My Week Unwrapped: June 25, 2017 – Telepaint, House of da Vinci, Age of Rivals, MechBox 2, The Little Acre and More

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Hi everyone and welcome to the end of the week (or beginning, depending on how you see Sundays), where I discuss what I’ve been playing over the last seven
Days. Yup, I’m back with My Week Unwrapped! And wow has it been a busy week! As you can see, I’m getting this out at the very last possible minute because I was finishing up a review just before this. So the mini reviews might be a bit shorter than usual, but there’s a whole bunch of games to cover.

The House of da Vinci

First off is the gorgeous House of da Vinci by Blue Brain Games. I mentioned it last week, since I got it ahead of release. But now that it’s out I can talk about it freely. If you like The Room series, you’re going to want to play this one. I talk about it in much more detail in my review, so I’m going to let you read that instead. I also have a complete walkthrough guide if you’re already playing and need some help.

Telepaint

One of my favorite games of 2016, Acid Nerve’s colorful Telepaint, is currently the Free App of the Week. That means those of you who didn’t grab it before can now play this fantastic game at zero cost. So do it. Do it right now. The game also got an expansion pack that gives you another forty levels for only $0.99. And they’re super clever, too. I’ve finished all but two that are giving me trouble and have loved every second of it. You can read more about that here. I also have a complete walkthrough guide for the original content if you get stuck.

MechBox 2

I played through MechBox 2, the sequel to Mechanical Box. It’s only $0.99, but it’s very short, with just seven levels at the moment. It does say there’s more to come, though. If you have only one dollar to spend this week, I recommend the Telepaint expansion pack instead. But if you don’t mind that this is very short for now, give it a go! And if you get stuck, you can try my complete walkthrough guide.

Age of Rivals

I have a lot of thoughts about Roboto Games’ Age of Rivals, and I don’t think I’ll have time to cover it all right now. I do plan to spend a lot more time with the game, though, so I’m sure you’ll hear more from me about it next week. The developers are also planning some welcome changes, such as offline mode for single-player, screen rotation, and some other little things. I’m slowly understanding the game better, bit by bit. It’s a collectible card game (CCG) with very deep strategy to it. There are multiplayer games, but even the computer provides a hell of a challenge. So I’m still getting the hang of it. But it’s incredibly satisfying to pull everything off well and win, even when it looks like you might lose. I’m not a big fan of the coins and card collecting aspect, as I prefer to just play and those are more of a distraction for me than anything else. But it doesn’t have any in-app-purchases and you don’t get any wasteful duplicates as in other games. So I’m trying to get past my dislike for the collectible aspect and just enjoy it for what it is. My other issue is that there’s no mid-game saving, so I always have to make sure I have the time to complete a game before I start one. Each game takes about fifteen minutes, so it’s not the end of the world. But it’s a game that would otherwise play great in short spurts while multitasking. So I do hope that’s added. In any case, I’m really enjoying it and it’s super cheap at only $0.99. I believe the price is supposed to go up to $3.99, so if you’re at all interested, grab it while it’s cheap!

The Little Acre

I can’t really say much about Pewter Games’ point-and-click adventure, The Little Acre, yet. I’ve only played about twenty minutes since it’s been such a busy week. But it’s gorgeously hand-drawn like an old Disney animation. It’s also directed by the same person who worked on Broken Sword and Beneath a Steel Sky, so I have high hopes for it. I should have more impressions on this next week! Until then, you can check out my gameplay video below.

Kingdom: New Lands

Raw Fury’s Kingdom: New Lands is one of of those games that released with tons of praise, but I couldn’t tell if it was something I would be into. I loved the pixel artwork, which is rare for me. But I could see it’s a management game and I don’t usually like those. So I wasn’t willing to take a risk on it for $10. But it’s on sale this week for $2.99 and I decided to give it a chance at the reduced price. I was enjoying it at first, but that was when I thought I was actually doing a decent job. You play a queen on horseback and you need to collect coins, then upgrade parts of your kingdom with them. You also hire workers, archers, and so on. The problem is, it seems like no big deal at first and my kingdom seemed to be doing well. The archers sucked at being archers, but the enemies weren’t posing too much of a danger. Then, one night my kingdom got swarmed by enemies that destroyed everything. I rebuilt some things, but I was low on men. The next night, my crown was stolen and I lost. The game then asked me to start over from scratch, as though nothing had happened. That’s where I stopped and deleted the game. It seems interesting, but I don’t have the time or patience to invest forty-five minutes into a game, learn next to nothing from my experience, and then start over from scratch. It’s pretty, but the artwork and atmosphere are not enough to get me to punish myself that way. You can see my experience with it in the video below and decide if it looks like something you’d like.

Cash Cow: Anniversary Edition

And last, Riverman Media re-released their old Cash Cow as an Anniversary Edition. I never played the original, but I’m a fan of match-three games without in-app purchases (IAPs), so I wanted to give it a try. It said it’s for kids aged 6 – 8, and I think that’s pretty spot on, unfortunately. I found the story mode to feel a bit slow. The endless mode is far more interesting for me, but I still got bored of it after less than ten games. Still, if you’re looking for a new match-3 that’s not pay-to-win, check out my video and see if it looks like fun to you.

Her Story

I’m not playing this, as I played it back when it released and it was my Game of the Year and possibly favorite game ever. But Sam Barlow’s Her Story is on sale at its lowest price ever of $0.99. If you haven’t played it yet, please do so. You’re missing out on a rollercoaster of a ride otherwise. And if you want to discuss it after, visit my walkthrough and discussion page.

Aaaand that’s my crazy week! I hope you enjoyed reading this and found some good games from it. I’ll be back next week with more of My Week Unwrapped.

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