Hi everyone and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last week. Much of this week was spent continuing games I was already in middle of, but there were also some exciting new releases like Gone Home(!), which I never expected to come to iOS, as much as I wanted it to. This has also been a hectic week outside of games, as I’m scrambling to find decent health insurance before the deadline on Saturday. And I just found out tonight that my “free” preventative care is costing me $300. Yay America. Anyway, I’m sure you didn’t come here to hear me complain about how awful the American healthcare system is, so I’ll just get on with the games.
Gone Home
I had bought Gone Home on PC a couple of years ago to play on my brand new laptop, but after a few minutes, all I could think of was how much better it would feel on my iPad, just like The Room and other 3D adventure games. So I never got far. I was also told that it was very unlikely that it would ever come to iOS. And then out of the blue, about a week ago, Annapurna Interactive announced they were publishing it on iOS this week! After spending about two hours with it so far, I’m pretty impressed with the controls. I did adjust some of them in the settings to make them feel more natural, and there are still some improvements I wouldn’t mind seeing. But overall, I think they did a great job with the port and I’m enjoying exploring the Greenbriars’ home and learning more about them. I plan to properly review it once I finish the game, but you can watch my gameplay videos to see what the controls are like on iOS. I also wrote a little guide to explain the different settings.
Teen Titans Go Figure!
I was actually pretty excited about multiplayer battles coming to Teeny Titans 2, but also a little concerned that my lack of interest in grinding or spending real cash on figures would put me at a disadvantage. At first, it seemed like I might do ok with the the couple of Black Lightnings I had fully leveled up. But once I got an opponent that clearly spent a lot more time and/or money working on squiring and training the perfect team, I realized it’s not for me. I would love to see a version of this where everyone chooses from the same exact figs and then battles with those. But I find grinding to level up figs to be the most boring thing on the planet. You also need to grind for gold and extra figs for enhancements, so it feels like one big slog just to stand a chance at multiplayer. Add to that the ability to spend real money on figs and coins, and I just can’t be bothered. It’s a shame, because the game really does lend itself well to multiplayer battles. They’re certainly more interesting than playing against an AI. But I want my games to be fun, not feel like work. And to get anywhere close to having a competitive team, I would definitely have to do a lot of work first. But check it out anyway if you haven’t. Maybe you already have a team that will work well for multiplayer. The game also got some new missions, including one that I wrote a walkthrough for, so even if you have no interest in multiplayer, make sure to boot up the game again.
Heavy Drone
While I’m not particularly good at playing bullet hell shooters, I do sometimes enjoy them, so I’m willing to try one when it looks appealing. I liked the art style of Heavy Drone, so I wanted to give it a chance. Unfortunately, the same art style that drew me in made it hard to see what’s happening. There’s some glitch effects and a lot of things blend together. I also couldn’t get the controls to feel just right for me. After several failed attempts at the first mission, I finally called it quits. It might just be that I’m terrible at it, so if you think you can do better, by all means check it out.
MIYAMOTO
At first glance, MIYAMOTO looked like everything I want in an iOS game. It has stylish artwork and animations, and the sound design is spot on, as well. The whole presentation is super slick. It plays in portrait mode and the turn-based battles are all meant to be quick for short play sessions. The problem is, nothing is explained. And while I can grasp certain things just from playing, I can’t really understand if I’m starting a new game when I lose or just that particular battle. I also can’t find any way to see my deck of cards so when it comes time to choosing one to add to it, I can make an educated decision. I’m also not sure why sometimes I have three cards to use on a turn and other times only two. I don’t even know what my ultimate goal is. I get opponents who seem much stronger than I am, making it feel unbalanced. But I don’t know how I’m supposed to get better cards other than by winning. I’ve also accidentally chosen a card to keep when I was just trying to read what it does. I really wanted to like the game, but I think it needs at least a little bit of a tutorial so players know what they’re meant to be doing. You can check out my gameplay video below, but I’m not sure how much it will tell you about the game.
Faraway: Puzzle Escape
Not much to say here. A while back, Pine Studio added two more free levels to Faraway, and I finally played through them and updated my walkthrough guide to include them.
Twinfold
I already reviewed Twinfold last week, but shortly after that I got a new high score of almost 50 million. That’s not a lot if you look at the leaderboards, and I do want to improve it. But I’ve lately gotten stuck in this loop of restarting anytime something goes even remotely wrong. And that means I never really get far. I need to get over that perfectionist mentality and just try to survive. I think that’s how I got my best scores before, but somehow I got a little too obsessed. It’s still a really great game than I’d highly recommend.
Calculator 2: The Game
Not much to say here. I’ve been chipping away at Calculator 2 and updating my walkthrough. It now includes over 100 levels, so I still have almost half the game left. That’s a lot of content! Make sure to check it out if you haven’t already. It’s a pretty solid sequel.
Tsuki Adventure
Tsuki Adventure is the kind of game you check in one for a few minutes every once in a while. There isn’t much to do, but some things can still be confusing or easy to miss. Since people were asking questions on my videos, I threw together a quick guide to help with some of the basics. I also finally got to see the city after missing it twice due to bugs. Yay!
Faraway 4: Ancient Escape
I wrote about this last week, but I made more progress with my Faraway 4 walkthrough. I still have a long way to go, but people have also been helping each other out in the comments section for levels I haven’t gotten to yet. If you haven’t played it yet, I recommend doing so. The first nine levels are free with the occasional ad and then you can buy the other nine levels and remove all ads for $2.99.
Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek
I didn’t care much for the original Hello Neighbor, but since the sequel, Hide & Seek, is free to try, I decided to give it a go and see if I might enjoy it more. Unfortunately, I found it even more confusing than the first game. I actually spend about 10 minutes running around, not realizing that the one door I didn’t try to open was unlocked. And then when I finally managed to get some action, I threw my slab of meat near some mechanical bird. Then, every time I tried to retrieve it, my brother attacked me and I died. I couldn’t find any other object to throw at him, so I quit.
Barbearian
Barbearian is this year’s The Witness for me, as I started playing before release and love the game but haven’t finished it yet or written my review yet. I’m still hoping to do so before the end of the year, and to help make that happen, I finally lowered the difficulty for one of the Master Classes. I thought it would be a good opportunity to show off the accessibility options in the game, so I recorded it. Even taking only 10% damage, I still had trouble using the Spirit Blaster, so I’m glad that option was there. This means I now have the ultimate weapon in the game and can give the boss I was having trouble with another try. Hopefully I’ll be able to beat him before next week’s roundup!
.Connect.
.Connect. is a free puzzle game about sorting colored tiles so all the same colors…well, connect. You do so by swapping two tiles at a time. I like that there are two modes, one without a move counter and one with. It’s not a bad game at all, but it does take time to ramp up the difficulty. I also don’t like that it takes a while to restart a level. When I mess up, I want to jump right in and try again without waiting, and if I have to wait I tend to get impatient. My willingness to put up with my time being wasted like that depends on how much I like the game. And unfortunately, the payoff here is not enough for me and it’s much easier to just move on to another game. Still, if you’re looking for a new puzzle game, give it a try. It’s free with ads and a one-time payment to remove ads.
And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I’m hoping to finish Gone Home before the weekend and then review it, and maybe finally finish Barbearian as well. But this week is still hectic, so please bear with me. I’d also like to take this time to remind you that if you appreciate these weekly roundups, as well as my in-depth walkthroughs and reviews, you can help keep this site going by supporting my Patreon. Every little bit helps, and I really appreciate all the support I’ve gotten and continue to get from my readers. As always, I refuse to publish sponsored posts or paid reviews, as I want people to know that if you read something here it’s my honest opinion. I have never taken money for a review and have no plans to do so in the future. But Patreon support can help me continue doing that, so if you value honest, unsponsored content, please consider donating even $1 per month. It would mean the world to me as the year comes to an end and give me hope for the coming year. Anyway, enough begging from me. I’ll see you back here next week with more of My Week Unwrapped and hopefully for many more weeks to come.
