My Steam Sale $10 value buy this time around is Chronicon. A fun and surprisingly deep ARPG. I have just been working on my first toon for a few hours now and am starting to see how many possible builds there are just with one of the 4 characters. Recommend.
That looks a little bit like 9th Dawn 3. Theyāre probably way different but looking at gameplay I was immediately reminded of 9th Dawn 3.
Picked up Monster Train / Sprirt Island / Spellcaster University.
All good fun, though Monster Train is gripping me well. Up to 6 Covenant
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Monster Train was one of my most played games in 2020.
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Can anyone remember the earliest deckbuilder? The reason I ask is I recently got back into Armageddon Empires and itās a 4x game with your force as a deck. Perhaps it just comes direct from Magic and similar, but given it came out in 2007, Dominion was around the same time, right?
Constructed entirely in Adobe Director, itās a bit laborious to play, but still a wonderful game, and Iām very much enjoying it all over again.
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What card-based dungeon crawler on mobile do you all think has the most variety/longevity? I know Meteorfall (the original) has had numerous updates, but it is a good example of one that lacked for content early so that once youāve done a handful of runs you feel like youāve seen most of what the game has to offer. Iām going on a trip in a few weeks and an thinking about picking up a new game and am looking for advice. Iāve been leaning towards Slay the Spire, but Iād like to know that Iām getting my moneyās worth.
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Canāt go wrong with Slay the Spire.
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Slay the Spire is amazing. I also highly recommend Spirit Island. Not really a deck builder as such, but scratches a similar mental itch.
Still yet to play StS. I do intend to get it soon, but KotOR 2 dropped on mobile and I got Front Mission on DS for Christmas, so āsoonā probably means sometime in, like, March. Not sure I believe it has the longevity of Dream Quest, though. Meteorfall would be my second choice, the updates beefed it out considerably.
I just checked Steam, where I have Slay the Spire, and I have 283 hours played. You can take that as an endorsement of its longevity.
I am enjoying Gordian Quest. Itās hard to explain, but kind of a mash up of slay the spire / party based dream quest
Edit: and Card Hunter if you ever played that
Yes, but I believe the request was for mobile.
Card Hunter actually was on iPad at one stage but I believe it is no longer
My recommendation is for Slay the Spire, though they really didnāt optimise it for iPhone screen size, so Iād def recommend on a larger phone over a smaller one.
Also, Meteorfall Krumitās Tale, Pirates Outlaws, and Card Quest are some of my favourites.
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Iāll admit that I have some video game ADHD. I rent a lot of them from my library and have played the first 5-10 minutes of countless games. The thing is, most donāt grab my interest quickly enough and I move on to try something else. Iāve been playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and itās gotten itās hooks in me. It is not a perfect game but it is entertaining. The combat is fun and has been described as Souls-like, though I donāt think it is that brutal. You do need to think, though, and canāt treat the game as a hack and slash. I particularly like that the game is exploration-heavy; there have been times that Iāve felt Iām playing Uncharted: Star Wars. So far, so good, and this is one I want to keep playing.
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I started that about two months ago, and decided to put it on hold until I have a PS5. I got to a boss fight that was going to make me do a fair amount of trial-and-error, and Iām cool with that and want to explore it on my own rather than just looking up how to win, but load times on PS4 are just murder. It takes probably over a minute to reload every time you die, and I couldnāt handle that. But, having just watched season 2 of Mando and the Magic Baby, Iām tempted by anything Star Wars.
Fortunately, I bought a bunch of other discount stuff recently. Raji is janky, but attractive. Kentucky Route Zero started a little slower than I expected, but had me tearing up while listening to gospel music by the end. Aer: Memories of Old and Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles are both kid-friendly, non-violent games I bought for when winter gets depressing. Aer I tried, but very quickly flew to a wintry area which felt like what I was trying to escape, and did not impress me with its writing. Yonder is even more cartoony than it looked, which almost saw me giving up on it, but giving it just a bit more of a chance showed more promise. So that might be good for staving off green deprivation. I still have the Unravels to try out, and PS+ just gave me a Tomb Raider game which sounds like itāll also have plentiful vegetation, so that might be nice.
But that reminds me of absolutely my favorite feature of Fallen Order, which made me feel deliriously catered-to: you can turn off quick-time events! Just marvelous. It doesnāt quite work comprehensively, because the ice sliding requires similar quick-reaction button-pressing, but itās so wonderful to see cutscenes just play and see moments where you know itād be nagging you to press some button, but you can just slide through enjoying the story.
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If youāre going to get a PS5, you should save Shadow of the Tomb Raider to play on the next gen system.
If you want exploration and puzzles with a bit of combat sprinkled in, Hellblade: Senuaās Sacrifice is on sale for under $10 right now.
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Given the fore mentioned backlog of lighter fare, I expect I will wait for the PS5 to raid some tombs. Thanks for the suggestion!
I would never have pegged a game with ābladeā in the title as mostly exploration and puzzles, but it looks like Hellblade gets very strong reviews. Looks like a summer game for me, though. Iāve suspected this for a while, but Ghost of Tsushima really brought home for me how much I appreciate escape from darkness and cold in my games during the long Rochester winters. Iām really starting to wonder about retiring someplace greener and brighter.
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Hellblade is quite a nice game. A bit of hack&slash, a bit of puzzling a healthy dose of Norse mythology and an exceptional experience all around. Headphones not required but quite strongly mandatahem recommended!
That game walks the thin line between indie and tripple-a production values quite efficiently. It looks surprisingly well (especially the motion capture) while other aspects may be a bit toned down due to the nature of limited budget but imho cleverly disguised most of the time. Also unique setting with the mind-state Senua is in. The actorās performance is really well done.
I am excited fo Hellblade 2 when/IF I ever get a next- (or should I say current) gen consoleā¦
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Iāve been playing Solitairica when I need a quick distraction and it has been pretty addicting. It does not have the depth of character building like make cars-based RPGs and the combat decisions are minimal, but that translates to a really quick and easy pick up and play game. That isnāt to say that the game is easy, though, as I have yet to beat it. It can also be really grindy to unlock other characters and abilities. But for near-brainless entertainment I am having a good time. Plus, it does have a cloud save which every one of these kinds of games (or any game at all with progression) should have, but sadly so often donāt.
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I finally tired of Solitairica after I unlocked everything (this was helped some by the addition of the hardest mode, even if it feels like more could have been done to fix that mode so it wasnāt just brutal in the first few battles and a cakewalk thereafter), but until I did it was super fun. Only ranks under Meteorfall because it gets less regular content.
Continuing my Star Wars play through, Iād like to note my appreciation for what I consider the āguidedā open world design. In a way, these games are like Metroidvanias (though if you want to start a fight, go to a video game forum and tell them Metroidvanias can be 3D); instead of throwing you almost immediately into an open world with very few limits a la GTA, Skyrim, or most other major open world games, these games slowly open up new areas but allow you to explore freely and even return to areas youāve visited when you have new powers to unlock new secrets. It is by no means a new game design but when I encounter such a game I am appreciative of the balance between freedom and linearity.
On top of that, it is always nice to have a map that tells you how many more secrets and chests there are in the area. Too bad the map itself isnāt easy to navigate.
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