My Week Unwrapped: July 23, 2021 – Wingspan, I AM 414C, ITALY Land of Wonders, Chicken Police, Genshin Impact and More

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Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. This week brought a huge content update for Genshin Impact, so much of my time has been spent there. I’ve still fit some other games in, though, so don’t worry! Most of today’s coverage is of games I’ve previously mentioned, but I still have plenty to say. So pull up a chair and enjoy!

Wingspan: The Board Game

I mentioned Wingspan last week before its release, but had only played through the tutorial at that point. I’ve since tried my hand at the daily challenge, which has you playing against an AI where everything happens the same way each time except for your own moves. I didn’t manage to win either time, but I’m still enjoying the game. And I’m incredibly impressed at the overall presentation and polish. Even after completing the tutorial, the game continues to teach and remind you what resources are necessary for a specific action so you’re not just going in blind. It’s definitely one of the better made digital board game adaptations I’ve seen and I hope I can one day win a game. If you’re a fan of the physical board game, this version is an easy recommendation. If you’re not familiar with it, I recommend watching my video from last week that covers the tutorial so you can get an idea of what it’s like. But as long as you don’t have an aversion to board games, I think you’ll enjoy it.

I AM 414C

I didn’t really know what to expect going in to I AM 414C, but I kept an open mind. It appears to be about a broken robot that you have to fix in order to communicate with it. So all the letters on its keyboard have been replaced by numbers. I was confused at first but managed to make some progress using the in-game tools. Each letter is represented by some binary code which you need to translate into a regular number. Then you enter that number on the keyboard and it turns into a letter. Once you unlock enough letters, you can start chatting a bit with the robot. I got stuck on my first session, though, because I wasn’t sure how to use “&” in an equation and the in-game tool wasn’t very helpful. I was also frustrated because the in-game tool only lets you add or subtract 1 to the total by pressing a button, and if you press slightly outside the button, it closes the whole toolkit. It got quite frustrating, to say the least. The game was updated since to have bigger buttons — though I was still encountering that issue sometimes. I also made more progress after the update. But in the end, I just found the game too slow and tedious. With better tools it might be enjoyable, but I’ve been having to take screenshots using my phone and then looking at the binary on there while using the very tedious in-game tool on my iPad. And I still haven’t figured out how the addition, subtraction and multiplication tools work. There might be something special here but I don’t think I have the patience to push through until I find it. If you have more patience than I do, by all means give it a try. But I recommend watching some of my gameplay videos first.

ITALY. Land of Wonders

I wanted to love ITALY. land of Wonders. It’s a free puzzle game built around the idea of educating players about different locations, foods and other aspects of Italy. It starts off fine, as a basic pipe rotating puzzle, where you need to rotate certain pieces to complete a path to the gem. The problem is, it has a move counter. As puzzles get a bit trickier, the move counter feels silly and annoying. You can’t simply ignore the move counter and fiddle around at your own leisure, because if you run out of moves you fail. You can earn more moves, but that also feels silly. There are even power-ups you can buy with the coins you earn that give you more moves. I would prefer the move counter to be optional for those who want a bigger challenge once they complete the game. Or, at the very least, include an undo button so I can experiment without wasting turns. The worst part of it all is that restarting the level makes you sit through some animations and the goal every single time. So if you’re stuck on a level and keep restarting, it gets old very fast. I think with some quality of life changes this can be a worthwhile game, but at the moment I can’t be bothered with it. It is free, so give it a try for yourself anyway.

Chicken Police

I’m still making my way through Chicken Police about an hour at a time. I had a small hiccup this time, as I encountered a puzzle that I didn’t have the clue to. I also wasn’t sure whether I could leave the area and still come back to it later. I eventually had to risk it and look for the clue. It turned out to be at the police station, and the reason I didn’t see it was because it wasn’t highlighted by the hot spot locator. That’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine, as the whole point of a hot spot locator in games is to avoid pixel hunting. But it defeats the point if you still have to tap everywhere to see if there’s something of importance there. Once I got past that, I made some steady progress, though. I’m still enjoying the game and looking forward to unraveling the mystery. So stay tuned for more gameplay videos next week.

Here Be Dragons

I made some more progress with Here Be Dragons, but the area I just completed was so difficult that I’m not sure how much more I’ll play. It took so many tries because the enemies I was fighting — Sea Worms — gained either attack or defense every move while also attacking me every move. I tried to strategize, but nothing I ever did was enough. I finally managed, but it felt like it was just as much luck as strategy. I’ll probably try the next area, but if it’s more difficult than this, I don’t know how I’ll manage. There is the option to switch to an easier mode where more ink bottles are doled out, but I’ve been trying to avoid changing the difficulty level. We’ll see how it goes next time. I’m just a little disappointed that the difficulty is ramping up so much.

Froglike: The Frog Roguelike

I mentioned Froglike a few weeks ago, and my main complaint was that there were opt-in ads for revives and score doublers but no way to pay to remove those ads. Well, an ad remover was added since, making it a fully premium game for just $2.99. All the perks you used to get from watching ads are now just free. It makes for a much smoother and more enjoyable experience. I’m not particularly good at the game, as my reflexes mess up when it gets more hectic. But I’ve still been having fun with it. If you’re someone who likes collectibles, there are also a lot of skins to unlock. I don’t think any of them have special abilities, so it’s purely cosmetic. Anyway, definitely give the game a try and, if you like it, throw a few bucks at it to remove the ads.

Genshin Impact

This week brought us the biggest content update in Genshin Impact yet. The first new continent was added, which is called Inazuma. It’s a series of islands cut off from the rest of Teyvat, where outsiders are called Outlanders and are treated as second class citizens. As the Traveller, you’re mostly treated better than that, but you still have to earn the right to explore. Anyway, it’s a massive update with so much to do. It can be quite overwhelming, but since my favorite part of Genshin is exploration, I’m loving it. I just need to learn to pace myself so I don’t get burnt out again. You can see all my gameplay videos from Inazuma below and keep an eye out for more coming next week.

Sky: Children of the Light

There isn’t much going on in Sky right now, but there was a new Rose quest as part of the Season of the Little Prince. If you need help with it, you can watch my video below.

Alto’s Odyssey: The Lost City

And last, I played more of the Apple Arcade version of Alto’s Odyssey and finally unlocked The Lost City! It’s absolutely stunning and I love sandboarding through it. There are even new objectives you can collect if you see a message in a bottle on your travels. My main complaint is that I can’t just stay in the Lost City now that I unlocked it. I would have to pay 1000 coins to access it right away instead of getting there naturally. After spending hours and hours in the rest of the biomes, I really just want to be able to enjoy the new one with no strings attached. If you haven’t played the original game, though, it probably won’t bother you much. And you definitely should play it if you haven’t.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I also saw Zola, which was a weird and somewhat forgettable movie. I’m currently enjoying the series Feel Good, but not sure what I’ll watch next. I’ll be spending a lot of my time with Ganshin’s new area for the foreseeable future, but there’s some other notable games coming up that I’m excited to play and cover. So keep an eye out! Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re enjoying and I’ll see you back here next week with more of My Week Unwrapped!

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