My Week Unwrapped: December 24, 2016

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Hi everyone! Welcome back to my weekly installment of My Week Unwrapped, where I talk about all the games I’ve been playing over the week. There have been some really solid releases lately that I spent some time with, as well as some older games I picked up during the holiday sales.

First, one of my favorite games of 2015 got an update. Yak & Co released chapter 3 of Agent A, called Ruby’s Trap. This new content takes place all in the same room, so there’s less exploration involved than what you’re used to. But the room is packed to the brim with puzzles and codes you need to crack, similar to Fireproof’s The Room series. I really enjoyed my time with it, even if it was a bit short. But really, no amount of Agent A is ever enough. Thankfully, there are still two more chapters in the works, all included for free with your original purchase of the game. If you haven’t played Agent A yet, it’s on sale for $0.99 and that includes all current and future content. I highly recommend grabbing it at that steal of a price! You can also try my step-by-step walkthrough if you get stuck.

I also started playing Blyts’ Nobodies, an interesting twist on the first-person adventure genre. Your job is to get rid of bodies without anyone suspecting anything. You visit four different locations, destroying all evidence. It’s a free game with ads, and if you mess up, you lose some in-game cash. If you mess up too many times, you end up in jail and have to either buy more through IAPs or watch a video for enough to give you one more try. I’m not a fan of the monetization model, as I find it entertaining to screw up a mission, except for the real-life repercussions. I would have liked to see a one-time payment that can allow me to mess up as much as I want. But even with those frustrations, I highly recommend checking it out. It feels unique and has some really interesting stuff going for it. I’ve also started working on a walkthrough if you need help.

I started playing Noodlecake Studios’ Island Delta, a puzzle/action hybrid. I’m still getting used to the environments and trying not to die as I run around solving puzzles. I haven’t played enough to form a strong opinion yet, but you can see my gameplay video below to help you decide whether to pick it up.

I also decided to grab Amanita Design’s quirky and gorgeous point-and-click adventure, Botanicula, since it’s on sale for the holidays. When it came out, it was only for iPad and I didn’t have one at the time. I still neglected to pick it up after buying an iPad, but with the sale and the addition of iPhone support, I decided it was finally time to play it, since I loved Samorost 3 so much. Well, Botanicula sucked me in to the point that I sat home all day playing it until I finished it. Although, I should add that I started on my iPhone and then restarted on my iPad for a better experience. Sadly, there’s no iCloud sync. It has all the charm of Samorost 3, though I got stuck only a few times, perhaps because I got used to the developer’s style of puzzle. Either way, it was a wonderful experience, full of creative puzzles and tons of creatures to interact with. A couple of puzzles could have been less obtuse, but for the most part, I found it intuitive, even though there are no words at all in the game. If you haven’t played it yet and are looking for a magical game to play over the holidays, I highly recommend picking it up.

Flood of Light is a new game by a new developer called IrisLoft. It released about a week ago for $2.99, but dropped in price to $0.99 and I decided to give it a try. I really like the art style of it and the relaxing puzzles. I haven’t played that much yet, but already the puzzles were starting to get trickier. My only real complaint so far is that the main character moves very slowly. I wish she moved faster. Still, it’s a small complaint. You can see the game in action in my video below.

Arnold Rauers’ Card Crawl released last year, but I didn’t buy it until the current holiday sale. I actually really like the core idea, which uses a deck of cards to represent a dungeon. You have to go through all the cards, defeating all the monsters while trying to amass as many points as possible, and not die. My only gripe with it is that there are special cards that you unlock with points you earn. Five of these cards are randomly chosen for each game, and the better cards are unlocked using a lot of points. It means there’s a lot of grinding involved just to be able to get a high score comparable to others who already have them all unlocked. It makes my time with it feel like a waste, since no matter what I do now, no matter how smart I play, my scores will be outdone when I unlock new cards. It loses its appeal for me. Still, the core gameplay is solid, so if you don’t mind the grind, I recommend grabbing it for that measly buck.

And last, I’m replaying the quirky and entertaining room escape game, Hidden my game by mom, by hap Inc. I played it a while back and made a walkthrough video, but I decided to start working on a step-by-step walkthrough as well. It’s a bizarre game that I highly recommend picking up if you haven’t yet. It’s free with ads, so there’s no reason not to!

And that’s everything I’ve been playing this week! Make sure to also check out my long list of Christmas and holiday sales so you don’t miss out on great games for amazing prices. There are some seriously good games on that list that I consider must-haves. And right now, many of them are only $0.99, which is an insane bargain. I hope you find some new favorites on there and enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend, whichever holiday you celebrate! I’ll see you back here same time next week.

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