Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. It’s been a busy week with a lot of noticeable releases. I’m still playing Genshin Impact, but there isn’t much going on there at the moment while we all wait for the next big update. That gave me time to catch up on some other games. The main highlight for me was What Remains of Edith Finch, even though I’d already played it a couple of years ago on my Switch. Anyway, there’s a lot to discuss, so let’s not waste anymore time.

What Remains of Edith Finch

Back when I played What Remains of Edith Finch on my Nintendo Switch, I wondered in my review how the developers might handle the controls if it ever comes to iOS. That’s because the controls — and figuring them out — are part of the puzzles. I’m thrilled to say that they handled them beautifully and it feels just as natural to play on a touchscreen as with a controller. I have a full review here of the iOS version that, together with my Switch review, should give you a pretty good idea of what the game’s like without spoiling too much. I would recommend going in as blind as possible, because this is a game that will surprise you at every turn. It’s one of my favorite short narrative games, up there with The Stanley Parable, and I highly recommend picking it up for the bargain price of $4.99 on iOS.

Tesla Force

Tesla Force is a sort of sequel to the twin stick shooter Tesla vs Lovecraft, but instead of a handcrafted campaign to play through, it’s a roguelite with procedurally generated maps and levels. Wielding all sorts of guns and a teleportation device, you need to complete certain tasks while taking down swarms of monsters. You’re meant to survive as long as you can, then invest some of your earnings into permanent upgrades and try again. There are also multiple character to unlock, each with different playstyles. I’m enjoying it quite a bit and even managed to get to a boss on my third attempt, where I promptly died. I’m just a bit concerned about the grind. There are a lot of upgrades to earn and I worry that I might tired of the game before I make significant progress with them or beat the boss that tossed me away like a ragdoll. I would like to make it to the other maps to see what they’re like, so I’ll keep trying and hopefully get there before I tire of the game. Sadly, there’s no iCloud sync, so I can’t make any progress on-the-go with my iPad save. Anyway, if you want to see what it plays like, you can watch my gameplay videos below.

Shattered Pixel Dungeon

I never played the original Pixel Dungeon, but I was curious about Shattered Pixel Dungeon, which is, as I understand it, a mod of the original. It’s a pure roguelike from what I can tell, with the only unlockables being new classes. The goal is to get as far as you can in the dungeon before dying. It’s meant to be very difficult and you learn from each death. It does seem very well made. I like that it can play in either portrait or landscape mode and that it’s tap to move, with very quick movement. Since it’s turn-based it also works well on a touchscreen. I just need to get more familiar with everything, because it was getting a bit frustrating dying so soon. If you’re curious about it, my video below should give you a better idea what it’s like.

Tales of the Mirror

Tales of the Mirror is a murder mystery game from the folks behind the Isoland series. It takes place during the Ming Dynasty and you need to solve the case within a month. I wanted to like it, but the writing wasn’t really doing it for me. I also found it frustrating that if I left a building by accident I could get locked out until the next day. You also have to pay to sleep each night and you can only save at the inn. There’s just a lot of things going on that are getting in the way of the actual mystery and making it hard to get sucked into the story. I’m sure there’s an audience for it, but I did not enjoy my time with it and don’t plan to continue playing.

Axis & Allies 1942 Online

Axis & Allies 1942 Online recently got ported to iPad and you can play either against the AI or online against another player. I have no experience with the game so I played the tutorial first. It reminds me a bit of Risk, but I’m sure there’s more to it. I only spent a little time with it so I haven’t really formed an opinion. But it seems like a well-made port, especially if you already know how to play.

Cards of Terra

I mentioned Cards of Terra last week and was having a lot of fun with it. I’ve since completed the main campaign mode and posted all my videos here. I still like the game a lot, but I don’t like how the power- ups you earn through play are gone if you use them and then restart the level. I also found the final level in the campaign to be a lot harder than the rest of the game, to the point that I almost threw in the towel. I got past it, though, and have since moved on to played the draft mode. This one lets you have a little bit of control over the deck and then you try to get as far as you can. It’s kind of like the roguelike version of the game, since you can only restart each level once. It’s a lot of fun, but definitely more stressful than the campaign version. So far I haven’t beaten it yet but I’ll keep trying.

Genshin Impact

This week in Genshin Impact, I’ve mostly been working on building Sayu. I’ve played around with her and she’s a lot of fun. I’m also seeing if I can make her work as part of my team together with Kazuha. There’s also a new event that started today called Phantom Flow. You need to take on waves of enemies and beat them before the timer runs out. There have been other events like this so it’s not that unique, but the rewards are pretty great. That’s about it for now. I’m still waiting for the big 2.1 update!

Sky: Children of the Light

Again, not much going on in Sky, but there was a new Rose quest this week as part of the Season of the Little Prince. You can see my guide for all those quests here.

Tetris Beat

Despite being a Tetris fan, I didn’t have high hopes for the Apple Arcade version, Tetris Beat. It came from the developers who managed to ruin their non-Arcade version, so it was hard to have much faith in them. Still, as low as my expectations were, I was not ready for the massive garbage heap we got. I couldn’t even get through the tutorial. It’s perhaps a bug, but others experienced it, too. I killed the app after going nearly mad from the horrible music on a loop for 17 minutes. I thought maybe if I killed the app I could bypass the tutorial. But nope, it made me start the tutorial over with no way out of it. So that’s where I deleted it. Life’s too short for this.

wurdweb

I first started playing wurdweb last week and have been enjoying it, but I’m not a fan of the slow unlock system for new modes. I’ll probably still play here and there, but I don’t want to feel forced to play every day to make progress. The developers are working to revise the progression system, so hopefully I’ll be able to enjoy it more in the future. It’s still worth checking out, but but you do need to dedicate some time to it every day if you want to be able to unlock all the different modes.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I also finally caved — after halving Apple TV+ for a whole year — and started watching Ted Lasso. I get all the hype now. I mainly avoided it because I don’t like sports, but it’s not really about the sports. There are some really great characters, too. I feel silly for waiting so long to watch it. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re enjoying and I’ll see es you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!