Try mixing them with Awoken for your first few games and get some good defenders out in front. They are admittedly going to be be more difficult with the more advanced clans like Umbra or Melting Remnant.
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I have not been playing anything on ios lately, instead, Iâve been playing Dredge on Switch, which is a Lovecraftian fishing game youâve probably heard of. I have never played a fishing game before, though I will try most anything Lovecraft, and I have to admit, this combo works really well in this instance.
The way this works is, you have a boat (in the center of the image above), and you have a set amount of space to load up with fish and other stuff you catch (on the right side of the image), which you tetris in there as best you can. Some of the fish have been touched by some horrific and eldritch horror that has deformed them (pink fish in image)âand made them more valuable to the various fishmongers in harbors. Because while only some of the fish are touched, ALL of the humans you meet in the game are decidedly touched.
Aside from fishing, you can also dredge (hence the title) for treasures and resources. These can be used to upgrade your ship, create better equipment, and fulfill quests the creepy humans give you. Whatever youâre trying to haul up out of the water, you play a minigame (on the left side of the image), which are harder depending on various factors. There are lots of areas to explore and over 100 different fish to catch, and you can spend the entire day doing this and then sleep at night.
OR you can go out fishing at night too. And lose your mind in all likelihood, whilst getting attacked by nightmarish sea monsters, ghost ships, and rocks that seem to pop up out of nowhere.
You know youâre going insane because the eye in the top center of the screen starts turning red and darting around madly, and the screen images phase into a sort of 3D red. The sea monsters really are quite drawn to insane people, and their keenest interest seems to be in destroying your ship. The ship in the image above is about 2 seconds away from being pieces of debris. Fortunately there are a lot of saves possible, and getting eaten by a monster just means you go back to the last save and make better decisions.
Easy solution would be not to go out at night at all. But there are certain fish you canât get during the day, including most of the deformed, twisted versions. Plus itâs just more fun to be out there in the fog with tentacles springing up and weird glowing lights chasing you around.
All in all, the game is a lot of fun, and you can go leisurely trawling about during the day if you want to just be chill about things, or you can amp it up and risk some dread sea peril at night. Itâs a great solo game.
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For those of you who love the Luck be a Landlord style game, and are looking for another take on it. I picked up Luckland on Steam Sale and am really enjoying it so far. There is a demo, so you can try it out first.
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I am off this week because I am switching jobs. So I have both Marvelâs Midnight Suns and Age of Wonders 4 I can play this weekâŚand I like both, but I am finding I donât have the attention span for either any more.
I think Roguelikes/lites have basically fully changed my gaming habits. Even if I want to binge a game all day long, I want each run to be 20-30 mins max these days.
I was thinking about both Midnight Suns and AOW4, I have about 12-15 hours in both, and I have a good idea of the systems in the game nowâŚand then I lose interest.
What am I going to play all week? 
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I very much feel like you. I think itâs age, responsibility, family, and the fact that there are great games out there that I can consume in smaller bursts. I still play CoD with my brother in law as I think multiplayer games kind of fit the same niche.
One exception is if a game can fit on my phone - I still play Civ VI on there and I play plenty of RPGs. Iâve always wanted AoW Shadow Magic on my phone but I think Iâd pick up about any 4x or strategy game of I could. Ditto Midnight Suns.
Iâve been playing a ton of Breach Wanderers over the last month and have maxed all but 2 characters (havenât earned enough to unlock them). I have 2 quests that are still giving me trouble but once I get through them I think I may be on to my next Roguelike.
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I feel you - I am struggling to maintain enough focus on a game. Plus the nagging pull to play âefficientlyâ and use guides.
Feel like it pulls the fun out of things⌠but I canât stop it!
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Thatâs the same thing that kicked me off The Outer Worlds. I really liked it in the intro planet. But when the other planets opened up it almost became too much for me. Well, maybe not almost; I stopped playing and havenât been back. It was too huge and that doesnât appeal to me like it did when I was single and playing through Fallout 3 for the third time and all its DLC.
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Jumped into Backpack Hero - really enjoying this version of the rogue-like. Instead of a deck you are building a backpack of goodies, that you can use based on energy and other mechanics. There is a little town building and lots of research and unlocks.
Not to be confused with Backpack Battles - which is less adventure and more pvp structure
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Resident Evil 4 remake. The original is very special to me. By the time it came out, Iâd soured on the series and really had no interest. But a friend of mine got some awful news, and I thought Iâd invite him to come over and play something new. We played all day, with him, me, and my roommate swapping out who was playing, who was telling the person playing to reload and noticing stuff that was hard to pick up when staying alive, and who was ordering pizza or the like. One of my favorite gaming memories, and it led me to give the game a chance. I loved it ; probably completed it more times than any other game with a story.
But itâs been 15 years or more since then, and I tried a while ago to plug in the old GameCube and replay it, and I couldnât cope with the horrid graphics and antiquated controls. And I find horror and gore much less tolerable now than I did in grad school, so I put it aside. So I was pretty divided on whether the remake was worth it; Iâd already tried going back to that well of nostalgia, and failed badly.
Turns out, once again, itâs terrific. I needed a good sale and a bonus credit from Microsoft to make me give it a chance, and I do kind of hate how ugly it is (mostly deliberately as a result of aiming at horror and disgust; the graphics arenât up to a modern AAA standard, but theyâre fine). But I remember enough to frequently have moments of âoh, THIS place!â, but not so much that thereâs little to discover. The tactical puzzles it offers are still marvelous, forcing the player to adapt constantly without being so chaotic that the result feels random, and with a terrific balance of long- and short-term concerns along multiple axes.
Itâs pretty weird that Dredge was cozy enough to get me willing to do something more challenging and mucky, but I think it really helped that thatâs what I played last.
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Has anyone played any of the Reigns games on iOS? Is there any depth? Strategy? Narrative? Are they worth it?
Yes, Iâve played the original Reigns, Reigns: Her Majesty, the Apple Arcade release (Beyond) and the Netflix release (Three Kingdoms). I think theyâre definitely worth it if youâve never played any of them. They have decent depth and narrative; the amount of strategy depends on the title, but most of them lack a ton of that.
I played the heck out of the original when it first came out and found it pretty novel and interesting. The games are fun as youâre completing early quests and unlocking more cards and paths. Eventually, progress is harder to come by and everything feels a bit same-y.
I thought Her Majesty was basically a re-skin where youâre a queen, not a king. The narrativeâs different than the original but not enough to be worth my time. Beyondâs story is much different but didnât grab me. Three Kingdoms is a nice step forward that introduces a map with different events and quests in the different locations, forcing you to travel around to progress through the story.
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I didnât even realize there was a Netflix one. Easy sell since I donât need to pay. Thanks.
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Looks like Netflix is also releasing remastered versions of GTA 3; Vice City and San Andreas - tomorrow. There goes my weekend.
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Thereâs also a Game of Thrones version if youâre into that particular IP?
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Been playing a lot of Cobalt Core. Described elsewhere as FTL meets Slay the Spire because your deck helps you control a spaceship in combat as you visit different nodes in the type of branching map weâve seen in a million roguelike deckbuilders now. Like FTL, you can unlock new ship configurations as you go.
I really enjoy the gameâs deck varietyâyou choose 3 crewmembers to take on each flight, and each one brings different card types. For example, the first 3 characters focus on shielding, movement/card draw, and attacks. Unlockable characters have new abilities like drones and exhausting cards. I also like the overarching story, which requires you win runs with each character to unlock their memories to figure out how and why theyâre stuck in infinitely repeating âtime loopsâ.
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I played that one and the original. Both were worth the time and the money, although I did eventually drift away before I saw all the endings for GoT or anything as deep as all that. Fun timewasters.
If you like that swipe left/right mechanic and want a roguelike deckbuilder (such an underpopulated genre, those roguelike deckbuilders; when will they ever make more of them?), Meteorfall is very fun.
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I did fall down the Meteorfall rabbit hole for quite some time. Played it a lot (and enjoyed my time with it) before drifting off. Played a bit of the sequel Krumitâs tale as well which I found far more challenging but didnât hook me in quite so deeply. I also had a spell with Solitairica for a while. Who would have thought solitaire and a rogue like deck builder could be a thing?
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All three are great in their own respect and I agree with you regarding Meteorfall. The sequel was harder and didnât hook me as much; I donât think I felt like I was building decks with as much synergy in that one. Still quite good, though.
Solitarica was brilliant and was ahead of most games in the deck building genre.
If anyone wants another hidden gem, look at Cards of Terra. As a bonus, itâs free. You can pay to remove ad, and the developers deserve it.
Edit: As I re-read this it seems as if I imply that Solitarica is a deck builder, which it isnât. It is a roguelike with cards and abilities but your deck remains the same every run.
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Second the recommendation for Cards of Terra. Itâs been on the main game page on my ipad for years now and is easy to dip into for a deck build fix.
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Cool, will check out Cards of Terra, while I donât have every single achievement yet on Luck be a Landlord, I have like 10 landlord kills now on every level so have played the heck out of it. Need something new on my iphone.