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 pretty busy week, though one of the games I played is on PC and another is still in beta access. Genshin Impact is quiet again so not too much going on there, but I made some more progress with my Kingdom Two Crowns: Norse Lands game. It’s also almost mid-December, so I’ve started thinking about my Game of the Year list. The new games seem to be winding down now, so expect that to be more of my focus as the year comes to an end. Anyway, let’s discuss the games!

Evan’s Remains

Evan’s Remains is a narrative game with some platforming puzzles that break up the story a bit. It released first on PC and, while I would have preferred gesture-based controls instead of on-screen buttons, they worked well enough most of the time. The puzzles themselves each take place on a single screen, with the goal being to get over the tall green pillar on the right side. You do this by jumping on platforms, but certain platforms will make others disappear or reappear, some make you teleport, and others even act as a spring to launch you upwards. For the most part, I enjoyed solving these puzzles, but occasionally they annoyed me due to some unnecessarily tight jumps required. (Though it’s also possible I overlooked a simpler solution.) You’ll also spend more time reading through the story than solving puzzles. And I’m not in love with the story. The whole thing is a setup for a major twist at the end. I don’t hate the twist itself — it’s interesting enough. I just don’t like the way the game purposely confused me and kept me in the dark the whole time just so it could pull the rug from under me at the last moment. Thinking back, I’m not even sure the details hold up, because the characters should have known more than they were letting on to the audience. I’m still glad I played it, but I wish the story had been about more than its twist ending. You can watch some of my gameplay video below to see what it’s like and I have the rest of the game here.

Wayfinder

Wayfinder is a very pretty but short free game in which you wander around looking for symbols that allow you to create poetry. Everything about it is procedurally generated, so both the environments and the poetry will be different each time you play. I absolutely love the whole look of the game, especially the way everything reacts to you. You can run through fallen leaves and float up around you. Fish jump out of the water when you get near them, and flowers bloom as you run through the grass. The poetry didn’t do as much for me, but as whole, I enjoyed my short time with the game. I wouldn’t mind seeing something bigger done with this art style and environment, but I’m glad we at least got this. And it’s completely free, so you can play it without worrying whether you’ll get your money’s worth.

Card Crawl Adventure

Card Crawl Adventure is still in early access, but it’s getting closer to its release state and I wanted to give it a try now that it’s more complete. It’s from Arnold Rauers aka TinyTouchTales, the developer of the original Card Crawl, as well as Card Thief and a number of other card-based mobile games. As can be expected, it’s a perfect game for one-handed on-the-go play. Each dungeon is made up of 9 cards at a time, similar to Card Thief. You need to select at least two cards each turn, with the goal to clear the dungeon. As you clear some cards, new ones will be added from the deck. You can slay monsters, including bosses, loot treasure chests, and even upgrade your cards. The idea is to clear as many dungeons as you can without dying. You can earn upgrades for a specific run but also permanent upgrades that will make all your runs easier. So it’s more of a roguelite than a roguelike. I’ve only played a couple of runs so far and didn’t make it very far in either, so I still need to work on my strategy. But this looks to be a game with lots of depth and plenty of content to keep someone busy for quite some time. I should have more to say on it as I spent more time with it, but you can check out my gameplay videos below if you want to see how it looks in action.

Rob Riches

I finally sat down and played through the third and final world of Rob Riches. I really like how quickly new mechanics are added so there isn’t a lot of filler. The third world added rotating blades that move along a track each time you move. It was a nice change of pace, though I wish death didn’t mean starting over. The undo button is usually very helpful, but I had to slow down and really think about each move to avoid dying and losing my progress. I also wish the minimum number of moves for each level was easier to access. It takes several taps to see it and several taps to get back to the level itself. These are really just quality of life improvements I’d like to see added to the game to make it even better. But as a whole, it was a very enjoyable experience that’s easy to recommend to puzzle fans. I also have a full walkthrough here if you need help on any levels.

Kingdom Two Crowns: Norse Lands

I spent a few more hours in the Norse Lands campaign of Kingdom New Crowns and made some good progress, even if it did include another death. I’m especially happy that I unlocked Thor’s hammer so I can summon lighting upon the Greed and also got the fire tower hermit so my archers can rain fire down on them. I’m still clearing out all the portals and building lighthouses on each island, so I can eventually get bombs to take down the main portals. I’m still not sure which mounts to unlock, so I’ve mostly been sticking with the cats. I’m always worried about wasting gems on a mount that I won’t end up using. Anyway, the game, as usual, keeps sucking me in for hours at a time and I have trouble putting it down. I’m sure I’ll put a few more hours into it next week. If you want a game that will last a long time, this is definitely a safe bet.

Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator

As most of you know by now, I’m not a fan of playing games on PC. But occasionally I’m willing to play a PC game if it’s a short experience that I won’t have to invest days or weeks into. I also just bought a new laptop to replace my old broken one, so it seemed like a good opportunity to test out how it handles recording gameplay. I’ve been following Xalavier Nelson Jr.‘s work for years now and even played some of his Twine games on my iPhone. But, sadly, none of his full releases are playable on iOS, so I’ve skipped them. But I really wanted to try Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator — I mean, how can I not with that name? I really didn’t know what to expect going in but I loved the absurd idea and was eager to see what it was about. I was not prepared for the fast-paced panic-inducing organ market, but once I got past the initial stress of it, I found my groove and started to enjoy it. Basically, the market opens for about 2 minutes at a time, and that’s how long you have to take and fill requests for both human and alien organs. The idea is to try to buy organs at a lower price than what the reward is so you can make a profit, while also improving your reputation. But the market moves fast and you can miss out on the organ you need if you’re not quick enough. There’s also a stock market where you can buy and sell stocks of each type of organ while keeping track of the trends. My favorite bit was buying stock in Lil’ Joey’s Heart when it was at an all-time low of of about $16,000 and then selling it a few days later for more than double. I reached my first ending in a little under 3 hours, which is about the right amount I’m willing to play on a PC. I can see there are multiple endings and you can continue the same game to try to get other endings. While I would happily do so if I could play on my iPad, I’m not sure I will on my laptop. But I’m glad I played what I did and would recommend it to anyone who’s not allergic to playing on PC. I would still love to see it on iPad one day, as it’s primarily navigating through a bunch of menus and tabs, which is perfect for touch controls. Anyway, you can watch some of my gameplay videos below to see what it’s like.

Genshin Impact

And last, there’s a new event in Genshin Impact in which you have to rescue kidnapped pets from warrior dogs. As cute as the warrior dogs are and as much as I like them trying their own twist on Pok╬ô├╢┬ú╬ô├«├ëmon, I wish there was more to the event. I basically log on for 10 minutes and then I’m done. But a new character, Itto, is coming in a few days, so hopefully that will bring with it a story quest. Until then, I don’t think there will be that much to do.

And that’s everything I’ve been playing this past week. I also finished watching Arcane, which was one of the best shows I’ve watched in a while. I then watched DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, which I was enjoying, but it ended pretty abruptly. I’m now out of ideas of what to watch, so please share recommendations if you have them. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’ve been enjoying and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!