Hi everyone and welcome to the latest installment of My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days and tell you whether I think they’re worth picking up. You may have noticed that this post is a day early. That’s because tomorrow my site is getting some maintenance and I won’t be able to publish anything. It’s been a crazy week anyway, so there’s plenty to cover even without that extra day.
The Room: Old Sins
I know I mentioned it a bit last week, but The Room: Old Sins finally released after much anticipation. While I found the individual puzzles to be on the easier side, I still enjoyed every second with the game. I loved how the whole manor is a dollhouse and once again we’re rotating the camera around a puzzle box on a table. It really fits the series well and makes for easy but satisfying exploration. The rooms are also each unique so they’re exciting to unlock. I can’t really talk about my favorite parts without spoiling the surprise for you, so just play it yourself and find out! But if you still need convincing, you can read my full review here. I also have a complete walkthrough here and due to a request, I collected all the journal entries here.
Meteorfall: Journey
I’m still playing a ton of Slothwerks’ Meteorfall, trying to beat my high score of 294. I was having a lot of trouble winning with Bruno until a day or two ago, and once I managed it, I also was able to beat my previous high score that I had gotten with Greybeard. I’m still working out how to beat the game with Mischief, so I’m definitely not done with this one yet. Meteorfall takes the binary decisions from Reigns and combines it with dungeon crawling, resulting in something that works phenomenally well. If, like me, you’re not a fan of grinding, you’ll be happy to know that there is very little of it in this game. Instead, you’re spending your time trying to mitigate luck and take risks to try and and get a high score. You can read my review here if you need more convincing and if you’re already playing, try my strategy guide here.
Four Last Things
This is another game I got ahead of release and spoke about last week. It’s a brief but unique and humorous point-and-click adventure that I think is very worth your time and money. It has a ridiculous premise and is made out of well-known Renaissance artwork and you may even learn a thing or two while playing. I highly recommend it, but you can read more about it in my full review here.
Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle
If you played Blue Wizard’s Slayaway Camp, Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle will feel very familiar. It’s pretty much the same swipe-to-move-till-you-hit-a-wall puzzles where you play as Jason killing people. It’s got cartoon violence and tons of items to massacre people with. It’s still getting some polishing before its global release on April 13th (the next Friday the 13th, of course). I’ve played through the first three episodes and it’s completely free so far and pretty well-made, with some minor nuisances. I just don’t know if those who played through Slayaway Camp will find it all that interesting. It’s mostly for those who haven’t experienced the previous game yet. In any case, you can see my walkthrough for the first three episodes here and I’ll add more to it as we get closer to the global release.
Stack & Crack
Jambav’s Stack & Crack is a stylish puzzle that I really wanted to like, but I’m not really enjoying it. Basically, you have four different colored tiles that can each move in one direction. You need to stack them onto each other so you can then get them to the exit. It’s a clever idea that offers some good challenges, but I just don’t think it feels good to play. Most puzzle games I’m attracted to have simple controls and graphics that pop, so handling them becomes second nature and I don’t really have to think so much about what my hands are doing. But here, you have to tap a piece to select it, then tap where you want to move it, then tap another piece, and so on. It feels a bit like I’m playing chess on my iPad, making for a very slow and overt intense experience. I spend a lot of time staring at the screen deciding my moves because it just feels like too much work to move pieces and then have to correct my mistakes. Even though there’s a generous undo button and no time limit or move counter, it’s somehow not relaxing for me. Being in landscape mode doesn’t help matters, as I prefer to be able to play my straight puzzle games with one hand. It does have iCloud sync, though, and that’s a plus. I recommend watching my video and deciding for yourself, as you might enjoy it even if I don’t.
WayOut
WayOut is Dropout Games’ latest puzzler and it’s basically Lights Out with some twists. If you like games where you have to figure out the order to tap tiles to turn them all one color, you should enjoy this one. It offers some nice challenges and the new mechanics introduced in each chapter adds some variety. It’s not really my thing, but check out my video to see if you might enjoy it.
red
Bart Bonte is back with red, a sequel to his puzzle game, yellow. I haven’t played too much of it yet because of the huge slew of games this week, but I’ve been enjoying it so far. I’ve also started a walkthrough here, which I should be adding to over the next week or so. Anyway, it’s a completely free game, so check it out.
Adera
I started playing Adera, which seems to have been out on Android for a while now. It’s fully voice acted with impressive graphics and an interesting story that I want to learn more about. Unfortunately, my video got messed up and their voices started echoing. But the game doesn’t have that issue. It just might be a bit easy at times because it highlights items for you. I could also do without the hidden object scenes, but I’m interested enough to continue playing this coming week. It’s free to download and play through the first episode, so give it a try for yourself!
The Office Quest
And last, my love/hate relationship with The Office Quest continues. Somehow I missed that they added more content earlier in the month. I had played the first free chapter when it initially released and I enjoyed it enough to pay $2.99 to continue to the second chapter. It ended up being very short and very tedious. Well, the latest update adds a second half to the second chapter, which has some really annoying mini games. I nearly rage-quit over the stupid memory game. But I persisted and got through it and completed my walkthrough. It has some interesting stuff going for it, but I don’t know that I would really recommend it unless you have a ton of patience. The game also doesn’t save mid-level, so you’d have to complete the whole second half of the chapter in one sitting, annoying memory game and all. There’s also a new third chapter, which I begrudgingly paid another $2.99 for. I’ll report back on that once I’ve completed it. Anyway, I’m disappointed that these developers seem to have their hands permanently in their players’ pockets, charging $2.99 for each short chapter and also charging for hints. If this wasn’t my job, I definitely would not have given them more of my money, but you decide for yourself.
And that’s everything I’ve been playing this week — well, also Six Match. Let me know what you’ve been playing and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!
Ooh! Did I find one before you?
The Long Journey by the makers of Mystery of Haunted Hollow and Lost & Alone.
I bought it last night, as soon as I saw it. I know you’ll be playing it and have a w/t soon.
Happy Days!
They sent me an email about it but I havenΓò¼├┤Γö£├ºΓö£├╗t had a chance to check it out yet. 😉