Waking Mars
Platform games aren’t at the top of my list - mainly because of their limited world, low replayability and (many of them) being highly linear - however, Waking Mars is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve been playing lately, and for me, one of the best platform games to date. Its sci-fi/ Mars setting and artwork caught my attention; but it was the goal of creating and encouraging an ecosystem within the Red Planet that sold me on it.
The story is simple and straightforward, but it is intelligently executed and really intriguing. Character development is little, but just right. There are no enemies, only yourself, the ‘flauna’ and the environment - but you might be surprised at just how much of a threat you can pose to yourself. The goals are laid out before you in a no-nonsense manner: you are exploring, searching, gathering, manipulating, creating, and de-constructing to create, in a more favourable way to the environment’s (and your) needs. There is something to be said for balance, and you learn by trial and error; but don’t worry, there is nothing that you can’t undo - though it may require a measure of patience.
– Real player with 18.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Sci-fi Adventure Games.
Hard science fiction is a rare guest in video games. Not having any evil aliens or cool laser-shooting guns isn’t a good premise for dynamic action. Luckily, Waking Mars isn’t actually aiming at cheap thrills or fast-paced shooting, but rather prefers to be a meditative journey and succeeds at it.
The year is 2093, player takes the role of Liang, chinese astronaut, taking part in international planetary mission to Mars, studying life that was discovered in an underground cavern system. If the thought of some green evil aliens pointing their death-ray guns had crossed your mind at this point, shoo it away. Or maybe you’ve thought of some ancient ruins, secure vaults,containing secrets of advanced precursors? You’re wrong again. Life that has been discovered is rather primitive. It is a strange kind of hybrid between plants and animals. It’s called Zoa. Not much is known about these species; you will be the first and only human to make contact with it and observe it in its natural habitat.
– Real player with 13.5 hrs in game
ANOTHER EDEN
This is actually the 2nd time I’ve started this game. I first played this game on mobile when it first launched on mobile. This was during the launch period when Mariel was considered the best 5star and Toova and Mighty were strong offense. Things have changed a lot since then. I lost my mobile account because they did not have a google link at that time. So I’m literally starting from the beginning.
The only reason I’m willing to do this is because of this game’s permanent content system. All events are retained permanently. For every other gatcha game I’ve ever played, I never see myself as a returning player. So this is the best thing I want to praise about Another Eden. I really like the permanent content and in my opinion, this makes it far better than all the other gatcha games. Just this point alone.
– Real player with 630.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Sci-fi Free to Play Games.
Another Eden is a spiritual successor to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross with some members of the original team (like Masato Kato and Yasunori Mitsuda) onboard, a love letter to jRPGs of the 90s with a modern feel.
The game itself is massive and is similar in scope to live-service MMOs, except Another Eden is a purely single-player 2.5D jRPG. New story content for it is still being released on a regular basis, expanding it even more with each new update.
=GAMEPLAY=
The gameplay here is of a classic turn-based jRPG with random encounters and limit breaks (called Another Force here). The biggest difference from the classics is that this game has gacha mechanics for acquiring additional characters, each of which has their own set of story quests. The amount of stones for pulls the game gives its players is pretty generous though, the pulls contain only characters and nothing else, additional styles or class upgrades for owned characters can be unlocked through farming certain in-game resources instead of pulling for them, and the characters that can be unlocked as rewards for story progression can be quite powerful as well, especially the ones from ‘Tales of’ and ‘Persona 5’ collaborations. Unlike character banners, all the story and crossover events don’t expire (except for the most recent Chrono Cross collaboration, which has a 5-year license, but hopefully they’ll be able to extend it).
– Real player with 374.9 hrs in game