My Week Unwrapped: November 27, 2017 – The Inner World 2, Far From Noise, Faraway 2, Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, PIVOTO and More

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Hi everyone and welcome back to a very late installment of My Week Unwrapped. Due to Thanksgiving and my trying to work on walkthroughs I started last week, this post will be shorter than usual. Still some great games to talk about, though! And I hope you all enjoyed your own holiday weekend if you celebrate it. There’s also lots of great sales still going on for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so make sure to check those out here.

The Inner World 2 – The Last Wind Monk

After a three-year wait since the original released, Studio Fizbin continued the story of Robert the Asposian Flute-nose with a sequel called The Last Wind Monk. I have too much to say about The Inner World 2, so please read my review of it here. I love everything about this series and highly recommend it to any point-and-click adventure fans.

Far From Noise

I’d been following news about George Bachelor’s Far from Noise for quite some time, as it looked like my kind of game/experience from the screenshots and gifs I’d seen. When it released on Steam earlier this month, I was hoping it might one day reach mobile devices. I just didn’t realize that would happen so soon. When I saw it was available this week, I grabbed it right away. Now, this is one of those games that toes the line between game, art, and experience. It’s more of an interactive story with some branching dialogue options. There’s no gameplay to speak of. But it is a relaxing, meditative experience that feels perfect on an iPad. The game opens with you all alone, stuck in a car on the edge of a cliff. Some small animals come and go, but that’s about it. Until a talking deer shows up. It then becomes a reflection on life and death and the meaning of everything. I won’t say that every line of dialogue blew me away, but there was enough to make me ponder things. I also liked the ending, but I won’t spoil that for you. Overall, I enjoyed my time with it, though I don’t think I would play through it again to get the branching storylines. It’s only a 90-minute game, but it goes at a fairly slow pace. The pacing works to keep it relaxing the first time you play, but without a way to speed things up on the second playthrough, I don’t see myself doing it again. But even so, I don’t regret my purchase at all. If you like these types of games and don’t mind that it’s fairly linear without any gameplay to speak of, give it a go.

Faraway 2: Jungle Escape

I’m still working my way through Pine Studio’s Faraway 2 and making my walkthrough. Some earlier levels got redesigned, so that slowed me down a bit as I had to go back and redo those sections. But I’m back on track and should get more done this coming week. Overall, I’ve been enjoying the game, with just a few niggles that bothered me here and there, just like in the first one. It’s still very worth checking out for free to see if you like it. They made the last free level really interesting, so that should give you an idea of whether you want to pay to keep playing. And you can see my walkthrough in progress here.

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

Ahhh Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Another Nintendo mobile game/app that got hyped up like crazy. I have never played an Animal Crossing game, so I have no nostalgia for the series and I have nothing to compare Pocket Camp to. What I heard about it did not excite me, but I gave it a try anyways since it’s free. Well…I could barely get through ten minutes to make a video. I felt like I was watching Teletubbies. I also find the people super creepy. I keep hearing that this series is not just for kids, but I don’t see that from the little time I spent with it. Talking to these animals felt like a waste of time that was killing my brain cells. The gameplay itself doesn’t appeal to me either, consisting mainly of knocking fruit off trees and redecorating the campgrounds. I really don’t see anything appealing in this game, not enough to make me want to stick with it and see if it gets any better. It also doesn’t help matters that it’s free-to-play with timers and plenty of IAPs. My time seems better spent on other games.

PIVOTO

Hadrien Boyer’s PIVOTO is by no means a bad game. It’s actually a decent real-time puzzler. But its speed is where it loses me. The way the game works is that once you open a level, it starts up, sending a little ball to the right. The goal is to get it to the glowing orb on the right side of the screen. To do so, you need to rotate the pieces it comes in contact with so it can bounce off one onto another and make its way across. New mechanics are gradually added to make it more interesting, which is much appreciated. The ball, by default, moves very slowly to give you time to move things around. That’s great, but once you’ve rotated them, you’re just waiting. So the game has a fast-forward button. That’s great. The problem is, if you turn it on, it stays on for the start of the next level, so the ball comes speeding at you while you’re still looking at the board. You can tap it again to slow it down, but this makes the game too much about that button. I think a third speed between the other two might have helped with this issue, or perhaps having it switch back to slow at the beginning of each level. I’m not sure what the solution is, but it was enough of a problem to ruin the fun for me. But if that’s not something that bothers you, at least check out my gameplay video to see if it’s a game you might enjoy.

The Inner World

I decided to restart The Inner World, since I loved the second one so much and am already missing being with all the characters. I also can’t remember many details or puzzles since it was several years since I played. I decided to make some gameplay video for those who still need convincing to play.

And that’s everything! I’ll see you back here next week! There’s already some great games releasing in the next couple of days, so expect it to be much busier! Until then, enjoy all the holiday sales!

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