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chuckroBad Dream: Coma - This is a point-and-click adventure game, though it's definitely an “advanced” one. There are three distinct routes through the game depending on your actions (and at least four endings). There's no hint or skip button, some of the puzzles are fairly original (the computer one in the hospital comes to mind), and they take advantage of the line-art style to screw with the medium and break the fourth wall. I did find it annoying how often things appear or doors unlock after you do something arbitrary, but the eight chapters are all fairly contained, so it isn't that big a deal to go back and check everything after each event. If you've enjoyed the contents of the cryptic bundles, don't mind horror/mindscrew games, and can handle a little challenge, this was pretty good.
Replica - A puzzle game in which you're given a cell phone and commanded by Homeland Security to break into it and find evidence of terrorism by its owner. It's extremely Orwellian (and makes references as such) and like all good satire, cleaves frighteningly close to reality. I'm reminded of Please, Don't Touch Anything, in that there are lots of little secrets and special endings to find.
Barony - A first-person roguelike dungeon crawler (to the extent of taking a lot of roguelike staple mechanics) in which you die a lot. Often very quickly. There's something about exploring the underground remains of a cursed city, but mostly, you meet monsters and they kill you.
GoNNER - This is...weird. In a line-art, partially-displayed realm, you play as a death-blob that falls apart when hit, forcing you to recollect your skull, bag and gun before taking another hit, or it’s game over. And you shoot demons and collect runes, but not always? And the rooms might be random or might not? Suffice it to say, this didn’t do it for me.
Mad Games Tycoon - A game-making company simulator with a Sims-like interface and far, far too many options. I found it to be a more complicated yet worse version of Game Corp DX, because even if it’s a more “accurate” simulation, it’s not fun to play.
Deadlight – A very cinematic platformer with puzzle elements—it reminds me of the Uncharted series, actually, just in 2D. Following what is effectively a zombie apocalypse, a man attempts to flee to a safe place, searching for his family.
The Count Lucanor - A puzzle adventure / horror exploration game in which a young boy goes out to seek his fortune, and ends up in a mysterious castle full of goat-monsters trying to guess the name of a sinister kobold. Early decisions impact later gameplay (and which endings you can get), but the primary set of puzzles don’t change. The action/stealth portions (mostly fleeing from goat-monsters) are somewhat mitigated by the top-down, pixelated style. (At least it’s not first-person, amiright?) It has a grand assortment of ending and is an interesting blend of stealth, adventure and puzzle gameplay.
I got Kingdom Rush from an Indie Build-Your-Own Bundle that I never fully reviewed; it’s a tower defense game (thankfully, with variable difficulty levels) with a “defend the kingdom from monsters” cartoony skin. Jethrien found the random voice acting amusing. I found the lack of a speed-up function irritating. Despite the greater variety of tower options, I think I actually enjoyed Defend Your Life more, because it allows for more growth independent of your skill level (the heroes in this game level up within each level, but always start at level 1; and there are no “bonus” items for purchase).
Kingdom Rush Frontiers was in this bundle, and it’s very similar to the original, but it handles the heroes a bit better (their level gains stay between battles and they unlock faster) and changes around some of the units. (And has new stages, and a slightly stronger plot.) The real change is the necromancer tower, which raises the humanoid units that die near it as skeleton troops to fight for you. This is almost broken in how useful it is in creating and maintaining chokepoints, and I think it compensated for my generally not being great at tower defense games.
Overall: I found Bad Dream: Coma, Replica, The Count Lucanor and Kingdom Rush Frontiers all to be entertaining; the latter being the one that I spent the most time on. This bundle was totally worth the couple of bucks.
Replica - A puzzle game in which you're given a cell phone and commanded by Homeland Security to break into it and find evidence of terrorism by its owner. It's extremely Orwellian (and makes references as such) and like all good satire, cleaves frighteningly close to reality. I'm reminded of Please, Don't Touch Anything, in that there are lots of little secrets and special endings to find.
Barony - A first-person roguelike dungeon crawler (to the extent of taking a lot of roguelike staple mechanics) in which you die a lot. Often very quickly. There's something about exploring the underground remains of a cursed city, but mostly, you meet monsters and they kill you.
GoNNER - This is...weird. In a line-art, partially-displayed realm, you play as a death-blob that falls apart when hit, forcing you to recollect your skull, bag and gun before taking another hit, or it’s game over. And you shoot demons and collect runes, but not always? And the rooms might be random or might not? Suffice it to say, this didn’t do it for me.
Mad Games Tycoon - A game-making company simulator with a Sims-like interface and far, far too many options. I found it to be a more complicated yet worse version of Game Corp DX, because even if it’s a more “accurate” simulation, it’s not fun to play.
Deadlight – A very cinematic platformer with puzzle elements—it reminds me of the Uncharted series, actually, just in 2D. Following what is effectively a zombie apocalypse, a man attempts to flee to a safe place, searching for his family.
The Count Lucanor - A puzzle adventure / horror exploration game in which a young boy goes out to seek his fortune, and ends up in a mysterious castle full of goat-monsters trying to guess the name of a sinister kobold. Early decisions impact later gameplay (and which endings you can get), but the primary set of puzzles don’t change. The action/stealth portions (mostly fleeing from goat-monsters) are somewhat mitigated by the top-down, pixelated style. (At least it’s not first-person, amiright?) It has a grand assortment of ending and is an interesting blend of stealth, adventure and puzzle gameplay.
I got Kingdom Rush from an Indie Build-Your-Own Bundle that I never fully reviewed; it’s a tower defense game (thankfully, with variable difficulty levels) with a “defend the kingdom from monsters” cartoony skin. Jethrien found the random voice acting amusing. I found the lack of a speed-up function irritating. Despite the greater variety of tower options, I think I actually enjoyed Defend Your Life more, because it allows for more growth independent of your skill level (the heroes in this game level up within each level, but always start at level 1; and there are no “bonus” items for purchase).
Kingdom Rush Frontiers was in this bundle, and it’s very similar to the original, but it handles the heroes a bit better (their level gains stay between battles and they unlock faster) and changes around some of the units. (And has new stages, and a slightly stronger plot.) The real change is the necromancer tower, which raises the humanoid units that die near it as skeleton troops to fight for you. This is almost broken in how useful it is in creating and maintaining chokepoints, and I think it compensated for my generally not being great at tower defense games.
Overall: I found Bad Dream: Coma, Replica, The Count Lucanor and Kingdom Rush Frontiers all to be entertaining; the latter being the one that I spent the most time on. This bundle was totally worth the couple of bucks.
