I find the popularity of games about work to be a bit odd. As someone with a day job that frequently drains me to the point where even fun extracurricular activities can feel like chores, it baffles me that people would want to spend their free time pretending to work at, say, a restaurant or grocery store. It makes a bit more sense for management sims; pretending to be the boss and run your own business can be an exciting and empowering glimpse into a world few will get to partake in. Yet for those where you’re a menial employee, I struggle to see the appeal of simulating the repetitive grind of a nine-to-five.
Category: Reviews
Mika and the Witch’s Mountain Review
Mika desperately needs a union rep. Her boss is awful, withholding payment at the slightest slip-up, believing the customer is always right to a harmful degree, and even telling her to smile more. It’s a depressingly toxic relationship for Mika and the Witch’s Mountain, a game that’s generally whimsical and chipper, almost to a fault. What makes it even more overt is that pretty much everyone else on the island is laid-back and supportive of Mika, even when she stumbles. It’s almost as though a more community-focused solution would be an improvement over the corporate structure of big business … I’m getting ahead of myself, though.
Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure Review
“Play more box games; it’ll be a fun bit!” was the prevailing thought when I decided to boot up Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure. After quite enjoying both my playthrough of Boxes: Lost Fragments and revisiting Flat Heroes to play it in multiplayer, checking out a boxy 3D platformer with positive Steam reviews seemed like a great step to continue the trend. And then I actually started playing it, which rapidly turned into one of the most frustrating gaming experiences I’ve had recently. Unbox isn’t the worst game I’ve played by far, but every design decision in it seems so vehemently opposed to fun that it’s a wonder the game was released in its current state.
Boxes: Lost Fragments Review
I love a good virtual puzzle box. In reality, they’re wholly impractical devices: complex, expensive mechanisms interlinked with one another that you solve once and then either discard or bestow upon someone else to see how they fare. In the gaming space, though, they allow for layered, multi-stage puzzles that stay manageable due to the simple fact that everything you need to find the solution is right in front of you. You may have to rotate the box, recall an indentation that perfectly fits an item you obtained elsewhere, or recognize that one of the box’s legs looks slightly different from the others, but at the end of the day it’s all there in a contained, isolated environment. I got some enjoyment out of a couple of games in the The Room series on mobile way back when (no relation to Tommy Wiseau’s hilariously disastrous film of the same name), but eventually they started branching out in design directions I was less keen on. So when Boxes: Lost Fragments entered my Steam library, I was particularly intrigued to check it out and see if it could offer a compelling puzzle solving experience.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice Review
Mental health representation in entertainment media is a bit of a thorny issue, mired as it is in all manner of problematic tropes. Horror properties in particular suffer here. Whether they’re painting the mentally ill as gibbering lunatics in insane asylums or serial killers without a semblance of a moral compass, horror books, movies, and games so often are the place where subtlety and nuance about psychological struggles goes to die.
Enter Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, a game which clearly wants to be a sympathetic, well-informed look at psychosis and how it affects people – so much so that the first names in the opening credits belong to mental health (as well as historical) consultants. And dammit, if any development team should need to front-load their consultancy credentials, it’s Ninja Theory, aka the same folks who (in this reviewer’s opinion) utterly botched their handling of slavery in Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Of course, then the question becomes: is Hellblade a redemption story for Ninja Theory’s writing? The short answer is: … kinda.
Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To Review
Lofi vibes have been a centrepiece of my life recently. Whether it’s booting up Spirit City: Lofi Sessions while writing, throwing on a chill playlist on Tidal while working or playing games, or just curling up on the couch with my phone and a hot beverage, I’ve been all about getting into a cozy, meditative mindset whenever possible. Perhaps it’s stress-related; working full-time as a software engineer and dealing with the current political climate isn’t exactly a recipe for low blood pressure. Or maybe it’s a general desire to feel more centred and mindful for my own well-being. Whatever the case, having Spirit Swap: Lofi Beats to Match-3 To around to play these last few days has been a great asset, and it’s slotted itself right into my “good vibes” routine.
Death’s Door Review
What is a Souls-like? I found myself asking that question a lot while playing through Death’s Door, as in some respects it clearly apes FromSoftware’s venerable franchise, while in others it distances itself. With the rabid fanbase those games have accrued (not to mention all the memes about “X is the Dark Souls of Y”), I’m always a bit wary when slinging the Souls-like label around, lest I be called a filthy casual who doesn’t understand the genre … or worse. In the case of Death’s Door, though, I feel relatively safe assigning the moniker, as even the Steam store page has it tagged as such; the fans have spoken, and all that jazz. I think that it’s also one of the more accessible Souls-likes I’ve played, though that’s not to say it’s easy. Rest assured that Death’s Door is more than willing to provide a stiff challenge, but – well – we’ll get into that.
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Review
I was excited going into Duck Detective: The Secret Salami. Since it came out earlier this year, it’s a game that’s lived rent-free in the back of my mind, largely off the strength of its humorous title and fun premise. A cute little duck acting as a hard-boiled detective and interacting with a cast of colourful characters is the kind of thing that seems tailor-made for my tastes, and the fact that one of its primary mechanisms is a fill-in-the-blanks method of making deductions (sorry, “deducktions”) a la The Case of the Golden Idol (a game I haven’t played but thoroughly enjoyed watching a playthrough of) is the icing on the cake. Add in some great voice acting, solid writing, and a tightly-paced runtime, and you’ve got a recipe for a quality experience. And without burying the lede, while it didn’t blow me away, Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is still an entertaining mystery game that kept me engaged the whole time I played it.
Minami Lane Review
It’s a great time of year for cozy games. With the weather getting colder (though where I am it’s still unseasonably warm) and the days shorter, there’s nothing quite like curling up with a welcoming game. Well, maybe not literally; it’s hard to curl up at a computer desk without getting into spine-mangling poses. Be that as it may, jumping into Minami Lane at this time of year turned out to be an excellent choice on my part. It’s a brief experience, but one which I absorbed in bite-sized portions, making it seem longer than it actually was. And for my money, if you like the idea of a city-builder game but get easily overwhelmed, it’s well worth a look.
Coin Factory Review
I don’t know if I get Coin Factory, and that’s weird, because really, what’s there to get? It’s a game about making money, plain and simple. It’s so straightforward on the face of it that the tutorial can be completed in less than a minute. And to be clear, I understand what the goal of the game is: place down tiles to create a little money-making engine until you’re able to generate ten trillion dollars and buy the Box tile that ends the game. Continually tweak and optimize your designs so that you can cut down the time it takes to buy the Box on a given level, or branch out and try different maps to test your skills under an assortment of restrictions. It’s really not that deep, which is why I find it confounding that it baffles me so. Perhaps, then, it’s silly for me to be writing about a game that on some level I find completely inscrutable. However, it’s my hope that in doing so, I’ll be able to achieve some level of clarity on what Coin Factory is trying to do, and whether it succeeds.
Olive's Game Garden 