Might as well get that one out of the way, it’s been
in my plans for a while. I swear, I don’t play games nearly as fast as I buy
them. Is that addiction? Maybe. Probably. What I should try to do someday is a
big month with nothing but Steam Packs, in order to get some clutter out of the
collection. There are games that I don’t feel I’d play for more than an hour,
while others I end up playing far longer than the average playtime (as recorded
on websites such as HowLongToBeat). I tend to try and beat games before
reporting on them, too. Today, as usual, four more games are being reviewed!
Let’s start with…
Chronology
In a Steampunk world, an old man with a watch that
lets him travel between two time periods goes on a quest to save his present by
changing the past.
Chronology is a game released to Steam by Bedtime
Digital Games on May 12th, 2014. This absolutely gorgeous adventure
is in the purest tradition of puzzle platformers, a genre that seems extremely
popular among indie developers. How many of those have I reviewed so far? I’ve
lost count.
"I'm a talking snail that can stop time!" "Not the strangest thing I've seen today." |
An old man and a snail? It’s like the synopsis to a Pixar movie.
And so this adventure takes them to the heart of the
city, where the Old Inventor and his slightly less sane acolyte harnessed the
energy of a new and magical power source, only for it to go horribly wrong… and
perhaps he can undo the bad present…
Hop! I'm no fan of snails, but this one's very useful. |
How to open a door, puzzle platform style: -Find key. -Blast door, set it on fire, douse it, travel time, walk through. |
I haven’t run into a lot of roadblocks here, aside
from a few tricky puzzles here or there, especially at the end - which is
normal, the tougher puzzles at the end of the puzzle-platform game, duh. Though
I also ran into a glitch once where the old inventor got stuck into a floating
piece of land, but it’s the only case I encountered. Also, to reach his goals,
the inventor often does morally-questionable things. Needs of the many yadda
yadda, I guess.
Overall, a very fun experience, perhaps on the short
side (it can be beaten in about two hours), but enjoyable nonetheless. Get it
for 4.99$ on the Steam Store.
Dyna Bomb
I think I both get this one and don’t get it. The concept
is simple enough, though: You control a little jetpack-wearing hero and must
find your way to the exit of each level, collecting as many jewels as
possible on the way.
You gotta do this quick, or you're gonna lose! |
You can just look for the end, or you can go around
killing enemies using bombs found inside the level. Be careful, though. Dyna
dies instantly from being touched by an enemy, a laser, a blast… Get ready to
die and restart levels a lot in here. And I do mean a LOT, because even the
lightest touch of something deadly will kill. Sometimes you won’t even notice
something is deadly until the character hits it. And if the enemies and hazards
don’t kill you, maybe the time limit will, so you should hurry! Can you get
three stars on every level?
I swear that last sentence sounded like I was shilling
Angry Birds… If Dyna Bomb so far sounds in this review like it’s a mobile game
put up on Steam, don’t worry, you’ll get that exact feeling while playing it,
too.
The controls are bothersome, with the playable
character rising faster than they move whenever they’re flying left or right,
meaning it’s easy to hit one of the electrified spheres of an intermittent
electric zapper blocking your way. Or, well, literally anything deadly on the
screen. It’s like some messed-up cheap Mega Man with the controls as fickle as
Flappy Bird. Oh, but don’t worry, you can continue where you are if you pay
diamonds, the in-game currency that you collect as you complete levels.
...Eh. My luck's terrible. I doubt I'll be around this slot machine much. |
This game is alright, but I’m not a fan. It plays well
and has a wide range of options, including two playable characters (not that
they make much of a difference), but I was eventually turned off by the great
difficulty as well as the labyrinthine design and length of the levels. That
game feels designed to nickel-and-dime you… or, well, make you buy more
microtransactions. It’s not bad, and I guess it’s a nice challenge if you feel
like having a free game to play once in a while… but it’s not for me.
Rabbit Hole 3D
Reading has never been more dangerous!
How to go through an R. |
The game features eight levels, which you can play one
after the other in Ranked Mode, with no pauses between levels. Survive as long
as possible and your final time will be recorded. Then there’s a solo mode in
which you can play every level, one at a time, as preparation for the full
game. Your puny little cube has only two Hit Points (or, rather, "lives") total, so it can hit a letter's solid blocks once and the next time it’s Game Over.
Gotta catch 'em all - the letters, I mean! |
BuT THEn AgAIn, cOLLEcTIng LETTERs Of THAT wORd Is
AcTuALLy nOT sO dIffIcuLT, cOnsIdERIng HOw fREquEnT THEy TEnd TO BE In THE
EngLIsH lAnguAgE. THE HARdEsT TO cOLLECT mAy BE THE LETTER B, sIncE yOu nEEd
TwO Of THOsE, sO LOOk OuT fOR THAT OnE. ALsO THE wORds mOvE By cRAzy fAsT…
Almost there, my Dictionary Dex is almost complete! |
But hey, I’ll always appreciate a game that is
challenging, has an interesting concept, and promotes literature. That’s a plus
in my book. Cool stuff, if you’ve got three dollars on the side.
Viridi
Let’s end this on a relaxing title. Calming, soothing…
It’s just about taking care of plants.
Plant pot. Snail is mandatory. You must have one. |
There are achievements for this game, encouraging you
to grow to full maturity at least one of every single plant in the game, and
then keep on raising more and more. Eventually you can free up space by
uprooting mature plants and getting them in the garden, a mystical place I’ve
never witnessed. In the game, I mean, in real life I have seen the outside
world… yeah… we do have a garden… I mean, right now it’s covered in snow. This
is Canada in November after all…
5$ upfront, no rent, make sure to keep it tidy. Curfew at 5 PM. |
Though it’s mostly a free game meant to be enjoyed at
your own pace, so it’s not like you need to rush to get everything done in
here. Play it for a few minutes at a time, or leave it running with its
soothing music and calming visuals while you do anything else. There’s no hurry,
right?
Stick around for Watching Paint Dry: The Game... What do you mean, someone actually tried to make that a real game on Steam?
..............................................Urgh. |
And that covers today’s four games. Maybe something in
there interests you, maybe nothing does. It’s alright. Part of my goal with
these Steam Packs is to play through my backlog and talk about all those games
for this blog, yes. However, I would be very happy to hear that any of my
articles and quick reviews have directed someone towards any of these games.
Made you discover something. Made you play and enjoy a game you may have never
heard of before. That makes what I do actually worth it.
I think I’ll work on a few more Steam Packs. I might
try to review a Nintendo 3DS game before the end of the year…
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