Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. Things are continuing to pick up in February, with some interesting new releases, as well as worthwhile updates to older games. I also renewed my Netflix subscription and had a chance to check out one of their games that caught my attention. Keep reading to see what I thought about them.

Encodya

Encodya is a 3D point-and-click adventure game that first released in January 2021 on consoles but came to mobile this week. It takes place in 2062 Neo-Berlin, a cyberpunk future in which every person is paired with a robot when they’re born. You play as Tina, an orphan who lives on the street with her robot named S.A.M. You can switch between the two characters to solve puzzles or interact with characters, since they react differently depending on who’s talking to them. I like the overall idea, and I’m impressed with how much space I have to explore just from the get-go. What I don’t like is how much it devolves into pixel hunting. There are hints and hot spot locators you can use but the game makes you feel bad for doing so, since you can’t get achievements. I’ve been avoiding using any of the help tools, but it means I’m going in circles trying to figure out what I missed. It’s not always clear what’s interactive, since you have to walk Tina over it to see. I want to spend more time with it, but hope it becomes more about the puzzles themselves and less about actually finding the puzzles. You can watch some of my gameplay video below to see what it’s like.

Arcanium: Rise of Akhan

Arcanium: Rise of Akhan is a roguelike deck-building card game that released last week as part of Netflix’s subscription service. I was on my HBO month at the time, but it expired yesterday so I renewed Netflix both for this and some series I wanted to watch. I love Arcanium’s presentation, with each adventurer being represented by a different animal. You move across a hex grid, and each tile triggers an event — be it a battle, or treasure, or a shopkeeper. As you progress, you earn cards to add to your deck. The battles themselves are lane-based and each of the three characterS takes up a lane. The characters all have their own action point (AP) pool to use to play cards and when they all run out that’s the end of the turn. It involves strategy in both deck building and how you play your cards. I didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time with it past the tutorial, but I enjoyed myself. I don’t think it’s worth the $10-20/month subscription on its own, but if you already have a Netflix subscription it’s worth checking out.

Dungeons of Dreadrock

Dungeons of Dreadrock is an upcoming dungeon crawler that’s releasing on February 13. It’s inspired by old-school RPGs but reimagined for mobile audiences. In fact, it can be played almost entirely single-handed, from what I’ve seen so far. You swipe to move your character one tile at a time, but you also swipe to attack enemies or interact with the environment, such as switches. It is indeed designed for mobile, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. I’ve spent about 45 minutes with it so far and only made it through the first 15 levels. It combines fast-paced action with puzzle solving, so even if you figure out the solution, it usually takes some skill to pull it off. Each room is also self-contained, so death can be a little frustrating but not devastating. So far, there have been some extremely clever solutions that make me want to push through even when the skill-based parts stress me out. I’ll definitely be spending more time with this one, even if it might take me a while to get through. It’s also free with ads and a one-time IAP to remove the ads, so there’s nothing to lose by trying it out when it releases on February 13th.

Railroad Ink Challenge

Railroad Ink Challenge released last year and I had good things to say about it in my review. I hadn’t played in a while, but two new DLCs were added this week. — Forest and Desert — so I spent some time with them. I’m still not particularly good at the game but I enjoy it anyway. The Forest DLC adds forest tiles that you can place strategically for extra points. It’s not drastically different, but does add some nice variety. The Desert DLC, though, feels like a more advanced version of the game to me, one that I’m maybe not quite ready for. There are cactus tiles and oasis tiles. You get extra points for any cacti left at the end of the game, but they need to be next to an oasis tile in order to survive a heat wave. Some of the challenges in the Desert DLC also seem almost impossible to pull off compared to others. Both DLCs are worth it if you’re looking to mix it up, but the Desert one definitely seems more for advanced players who have already mastered the main game. You can watch my gameplay videos to see them in action.

Genshin Impact

And last, I continued with Genshin Impact this week. The Lantern Rite festival ended and now a new event started where we need to travel around the world with a little dancing bear. I’ve been mostly working on my Zhongli build and pre-farming for Yae Miko materials. I’m also trying to get Raiden some better artifacts before I head into the new Spiral Abyss for floors 11 & 12. Overall, not the most eventful week, but hopefully it’ll pick up again soon.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also watched Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and regretted it from beginning to end. Granted, it’s been a few years since I watched the series, but this movie was bordering on unwatchable for me. I’m not sure why I stuck with it to the end. Now that I’m back on Netflix, I noticed a few shows got more episodes, so I continued watching Raising Dion. It seems a little better than the first season, but still has some weak points. It’s watchable enough, though. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re enjoying and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!