Rainbow Reactor

Rainbow Reactor

EDIT: 1/21/19 - I originally expressed hesitation toward paying full game price, but that was before I realized the FULL ACCESS version would be much larger, and almost certainly a better cost / content ratio. Yes, I think a bigger and better game will be more worthwhile and more fun game.

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I paid full (sale) price (and I’m glad I did!)

This reviewer just spent 30 minutes playing Rainbow Reactor, and I had such a great time I (literally) had to force myself to stop! While perhaps not the world’s biggest fan of color matching games, I’m far from a stranger to the genre, and I have enjoyed it often while on Steam. Yet even in that context I don’t hesitate to take this opportunity to say that color matching through a combination of dexterity and strategy (mostly strategy, I’m inclined to think at this point) is just remarkably fun, and I sincerely thank the friend who told me about Rainbow Reactor.

Real player with 13.9 hrs in game


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I like this game. It’s a little more hectic than I expected but it’s unlikely to make you sweat. I particularly like that I got it at 67% off, it’s definitely a bargain at that price!

I completed the 8 levels of the main game in about 2hrs but haven’t managed to clear the bonus time stage. I also had a little teleport around. I haven’t tried SINGLE SHIFT yet.

The world you are in is well made and gives some grandeur to what is otherwise a quite simplistic game i.e. throw coloured ball in hole. However it does that very well. The colour blending (light not paint) works nicely, but they have clearly spent quite some time getting the throw of the ball just right.

Real player with 9.4 hrs in game

Rainbow Reactor on Steam

Slice of Sea

Slice of Sea

UPDATE: Mateusz read this review and has updated the game to correct for the accessibility issue we reported here. That is an extraordinary gesture of good will and responsiveness from an established artist who could just as easily have insisted his work was to be accepted as it was. Accordingly, we have changed the status of our review from thumbs-down to thumbs-up.

Original review follows:

Well, this is a hard one to give a thumbs-down to, as we love most of Mateusz Skutnik’s games. What we love about them is their whimsy, surreal style, sound effects, and general ease of play. This one has all of those things, so no complaints there. What this one doesn’t have, however, is a clear presentation of the cause-and-effect relationship between what the player does, and how that unlocks doors/machines/whatever in the game. The game world is enormous. As far as we were able to tell, you can flip a switch or turn a knob and, with no indication to the player that this has happened, doing so fulfills one of the conditions to unlocking a door in a distant place. We “solved” a number of puzzles without ever having any idea of how we did so.

Real player with 93.5 hrs in game


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TL;DR: If you like point and click games, go buy this one. It’s worth every penny.

If you are familiar with other games/comics from the same author, such as Submachine, Daymare Town, Rewolucje, etc. you will like this game even more, as there are a lot of references scattered everywhere (and when I say references I mean even entire locations inspired by them, but I don’t want to spoil).

This is primarily a PnC game; the platforming elements are not very important, but they make for interesting puzzles. The hand-drawn graphics look amazing, and together with the atmospheric soundtrack by Thumpmonks and the great main song by Cat Jahnke, do a very good job of immersing you into the game. There are many little details that show the author cares about his work, such as Seaweed’s animations during cutscenes and when entering doors. The story is quite simple, as usual in a game that is set in the Daymare Town universe, and as seen too in Amanita Design’s games such as Samorost or Machinarium: there are no dialogues and the written elements are minimal. What this game excels in is creating an mesmerizing immersive experience for you to get lost in.

Real player with 27.5 hrs in game

Slice of Sea on Steam

Soul Saga

Soul Saga

I have been following Soul Saga for a very long time, and can say that I really enjoy what the game has become. I have played a lot of the beta versions released leading up to the early access release. While the original design started off as a very traditional JRPG, it has evolved into something totally unique and different. It’s kind of a cross between a rogue-like and JRPG. This creates a gameplay experience unlike anything I have played before. Be warned though, the game is tough and always keeps you on your toes. The game is only enhanced by the beautiful art style, and the top notch music.

Real player with 14.6 hrs in game


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BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)

Soul Saga is an RPG game that attempts to remove some of the restrictive formulas of classic RPG games and instead replaces them with some procedurally generated content and some amount of choice. While it may not appear to have perfected and/or carved out a new niche in the RPG genre, it can still be a fun experience for those who are looking for something a little different and are okay with what can be a steep challenge/learning curve.

Concept

Real player with 5.5 hrs in game

Soul Saga on Steam