My Week Unwrapped: March 6, 2018 – Samsara, Evoland 2, Read Only Memories, Rogue Hearts, 1LINE and More

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Hi everyone and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. It hasn’t been the busiest week, but there are some notable games. I’ve also started posting more first impressions pieces for individual games that I’ve played a bit of but am not sure I’ll have a chance to fully review. I’d love to know what you think of these, if you find them useful. Let me know in the comments section! Anyway, let’s get on with the show!

Samsara

I never heard of Maker Studio’s Samsara until I saw it in the New Games section of the App Store. But I liked the look of it and it was free to download, so I gave it a try. It was a bit of a rocky start for me, as I had to get a handle on the rules and mechanics. But once I understood how things worked, I started to really enjoy it — enough to spend the $4.99 to unlock the rest of the game. It released on other platforms first but feels like a great fit for iOS. I’d like to properly review it eventually, but for now I’ll just give you a brief description. Basically, the way it works is that in each level, you have to help a a young child named Zee get to the exit. There are some blocks placed in Zee’s path, but never a clear path to the exit. That’s where you come in. Each level gives you specific wooden ramps and blocks that you can rotate and then place next to or on the permanent blocks in order to complete the path. To make things more interesting, there’s a reflective mechanic, where if you place the wooden blocks on a specific half of the screen, it will be mirrored on the other side. Later, you’ll even have two Zees to lead to two different exits using the mirrored blocks. It got so tricky that I’m current stuck on the second-to-last level of the third chapter. I’m not ready to give up, though. I know I can figure it out! Anyway, you can watch my overly long gameplay video below to see what it’s like, but I recommend just downloading and trying it for yourself. I also started a walkthrough here if you get stuck and need some help.

Evoland 2

I enjoyed the original Evoland up to a point, where I kept dying in a huge dungeon that had no save spots. I was really bummed, because I liked what I had played until then, but couldn’t take anymore punishment. So I was happy to see Evoland 2 make it over to iOS this past week, but also a bit wary. Again, I’m enjoying it to an extent, but it has some control issues. I started on my iPad and it felt too cumbersome, so I switched to my iPhone — thanks to the flawless iCloud sync. But the controls still need some work. I keep getting hit by enemies from the back because I’m having trouble getting the joystick to get me to face them. On top of that, they made the attack button much smaller than in the original game, and I keep missing it with my thumb. I’m not sure why they did that, but it results in a lot of frustration. I’m currently trying to get past a section with lots of falling boulders and having a bit of trouble. I don’t want to give up, though, because I do like the game. But I hope some of these issues can be worked out. You can read more here and watch my video games below to see if it looks like something you’d enjoy.

Read Only Memories: Type-M

Midboss’ Read Only Memories: Type-M is another game that got ported over from other platforms. I’d heard good things about it and was really happy to see it making its way over to iOS. I’ve only played through the prologue and part of the first chapter so far, but have been enjoying it quite a bit. I go into more detail here, so I don’t want to repeat myself. But it’s another game that’s free to try with a one-time IAP to unlock the rest, so it’s worth downloading for yourself to see if you like it.

Art Club Challenge

As an art minor in college, I really wanted to like Art Club Challenge, as I miss the whole art class experience. It’s also interesting the way it turns each challenge into a puzzle, as you have certain goals to meet while using very limited tools. What I mean is you can only make paintings with squares in four different colors. You can stretch them and shrink them, but that’s all. Unfortunately, what I have played so far felt like it needed some work. The goals were not always clear, and sometimes I had to do very specific things that didn’t necessarily align with the goal just to get the game to accept it. Perhaps I’ll revisit it if it ever gets polished up more. But at the moment, I just wasn’t finding it as enjoyable as it should be. I wrote more about it here if you want to know more, and you can also watch my gameplay video below.

Rogue Hearts

I’ve spent more time with Rogue Hearts, but the IAPs are starting to affect my enjoyment of the game. I’m trying to beat a nasty Troll and if I fail more than once in a row, I have to either spend a gem to revive and try again, or I have to abandon the quest and start it over to make my way back through three floors to the troll again. The way to the troll isn’t hard or all that exciting since I’ve done it a few times already. So it just feels like busywork. I just want to be able to have another chance at the troll without wasting my precious gems. I’m also starting to resent the game for making me check in every day for my free gems instead of just earning everything by playing the game. It’s a shame, because I would have gladly spent a few more dollars on this game to have a fully premium experience. But I refuse to pay real money for consumables and so I’m more likely to quit because it’s become too repetitive playing through the dungeon for another chance at the troll. Anyway, I wrote some more about it here but haven’t made any new gameplay videos since my last one.

1LINE

I was browsing through the list of top games in the App Store and noticed the second free game was a puzzler. It didn’t look all that interesting, but I figured I’d give it a try anyway. It’s called 1LINE and has over five hundred levels in which you basically trace a shape by drawing one continuous path without going back over the same line twice. Well, that’s unless a specific line tells you to do that. There are occasionally new mechanics thrown in, but mostly the game feels like a lot of mindless filler. I’ve only played through the first thirty puzzles in the first level (for some reason they call a whole group of fifty puzzles a single level, which is a bit confusing), and I think I encountered the new mechanics maybe three or four times. There’s an occasional puzzle that that makes me work for the solution, but it’s usually followed by several more easy puzzles. Overall, it’s not a terrible game, but I don’t recommend it unless you’re looking for something to waste your time. It also begs for an App Store review every few levels, as well as offering you hints in exchange for watching a video ad. Oh and the soundtrack is horrible elevator music that you can’t shut unless you want to lose the sound effects as well. I think your time is better spent elsewhere, but if you do decide to play, I started a walkthrough here.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this past week! Though, I’ve also been playing my daily Dissembler levels and I got pulled back into Six Match. Oh no! Anyway, if you like these posts and everything else I bring you on AppUnwrapper, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you that I have a Patreon page and would appreciate any support you can give. That’s all for now and I’ll see you back here next week with more of My Week Unwrapped!

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