Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. Don’t worry, you won’t find any April Fool’s jokes here! After a long drought in Genshin Impact, the new update finally arrived this week and I’ve already put quite a few hours into it. But I still made room for some new games, as well as revisiting some recent favorites. There isn’t quite as much to discuss as last week, but I’d still recommend some of the games below.
John Ray’s Space Adventure
John Ray’s Space Adventure is a point-and-click adventure that has you playing as John Ray, an archaeologist who travels the universe in search of rare and valuable artifacts. In the game, Mr. Maljerk asks him to find him an alien Xec device. You need to explore different planets, helping other characters and solving puzzles in order to progress. It’s inspired by those old school Sierra games, but it does away with the clunkier verb interface and lets you simply tap on an item in your inventory and then on another object to use them together. You can also just tap to interact with your environment. It all feels very intuitive and pain-free. I only wish it had a hotspot locator. I’ve been tapping on items in my inventory to see where they can be used as a workaround but it’s a bit clunky. Overall, I’m enjoying the game and look forward to spending more time with it. I also have a walkthrough in progress here and I’m running a giveaway on Twitter that ends soon.
Dealer’s Life 2
I never played the original Dealer’s Life, so I have nothing to compare the sequel to. So far, I spent a little over an hour with it and, unfortunately, it’s not for me. It seemed interesting at first. You run a pawn shop and need to buy items from people so you can sell them to others. You set the prices and they can either accept, reject, or haggle. There are stats that help you out, like Charisma, and you can even hire employees to perform certain tasks for you, like pressuring someone to accept your price. But the gameplay loop just feels too repetitive. It doesn’t really feel like much is changing. I’m just doing the same thing every day and after a while I just got bored and didn’t see the appeal in playing anymore. I’m sure there’s an audience for it, but I’m not it. I recommend watching some of my gameplay videos below if you want an idea of what it’s like.
Crush the Castle Legacy Edition
I’ll admit that I’ve never been a big fan of physics-based tower-toppling games like Angry Birds. Still, I was curious about the Legacy Edition of Crush the Castle, a classic mobile game that’s been around for over a decade now. This version includes all three games, but I’ve only tried Adventure so far. I like aspects of it. The story and animations are humorous and it’s pretty quick to restart when you mess up. But I never liked how these kinds of games are so reliant on trial and error. You need to hit in just the right spot to get things toppling perfectly. This game is especially frustrating because you don’t slowly pull back and release when you’re happy with the angle. Instead, you start the catapult moving and then have to tap again at the right moment. I found it way too easy to mess up. I still stuck with it through a few chapters, but I don’t think I’ll be continuing with it. If you do like these kinds of games and haven’t played them before, it looks like you get a lot of content for your money. It’s also free to try before unlocking the full game, so at least do so.
Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield
Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield originally released on other platforms but came to mobile this week. It’s a super stylish auto-runner that I really wanted to like but just couldn’t really get into. It also crashed on me just a few minutes into the game and I lost all my progress. If I was enjoying myself, I might have gone back in and restarted, but I really wasn’t. Part of the problem is that the controls feel awkward on an iPad. Your character automatically runs, and when you’re nearing an obstacle the game slows down, waiting for you to perform one of four actions. You tap one of the edges of the screen to either jump, vault, slide or sprint. My problem with it was that it was hard to tell when exactly I needed to tap. Depending on the action, you could end up starting too soon or too late. And the game slows down so early that it always confused me. I also found that it often didn’t make sense to vault when the game was telling you to, because jumping gives you a lot more room to clear the obstacle. It’s possible the harder modes would feel better, but without any mid-level saves to account for crashing or having to take a call, I just can’t see investing any time into this. Again, you can watch some of my video below if you want to see it in action.
Arabilis
I started playing Arabilis a few weeks ago when it first released and I really enjoyed it but was busy with other games at the time. I went back to it this week and got a much better score — 75,000, about triple my previous high score. I also tried the relaxed mode and did better, scoring around 115,000. But I confess that I’m not really sure what the difference is between the two. Both are time-based, but it’s possible that the relaxed mode is less frantic. I do find the game a bit stressful and wish I could play a turn-based version that gives you all the time in the world to think. But I’m still thoroughly enjoying it as is and plan to play more. If you don’t mind the somewhat hectic pace, I highly recommend giving it try.
Among Us
It’s been quite a while since I played Among Us, but I had to check out the April Fool’s Horse Mode that was only available today. I gathered a few friends and we played with some other random folks for about an hour. Sadly, I never got to be the Imposter, and I was getting stuck on everything using the new controls. But I had a lot of fun anyway. It’s worth checking out before the day ends. But keep in mind that playing with strangers instead of friends can have some mixed results. When I joined random games I kept ending up with three or four people leaving at the very start. So it’s a much better experience if you schedule some time to play with friends.
Genshin Impact
And last, I spent a good ten hours or so playing Genshin Impact over the last few days, thanks to the 2.6 update and a new area called the Chasm. It’s an underground area that just keeps getting deeper and deeper. There’s all sorts of new mechanics, most of them related to the object you carry around that emits light. It can also be upgraded to be more powerful. I’m really enjoying it, and exploration has always been my favorite part of the game. It also gives me the opportunity to enjoy the characters I pulled over the last few updates. It’s also making it easier to skip Ayato, the newest character, so I can focus on my existing ones. Overall, I’m really importases with this update and can’t wait to get back in for more spelunking.
And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I also caught up on the second season of Bridgerton, which was good silly fun and easy to binge over a few days. I also watched the second Fear Street movie, both the original Blade Runner and the new one, and I’m now watching Project Power. I really could use a new series to get hooked on, though. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’ve been playing and I’ll see you back here next time for more of My Week Unwrapped!
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