First Impression: The Survivalists (PC – Steam) ~ Monkey Business

Steam store page – Official site

Sometimes, I just need a game to get lost in it. A game where I can dive into and play for hours upon hours. Games like Minecraft and Terreria come to mind. Since last year, a 3rd game joined that list for me, and that’s The Survivalists. But why did I give it a spot on my top 10 games of 2021? Did it deserve that spot, or did I change my mind already? So, let’s start monkeying around and let’s talk about this game, while I invite you to leave a comment in the comment section down below with your thoughts and/or opinions on this game and/or the content of this article.

Monkey Business

This game is an adventure survival game through and through. The game starts with you getting shipwrecked on an island, and it’s your task to escape. Now, you might think that this game is similar to other survival games like Forager for example. But, this game has a unique mechanic that I love.

During your adventures in this game, you can free imprisoned monkeys. As soon as you free these monkeys, they’ll join your party, and you can use them for anything you want. You can teach your monkeys to do stuff for you. This game slowly goes from a survival game to a micromanagement game. Since these monkeys can learn how to farm, craft, fight, gather resources… So, basically, you can leave the grind tasks to your monkeys. They can level up in these tasks, to complete them even more efficiently. Or you can have an army of monkeys following you around to battle enemies and such.

But I might be going a bit fast here. What’s the story in this game? Well, there is none apart from you shipwrecking and trying to find a way out. You do meet some taskmasters, but those don’t contribute anything besides being your quest givers. So, if you are looking for a survival game with a story of any sort, I think you’d look elsewhere.

Anyway, back to the monkeys. They are the game-changer, and micromanaging them is one of the biggest mechanics in this game. At this moment in my playthrough, I have freed 20 monkeys and trying to find the right balance in which monkeys are assigned to which tasks are an amazing puzzle. Together with an easy-to-understand tutorial, this game teaches you the ropes without holding your hand. After that, you are free to explore the islands.

The difficulty of this game really depends on the random islands you spawn on and in which order you tackle them. So far, I have two playthroughs running, and I have to say that the difference in difficulty makes the game fresh. To make an efficient base and craft the correct equipment to go exploring, is also a great mechanic in this game.

At the start, this game is overwhelming. There are islands to explore, crafting trees to unlock, resources to keep high, dungeons to explore, treasures to find… But, in its current form, the game lacks depth in some areas. There are a lot of mechanics that can be improved or expanded upon.

For example, the blueprint system. You can’t rotate buildings OR cancel blueprints once they are placed. Another example, why can’t you sort your monkeys by e.g. skill in your menu or see their names on the map? Once, one of my monkeys glitched out and got stuck in the middle of the sea without me being able to pick him up. I could use a summon-banana, but I had no idea of the monkey’s name.

If I list all the mechanics that could use a bit more quality of life features, I’d be here for a long time. But, don’t get me wrong here. The features that are here are amazing, but certain things would make the game even more enjoyable to play. For example, see the radius of where gathering monkeys will go to pick up materials. On the other hand, it makes the game a bit more challenging, since you need to plan your building quite well.

Open sea

This game was released in October 2020. Since then, it got 4 big content updates. These updates brought a lot of new things to the game. Sadly, since last summer, there hasn’t been a lot of development of this game. And if there is, I haven’t found any traces of it on the social platforms or on their Discord.

It’s a shame really since the potential of this game is huge. Currently, you can explore 5 islands. At first, I was afraid that it would make the world too small. But thankfully, that’s not a big issue. Each island serves its purpose and going from island to island takes up a lot of time. Thankfully, you can set up transport gates.

These transport gates are one of the best additions to the game in my opinion. They increase the game flow so much. I don’t like having a monkey with me that carries a big chest for storage. Since, when they get knocked out, they don’t re-pick up that chest, and it doesn’t appear on the mini-map. And with the small inventory, these transport gates are a blessing. And it’s also really helpful that items don’t disappear from the ground. On my adventures today, I found some leaves I have thrown out of my inventory when I first discovered the island over a month ago.

Exploring the islands can be quite tense. Since you never know where the enemy villages are. And let me tell you, some of these enemies can pack a punch. Mastering the combat in this game is essential to survive. I also bought this game on my Switch and I have to say that I highly prefer the controls on the PC version. Maybe that’s because I got so used to them with mouse and keyboard, that I have some troubles playing this game with a controller… Which is also an option.

That being said, this game controls amazingly. Sometimes, I had a bit of trouble canceling some crafting of my monkeys, but that was partly my own fault since I placed so many crafting stations so close together.

With these wonderful controls, we can explore the amazingly designed world of this game. While there are only a few biomes, they are all well-designed and have their own reasons to be explored. It’s really quite impressive how well this game runs. In some cases, there is a lot going on, and I barely see any lag or slowdown appear. Which is good, since you’ve to be on your guard in some areas to survive.

I always tense a bit up when I heard that battle music coming. I always look around to make sure if it’s safe to continue to gather the supplies I was gathering or if I should first go into combat mode. The music and sound design are really well done, and it adds so much to the atmosphere of this game. I didn’t hesitate to buy the OST DLC to be able to put the music on my playlists while I’m working.

Replaying

One thing that really tripped me up several times is that this game doesn’t have an autosave. To save your game, you have to sleep.

The loading of another world also isn’t quite easy to do. But, once you have done it, it’s easy to do. You just need to know that “Save slots” is your world select. And, you better have some sort of note system since you can’t give your world’s names. 😦

This game also has multiplayer. I haven’t played a lot of multiplayer, but from what I have played… It works fine. The limited communication options through emotes are somewhat disappointing to me. Sadly, the last two times I got bad experiences in multiplayer with a broken temple and a very spammy host with emotes.

Personally, I don’t regret putting this game on my top 10 games list last year. Yet, I can totally understand why people expected more from this. This game is from the same studio that brought us Overcooked and Worms. The charm in this game is huge, but charm can bring you only so far.

I love playing through this game in short bursts from time to time, trying to finish all the quests and explore everything my islands have to offer. I’m also trying to avoid all outside help from wikis and such since the in-game tutorial and hints are great enough to help you with that.

You can finish this game in roughly 20-ish hours, but currently, I have played this game for 35 hours and I haven’t beaten it yet. Since I want to see everything this game has to offer. In general, I think this game has the potential to become even bigger, but for that, the game will need more content and some major quality of life patch. Like, being able to choose the world you want to open when you start the game?

I wish this game wasn’t such a hidden gem. If the community was larger, I’m sure that this game would get more frequent updates. But, now, I rarely see other players online… I wish there were more online, so I could experience the multiplayer. Maybe I should invite some friends to play this game since I think this game is even more fun when you play it with others. And possibly then I could unlock those final achievements.

If you enjoy games like Forager, Minecraft, or Terrarria… to name just a few; I really think you’ll enjoy this game. At the moment of writing, this game is on sale and I highly advise you to pick up the digital deluxe edition. The additional cosmetic content is totally worth it and the additional hats you can find for your monkeys make it easier to tell them apart.

And with that, I have said almost everything I wanted to say about this game for now. In short, I really like this game. While it has some rough edges, those aren’t a dealbreaker. While this game might not please every fan of the genre, I think there is something here for everyone. Let’s go monkeyin’ around since this is a tense adventure. An adventure worth your bananas and monkeys.

Before I ramble on, I want to thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article, but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

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First Impression: There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension (Switch) ~ Ceci n’est pas un article.

Wikipedia entry – Nintendo.com microsite – Developer site

There is no game here, so there is no article here. I have been searching everywhere in this game and I have found nothing. So, why am I writing about this then? Because I have no other game to write about, and I still want to write an article since it’s one of my biggest hobbies? Well, who knows. I can’t say, since there isn’t an expanded version of a game jam here. Maybe that section in the latest Nintendo Indie World was a lie. … Okay, I don’t think he is looking anymore. I think it’s time to let you in on a little secret. … There might be a game here. Shall we take a look at it? Come on, you and me. Let’s talk about this secret game while you sneakily go to the comment section after reading this article and tell me what you think about this game and/or the content of this article.

Ceci n’est pas une pipe

I don’t think I’ll be able to keep up the gag from the introduction paragraph through the whole article before it gets extremely stale and boring to read. No really, it might not be enjoyable at all. There would be loads of things that’ll be way more enjoyable to do. Like, read one of my articles or play a game. 

But, since you are still here, I think you want to poke around in the wrong dimension that’s part of the title right? Alright then, reader. In this game, you take on the role of “the user”. Explaining how your adventure gets started would spoil various gags that this game pulls with you and since I try to keep my content as spoiler free as possible, it gets quite tricky. 

The different chapters of this game can be a standalone episode in a series, but it still has an overarching plot. It tells a story about a certain game program that is convincing you that there is no game. But, some strange glitch is haunting him and messing things up for him, so maybe it’s time to set things right. 

You and the game program travel through the various wrong dimensions on your way home to set things right while having amazing humorous adventures throughout various game genres that poke fun at various elements of that genre. The amount of the sneaky references and the clever use in the gameplay and puzzles of this game is just amazing. 

When I said “various game genres”, you might think that this game has a lot of different gameplay styles. Well, this game is a point-and-click adventure. So, while you might be a Zelda-style adventure game dimension, you have to interact with the game via the modern point-and-click controls. But, more about the gameplay later. 

First, let’s talk about our Russian(?) host. Your game program friend is fully voice acted. The voice work has been done by Pascal Cammisotto, who is actually the French developer of this game. While the game is translated in various other languages, the voice acting is stays in English, and it’s glorious. The voice acting in this game is extremely well done and adds even more charm to the game, which may or may not be there.

The pacing of this story is walking on the fine line of going a tad bit too fast and just fast enough. I felt that some sections of this “fictional” game that I have played so far went over a bit too quickly, but I also think that if they dragged on for a bit longer they might overstay their welcome. In other words, in most places the pacing hits the right beats but in some cases, I found that a section was over a bit too fast.

“User, please solve that.”

So, in this game you have to interact with the world in various unique ways via your usual point-and-click style gameplay. You find various items that can aid you on your quest. Your inventory is at the bottom of the screen, and you can place it in the order you like. If two objects might be able to interact, they get a white outline around them. 

Not that this information matters, since I’m not talking about a game that’s here on Switch, but I felt that this game controls better when being played on the touch screen of your Switch compared to the docked controls. I’m not saying that the controls while docked don’t work, but you need to quickly interact with some actions, and I was able to solve most of the puzzles more easy using the touch controls. 

The controls were quite easy to get a hang of. It didn’t take long before I was able to tackle the amazing puzzles in this game. The difficulty balance in this game gets a thumbs up from me. I really loved to solve the puzzles in this game and the mechanics and gags used to solve the puzzles in this game make the game being a love letter to our hobby even better. 

Also, when you are stuck in a certain section, the hint system gets a chef’s kiss. A ten out of ten. Whenever you click the “Help” button, you can unlock a hint. In most cases, you have to unlock another hint before you can unlock the solution. The only penalty you get from using the hint system is a small “boo” shout that the game gives you. But, I highly advise you to not use the hint system. The solution and out-of-the-box thinking you have to do is so much more enjoyable when you solve it without a hint. It’s a shame, since the hint system is one of the best I have seen in point-and-click games so far. 

The biggest shame of this game is that this game is extremely short. This game can be beaten in 5 to 8 hours. So, I currently played this game for 3 hours, so that means I’m somewhat over half way to beat this game. I always feel quite conflicted about these short games. At one hand, some of these are a blast to play through and provide a lot of unique experiences but on the other hand… I always wanted from the game. 

Nostalgic

I think we are currently in the time period where people who grew up with the same sort of games then I did are currently in the indie game development scene. The various game spoofs that this game visits feel so extremely nostalgic all the while that this game is putting its own unique spin on them. For example, the Zelda-style spoof reminds me so much of playing the Minish Cap for the first time. And the first spoof reminds me so much of playing old school point-and-click games from Humongous Entertainment or LucasArts.

The game’s visual presentation pulls you in so much that it makes the game more addictive to play for me. It blends the visual style of its own and the games it’s spoofing so well I have a hard time telling which is which sometimes. I can only praise the artist who works on the visual presentation and the animations since you did an amazing job. 

And as usual, after talking about the visual presentation… I talk about the music and sound effects. And just like the visual presentation, I have no complaints about those either. It’s an amazing blend between modern and retro styled sound effects. I could be an annoying nitpicker and say that it’s an extremely minor shame that the whole soundtrack of this game is orchestrated but then again, that’s extremely impressive for such a small indie game that only costs $13.

So far, I have been praising this game to the moon and back. It’s almost that this game doesn’t have any negatives apart from its short length. The save system works fine, the UI is excellent… I feel that this game is polished and play tested quite a lot before it got released.   

The biggest negative I can say is that this game has some jokes that might go unnoticed or fall flat for younger gamers or people who just get into gaming. I honestly don’t think that the story is going to be so strong if you played it with people who aren’t that into video games. But, if you are well versed into games, I think that this game’s humor and charm will draw you in like it did with me.

Now, this game falls into the trap of being a short point-and-click game. If you want to enjoy this game to its full potential, I highly recommend that you read as little about the game as possible since the fewer you know about the game the better. Otherwise, the charm and humor will hit less hard and that’s a lot of what makes this game so addictive and fun to play. 

The second trap of the point-and-click genre is that the replay value is extremely low. While you might enjoy your 2nd or 3rd playthrough, you will know most of the gags and story beats in this game which makes a 2nd playthrough way less enjoyable. Unless you are doing a speedrun of this game of course. 

So, I think I have said everything I wanted to say about this game. It’s high time for the conclusion I sort of already gave earlier in this article. If you are into video games and enjoy a point-and-click adventure game, I think that this short game is one you shouldn’t sleep on. While the game works a lot better with touch controls compared to controlling it with the joy cons or a pro controller, I don’t think that it would hinder your experience too much in this game. 

Now, if you aren’t into video games, I would still recommend this game to you, but I have to warn you that a lot of the gags and spoofs in this game will go over your head. The strength of the story only shines when you know a little about computers and games. Then the beautiful game world and the nice audiovisual design will draw you in just like it does it with me. 

If I have to describe my feelings and thoughts about this game in a short paragraph I have to say that this game is a humorous point-and-click adventure that takes you through a nostalgic trip throughout (recent) gaming history that uses it’s gags extremely well. The charm of the story, settings, visual and audiovisual presentation quite well to deliver a short but extremely enjoyable adventure that makes me keep an eye on the developer of this game about what he is going to do next.

So, it’s high time to wrap up this article so I can start finishing this game. I want to thank you a lot for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care. Oh, so there was a game there… Should I start reviewing it?

Preview: The Uncharted Roads of Marco Polo (PC) ~ The Road To Development

Today I have something quick unique to present to you. Not too long ago, I met somebody on a Facebook group about point-and-click adventure games who was developing a new title. The game is called ”The Uncharted Roads of Marco Polo” and it looks extremely interesting to me. I suggested creating an article for the developers and they agreed. So, here we are. I’m writing a preview article for a game that only released some screenshots and a small trailer video. But there is more! I had the chance to talk to one of the developers of this game called Josip Makjanic and we are going to talk about the uncharted road that took him to this development. So, with that said, it’s time to dive into this article and invite you to leave a comment in the comment section with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article.

 The pitch

So, what is this game about? The developer provided me with a bit more information about the game. Basically, the game is a point-and-click adventure game like Broken Sword and Monkey Island. You can also compare it to Captain Disaster, Another Code R, Time Hollow, Ace Attorney, Professor Layton or the CSI games.

The game takes the player all over various landmarks in Croatia to solve puzzles and have a grand adventure. The story will be based on historic locations and figures. At this moment, the game is in its pre-alpha stage and has over 60 locations planned together with various characters to populate them. The puzzles will be in the style you would find in the Broken Sword or the Monkey Island series.

Pre-Alpha means that the game is in a sort “draft” phase. It means that everything is being prepared to go into the production of the game. Compare it to baking a cake, the moment you plan to bake a cake and make a list of which ingredients you will need and for whom you are making the cake… Those are things you would do in the pre-alpha stage of development. You can read more information about the development cycle on this Wikipedia article.

Personally, I love games that take place in unusual locations around the world. So, this game takes place in Croatia and is being developed by Svarog Interactive. This 4-man team is also based in Croatia. Now, the guys from there also send us a little teaser video that you can find right here:

I have to say, this teaser is extremely impressive. Right away, I noticed that the art style resembled the art style in the first Broken Sword games. Like the Broken Sword games, the locations are extremely detailed and colorful. Unlike the Broken Sword games, the animation like the leaves and the flies on screen… Well, the location feels more alive than ever. I find it rather enjoyable that everything looks quite realistic and those flies, man, they look so goofy I love it.

If you compare the Pre-Alpha video to the screenshots I shared on top of this article, you notice some big differences right away. First of all, the dialogue system looks a lot cleaner. You get dialogue boxes with character portraits on top. Also, you notice that on the bottom right corner, you have a bag. Most likely, this is where your items are going to be stored. So, you won’t have to go to the top of your screen for that. In addition to that, in the right upper corner, you notice that there is a gear icon. This will most likely be a way to go to the pause menu.

Sadly enough, since this game is still in extremely early development, there is nothing more I can show you or talk about. I can’t wait to see more and I’m going to follow the development of this game quite closely.

Yet, if you want more and you speak Croatian, you can read this article with one of the developers by 24Sata. Now, there is also this YouTube video where the developer talks about his road towards development. While the video is in Croatian, there are English subtitles provided. Sadly, the subtitles just stop around the 5:11 mark, so there are 2 minutes without subtitles ☹.

Now, before we continue with the interview with Josip Makjanic, one of the co-founders of Svarog Interactive, I want to share some links where you can follow the project as well. They have a Facebook page and Twitter page.

Let’s talk

Jonez: Welcome Josip Makjanic, co-founder of Svarog Interactive. Can you give us a small introduction about yourself?

Josip: Hello Jonez. My name is Josip Makjanic, a co-founder and Game Designer in Svarog Interactive.

Jonez: In our conversation over mail you told me that this isn’t your first game. You worked on impressive games like Serious Sam 4 and Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope. Serious Sam is an amazing series from Croatia, your home country. Was it always your dream to develop games?

Josip: Yes. I was always fascinated by it. I started making video games not so long ago, but I sort of designed games in general since I was a kid, by designing them on paper, writing stories and creating concepts. When I lived in a high school dorm I used to make versions of Warcraft, Diablo and even Counter Strike on paper that we played with dice, and people from the dorm would come and play in our room.

I was always fascinated by it and loved creating, so today, with some experience behind and with some good friends by my side, I thought it’s time to start working on our own video games.

Jonez: On the road to the developping of “The Uncharted Road of Marco Polo”, you created two other games called “Day in Dementia” and “In Memory”. Both games have a similar concept and art style. As a side note, I have to say that I’m touched by “In Memory”. The story behind it, a game to honor the dead of your mother, I have one word for you: respect. Respect man. Now, I noticed that both games were created in Construct. Are you using the same engine for this game?

Josip: Thank you. 🙂 Both of these games were made in Construct 2, and were created as a personal project. I don’t even know if I could call them games, but rather some sort of experiences that meant a lot to me personally. Marco Polo is being developed in Unity since it gives us more freedom from the technical sides of things.

Jonez: In our conversation, you talk about an open-world RPG. So, this point-and-click game isn’t the only title you are working on? What is this open-world RPG game or is it more a testing ground for possible future titles?

Josip: We are huge fans of Point & Click games and huge fans of RPG’s. We grew up on those games and always wanted to make our own worlds that others can enjoy with us. So, we are working on an open-world RPG system and have stories and concepts, but, we don’t like to rush ourselves, as we know how ambitious and big these projects are, and we would, of course, need a much bigger team. So before it happens, and we hope it will, there are other, smaller projects in mind, but we are going in that direction.

It’s very important for us to first understand how everything works and make many tests so we don’t waste time or get lost in the projects we’re developing, which makes the development much more enjoyable and better organized. So yes, we are making tests and preparations for other projects, but Marco Polo is a priority and is written as a trilogy. We are also huge fans of traditional drawing and animations, so I don’t think we will ever want to part with it. 🙂

Jonez: Now, let’s get back to The Uncharted Road of Marco Polo since that’s the game that I’m previewing with this article. I’m rather curious. Why about Marco Polo? If the game is set in Croatia and Marco Polo is a merchant from Italy. Of course, there is this debate about his birthplace might be Croatian as well… So, why the decision for Marco Polo?

Josip: The game is talking about historic figures and real places, and players will learn so much about Croatia from it, and while the game has many real things people can learn about, it’s story is fictional and we won’t get involved into that debate, but will rather focus on some other, more interesting aspects based on his life, and how to make an enjoyable story and experience in general. 🙂

Jonez: Are you developing this game full-time or are you developing this game on the side like the Corpse Party developers GrisGris? Also, how do you make sure that there is enough budget to create this game?

Josip: We are currently working in our free time, so that means that we also have other jobs, doing freelancing and helping each other out, but we believe that soon we’ll be able to work full time on the game, and when that happens, we will inform everyone about it. If we don’t get a publisher then we will definitely go Kickstarter with playable Demo, Trailer and some other interesting things in mind. So the game’s development is currently going smoothly without too many investments, but we will definitely depend on a publisher or Kickstarter later if we want to finish the game in a reasonable time.

We also don’t want to go on Kickstarter without having some quality content that people can enjoy before considering supporting us. 🙂

Jonez: You told me that there are, including you, 4 people working on this game. Can you tell us a bit more about the team and the talent in it?

Josip: Yes, there are 4 of us and we all have some projects behind us. There is Alen, our technical guy who makes sure all the systems work in general. Devis is our character artist and animator, and Andrija is our manager. I make backgrounds, write a story and making a game design in general, but we are all highly involved in each part of the development so there is a bit of everyone in every aspect of the game. Andrija, for example, came up with the idea of Marco Polo, so we all worked together to make a story that will fit the game’s mechanics.

There will be behind the scenes when it comes out. 🙂

Jonez: And as a final question, I would like to ask what are your favorite parts of being a game developer and what do you dislike in being a game developer.

Josip: I like how rewarding it can be. It sure isn’t easy to make a game and that’s why I started with those small ones. To build strong foundations and to be able to better understand it and move on to bigger projects. 

And the better I understand it and the more I know about the technical side, the more I can enjoy the creative parts of it, so I guess after every day of work you get rewarded with new knowledge and skills, and I find it very enjoyable.

The bad part of the development would definitely be one issue in the industry in general, and that’s the crunch. I’m not talking about a month or two of crunching, but about the developers who crunch for 6 months or more.

It’s not healthy and I believe that the health of those developers should be in the first place and by organizing yourself better before getting into developing a certain project would save many from that.

It’s a huge problem and something we want to avoid and not be a part of, so that’s one of the reasons for our long preparations and organization before the project even starts. I maybe went a bit off-topic with it, but I believe it’s very important to talk about it

Jonez: And with that, thank you Josip for the interview and the answers! Thank you for answering my silly questions and talking about games and development. I enjoyed it quite a lot.

Josip: Here’s a few words for the gamers out there. It is a huge compliment for us to be compared to a classic such as Broken Sword, as we saw many of you talk about it, and we are happy that you love what you see at this stage of development. It will maybe remind you of it, as we see it already do but I just want to say that we don’t want to be another Broken Sword in the end, as Broken Sword is a timeless classic and we don’t want to compete with it, nor I believe we can.

But what I believe is that we can make an enjoyable experience that will make your time worth playing it, a game on its own that we would like to play too, and that’s what we hope to achieve.

We want to make games like they used to be, or at least, make them feel like they used to be, and even though we are not the most experienced studio in the industry, we will give our best to make them worth your time, and try to be better with each one.

Thank you. 🙂

Jonez: And as a closing note, you can follow Josip’s personal projects over at his CrobbitArts Facebook page!

Ending of the article

And with that, I have to call this article a wrap. I want to thank Josip Makjanic for the interview and the material he provided for me to write this article. I’m quite hyped for this game and I can’t wait to play a demo or see more. Yes, I have quite the weak spot when it comes to well-crafted point-and-click adventure games. I love them more when there is a certain charm to it, like with this game.

This game looks to have quite some potential. Currently, we got only some screenshots and a teaser video and it’s already looking quite amazing. So, here is to Svarog Interactive, keep up the good work you guys! You can do it!

So, I’m curious. Do you think that this game is as interesting as I think? Have you noticed something I overlooked? Tell me in the comment section down below. And with that said, I want to thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care!

The Point-and-click puzzle Pinnacle – Jonez Edition

Ah, point-and-click games. Amazing adventure games with amazing stories that stick with you and rarely let go. I have spent countless hours playing these games. When LaterLevels and Quietschisto from RNG approached me with a collab idea, I directly jumped on the wagon to join this adventure. In this article, I’ll talk about my favorite and most hated puzzle in point-and-click adventures. Be sure to check their website for a poll of what other people said that their favorite and least favorite puzzles where. In any case, let’s dive right into my answers since I think I have found some gems to mention.

The polls: greatest puzzle – worst puzzle

Terminology

Alright, before we start talking about my favorite puzzles, I want to make sure that nobody is confused about what games I’m talking about. Otherwise, this list would be a bit too broad. Since the Point-And-Click genre is a subgenre of the adventure game genre, I think it’s a good idea to set some ground rules.

Can I use games like Virtue’s Last Reward on this list? Technically, I can. Since these games follow the rules of a point-and-click game. Now, what exactly are the rules? Well, I found that FlossManuals wrote a great explanation of it. Escape Room games are a sort of point-and-click game without a lot of character interaction.

Now, does this give me a free pass to use other visual novels like NG – Spirit Hunter or Another Code: R? That might be stretching the definition a bit too much. These are more adventure games that have a lot of point-and-click elements in them.

And what about Hidden Object games like Adera? Are these games point-and-click games? And in my opinion, yes, they are. These games are the casual version of the point-and-click genre of games with just an additional repeated mini-game.

Another great question is, do point and click games have to be 2D? The reason I’m asking that question is, the two first Broken Sword games are famous point-and-click adventure games but is the 3rd game still a point-and-click game? This brings us in a gray zone. Think about this, if you don’t consider the 3rd Broken Sword game to be a point-and-click game since it’s in 3D and uses 3D puzzles, what about Myst and Riven? These games appear on top 10 point-and-click lists all the time.

We could be here discussing this for hours upon hours. Talking about the rise and fall of the genre, but Ed Jefferson wrote an interesting piece on that for the NewsStateMan in January. Maybe that will help to give more clarity to what exactly makes a game a point-and-click game… But, I think it’s high time we start talking about my favorite and least favorite puzzles in these games, otherwise, we would be here for hours.

Most hated puzzle

Escape From Monkey Island (PS2) – Monkey Combat

Oh dear lord, this puzzle is something I truly hate. Let me set the scene for you. Back in 2013, I almost completed Escape From Monkey Island on my PS2. I enjoyed myself quite a lot, with the funny writing and the fourth wall breaks.

While some puzzles give me some challenges, I was always able to overcome them and get to the next section of the game. But, near the ending, there is a huge puzzle that is always randomized so you are unable to find a walkthrough for it.

This puzzle is an expanded version of Rock-Paper-Scissors with monkeys called Monkey Combat. This puzzle really made me take several notes and hope that I was able to be lucky so I could fill in all the squares. Guides like the one of GameBoomers or this one were ones I tried out, but either my copy was bugged or I did something wrong… and I was never able to beat the puzzle.

To be quite honest, I stopped playing the game and deleted my save file out of frustration. Maybe now that I’m a bit more experienced with solving these types of puzzles, I might go back to the game and retry this whole section but it really put me off in trying to beat this game again just to get stuck on that part again.

Favorite puzzle

Zero Time Dilemma (3DS) – Healing Room

The Zero Escape trilogy. One of my favorite trilogies ever made. More often than not, I find myself referring to these games when I’m reviewing adventure games.

When we are talking about my favorite puzzle, I think we should talk about the Healing Room puzzle of the 3rd game, Zero Time Dilemma.

This escape room puzzle is amazing. It quite creative and requires a lot of thought. Without spoiling the puzzle too much, I’ll explain what makes this puzzle so great.

First of all, you are playing a game where your life is on the line. When you don’t escape out of the room, something terrible might happen and you might be unable to survive. This alone makes this healing room is a strange breath of fresh air. It’s a relaxing room where the tense atmosphere goes away for a bit.

The room was actually built for that purpose. You are in a bomb shelter and to not go crazy, you can enter this healing room to relax and come back to your senses.

The second reason why this puzzle is so great is that this puzzle is just extremely fun to solve. It has various puzzles that all fit the various wallpapers you can choose for the room. The flow of the room is just amazing and once everything starts to click, you get bumped out when it’s over.

And my third and final reason is a story reason. The events that happen just before and after this room are one of the best parts of the game and just turn the whole mystery of this game on its head.

Final words

And those are my two picks for this collaboration. There are so many more puzzles I could talk about, so I think I might revisit this topic in the future. Feel free to leave a comment in the comment section down below with your thoughts and opinions on the chosen puzzles and your favorite and least favorite puzzle. I’m curious to hear them.

Thank you for reading this article and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Be sure to check out LaterLevel’s website to vote for your favorites and check out other websites their pick. But, that will be it for me, for now. I hope to be able to welcome you in another article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

Preview: Asylopole (PC) ~ Press Release

Official website

Today I have the honor to take a look at an adventure game, that’s still in development, called Asylopole. I wanted to write an article earlier about this game, since the developer mail me in the beginning of this month. In order to talk about this game, I took to look at the DRM-free playable teaser. Because this is a teaser, I also took a look at all the material published by the developer. So, enough stalling. Here we go. And as usual, feel free to leave a comment with your opinion on the game and/or the article. 

Keep in mind that the game is still subject to change, since it’s still in development. 

Positives

The story is described by the developer himself:

The game take place in a dystopian future where it’s a daily struggle for the population just to stay sane. Under the huge dome that covers the megalopolis and all its inhabitants, you play the role of Adam Murdock, a psychiatrist working in an insane asylum, a gigantic building that supports the center of the dome.

When treating patients, you are able to access their inner most thoughts and help fight the phobias and other mental problems that exist in a virtual world that’s known as Mentalis.
Get inside your patients’ heads to find out what’s gone wrong. Experience totally new universes and fight your patients’ worst demons…

 I love adventure games and I have played my fair share of them like Broken Sword and Monkey Island to name a few. There are a lot of adventure games I have started but never finished. The reason why I choose to finish an adventure game is the story. Without a good story, I can’t find the motivation to continue.

The story that’s currently shown in the playable teaser and in the press material sounds very interesting. While at first glance, it looks like a story that has elements thrown together from popular adventure games, I honestly think this can be very epic. The basic idea for the story reminds me of an underrated shooter called DreamKiller.

It’s quite impressive that this game is created by one person. Of course, he got some help from other people, but most work is done by one person. I’m honestly always impressed when somebody designs a game from top to bottom. Many years ago, I tried to create games myself and I didn’t get any further than simple 2D-casual games. So, it’s quite impressive.

The atmosphere & soundtrack is very nice too. The animation and visual presentation fits the story and setting quite well. From what I have seen from the press materials, I honestly think that this game has the potential to pull me in when it’s finished. And not only that, the developer went out of his way to make the world a bit more alive. Things like a social network and references to the latest popular trends are all pretty pleasant to see.

Improvements?

So, what do I recommend to the developer to improve or take a look at? Well, here are a few suggestions from me. Things that the developer should improve in a demo version and/or the full version.

First, I would honestly take a look at the UI. While it’s still in development, I haven’t seen where you would place the options’ menu. Or is the plan to only put that in the main menu? Just a side note, I got a crash while trying to save my game in the playable teaser.

What I would improve the most in terms of the UI is the fact that most menu sections lack “back buttons”. I know that you can press the “escape key” but those things aren’t always common knowledge. What I’m trying to say is that you should make the UI as accessible as possible. A good UI doesn’t need any explanation from a manual or an in-game tutorial. The developer is already doing a great job by using universal icons for most functions.

Also, try to implement support for screen sizes. My laptop resized the game to a screen as big as a screen on the Nintendo 3DS. I wish I was able to play in a bigger resolution.

While I know that developing a game is hard and asks a lot of time, I wish you had a bit more to do in the playable teaser. One mini-game, one inventory puzzle and/or a bit more action would have been lovely. Since now, I’m a bit bummed out. I want to play more. Since this game certainly caught my attention.

And honestly, that’s all I can say about this game. I encourage you guys and girls to support this developer. Since it’s quite clear this game is a work of passion and I see that there is a lot of potential in this game.

The foundation is already present, so dear developer, build on it. And I’m looking forward to in a more finished build to test out. And if you want, I’m willing to take a look at it and write another article about it.

Before I forget, congrats on the award man. I can say out of my own experience that getting a reward for your hard work is really motivating.

This game is one I’m going to keep an eye out for. I followed the developer on Twitter and I like I said earlier, I can’t wait to see more.

So, that is everything for this week. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks again to the developer of this game for giving me this chance to write about this game. This will be another game I’m looking forward too in 2017! I hope to be able to welcome you in another article on my blog, but until then: take care and have a great rest of your day!

Game Music – My favorites #16: A Special One

More gaming music articles!

It’s time to talk about some more amazing tracks from games. Normally, I have a rule that I have to use the original music from the game. But in this article, I will also talk about some tracks that are related to games but aren’t in any game. So far example, a song with various quotes from a game. In any case, the rule that one track per game still applies. So, I hope you enjoy these tracks. And as per usual, feel free to write a comment with your opinion on the tracks, games and/or your opinion on the content of this article! 

(Hardstyle) Markove – Reawaken (Quotes from Bioshock Infinite)

Bioshock Infinite review

So, around the one-minute mark of this hardstyle track… You are greeted with a quote from Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite. When I heard that quote, the memories of this game came flooding back to me.

Hardstyle is one of my favorite genres. I love melodic hardstyle. And honestly, when it’s combined with quotes or references from one of my favorite game series, then it’s even better.

When you like hardstyle or music with a lot of bass; you owe it yourself to check this track out!

(Trance) SkyMarshall Arts – Monkey Island (Quotes from the Monkey Island series)

Review of Escape from Monkey Island

First Impression of Tales From Monkey Island

SkyMarshall Arts is a DJ that makes a lot of different game-inspired music. He made songs about various games like Portal, DooM, Resident Evil and Monkey Island.

This song appeared on his “Nintendo Generation” album. On his own website, he explains the history of the album.

The song is really catchy and is quite fun to listen too. As a Monkey Island fan, it’s one of my favorite songs.

It’s a nice compilation of some great quotes from the games and the actual theme song.  Honestly, I have the impression that this could be used right at the end of a game in the series; when the credits are rolling.

(Original) Undertale – Hopes and Dreams

 So, I wanted to talk about Undertale for so long… So, here I go. The reason I’m not writing a review or a first impression for this game is because this game has been covered well enough.

Also, I haven’t finished the game yet. I know, shocking. But hey, it’s on my “to finish” list.

Undertale doesn’t need an introduction. It’s a very well known game. Maybe in the future, I’ll write an article about it. But for now, we have this amazing track from the game to listen to. Seriously, this track is very lively and one of my favorites in the game.

(Original) Rise Of The Tomb Raider – The Observatory

So, recently I have finished this game called “Rise Of The Tomb Raider” on PC. I wanted to finish this game sooner but there were just so many good games coming out in early 2016.

This game was an amazing sequel to the original Tomb Raider reboot from 2013. I’m very happy that this game finally came to PC since I had a blast playing this game.

I’m going to try and not talk too much about this game since I’m planning to write a review about this game.

But seriously, I played this game with some amazing headphones and that made the music even stronger. The atmosphere that this track brings while exploring tombs and various other locations is just amazing.

During this track, I stopped exploring and just moved the camera slowly around Lara. The visuals and the world design is pretty well done in this game and is a sight to behold. Thank you, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix for this amazing adventure and the amazing music that came with it!

(Techno) Basshunter – DotA (Song about playing DotA)

Okay, time for a disclaimer. I haven’t played DotA, nor am I playing to play DotA. But why do I bring up this song?

Well, because this track from Basshunter introduced me to electronic music which is has been my favorite genre since.

This song made my 13-year-old mind interested in electronic music and got has its hooks in my since. So, yeah this song has some strong childhood memories for me. Now, I wonder… Which game(-related) track has some strong childhood memories for you while you have never played the game it’s about? Feel free to tell me in the comments.

Wrapping up

It’s time to wrap up this article. Something became quite clear to me. When I want to talk about a game without writing a separate article about it, I write about it in this series.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing this one. I’m quite curious to see which tracks you guys & girls like.

Have a great rest of your day and I hope to be able to welcome you in another article. But until then, game on!

Gaming Music #8 * SPECIAL *: Remixes and game related tracks.

I listen to a lot of music, maybe too much. From soundtracks to hardstyle. From classic music to dance. Apart from dubstep and metal, I love all kinds of music. I’m really drawn to melodic music. I’m sorry for the fans of dubstep but most of the times, a sudden bass drop kills the melody for me. And metal, sorry guys, I’m more fond of the electronic music. Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t care if my friends play music of those genres in my neighborhood, it’s just that I will never listen to it myself. Out of that love for music, I started my gaming music series. I talk about my favorite tracks in gaming and why I love them so much. Normally I have a rule for 1 track per game. But I’m allow to select multiple tracks over the other articles. This rule still be will here. The other rule that I can’t select a remix is going out of the window. Now, in this article I will talk about a few songs that are either remixes of somebody, not by the creators of the game, or a song that’s heavily game influenced. Now, feel free to leave a comment with your favorites and or the opinion on my selection. 

#1: Secret Of Monkey Island – Main Theme (Dubmood / Chiptune Remix)

Link

Muddy, this is one for you. MuddyMaster and myself enjoy the chiptune quite a lot. A while ago, I posted a picture of a Monkey Island game on the forums. It turns out that Muddy knows and likes the series as well.

And who doesn’t? The amazing writing, the great adventure, the sometimes self-aware characters, the brilliant puzzle design… Man, too bad that LucasArts is closed.

This nice track is often my alarm when I need to wake up. I had people make fun of me, since this track sounds like a theme song from the old consoles. Honestly, I don’t care. While I can’t find the artist of this track (feel free to let me know) I think this is a well crafted remix.

When I was playing around with Audacity, I found out that there is a small silence in the track. A trained ear will hear the gap easily. But when you are relaxing, there is a big chance you will not notice it. And now, because I mentioned it, you guys will most likely all notice it.

Anyways, this track is an awesome way to start! I hope you guys are ready to listen to some great music. Dj, next one please!

#2: S3RL – Pika Girl (Handz-Up / Dance / Tech)

Link

I still remember a few years ago, when I heard “Pretty Rave Girl” from this artist for the first time. The video didn’t credit the artist and most of the times, people claimed that Basshunter was the creator.

After some digging, I found out, this year that the artist is S3RL. And when I heard this track, I was instantly in love with it.

I have one minor complaint. The healing sound effect is out of place the first time. The music comes to a way to abrupt stop. While this isn’t a real remix by definition, this track is really game related.

The lyrics made excellent use of the Pokémon terminology. In addition to that, the track tries to mix the show in with the actual games. Now, that’s something I rarely see happening. Or is that just me?

#3: Castlevania – Blood Tears Remix by Lyude (Rock)

Link

Shame on you when you don’t know Castlevania. This game is a game that nearly every time comes to mind when I’m playing platformers. Now, let me be clear. I don’t like Mario style platformers. They are a simple as going from point A to B.

But the Castlevania (2D) games at the other hand mix amazing RPG elements into the formula. I’m not really interested in the vampire story line that much, but it’s a great setting for the gameplay.

While this remix is rather short, I often play it on a loop while writing. When I’m writing articles where I don’t listen to the soundtrack of a game I’m writing about, I have a playlist ready. And this track is pretty high up that list. The pure energy that comes off this track, it’s amazing. Give it a listen. You won’t be disappointed.

#4: Gerudo Valley (Zelda series) – Remixed by IncredFX (Electro)

Link

Remember how I selected the original of this track in a previous entry of this series? Well, there are a lot of dubstep remixes out there of this amazing song. Yet, this electro remix takes the cake for me. It has an amazing bassline and above all, a great build up.

While you can clearly hear the actual music in the remix, it stays true to the fact that’s it’s a remix and some nice electro melodies are mixed in to it.

I really love this track. I wish I found it earlier. Also, you can download a highly improved version in the description of the video. Believe me, it’s totally worth it.

I admit that I have been dancing a little while writing this. Dancing on this amazing tune. Yes, it’s pretty clear by now. I can’t stress enough how much I like the style of this track. I have no real negative thing to say about this track. Although, I should have gone the extra mile and looked for a better screenshot to put here. Well, it’s a track from the Zelda series and a picture from the Zelda series… I think I can get away with this.

Closing words

And I think I’m going to end my article here. I know a ton more songs I want to mention, but I think I will keep those for the next special. I hope you enjoyed this special music article. I really enjoy writing articles like these.

If you ask yourself why I keep my article at this length, well, to keep it “bite-sized”. This way I force myself as well into putting the most important info in the article.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this article and hopefully I can see you in the next one.

Game Music #5: My Favorites ~ I just felt like it. M’kay?

Read more articles like this.

Apart from story and gameplay, the music is extremely important in a game for me. So, in this series I talk about my favorite musical themes I have encountered while playing. I have to have played the game and not looked at a review in order for it to appear on this list. I try my best to not have any tracks appear on the lists twice. If I slip up, feel free to leave me a comment. Anyways, enough introduction. Let’s start with the 5th entry in this series. 

#1: Monkey Island – Main Theme

Link to the song

Monkey Island, what an epic series. I have various games of the series in my collection and I’m truly ashamed that I haven’t finished them all. While I wrote two articles about this series already in the past, I can’t get enough of it.

The writing, the story, the setting, music… It just falls into place quite nicely. And the main theme is a theme I learned recognizing thanks to hearing it over and over in my YouTube playlists.

Why did it play so much? Since the track is addicting to listen too. You truly feel like a Caribbean pirate, ready for an adventure. If only I finished the games so I can write more articles about this series.

#2: Club House Games / 42 All Time Classics (DS) – Concentration

Link to the song

Lord damn, is this a catchy tune. The title truly fists the music. Concentration. I feel rather focused on my game when this song starts playing.

But why this game? Let’s be honest here, it might be a very unknown game for some of you. And it’s a shame. This is THE best party game on DS besides Mario Party then.

And it’s extremely addictive. My sister and myself have played this game a lot when we were younger. You know, under our sheets in the hope that our parents didn’t catch us playing. Anyways, worthy for an article. Keep your eyes open for it.

#3: Divinity Dragon Commander (PC) – On The Prowl

Link

Buying this game just for the soundtrack was totally worth it. But the gameplay is also mind blowing. While I truly suck at the game, I love every moment of it.

This game is a whole lot of fun and has one of the best orchestral soundtracks I have ever heard in a game.

I wish I could say more about this game but since I recently got it, I can’t say much more then this. Sorry for that. Let’s move on to the next one.

#4: Pixelmon (PC – Minecraft Mod) – Distant Shores

Link to the song

Wow, wait what? There is music in a mod for Minecraft? And it’s selected for on of my favorites? Well, yes, indeed. Pixelmon is one of the most amazing mods in Minecraft that I have seen. I’m planning either a review or a Game Quicky on it.

It’s a mod that doesn’t clutter your game with bunch of new ores but rather adds a ton of new things to do. It makes all the other Pokemon games feel linear.

So, I’m going to leave it here for this track since I’ll write a more extended article about this mod in the future.

#5: Electronic Super Joy (Steam) – Vee

Link

Such a shame! I haven’t added any of the tracks of this game to my favorites list. While this game has a ton of tracks that I truly enjoy. It’s mindblowing.

I talked about it in my article. I meanly wanted this game for it’s soundtrack. And this game is just epic. It made it’s level design around the music.

For more things about this game, read my first impression article. I linked to it a bit higher.

#6: Age Of Mythologies (PC) – (Fine Layers Of) Slaysenflite

Link

There are a few games that truly give me a nostalgic feeling like this one. Okay, that’s a clear lie. I have a ton of games which give me a big nostalgic feeling. Since I played a ton of games in my childhood. But this one is one of the biggest. I bought this game first in a garage sale.

Sadly enough, it was the single game and it was in French. All the more reason for me to work on my French. Then I bought the Gold Edition of this game and gave the French copy away to one of my friends.

Till this day, this is the only RTS that I have fully beaten. I have to say, it’s an extremely though game and it will challenge even the experienced players.

The Egyptian track is one of the tracks I might list in another one of these articles. Yeah, that rule of no 2 songs of one game in one article is stopping me now. Anyways, this game is worthy of an article. Man, so many games to write about, so little time.

Closing words

This article might be a bit shorter then usual but I just got loads of work for college. My apologies for that. There are going to be a bit less articles then usual. Like you guys and girl have noticed already, I came back to weekly articles instead of one article each 2-3 days.

Besides that, I hope you enjoyed this article. Maybe you found some new games you could play or some new tracks to add to your library. I thoroughly enjoy writing these and I wish I could have made this one a bit longer. Oh well, I have a few idea’s for number 6 already so who knows, it might happen very soon.

Thanks for reading and have a nice day.

First Impression: Tales Of Monkey Island (PC) ~ The pox.

Game’s website

Since I finished Corpse Party, I started a new game. I got introduced the Monkey Island series by the PS2 game, Escape from Monkey Island. When I saw this game I had to play it. I started to play and really got into it. I finished the first chapter and then got distracted by guess, yeah, Corpse Party. This game is created by TellTale Games. The original creator of Monkey Island said it was probably his last game, since he feels he got to old to create games. Also, the original cast returns for the voice acting in this game. This game was released in episodes and my current progress is that I’m at the final part of the 2nd chapter. After that chapter, I’ll of course write a full review of this game. But for now, let’s dive into this game, and the first impressions it made on me. 

The pox.

This game is a nicely crafted adventure game. Yet, it annoys me that this game is in several episodes. When you save in episode 1, you can’t start that save in episode 2. It makes a lot of sense but here is the thing. When you install the game now, all the episodes are unlocked to actually you can start playing at the start of the last chapter and beat the game that way.

This game’s story really made me think. What if the bad guy actually becomes the good guy, well sort of. Up until now, I found the story rather enjoyable. It’s funny like you expect from a Monkey Island game. It made me laugh several times. Not to sound like a soulless person but I barely start laughing with games. I makes me smile at most. Since it mostly uses American humor and I enjoy European humor more. But this game actually has some funny parts for each culture.

The way the story is told is classical adventure game. Lucas Arts (rest in peace guys) has perfected this trade and a big hint in this game is that you need to think literally and out of the box in order to continue.

One thing that is a let down is the control. Instead of clicking where you want Treepwood to go, you need to hold the left mouse button and you start to move. Awn, that’s a let down. Also, bad TellTale Games! Not making the ability to drag & drop items to combine them? Making a separate option for that. Tsktsk.

Oh noes!

What I like in this game is that the main story line is more then just the main story line. It has several side plots that I want to see unfold. I’m extremely excited to see where the story is going to take me next.

Is it going to take me towards new colorful places? I hope so. The gameplay is actually a long chain of manipulating items to fool or trick people. And yes, I find this a fun way to be a pirate. As unbelievable it may sound, you play as a pirate. Which I still have trouble believing that our main character is a mighty pirate.

The world of Monkey Island is well made. Graphically the game is colorful and inviting. But the islands, well, they could  use a bit more variation. The two parts I played now have both a jungle part. Come on! That’s recycling. That could have been avoided.

I’m extremely thankful that you can save everywhere you want. It also gives a short summary of what the story is currently about. For in case you took a break and want to replay the game.

The voice acting is good. Sometimes it feels a bit out of place here and there but most of the times, it works. I would personally have said some lines stronger or else. Maybe I have still the amazing voice acting from Corpse Party haunting my judgement now.

What I expect

I expect this game to rock me off my socks. For now, this game has successfully drawn me in to it’s world. If I’ll let me go, we shall see about that. It might actually, but that’s the way how I play adventure games.

The music and sound has been great until now. Nothing to remark at the moment.

The animation is actually where I love the game the most for now. The detail that went in the art is great. The camera work in the swordfighting scenes is amazing enough to display the hard work the designers have put in this game.

Now, I would give this game surely a 7 out of 10 points. I’m going to finish this article here and I’m going to play this game further. To further judge this game. Maybe it goes up in points and maybe it goes down. We will see. Alright, thanks for reading. But before you leave, what’s your favorite Monkey Island game or moment? Discuss it in the comments.