Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. We’ve had some pretty big releases this week, though I also spent a good chunk of my time with Genshin Impact, more Kingdom New Crowns and a new Adventure Escape game. The most notable release is Alien: Isolation, which until recently I would have never expected to come to mobile. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get started!

Alien: Isolation

It is very surprising to see a game like Alien: Isolation on iOS, and I was a bit skeptical as to how it might play on there. But Feral Interactive did a fantastic job porting it over. I’m playing on the latest iPad Pro, so the graphics aren’t being compromised. The controls have also been adapted well for a touchscreen, with a floating joystick, a few onscreen buttons, as well as some direct interactivity with the environment. And if you don’t like the layout of the controls, you can fully customize them or use a controller if you prefer that. I never played the game before, so I came in not knowing much other than that I would have to sneak around and avoid the alien from the Alien franchise. What I didn’t expect was that I would be killed several times by humans before I even see the alien the first time. I think the game does a good job easing you in, making you feel tense but still relaxed to a degree for the early part of the game. There’s a lot of exploration involved and some light puzzle solving. Overall, I’ve been enjoying my time with it. They really nailed the atmosphere here. But I do get motion sickness from it pretty easily and, after learning that the main campaign takes at least 18 hours to play through, I’m not sure I can manage it. I do want to try the free DLC expansions, though, as I hear that they’re shorter standalone experiences. If you’re not concerned about motion sickness and the length doesn’t scare you, this is a top-notch port that’s easy to recommend, especially if you’re playing on a bigger iPad. It also has iCloud sync, so you can continue away from home on your iPhone. You can also watch some of my gameplay videos below to see it in action.

One Hand Clapping – OHC

One Hand Clapping got my attention not just because of its gimmick — that you sing into your device’s microphone to control the environment — but because it’s advertised as a pretty laid-back puzzle platformer. Together with its colorful art style, it looked right up my alley. And at first, I was enjoying it quite a bit. The first chapter has you mostly using your voice to activate platforms that lift you up. There was a really nice puzzle involving a clock, where singing or speaking made the hands move, and you needed to stop them at the right point so you can climb them. The problem is, the second chapter became all about matching the right pitch. I still managed to get pretty far even with my poor skills. But eventually it got too frustrating. You can adjust the range calibration in the settings, but I didn’t even know what I was aiming for, so I was afraid to mess with it. I’m sure the game would be fun for someone who’s less tone deaf than I am. But once I had to start resorting to skipping puzzles, I lost interest in the game. I would recommend watching some of my videos below to see if it’s something you might like.

Dungeon No Dungeon

Dungeon No Dungeon has a really interesting concept, where you fight battles but every body part has its own health bar. You need to choose which body part to attack in order to defeat your enemies. For instance, if you take out both legs, which have relatively low health, they’ll die. You can also go for the head or chest, but those have more armor and health. I only played through one run, so I’m not sure how deep this gets strategically, but it’s a unique idea. It’s also advertised as a roguelike, but from my time with it I think it’s more of a roguelite. Instead of starting each game from scratch, I believe you can continue building your heroes between runs and bring them into the next one. I just wanted to mention that, because there’s usually more of a grind with roguelites. Roguelikes are designed to be challenging but also are balanced to be completed without a grind. You improve your skills and strategy but your characters don’t get stronger. With a roguelite, you can usually brute force a lot of it by just grinding it out and playing enough to earn more experience and items for your characters. The reason this is important to mention is that I was having a pretty easy time with Dungeon No Dungeon, never in danger of my characters dying, until I got to my first boss. It was a huge spike in difficulty and made me wonder if I’m meant to be able to beat the boss without grinding and building my characters up through multiple runs. In any case, the game bugged out on the boss battle and decided my full-health character was actually dead. That was before it just broke completely and wouldn’t let either my characters or the enemies attack. So I quit there and called it a day. While it is an interesting concept, I wouldn’t recommend it in this state.

Adventure Escape Mysteries: The Echo Bay Murders

The last Adventure Escape game released only a couple of months back and I haven’t even made videos for it yet, so I was really surprised to see them release another new one this week. It’s called The Echo Bay Murders and brings Detective Kate Gray back for another murder investigation. A potential serial killer is on the loose (again) and she has to stop him. I’ve only played through the first two chapters so far, but it’s been pleasant enough. I also started my walkthrough here. I did run into a problem where the game accepted a solution to a puzzle but the solution doesn’t work for anyone else. So if you’re playing and are able to get me a photo of the pipes puzzle solution in chapter 2, please send it to me. Thanks!

Kingdom Two Crowns: Norse Lands

I continued my Norse Lands game this week and managed to build up quite a kingdom on the sixth island. I believe I have one more small portal to destroy and then I might go back for one of the mounts I wanted to try, before I head off to destroy the cliff portals. I still find the game so easy to get sucked into and lose track of time. I hope to play more this coming week, but with the walkthroughs I’m working on, I’m not sure I’ll find the time. Either way, I highly recommend playing it.

Genshin Impact

And last, Arataki Itto finally arrived in Genshin Impact. I was going to try and skip him to save for other characters I want, but after playing through his story quest and spending an entire day doing his test run over and over, I just couldn’t. I had to have him. I went all the way to 77 wishes to get him, but at least I won my 50/50 so he didn’t take that many of the fates I saved up. I’m so glad I got him because he’s just a blast to play. This week we also got to add the warrior dog to our teapots and spar with him, which is adorable. And we just started the new Misty Dungeon event, which is the return of an event we had a while back. It’s a good one, and I especially like how everyone chooses from a pool of prebuilt characters instead of using our own. Update 2.3 is a fairly quiet update, though. 2.4 should add a new area with a lot more to do.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also finished watching DOTA, but it ended so abruptly that I pretty much forgot all about it. I’ve since been watching Alice in Borderland, which is mostly silly, but after the first couple of episodes I got sucked in. I’m nearing the end, though, and not sure what I’ll watch next. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re playing and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!