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I actually bought this bundle (for $3, maybe?) knowing that I had no interest in a few of the games, but feeling that I was likely to get my money’s worth regardless. And given that I spent seven hours each on Fort Defense and Legends of Atlantis, I think I was right. I think this bundle wins for “games that I ended up enjoying much more than I would have expected.”
Fort Defense - This is a naval-based tower defense game, which I’ve noted aren’t usually my thing, but the Easy mode is easy enough to be amusing, and you can unlock permanent reductions in difficulty (stronger units, lower costs, more hit points) by spending the “barrels” you earn via normal gameplay. There’s a good variety of units and enemies, though they don’t give you advance warning of what to expect in each wave, so you’ll sometimes have to restart a level if your initial setup can’t handle the first wave. Like most tower defense games, the initial setup will totally determine whether you clear the level or not. If I was nitpicking, I’d say this game needs more documentation of which units can hit flying enemies and which enemies are immune/resistant to which attacks. But I totally enjoyed it for what it was, and I’d totally recommend it if you want to try tower defense but that isn’t typically your thing.
League of Mermaids - A match-3 ball-dropping game (think Snood or Poyo Pop, but in reverse), with the twist that the pearls obey loose physics rather than sticking in place or to each other. I found that there’s too much randomness in how much the pearls bounce; this is too complicated to be a casual game but too straightforward as a plotless puzzler to actually capture and hold my interest.
Legends of Atlantis: Exodus - Have you ever played an RTS game and thought that the combat part was overrated, you just wanted more of the gathering resources and building things? That's what this game is. In "Relaxed Mode", you're basically just trying to puzzle out what order to collect and build everything in; in "Challenge Mode" you have a proper time limit. Also, the bonus rounds are the pearl-dropping game from League of Mermaids. (There's also a "find the hidden object" bonus round.) Even in Challenge mode, it's not a particularly difficult game. There's some flexibility to the order of operations--you don't need to be perfect, even on the later stages, to get an Expert score. You also can check out each stage before starting the timer, and planning your method of attack makes a lot of difference. (Also, I think there were only half a dozen stages where an unwinnable condition was even possible--where I had to restart because I realized I had used resources in the wrong place and couldn't continue.)
Paranormal State: Poison Spring - This is clearly based on a TV show about a crew of ghost-hunters, though I know nothing about the show itself. All I know is this is a fun little puzzle adventure game, with a mix of hunt-and-find puzzles, kleptomaniac hero adventuring, and random Dr. Layton-style brainteasers. The game has three difficulty levels, though I’m not entirely sure why—the only difference seems to be how often you can ask for clues and skip puzzles, and if you want a harder experience, you can just…not do that. The plot is absurd, of course (it’s about hunting the ghosts of a Cherokee woman and black Union soldier who fell in love but sacrificed themselves to stop a demon from being summoned to fight for the Confederacy), but I’d put the puzzle quality at “good” and the difficulty at “fair”. Also, the "find something here" marks on the map were awesome. Every game should have them—they’re a perfect subtle clue.
GabeN: The Final Decision - A badly-balanced rpgmaker game starring Valve's Gabe Newell, whose computer is sabotaged just before he can release a summer Steam sale, so he goes on a quest to defeat the Illuminati and characters from his various games. I suspect that there are in-jokes that I'm missing--this isn't "for" me. Or perhaps it isn't actually funny.
Stranded In Time - Another point-and-click adventure/puzzle game, though this one is far more cartoony and less polished—the puzzles are more obtuse and there’s a lot more “wasted space” in the game. Olivia's crazy uncle Peter has found an abandoned church that he thinks is connected to Atlantis and aliens. Shockingly, he’s only somewhat crazy and is apparently right! Honestly, it's a lousy game. Every puzzle is skippable, which is good, because many of them are bullshit puzzles. There's a lot of empty space and random back-and-forth through it. "You know what the best part of this game is?" "No, what?" "It's so short!"
Mountain Crime: Requital - Another adventure/puzzle game, this one about a doctor who rushes to help a patient at the mysterious White Wolf Hotel, but finds himself investigating a slew of murders. The animation is lousy (this world is apparently populated by Ken dolls) and the plot is a stereotypical horror/mystery yarn, but the puzzles are decent. I did find myself annoyed at the adventure game logic, though: "Someone is dying! I'd better go reassemble an old lawnmower on the other side of the building just in case something that will help is hidden in the tall grass!" and "I'll just throw away this screwdriver after one use, just like the last two. What are the odds I'll need it again?"
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games - It's a shame I didn't like this given that it's a big game with a lot of material, but I'm not a big enough Doctor Who fan to care about the plethora of trivia and the voice acting; and it's not a puzzle adventure game so much as a stealth game with long cutscenes and some puzzle game elements--and I really don't like stealth action sequences. So, not for me.
Showtime! - This vaguely interested me as a movie studio sim game, but unfortunately it doesn't run properly--the text dialogue boxes and dropdowns (which are kinda critical in text-heavy simulator game) all show up as blank. I'm going to back-burner this until an update appears (if ever).
AR-K Episode 1: Gone with the Sphere - Alicia was booted out of the police academy for a theft she didn't commit, and now is in school for journalism. What was the golden sphere she found in her locker that day? Well, the first episode of this multi-chapter point-and-click adventure won't tell you (or mention that you're on a space station called the AR-K), because it's all about Alicia trying to get a passing grade from an evil professor while nursing a hangover. Alicia who has comically large breasts and is apparently a sociopath from the way she solves problems. The puzzles are standard absurd moon logic, and the interface isn't great (you need to drag things from your inventory and close your inventory manually while doing it; and I didn't realize you could drag people's pictures to ask about them until late in the game). The credits say that Greg Rucka wrote the dialogue, to which I say, "Hunh. I would have expected better."
This bundle also included Summer Athletics and Fritz For Fun 13, a sports game and a chess game I’m not particularly interested in at all. They’ll gather dust in my Steam cloud.
Fort Defense - This is a naval-based tower defense game, which I’ve noted aren’t usually my thing, but the Easy mode is easy enough to be amusing, and you can unlock permanent reductions in difficulty (stronger units, lower costs, more hit points) by spending the “barrels” you earn via normal gameplay. There’s a good variety of units and enemies, though they don’t give you advance warning of what to expect in each wave, so you’ll sometimes have to restart a level if your initial setup can’t handle the first wave. Like most tower defense games, the initial setup will totally determine whether you clear the level or not. If I was nitpicking, I’d say this game needs more documentation of which units can hit flying enemies and which enemies are immune/resistant to which attacks. But I totally enjoyed it for what it was, and I’d totally recommend it if you want to try tower defense but that isn’t typically your thing.
League of Mermaids - A match-3 ball-dropping game (think Snood or Poyo Pop, but in reverse), with the twist that the pearls obey loose physics rather than sticking in place or to each other. I found that there’s too much randomness in how much the pearls bounce; this is too complicated to be a casual game but too straightforward as a plotless puzzler to actually capture and hold my interest.
Legends of Atlantis: Exodus - Have you ever played an RTS game and thought that the combat part was overrated, you just wanted more of the gathering resources and building things? That's what this game is. In "Relaxed Mode", you're basically just trying to puzzle out what order to collect and build everything in; in "Challenge Mode" you have a proper time limit. Also, the bonus rounds are the pearl-dropping game from League of Mermaids. (There's also a "find the hidden object" bonus round.) Even in Challenge mode, it's not a particularly difficult game. There's some flexibility to the order of operations--you don't need to be perfect, even on the later stages, to get an Expert score. You also can check out each stage before starting the timer, and planning your method of attack makes a lot of difference. (Also, I think there were only half a dozen stages where an unwinnable condition was even possible--where I had to restart because I realized I had used resources in the wrong place and couldn't continue.)
Paranormal State: Poison Spring - This is clearly based on a TV show about a crew of ghost-hunters, though I know nothing about the show itself. All I know is this is a fun little puzzle adventure game, with a mix of hunt-and-find puzzles, kleptomaniac hero adventuring, and random Dr. Layton-style brainteasers. The game has three difficulty levels, though I’m not entirely sure why—the only difference seems to be how often you can ask for clues and skip puzzles, and if you want a harder experience, you can just…not do that. The plot is absurd, of course (it’s about hunting the ghosts of a Cherokee woman and black Union soldier who fell in love but sacrificed themselves to stop a demon from being summoned to fight for the Confederacy), but I’d put the puzzle quality at “good” and the difficulty at “fair”. Also, the "find something here" marks on the map were awesome. Every game should have them—they’re a perfect subtle clue.
GabeN: The Final Decision - A badly-balanced rpgmaker game starring Valve's Gabe Newell, whose computer is sabotaged just before he can release a summer Steam sale, so he goes on a quest to defeat the Illuminati and characters from his various games. I suspect that there are in-jokes that I'm missing--this isn't "for" me. Or perhaps it isn't actually funny.
Stranded In Time - Another point-and-click adventure/puzzle game, though this one is far more cartoony and less polished—the puzzles are more obtuse and there’s a lot more “wasted space” in the game. Olivia's crazy uncle Peter has found an abandoned church that he thinks is connected to Atlantis and aliens. Shockingly, he’s only somewhat crazy and is apparently right! Honestly, it's a lousy game. Every puzzle is skippable, which is good, because many of them are bullshit puzzles. There's a lot of empty space and random back-and-forth through it. "You know what the best part of this game is?" "No, what?" "It's so short!"
Mountain Crime: Requital - Another adventure/puzzle game, this one about a doctor who rushes to help a patient at the mysterious White Wolf Hotel, but finds himself investigating a slew of murders. The animation is lousy (this world is apparently populated by Ken dolls) and the plot is a stereotypical horror/mystery yarn, but the puzzles are decent. I did find myself annoyed at the adventure game logic, though: "Someone is dying! I'd better go reassemble an old lawnmower on the other side of the building just in case something that will help is hidden in the tall grass!" and "I'll just throw away this screwdriver after one use, just like the last two. What are the odds I'll need it again?"
Doctor Who: The Adventure Games - It's a shame I didn't like this given that it's a big game with a lot of material, but I'm not a big enough Doctor Who fan to care about the plethora of trivia and the voice acting; and it's not a puzzle adventure game so much as a stealth game with long cutscenes and some puzzle game elements--and I really don't like stealth action sequences. So, not for me.
Showtime! - This vaguely interested me as a movie studio sim game, but unfortunately it doesn't run properly--the text dialogue boxes and dropdowns (which are kinda critical in text-heavy simulator game) all show up as blank. I'm going to back-burner this until an update appears (if ever).
AR-K Episode 1: Gone with the Sphere - Alicia was booted out of the police academy for a theft she didn't commit, and now is in school for journalism. What was the golden sphere she found in her locker that day? Well, the first episode of this multi-chapter point-and-click adventure won't tell you (or mention that you're on a space station called the AR-K), because it's all about Alicia trying to get a passing grade from an evil professor while nursing a hangover. Alicia who has comically large breasts and is apparently a sociopath from the way she solves problems. The puzzles are standard absurd moon logic, and the interface isn't great (you need to drag things from your inventory and close your inventory manually while doing it; and I didn't realize you could drag people's pictures to ask about them until late in the game). The credits say that Greg Rucka wrote the dialogue, to which I say, "Hunh. I would have expected better."
This bundle also included Summer Athletics and Fritz For Fun 13, a sports game and a chess game I’m not particularly interested in at all. They’ll gather dust in my Steam cloud.
