My kids both loved the original Cat Quest; they were probably 8 and 9 at the time. Maybe Outlanders? Looks a lot like Kingdom for Keflings. But there’s a ton of reasonable options. Hot Lava sure looks designed to evoke 7-year-old-hood. Down in Bermuda appears to be a slightly less taxing The Room-style game with sunny islands in place of otherworldly dread. What the Golf? has some references which will be unfamiliar, but is likely to be a hoot, anyway. The Enchanted World is a pleasant, light puzzle adventure. And that’s doubtless far from exhaustive!
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yes, but only by sending an iMessage, it seems.
but way better than before (=not at all).
Gosh, I hate the Overland UI. For something that’s been in dev forever, it’s horrible. Actually, it feels like a bad port from pc. Tap on thing to investigate to get the verbs, tap on verb to highlight it, tap again to confirm, and hope that you don’t miss the tiny area of sensitivity at any step. Rotation is … slightly laggy and limited anyway. Selecting characters not by tapping on them, but on a special area to the left of the screen, which doesn’t quite correspond to the graphics showing the characters, is unintuitive and unlike how every similar games works.
If I’d spent money on it, I’d have been sorely disappointed. Moved on to Dread Nautical instead.
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What drives me bananas is the reliance on my perceptual difficulties to, I assume, reflect the characters’. I don’t like missing out on rocks or bottles I could have used because they’re hard to see, even if they would also be hard for the characters to see. Especially in a game in which movement is so discrete as to turn each level into more of a puzzle than a simulation, uncertainty about what pieces are public information is not what I’m looking for. Interface opacity is very rarely a good substitute for game design.
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You’re right, especially in the night levels so far, where I ended up turning screen brightness all the way up in the hope of seeing more. This could have been solved by allowing actual zoom. I’ve also just got a character killed by accidentally making her leave the car - silly me for expecting a verb pop-up first - next to one of the monsters, with no undo option.
All of these UI problems were solved, oh, five years ago in the XCOM port. Very bored with devs not learning from what’s been done before.
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According to the devs a ‘significant’ update can hit the AppStore any minute now.
Mostly UI (so no heat/battery consumption that is for next update I’m told).
I really hope because despite all it’s problems (no zoom is beyond me…even more because if you examine anything AFTER HAVING FOUND IT the game actually zooms in and it’s even quite a sight), I’m really really liking Overland, especially after some runs where I was able to survive more than 2 days.
It’s like the blend between Out There-XCOM-Stranger Things that I didn’t know I wanted so badly.
The game explains NOTHING but I think it’s by design (questionable but…)
So far I discovered you can kill the little aliens, you can’t undo at night, you can set to fire basically anything, you can cure yourself or your companions, dogs included. Cars explode.
I’m probably not a good person because to survive I used dogs to lure away enemies (the aliens apparently are lured by sound).
Btw there are a ton of nice touches everywhere if you go past the UI problems…like the hilarious item descriptions if you use the dog (simply brilliant).
Hopefully they will update to get it run hassle free on iPhone.
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Persevering with Overland now I’ve found that the required action is short press to highlight the verb, long press to select it. Also quit a game after being forced to abandon Goliath the dog.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this complaint before - if I want to refuel the car or heal someone, why can’t I do it in the down time between events when we’ve got time to sit around the fire? Why do we have to go into a wilderness of bugs before I can use the first aid kit? “Nasty bite there Dave. Could fix it with this first aid kit but we gotta be in mortal danger first. Lurch over to the car and I’ll bandage you up, first pack of killer bugs we find.”
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If you like Metroidvanias with huge emphasis on exploration, or you just like probably one of the best graphics ever saw on iOS (and then some)…be sure to play Shinsekai Into the Depths.
It’s GLORIOUS.
It requires a slightly longer learning curve than your average game but it’s totally worth it, and the game is really HUGE.
Be sure to play at the very least after the first boss.
JUST WOAH.
For a change, considering the game, it’s even way more optimized than the other Apple Arcade games (it doesn’t make your iPhone a toaster and doesn’t suck your battery in 10 minutes).
Besides being an excellent and very original game (you really make EVERYTHING during the game) with an outstanding sound design, I can’t believe the graphics runs on my iPhone.
Shadows, blur, focus, shaders everywhere, lifelike animations…it’s really incredible.
Not to mention the lights when you find…NO SPOILERS 
If you fancy the idea of Michael Chricthon Sphere, Alien and Conan future boy blended together, this is your game.
Highly recommended…I really can’t pick up a favorite among the Apple Arcade games I tried (so much awesomeness)…or even 5…but Shinsekai is surely in that short list.
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Inmost is a frigging masterpiece.
What a story, what storytelling!!!
Didn’t like the controls for Shinsekai at all. Maybe I will give Inmost a try.
Annnd you can’t rebind controls. Seriously? Nevermind then.
Apple Arcade is making me wonder about an Apple TV with a real controller, man. Lots of virtual thumbsticks in these games.
Overland. Still. Yes, despite everything it’s found the FTL node and I can’t put it down.
Actually, I can put it down because it diverts 50% of the power into turning the iPad into a hot plate and flattening the battery which kind of limits the length of a session. Let’s call it a feature, for now.
Also, RIP Frank and his companions (trapped by fire in an exploding gas station, 1224 miles). Frank had the trait “allergic to dogs”.
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LOL, glorious.
I had once a dog INCAPABLE of attacking anyone (a trait).
Barking was ok tough.
As I found a comfortable way to play on iPhone now (with zoom) my only real request is what you said…more optimization…no way it consumes this much battery (not to mention heat).
But the game is great, no questions.
When you escape a screen fill with big badass monsters with just a slice of…anything…left…you feel like a real survivor.
You will die next screen, of course.
Allegedly, you can pair a real controller (e.g., Xbox) with these, as of the latest system software. I’ve not tried though.
but i think the games must be programmed to support it?
am i wrong?
and not sure about apple TV.
Exactly. But the controller itself and the way I hold it put enough distance between me and the device that I think I’d prefer just using the TV. Sadly, all my XBox controllers are old enough that they don’t have Bluetooth, while my PS4 controllers are in sufficiently regular rotation that I don’t relish pairing and repairing as often as that would involve (especially now that their batteries are losing capacity). I may try it, anyway, once one of them holds so small a charge that it seems worth getting a new one.
I was using a PS4 controller with that game…
Four new ones today. Anyone into puzzle games like antechamber or zero age needs to go grab manifold garden
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I’m really excited for Manifold Garden - been following the development for a few years. Trying to finish other stuff I have on the go before I dig into it too much though.
Right now I am working my way through Cardpocalypse on the iPad and Pilgrims on the iPhone.
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