Quick Opinion: Far Lone Sails, TREE, Cultist Simulator

There are more than few games which deserve their own article on the blog, but I have not played enough of most of them (insert sad face here) BUT I have played enough of these three small games. And trust me they are more than worthy of your time. First is...

Far Lone Sails

Far Lone Sails is an atmospheric post-apocalyptic puzzle adventure game in which you need to get from what looks like the memorial place of someone to...somewhere else. For this you will travel on a vehicle powered both by sails and an engine. During your adventure you will solve puzzles, upgrade the vehicle ( ship? ), collect fuel for its engine and most of all deal with all kinds of defects. Defects which are not taken care for will start fires and render parts of the ship useless and will also cause further damage. You cannot finish the game without your ship, so you will have take good care for it. When you are not dealing with the ship you will solve (simple even for me) puzzles in the ruins of the world and uncover what has happened to it. 

While theoretically Far Lone Sails has failure state it is hard to get to it and not finish the game. The puzzles you will encounter are also not extremely challenging. What stands out from the game is its atmosphere of loneliness,  beautiful environments and the open for interpretation story ( including the ending itself ). Far Lone Sails is really about the journey more than about the destination, its an experience. Although the destination is also quite interesting.

 

Where to find:

Official site

GoG 

HumbleStore

TREE 

TREE is developed by group of industry veterans calling themselves The Strangers and it came out in September. It is a simple game about a boy planting a tree ( shocking, right? ) and collecting the fruits of the tree each season. But TREE is not about its game element, it is about life. While you are growing the TREE and gathering its fruits you will witness how the boy grows and what fruits he gathers from life. TREE is a short, half-hour game about life and what you can get from it...or not.

Where to find:

Steam

Cultist Simulator

The long time readers of the blog are aware that I am no small fan of Failbetter Games, the creators of the browser adventure game Fallen London and the naval adventure Sunless Sea. And now the creator of these two gems - Alexis Kennedy has made Cultist Simulator. By its nature Cultist Simulator is a digital board game in which your task is to create your own Cult and achieve Immortality. To achieve this you will explore the secret occult places in a city and work so you can have money for pieces on mysticism ( and to support your life ). In the progress of the mentioned explorations you will not only attract people for your Cult, but there is also good chance you will attract unwanted attention of both people who are against your interest in the occult and from occult powers. Both will attempt to end your life. 

How all this works is very confusing - you have...lets call them nouns, those are the cards in the game, they are separated in all kinds of categories and types - Tools, Skills, Books, Rites, Enemies, etc.. And you have verbs, those are the actions you can attempt - Work, Study, Dream, Explore, etc. For the actions you use cards. Most cards can be used with different actions and provide different results. The confusing part comes from the fact that Cultist Simulator as all other Failbetter games leave a lot to the user. You will fail and start a new many times before you learn the ropes of the game and how to play it if not optimally at least manage to finish it without dying. The game is also very chaotic - verbs happen in real time and once you get few going at the same time you will be clicking and hovering stuff all the time, wondering what to do next, seasons will pass, money will disappear and your only friend in this madness is the pause, but even it will not help you enough sometimes. 

Despite all these Cultist Simulator also has this great, unique, mystic vibe all other Failbetter titles have. And while the game is probably not set in Fallen London, because Kennedy has released it independently, it can easily find its place in the underground city and if you like Fallen London and Sunless Sea there is something for you in Cultist Simulator too.

Where to find:

Humble

GoG
Steam

Into the breach - Pacific Rim meets chess

Few days ago I realized that I have not written about Into the breach. So I am here to fix this mistake.

In 2012 a small studio called Subset Games created their debut game - Faster than Light - FTL. Despite the small team and niche genre FTL was a hit and turned into classic, becoming benchmark for many people in the industry. In February 2018 Subset returned and on the market appeared Into the Breach.

Small piece of perfection

I usually like to separate my reviews into sub-sections about the different aspects of the game, but Into the Breach is too small and too simple of a game for such thing, so here comes everything.

In the game you take command of a special time traveling squad which goes into the distant feature attempting to prevent the end of humanity. Similar to  FTL Into the Breach is also roguelike where when you die you teleport back to the past, re-assemble your team and can try again. During the game by completing objectives you will unlock new mechs for your squad. 

When you choose from your mechs and you are ready to start, the game transports you to the future. The world consists of islands which consist of regions. Each island have its own climate which can lead to thunderstorms, earthquakes, sandstorms and erupting volcanoes. Each region have also different objectives, some with buildings which if you succeed to keep whole to the end of the battle will provide you with bonuses and sometimes even units. 

If in a run you cleaned an island next time you will be able to start from it. 

Speaking of battles...

When you choose an island you will have a choice between few regions on this island. Each region with different advantages and disadvantages for you. What is important about the island's regions is that you will not be able to save all, some of them will fall to the insects, so you will need to choose carefully what you want and what you need. When you choose a region it is time to squash some bugs.

The battlefield is a small 8x8 square and on it the whole battle takes place. Before the battle you will have the chance to deploy your troops and this can be crucial for the battle to develop in your favor. What was surprising to me was how simple the game is and what big variety of units ( both mechs and bugs) there is in the game. The first make the game really easy to pick up and the second make it tactical masterpiece. The two together make it the gem it is. Among the bugs and the mechs you will see melee, charging units, tanks shooting in straight line, flying bugs and aircrafts, siege cannons, units creating  lightning and dust storms, bugs which bind targets stopping them from moving and more and more. The combinations and tactics are enormous amount. You will unlock thematic squads of mechs, but you can freely combine mechs from the pre-made squads into a custom squad. 
But how do you win? ( or lose at that matter) A good question. In each region you have buildings and you have power grid stat. If your power grid reaches zero you lose the run. When a building is destroyed you lose one grid and it is not restored after the battle. To win a battle you must survive X number of turns only, even in the bossfights, BUT in most battles you will also have side objectives which in some cases will give you grid, stars for unlocks or upgrade cores for your units. 

Conclusion

Into the Breach is simple game with simple mechanics. What make it so good is how well the mechanics are picked and how well they work together. It is not overburdened with complicated stats, skills or units, it is clean, only what is necessary and at the same time the game will make you bang your head against the wall and carefully plan every click you make. 

Where to find:

GoG
Steam
Humble

Ash of Gods - Looking like someone is not enough

This review is based on the release version of the game. Since then AurumDust have shipped many patches and updates.

In March 2018 under the hands of the studio AurumDust came out the game Ash of Gods: Redemption. The title both attracted me and worried me, because it reminded me of Banner Saga. Ash of Gods is mildly said inspired by Banner Saga and in the following text I will do something that I avoid usually and that is to heavily compare two titles. Is Ash of Gods imitating Banner Saga, is it better, is it worse? All these questions will be answered in the following text.

But first - what makes Banner Saga the awesome game it is (opinion me, as always)? Two separate reviews are written on the topic, but in short what make Banner Saga so good are it's hand drawn gorgeous world, it's captivating narrative with tense story, realistic situations, hard, meaningful decisions and real, breathing characters. The battles in the game are challenging, the game has polished, deep mechanics, vast roster of warriors and a bunch of viable play styles.

The above mentioned characteristics will also be the ones I will use for the comparison with Ash of Gods.

Visuals and Sound

Ash of Gods has its faults and I will talk about them in a little, but how it looks is not one of them. In it's looks Ash of Gods greatly remind me of Banner Saga with it's hand-drawn style. The difference is that unlike Banner Saga, Ash of Gods take place in a more medieval setting. In battle characters have nice fluid animations when attacking or using skills. For some reason though everyone while fighting calmly stride around the battlefield and when stricken their knees buckle. I clearly understand that animations are one of the things that gives the feeling that your attack is doing something, but  when everyone react the same way...it does not work so well.

The sound is in general good although you can hear it bug off when some skills are used in certain situations. For example AoE sword skills used on less than the maximum targets. The music is good but unimpressive without much value for immersion. 

Stories and Characters

 This is where Ash of Gods fails and it fails hard. The story idea is decent, but the characters feel flat, the dialogues are awkward. The game tries to set up dark, gritty atmosphere, but it manages just a bit of a tense situations where few action heroes through a lot of swearing and killing manage to get stuff done. Even one of the main characters feel weird as his lines are contradictive and make him feel like two different people. I know that the original script is written in Russian and all this might be because of a poor translation, but this does not change the facts...it makes it even worse. 

Also the choices you make do not feel as important. Stuff depend on what you do, but first the resolutions of your actions are long time after making the decisions, second they do not feel as impactful. Banner Saga will kill off characters of importance if you are not careful.

Traveling and Battles

After I talked about the worst in Ash of Gods, let me tell you about the best. Biggest flaw of Banner Saga is its linearity. You do not have a choice where to go, you just follow the story. In Ash of Gods you have few choices, mainly what way to go on the map toward your goal. These choices while minor still breed in some fresh air as they bring different events and some replayability of the game ( If you can get past the horrible dialogues and boring characters.). Sadly all the traveling is done on the map alone and there are no gorgeous views to enjoy while wondering what crisis the game will hit you with. When you arrive somewhere you can choose between places in the area which to "explore". Again, very similar to Banner Saga where instead of places to visit, you had people to talk with.

But I said I will talk about the best and this is far from the beast. The best are the battles.

The battle is turn based, where your chosen before the fight warriors fight against the enemy. So far nothing new, right? What makes it different are two main mechanics - power cards(or whatever is called in the game) and that you can choose with whom to act when it is your turn. The power cards are exactly what they sound like - every turn you can play one of limited number of cards. They are either buffs or harmful for the enemy effects. During your playthrough you will be able to find, craft and buy more cards. The really interesting mechanic is the second one - you choose who to use when it is your turn. Of course when you play with some one you cannot use them until you take turn with everyone else from your squad, but what this does is gives you immense freedom during battle, you decide how and when your men and women will act. You need your archers you got them, you need your melee to intercept someone, great, done. The mechanic feels great and it was the sole reason I enjoyed the combats in the game so much. Other than that the units have two stats - health and magic and both can be attacked. To use skills you will need to pay either with magic or health, but if you do not have magic you take double damage to your health. The characters have good, variable pools of skills including stances which give enough freedom how to and for what to use your fighters. Speaking about them, in the course of the game you will be able to level your guys, improve their abilities and equip them with items. From the whole game this is probably the best part even if it has its flaws like the speed and how everybody walk calmly around and the animations when someone is struck.

Conclusion

As much as I do not want to say it, Ash of Gods is a copy of Banner Saga which lacks most things that make Banner Saga the great game it is. It almost seem like AurumDust have made a checklist for their game but first of all have not polished each peace of the game and second they have missed to make the separate things from the checklist to work well with one another. 

Where to find:

Official site
GoG

Steam

Top 10 games reviewed for 2017

This post is so late, that by now is just proving a point. But is still a list of my favorite games, published last year and reviewed on the blog. This time they will not be even ordered. Just ten awesome games. Detailed reviews in the links of the game titles.

Torment - Tides of Numenera

Torment: Tides of Numenera is squad based RPG with turn based battles, but you will almost never be pressured to fight as there are numerous ways to resolve a crisis. Torment is a game focused on talking and learning about the world in which you have fallen(you literally fall from the sky). It is a game targeted at people who like long dialogues, hard choices, intriguing world and exploration. Oh and have a lot of free time. Torment: Tides of Numenera as most games of the genre is between 25 and 30+ hours of gameplay. But every hour invested is worth it, even if you do not finish it play it if not for another thing then for the rich palette of characters you will meet. Torment is like a how-to to anyone who is in the business of creating characters.


Battle Brothers 



Battle Borthers is ok looking game. No flashy effects, no high detailed models, nothing visually impressive. But oh my how deep is this game! You will have to manage your company, be careful what brothers you hire, to have enough money, food and supplies. Which brothers you will take to battle, who will you hire, how will you arm them, what formation you will use. There is a ton of things, ridiculous amount of depth. The biggest downside for me was the lack of overarching story, but you can easily make your own. You will meet enough strong enemies, you will have more than enough epic battles to do so if you want to. You will even have the chance to get into a war between the royal families. Plenty of material to make your own story. Another nitpick which might turn people away is the low fantasy profile of the game. You will fight orcs, goblins and undead, but there is very little magic in the world of Battle Brothers.
If I have to compare Battle Brothers to another game it is definitely Mount and Blade with bigger focus on the fights and turn-based, but similar in many ways. Great, sadly niche game which will not get the attention it deserves. It is hard, it is far from casual and takes a lot of time to progress. But great, great game nonetheless.

Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight is an epic 2D action-adventure. You’ll explore twisting caverns, battle tainted creatures and escape intricate traps, all to solve an ancient long-hidden mystery. In this review I have compared it to Dark Souls and I know a lot of you are thinking about Salt & Sanctuary, but this is a totally different game. Salt was an action platformer, but it was still centred around the hard fights and there was very little platforming or exploration. In Hollow Knight you will have your share of jumping puzzles and great amount of exploring the unique world in which you have descended.  It's a healthy mix of Ori's jumping puzzles and Salt & Sanctuary's fight without taking any of those two to the extreme.
A must play for the fans of the genre.

Old Man's Journey 

Old Man's Journey is amazing, charming, filled with bittersweet feelings small game which might make you think about life in different light. Give it a chance it is barely a two hours journey each minute of which is worth it.

Pyre 

Pyre bears many of the Supergiant's typical characteristics. Great music, good atmosphere, interesting story (reminded me a bit of “Fahrenheit 451”), looks gorgeous and alive. At the same time it is not on par with Transistor or with Bastion. It felt a bit repetitive and on rails. True, the world opens up a little after certain point, bit it turns into a grind basically which is bearable only because more lore is revealed during this part. On another hand it is a short game with its 12-15 hours length. 
The strangest part? I loved it. I did not like some things, but the more I played Pyre the more I liked it and I do not know why or how it happened. I guess Supergiant is Supergiant after all.

Divinity: Original Sin 2

Any explanation will fall short. Divinity is a game which creates not just experiences which is the point of most games, but it creates stories, memories. It is a world so vibrant and full of treasure, mystery and miracle that you want to see every corner of it, speak to every man, woman and animal just to hear their story and learn more about what surrounds you...
If you the time and like massive RPGs just go and play it. You will not finish it probably, but even 20-30 hours are worth it. Divinity OS 2 is like that place everyone need to see for themselves.  

And here I am not even talking about the modding which the game supports or the gamemaster mode where you create your own story campaign. Sadly I still have not tried neither of those...

Hob

Hob is not revolutionary game, but neither it was Torchlight. But Torchlight were well made games and Hob continues this trend showing that the people at Runic knew what they are doing. 
Hob is beautiful and charming, bit at the same time cruel and dangerous of the unwary. It is not a long game with its 7 zones it will take you around 30 or so hours to finish but in this time you have the pleasure to wander in one unique world which will challenge your wits, patience and fighting prowess. 
We can only wonder what other great worlds Runic could have made if the studio continued to exist.
Pit People

Pit People is weird silly game, by the giant Behemoth(you see what I did there?). At first the game may look a bit random and strange but you will realize that all those silly stuff click together really well. In other words the developers had not just poured random ideas in the game, they had clear idea what they wanted to make. 
In it's core Pit People is fast paced RPG adventure game with turn-based battles where you will have to help the poor blueberry farmer Horatio to succeed in his revenge against the horrible space bear. 
The game is still in early access, but its already quite polished and have its core mechanics in place. For now it lacks content and the story quest line will probably be the main thing(aside from the co-op and the 2v2 arena modes) which will make you play the game, but Behemoth have gotten the formula and now they only need to develop its full potential.
The game is not for everyone and its probably even target at very specific audience, but if you like your games a bit silly I recommend you to try Pit People when it is out.
And yes, I know I cheated with this one. Hehe...
Night in the Woods

Night in the Woods explore the problems of growing up, failing, parents expectations, clash of past and present and many more, it is a game which will have biggest impact on players which are around Mae's age and they themselves are having the same or similar problems. Other audience to which I recommend the game are people who have gone through this in the past. Another side of the game is the mystery and Mae's weird dreams, but most value from the game you will get if you play it because of the things I mentioned above as this is the main purpose of the game in my opinion. To touch these sensitive topics which few if any games does. 

Gorogoa

If you are into puzzle games even just a little, go and play it its a game which need to be experienced and no amount of words will represent it fairly. 

It's never too late @Willian Cross. About this proving of a point I was talking about.  Be immortal, dear readers!

Gorogoa - A life told in pictures

For varied reasons this blog has little by little become a place for hidden gems. This does not mean you will never find opinion on bigger title, but it has become a rarity. Why I am saying all this? It is clear already I think,  you have seen the title after all. Today I am here to tell you about the puzzle game Gorogoa. 

Gorogoa is puzzle game developed by Jason Roberts and published by Annapurna Interactive in December 2017. 
The game starts with a panel, on the panel a boy, observing part of an ancient monster. He look it up in his book and finds something about it. This finding sends him on a journey...through life. 
Gorogoa's story is unclear one, told in pictures with no speech, the game leaves it up to you to take what you want from it. It explores themes like war, religion and meaning of life, but in subtle and elegant way with more than little symbolism the game's story is open for interpretation. And while this is nothing short of intriguing especially for a small puzzle game like Gorogoa(the game is developed by one guy and is no more than 2 hours.) what really takes you back are the puzzles in it. In other words...

How Gorogoa works 

You have four places on your screen. Those you will use to arrange pictures in such way that you help the protagonist find five "fruits". And by arrange I do not mean you will just put them next to each other. Oh, no, no. You will surely put them next to each other to make path for the character to move on, but this is usually at the very end of each chapter. Before that you will take part of a picture, put it in another, zoom in third, rotate it and take the new rotated piece and place it in the second. Then put the second under the forth and finish the puzzle. !!!!SPOILERS!!!! I mean, there is place where you will make a tram moving on a map, move on a ladder and then you will align the map so you can become smaller and go through a little gate and then connect a small ladder to a big one, so you become normal size again. Take that Alice! !!!END OF SPOILERS!!!!  But solving a puzzle in Gorogoa does not just make you feel good, it will also often come with expressions or thoughts like "Wow..."; "No way..."; "Are you kidding me..." etc. And this will not be because of how hard the puzzle are, but because how genius and imaginative they are. Truly the game can be beaten with random clicking and trying stuff until something works, but then it becomes tedious and you will ruin the whole experience for yourself. The expressions will be replaced with "Uph, at last...jeez" and trust me you do not want that. 

There will be no Conclusion for Gorogoa. If you are into puzzle games even just a little, go and play it its a game which need to be experienced and no amount of words will represent it fairly. 

Where to find:

Official site

GoG

Steam

Hob - The power to change the world

Among all the great games and things in general, which happened in 2017, there were also some unfortunate events for the industry. One of those is the closing of Runic, creators of the Torchlight series. But before their end, they managed to finish something people were waiting for long time - Hob.

When you create two games which are similar in many ways you want a change. You want something new, different, something that has nothing to do with your previous creations. This pretty much was Runic's explanation why they have decided to make adventure game with puzzles and a lot of exploration. Have they managed to do it when they have made only ARPGs? Read on...

The power to change the world

In many games you can argue that your actions change the world. And in many they does indeed. Wars are waged, villages are burned, people are killed, even worlds and galaxies are saved or doomed. But in none of the games I have played I've been able to change the landscape of the world. In Hob you can. And what is more amazing is that you can not because you are almighty hero who can deliver blows powerful enough to bring down mountains, but you can because the world of Hob is one huge, intricate machine. An artificial world a lot like the one in Terry Pratchett's  "Strata" or even Douglas Adams's "The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy". A world where thunderstorms fall around field sized power generators and valves the size of houses need to be turned for new regions of the world to be risen and become accessible. It can hardly be described in words and you must see it to appreciate not only how awesome it is as an idea, but also how well it is accomplished. And because a mechanical planet built by robots is not enough there are also hidden beautiful vistas, a lot like in a real world. 

The topic of changing the world can also be found in the story of the game. The great world and civilization of the robots is invaded by unknown evil, spreading across their world destroying both them and the nature, twisting and driving creatures mad. After you are touched by this corruption you are saved by one of the surviving robots. He cuts your infected arm and replaces it with his own thus giving you some super powers. This is interesting moment as the robot in typical for a machine, cold manner judges that the best action is to cut your arm without you even have a chance to say something about it, but then he sacrifices his own arm so you are able to keep on. Your task is to fight the corruption and free the world of this blight. You must change it/return it back to healthy state. The whole story of the game is told without a single word and much is revealed through exploration. Not forcing you to seek it, but there if you want to know it.

Fighting the baddies, exploring and some issues

Hob is not an intense game. This goes for both exploration and fighting. This does not mean the game is boring, no, quite the opposite. What I am trying to say is that the game will never forcefully push you forward, instead you are let to do everything at your own pace. Wander around, look for collectibles, go forward, return later, whatever you wish. And as for fighting - the game is a lot more about waiting for the right time to attack than rushing and mashing buttons until everything dies. Smaller enemies while easy to kill on their own often will come in groups and your shield will protect only from attacks coming to your front so be careful to where you turn your back. Big enemies will need a lot more effort on other hand, even when there are only one or two of them. The game offers good amount of different opponents with new ones popping often enough for the fights to not become tedious and repetitive.  As for skills you will collect green orbs from fallen foes and hidden statues and with these orbs you will unlock new skills for Hob. You will also be able to upgrade your sword by finding fragments in the world and even increase your maximum life. 

Exploration is rewarding business in Hob, it brings lot more than beautiful vistas and meetings with weird wildlife.

Speaking about exploration. The world of the game is separated in zones which need to be unlocked in order to be accessed. That usually will include fighting a boss and solving a bunch of puzzles. Your exploration often will be hindered by puzzles and this is where few of the problems of the game come. First Hob is close to unplayable with mouse and keyboard. The battles are ok, but the good amount of platforming and the tight controls needed for it will quickly make you plug in a game pad. 

Second problem of the game is its map. The world of Hob is vast and interconnected and you will often backtrack around when you go for collectibles. The problem is that the features of the world are not shown clearly enough on the map and you will literally need time to get used to the map and zoom in on it so you can better judge is the collectible shown next to you on the map is really close to you or you will have to backtrack zone and a half to get to it. So be prepared for some pointless wandering back and forth trying to figure how to get to the place you want or need to go. 

Conclusion

Hob is not revolutionary game, but neither it was Torchlight. But Torchlight were well made games and Hob continues this trend showing that the people at Runic knew what they are doing. 

Hob is beautiful and charming, bit at the same time cruel and dangerous of the unwary. It is not a long game with its 7 zones it will take you around 30 or so hours to finish but in this time you have the pleasure to wander in one unique world which will challenge your wits, patience and fighting prowess. 

We can only wonder what other great worlds Runic could have made if the studio continued to exist.

Where to find:

Official site

Humble Store

GoG

Steam