether you’re a comedian or a combatant, a Casanova or a coward, there’s a choice to fit your conversation style.
Explore Arithia // An immersive 3D world
Arithia is a small country with worlds to see. Explore diverse cities and terrains as you get lost in the semi-open, immersive 3D world. From coastal paradises to ornate casinos, from sprawling grasslands to towering skyscrapers, Arithia has it all. Where to?
Listen to the music // Original Soundtrack
Bang your head to energetic battle tracks and lose yourself in ambient overworld tunes, all composed by Brandon Ledbetter for our original soundtrack.
The Deckpoint Studio Team
Deckpoint Studio is an indie game studio located in Columbus, OH. Founded by crime-fighting interstellar misfits in late 2013, our project is the card-game/RPG hybrid, Luckless Seven. Our team is united by a passion for great stories, player choices, and spicy-chicken rigatoni. Join us on our game development journey!
Return of Red Riding Hood Enhanced Edition
Really silly game, totally didn’t expect to enjoy it.
• Graphically
You can tell even from the screenshots, that this game is not going to win any prizes for graphics, but the cheesiness adds to the charm.
• Audio
Again, nothing special, but mostly effective in setting the tone of each scene.
• Gameplay & Controls
Simple visual novel style with a little bit of P&C puzzling, but the biggest part of this game is the amount of paths and endings there are, giving that real purpose behind what the devs were trying to do with this game.
– Real player with 6.1 hrs in game
Follow our Curator Group for more reviews
Return of Red Riding Hood is a visual novel that tells a branching version of the classic story. The game begins as an adventure game, but shifts into a visual novel soon after.
The initial adventure portion of the game is bizarre and feels extremely out of place once you progress farther into the game. It plays like a point and click adventure game, but the entire adventure is making a pie. You can replay it five times to make each kind of pie, but each playthrough is extremely similar, so there isn’t much point in playing it again.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
The Adventurous Four
The Adventurous Four is the sequel to Wild Island Quest, a choice’s matter visual novel game by NLB Project.
The game starts with you (Henry) snuggled up to your newly wedded wife in bed, with your dog Snoopy at the foot of the bed. You are woken by Snoopy as he barks at someone ringing the doorbell, disturbing your Sunday morning lie in. You crawl out of your pit and go to check who is at the door at this time of the morning. It’s Doyle, a friend of yours, who seems excited and starts to explain why he’s here so early. He says that he’s just finished his project which he’s been working on for the last three years and wants you and your wife, Irene, to be one of the first to see it.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
A ‘choose your own adventure’ with very few actual choices, but that’s not really important or why I quite enjoyed this. First the story starts rather normally although something was slightly off with the characters or setting. The story dialogue is stiff and feels like it’s been maybe translated to english but nothing too out of the ordinary although it gradually becomes an outright wacky adventure that doesn’t seem to involve good storytelling or decent character dialog. And this is where it begins to shine. The rather charming if unintentionally funny 3d models, their poses and facial expressions, odd narrative choices and descriptions that range from the oddly mundane to comically over the top and often somewhat inappropriate.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
The Barbarian and the Subterranean Caves
The dialog are well-written. The graphic is unique yet weird, i find it funny somehow but actually liked it.
The story itself is about 20 mins long. Who you visit at the beginning will make you run into different endings. However, even accept the mission from different people, you are going to meet the same person and get the same loot at the end. But your decisions, thoughts, enemies, and your story ends in different ways.
Aren’t these real lives?
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
If you hope for many H-scenes then this game is not for you, but if you want some decent VN game that has many choices for you to explore within few hours so this is the good one.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Watch Me Stream My Mental Breakdown
A deckbuilder game with a novel theme and a twist in mechanics because it has a visual novel built around it, with its own set of problems and goals. It’s designed to be replayed, with the goal of earning permanent starting cards after winning the overall game, so it gets a little different every time. The plot is simple, but that’s fine because the point of this game is the cards.
I thought the little details in the story were charming. “Panda” really captures the essence of a streamer, and it makes dealing with disappointed parents feel more lighthearted when they’re pandas. It’s a game that’s not trying to be serious so you can focus on the cards and I appreciate that.
– Real player with 43.6 hrs in game
I want to enjoy this game, I really do, and I understand a lot of the references and tropes in it are geared towards jaded streamers who agree with the fact that there really isn’t a guide to go about streaming successfully. That being said however, I want something of a guide, a meter, something more than viewers to tell me I’m successfully streaming. I’ve tinkered with the length of streams, I’ve tried to be conservative, tried to be nice and run the nontoxic suite, I’ve tried to be combative and run the ego trip end the stream as quick as possible, I’ve tried to go full immunity and keep my chat from hitting me, I’ve let chat beat up on me to rest up next week, doesn’t seem to matter, I don’t see any difference in my stream results. Maybe it picks up when you get your viewership set, either way I don’t know if I have time to keep playing to try to find it, I don’t even know if this is something I will revisit down the line. If you play the demo for this know that you’re just going to get more of the same, it never seems to pick up, never gets fully explained mechanically. Dunno if there’s more to do with this, if the devs are going to keep making changes, but I’m not happy with it at this point.
– Real player with 23.8 hrs in game