Changes
Got this game the first week it was out, and I’m really enjoying it so far!
If I had to describe it succinctly, I would say “challenging and relaxing at the same time”, which is difficult to pull off!
The music combined with the surreal visuals give it a serene and engrossing quality, yet the puzzles are very challenging so it feels really satisfying to solve them! This game is good for being able to just block out the outside world and get lost in this colony of living cells and solving the puzzles to set everything right!
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grid-Based Movement Puzzle Games.
disclosure: i did some pre-release playtesting on this game, and i know the developers personally
i should note that i haven’t finished this game at time of review (there’s lots more here than what i’ve played), but i want to call some attention to this game as it could really use more eyes
as the description states, the game is inspired by Conway’s Game of Life, something i wasn’t familiar with before being introduced to this game, and introducing a player piece to that system produces a lot of curious results. solving puzzles inside of these rules creates a kind of science, where the player learns to use specific techniques for movement, destruction, and creation to solve the problem. it feels like trying to control chaos, and even the smallest mistake can often result in your attempt literally blowing up in front of you
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Infinite Adventures®
The game is pretty fun, though it does have quirks (and bugs) you just have to get used to. The story was more engaging than I’d expected, though for dungeon explore games, the story usually amounts to “The X of Yendor is at the bottom, so we’re getting it Because.”, so I suppose that isn’t saying much.
It also feels slightly on the short side, having taken ~62hr to do the first playthrough, doing everything available, including the post game. I felt no need to grind, though I did map out almost everything, including all the dead ends, so fighting off all the encounters likely negated any need to grind. The game options allow you, depending on chosen difficulty (of 4), to alter encounter rate (down to zero, if you like), though I didn’t do that until the post-game. There is also an xp-limiter, which you can turn off in the game options, though that option doesn’t save, so it has to be turned off each time you load the game. I turned it off as soon as I learned it was there, so that surely sped things up as well.
– Real player with 102.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grid-Based Movement Anime Games.
This is the first time I am reviewing a game. I’ve gotten more than my money’s worth with this game, I’ve done three separate play throughs, 2 to completion and one about 80% of the way through for some acheivements. This game has a lot of depth and replayability in my opinion. I have been following the creation of the game on Twitch for a few years and I even got my Twitch name in the ending credits as a shoutout for continued support. That is one reason I felt compelled to give a review of this game. So here are some pros and cons.
– Real player with 89.3 hrs in game
Melordandek
Nice game with plenty of levels to play, the difficulty increases step-by-step, and if you get stuck to a level you can use another path and come back later to the level. It is quite addictive and you can be quickly hooked (or hanged :) ) to this.
Some points may be enhanced for a smoother gameplay:
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if you lose in a level and press “space”, try again the level instead of going back to the selection menu
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when you keep “return” key pressed, keep reverting moves instead of just removing one
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a tutorial to know how to use the cracks
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grid-Based Movement Puzzle Games.
edit: 30 levels and some quality of life stuff got added, so I edited the review a bit. then the price got lowered, so edited it again.
melordandek is essentially a draw a single line puzzler, the don’t step on the same tile twice variety, same general idea. 345(!) levels, divided unevenly into 10 zones as the visual novel-style story keeps unfolding, voiced in french (horrible quality from what little I heard), not voiced in english. cutscenes can be reviewed in the main menu, separate volume settings, brightness, lots of color manipulation, even a grayscale option, windowed mode and resolutions, plus the all-important timer toggle in case you don’t want to be bothered or stressed out by a time limit.
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Red Ronin
Imagine Hotline Miami or maybe Katana Zero being a turn based tactical puzzler. That is what Red Ronin actually does. And it does it very well.
The main concept of the game is very interesting. Similarly to the above mentioned titles in Red Ronin every level is you fighting a couple of enemies, you must kill them all to proceed and both you and them die in one hit. However both you and your enemies move in a turn based way and you must outmaneuver them and kill them one by one avoiding putting yourself in a vulnerable position. That is not all, your character does not actually moves - instead she dashes with no distance limitations, only stopping by hitting an obstacle. This can be advantageous as you can strike your foes and instantly be so far away that they won’t be able to reach you but at the same time abusing it too much may end up with you having no place do dash but right into your own death.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
Full review (including score): https://youtu.be/Lga1uQ-2Dv4
Summarized review below!
Turn-based tactical dash n’ slash with a Hotline Miami aesthetic, that’s what you can expect from Red Ronin. It’s a neat little indie game developed over the last two years by one dude out of Brazil.
Note: Trimmed review to fit character limit, check video for full version!
Gameplay:
Red Ronin may look like a mashup of genres, but at its core, it’s actually a puzzle game. You’re tasked with clearing each room of enemies and reaching the exit without getting hit. Moving in one direction moves you all the way until you hit a wall and you’ll have to take advantage of this in order to dispatch of each enemy. Seems simple, but this is by no means an easy game. In fact, it’s one of the hardest puzzles games I’ve played in quite some time.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
Aeon of Sands - The Trail
Aeon of Sands is an unconventional dungeon crawler with a unique aesthetic, witty writing and gameplay that will challenge even the most seasoned player.
The action takes place across a large number of dungeons reachable via a world map which is vaguely reminiscent of some older games in the genre (SSI Gold Box games / Realms of Arkania). However not all locations are accessible in a single playthrough with many areas being accessible only if you make certain choices, have certain objects or party members. The “dungeons” are not strictly underground complexes either but include cities, outdoor areas, installations, etc…
– Real player with 33.4 hrs in game
In short the game is nice, but it has many annoying shortcomings.
I liked:
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the world and its spotty lore, it is well done.
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the retro graphic is exactly i was hoped for.
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quest story is not so great. I expected something more heroic, but it fits well into the world setting.
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dungeons are large and full of illusion walls and secret buttons. It is fun to find them, but also it is mandatory, so it could be frustrating on long run.
I didn’t like in UI:
- text descriptions was artistic but strange, like it was written by a non-english writer.
– Real player with 29.0 hrs in game
Conglomerate 451
Hey guys,
TLDR: If you like dungeon crawlers, especially futuristic (ala Starcrawlers) there is a good chance you will like this game too.
Conglomerate 451 is set in and under (water) a cyberpunk style city. Actually my favourite map is the ‘entry’ cityscape. I love the look and the rain/water effects are pretty nice. Would liked to have had missions based in an offshoot of the outdoor area but currently all missions are enclosed. After the tutorial mission you can skip this part and head straight to the mission, which i do not recommend as buffs and map hacks and shopping can be done in the city and can make the mission itself more rewarding and easier.
– Real player with 114.7 hrs in game
*** this Review has been updated after the developer addressed some of the issues. It’s good to see that they are listening to feedback and including suggestions in their process****
This game. . . First off, I haven’t played as much as it shows. I leave games on overnight etc. so. . . I’ve played a little over four hours. . . too long to get my money back and just long enough for this game’s deep flaws to become unbearable for me. I can’t recommend this game to picky gamers. Here’s how it broke down for me:
– Real player with 83.1 hrs in game
Crystal Rift
**** Key was provided by developer for review purposes ****
This review is of the 0.9.4 version of the game
I used a controller to play through this game
Crystal Rift
Crystal rift is an Indie Dungeon Crawler that shows puzzles, adventure, and creepiness. Currently only act 1 of 3 is available to play through in the story. An interesting aspect of this game is the letters that you find which slowly reveal bits and pieces of what is really going on and what happened beforehand. I will add a TL;DR at the end.
– Real player with 4.2 hrs in game
This is a dungeon crawler game best suited for a seated gaming experience. I think initially I was kinda iffy about it because I wasn’t used to the feeling of moving while sitting still, but a little at a time I was able to get used to it. Also, it helps out a lot to choose the smoothest animation for turning and moving. The game defaults for a smooth walking animation but a jerky turning animation.
The Controls are unfortunately set in stone with no way to change them. The game has you use the left hand controller touchpad to move forward, backward and strafe left and right, and the right hand touch pad lets you turn left and right. This would work great if it wasn’t VR and also if the touchpad was actually 4 separate buttons and not one button with 4 sides you can press.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Drawngeon: Dungeons of Ink and Paper
Drawngeon is a traditional dungeon crawler, which is equivalent of a first-person roguelite with 90-degree turns. It takes anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to finish without prior knowledge, but it has some replay value through different characters and achievement hunting. Can I just say that I absolutely love the UI in this game, you can actually point&click in a first-person view and move things into your inventory, also works when you need to drop or give items to the quest giver. You could play with a controller, but I find it a little difficult, so I just played with the keyboard instead. The game has pretty nice settings, including a camera lock and key binding. For the most part it’s a very creative game with fun gameplay, although it falls apart toward the end due to poor balancing and lack of coherent progression.
– Real player with 11.0 hrs in game
Glorious solo-protagonist reincarnation of ancient “Eye Of The Beholder”, only if it was made by a non-DnD fan, in 2018. (and that’a actually how it was)
Unique drawn art style, droning ambience and atmosphere. Creepy twist in the end. No real ending, but probably the only thing that got me qualitatively scared for half a minute. Not an ARG or meta-game, but just a well-executed mind trick.
Not without its flaws, like eventual off-screen teleports or holes in the floor polygons, but maybe that will get patched out eventually. For a game made by 2 self-funded people, pretty impressive.
– Real player with 7.0 hrs in game
Dungeon Kingdom: Sign of the Moon
This one is my favourite in the genre realtime dungeon crawlers. I’m an old skool gamer and play video games since the 80’s, Dungeon Kingdom comes close to old skool Dungeon Master and the early 90’s series Eye of the Beholder. My favorite of the serie was EOB II, I was hooked to the game, addicted, I played a few houndred hours to finish the game on the commodore amiga 1200 :-)
DK also comes close to the grimrock serie but I prefer this game much more, it gives you that creepy dungeon crawler feeling and most important the game stays close to the original gameplay as the old skool crawlers from the 80’s and 90’s but with much better graphics and sound effects, eerie, creepy sounds/music is a must for this genre DK has it and much more.. my opinion.
– Real player with 59.7 hrs in game
just stay away from this crap… one of the graves in the cemetery at the beginning of the game has very arrogant “RIP Legend of Grimrock"inscription, which is just hilarious… LoG is finished (2 installments even) while this game is being promised to be completed “very soon” for last 7 or so years, surprisingly it still isnt and the production quality reflects that… i gave it one more try after several years to see how the development is going and im going to uninstall it and never look back again.
– Real player with 28.1 hrs in game
Legend of Grimrock
I just finished the game and I can’t say I really loved it. It has good and bad sides. Overall though, it was mostly bad. I will still recommend this game because I might just be getting too old for this type of game. I was curious and once I started I just had to finish it but it was mostly not fun to finish. More like a chore.
I felt that the game was difficult, even on normal. Luckily, you can save in the middle of a battle and the game persists the HP of the monster you are fighting. So you can abuse this. The game did not reward me for being patient and efficient. In the end, I had tons of potions but never really had time to use them. I also had tons of bombs but similarily, the action was too fast for me to really make use of them. I am saying this because this is an ARPG. ACTION role playing game. You need to click fast on your screen to be good. There are no hotkeys to attack or cast spells - on purpose - and combat is real time.
– Real player with 60.0 hrs in game
Grimrock plays like Eye of the Beholder with better graphics and actual depth of field. If you liked EotB, that’s a good thing. If you hated it (or have no idea what EotB even is), this game is PROBABLY not for you. It doesn’t feel like a modern game. It feels like an upscaled version of a game from the DOS era. The puzzles are vague and cryptic, there are no “directional arrows” pointing you where to go, very few map notations, you have to memorize (or write down) spells and recipes, and your supply of… everything is limited. If you do stupid things, you will die.
– Real player with 42.9 hrs in game