My Week Unwrapped: September 24, 2021 – EXIT The Curse of Ophir, Arctictopia, Nauticrawl, Unholy Society, CULINO 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. It’s been quite a busy week with lots of new releases, especially if you’re a puzzle fan. Things are still pretty quiet in Genshin Impact at the moment, so I had more time to try out a lot of the newer games. I also played some of Beast Breaker on Switch, which is really great if you’re able to play on one of the platforms it’s available on. Anyway, there’s a whole lot to discuss, so let’s get to it.

EXIT – The Curse of Ophir

I never played any of the EXIT – The Game board games before, but from my understanding they’re like an escape room in a box, where even the box can offer clues. EXIT – The Curse of Ophir is the first digital adaptation of the series, featuring a completely new adventure that takes place in the Hotel Ophir. Exploration is like any 2D room escape game, but objects you pick up and add to your inventory are fully 3D, like in The Room series. You can rotate them every which way and zoom in quite a bit to see all the little details. You also pick up a lot of written notes that serve as clues, and even a notebook that you can flip through. There’s a lot of nice little details, such as a pen that can be used to mark up any inventory object and later on a lighter that can be used to reveal hidden messages. Overall, I’m really enjoying solving all the puzzles and can easily say this is my favorite game this week. I am currently stumped on a specific puzzle, though, and trying to avoid using hints. Hopefully I’ll figure it out soon and get moving again. I also started a walkthrough here if you need help, but it’s a work in progress so please bear with me. Anyway, this is an easy recommendation for room escape fans.

Arctictopia

Arctictopia is another puzzle game I’ve really been enjoying. You play as a polar bear who got separated from its baby after most of the the ice melted. You need to use the pieces of ice you can still find to float over to your cub in each level. The catch is, the ice melts with each tile you pass through, and you’ll drown if you don’t get to another piece of ice before it melts completely. Sometimes there’s also a seal and puffin to collect, which is a bigger challenge than just going straight to the cub. I’ve played almost 50 levels so far and I’m really impressed by the gradual addition of new mechanics to shake things up. There are waves that push you in a certain direction, killer whales that block your way as they swim, and even cold or hot spots that can melt or freeze ice. The difficulty curve is a little off, as ill sometimes get stuck for a long time on a level only to breeze through the next few. Still, I’m really enjoying my time with the game. The art is full of character and little details, such as a giant whale swimming under the water if you pay close attention. There’s also an undo button if you mess up, making it easy to try different routes without the tedium of starting over each time you make a mistake. The only thing I don’t like is the music, as it’s very generic and distracting. But I shut it off and the sound effects have been enough for me. If you’re a puzzle fan, I don’t think you’d be disappointed with Arctictopia.

Nauticrawl

Nauticrawl is another room escape game, originally released on other platforms in 2019. This one takes place inside some nautical vessel that you need to figure out how to control. The game doesn’t explain anything. You’re just dropped inside this machine and need to pull levers, flip switches, and press buttons to see what happens. It’s also a roguelike, which means you can fail and then have to start over, trying to get further with the information you learned from your previous attempts. It took me a couple of runs just to figure out how to turn on the engine and charge the battery so it wouldn’t drain immediately. That’s how bad I am at this game. I did manage to move my vessel a bit and crash into something before dying again. I really have no clue what I’m even trying to accomplish here. I’m intrigued by the idea of the game but it’s just so easy to overpower it and run out of juice just when you’re on the cusp of learning something. I do want to spend more time with it, but I’m not sure I have the patience to crack the puzzle. If you’re curious what it plays like, you can watch some of my gameplay video below.

Unholy Society: Adventure Game

The Unholy Society is another mobile port of a PC game that originally released in 2019. It’s a side-scrolling adventure game in which you play as an exorcist fighting demons. Part of the game involves exploration and talking to other characters. But the real action comes with the exorcisms. You move a sort of magnifying glass around the screen that can identify symbols. You need to hover it over two or three symbols that make up a spell in order to attack the demon. If you take too long, though, they’ll fight back and you’ll take more damage than they do. The idea is to be the last one standing. You also pick up certain items to help you along the way, including a healing potion. The battles can feel pretty intense when you’re frantically looking for the symbol you need. I found it challenging but still won them all without dying. Overall, I enjoyed the game but the humor didn’t always hit home for me. I also found it frustrating that I couldn’t read the comics I collected after I finished the game because they were inside my inventory, which was inaccessible once I beat the game. Aside from that, the whole game clocks in at only an hour. It’s supposed to be Act 1, but I’m not sure when — or if — we’ll see the rest. I still enjoyed it for what it was, but keep that in mind before paying for Act 1. In any case, you should definitely try the free prologue and see if you like it enough to want to play the rest.

“CULINO”

And continuing the trend of puzzle games, we have “CULINO”, a game about rotating cubes to connect lines. It reminds me of Michal Pawlowski’s and Maciej Targoni’s games and has some interesting ideas. But the controls made it hard for me to enjoy the game. You need to tap on a cube to select it and then swipe anywhere on the screen to rotate it. Sometimes, you can select the whole structure and rotate it at once, but first you have to make sure no cubes are selected. I found it really hard to get used to, as I kept trying to just swipe on a cube I wanted to rotate, forgetting that another cube was still selected. Swiping also didn’t always rotate the cube in the direction I intended. The game is supposed to be relaxing, but the controls felt overly complicated for the kind of gane it is and stressed me out instead. There are also some levels where you can’t see the back without rotating the whole structure, but the cubes don’t all rotate the same way. So in order to see what the other side looks like, you have to mess up the other side. There weren’t that many puzzles like that in the ones I played so far, but the ones I did encounter had me close to quitting. Anyway, I recommend watching some of my video below before deciding whether to buy it.

Night in the Woods

I’m still playing Night in the Woods and enjoying it, but it’s dragging on a bit too long for me. Much of it feels repetitive and I’m waiting for it to get to the point. It has some great moments, like the dagger fight in the woods with Gregg and the talk they shared after. But I can’t help but feel that I would like it better if it was about half the length. I’ll keep playing, but I do hope I get to some bigger plot points soon.

Genshin Impact

This week in Genshin Impact, Raiden Shogun’s banner ended and Kokomi’s started. I spent a few wishes trying to get Kokomi, but I’ll probably stop now. There are other characters I want more and I’m not sure she’s worth risking them for. I also tried the new Spiral Abyss and it’s been giving me hell. I got 9 stars on floors 9 & 10 and 3 stars on the first chamber of floor 11, but it all went south after that. I’m not sure I’ll even bother with the rest. Anyway, like I said, it’s pretty quiet in the game right now so I’m using this time to play other games.

Sky: Children of the Light

The Season of the Little Prince ended in Sky, so there’s not much going on right now. The Season of Flight starts in early October, though, and I recorded video of four out of five of the seasonal quests in beta. If you don’t mind spoilers, you can watch them below.

Beast Breaker

And last, I played some of Vodeo Games’ Beast Breaker on Nintendo Switch. It has you playing as a little mouse named Skipper who is called to fight monstrous beasts with their tiny sword. It’s a combination of brick-breaking, pinball mechanics and RPG progression. With each battle, you need to try and aim at the monster so that you’ll bounce around and do as much damage as possible. It’s turn-based, so you get to take as much time as you need to aim your shots. You also collect materials from each battle, which can be used to craft better equipment. I’m really enjoying the game, including the lovable characters and solid writing between battles. I just can’t help but feel it would be so much easier to aim on a touchscreen than with a joystick. Touchscreens are pretty much meant for these kinds of slingshot controls. I still want to play more, but I’d have gotten a lot further by now if I could play on my iPad. I still think it’s very worth checking out of you game on any of the platforms it’s available on.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I’ll continue playing most of these games and update you next week if any of my impressions have changed. Until then, let me know in the comments which games you’ve been enjoying and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!

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