My Week Unwrapped: July 22, 2022 – Roterra 3, Into the Breach, Blacken Slash and More

Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. If you follow my YouTube channel or Twitter account you may have noticed I published a lot of Genshin Impact videos this week. Due to a huge event going on right now, it’s taken up most of my time and I haven’t played many other games. But there are still some notable titles out this week, so let’s discuss them!

Roterra 3 – A Sovereign Twist

I really want to like Roterra 3. I liked the first Roterra, but I’ve always had complaints about the camera, as you can see in my review. The problem is that the camera only shows you what it wants and you cant do anything about it. It became an even bigger issue in Roterra Extreme, as the camera would only show a small part of a larger puzzle and I kept having to move my character just to see what the paths around me look like and where it wanted me to go. I checked out pretty early on that one because it just wasn’t worth the aggravation. So I was thrilled to learn that the third installment in the series lets you adjust the camera. Except, that’s not really the truth. What it has is a small thumbnail of the level in the lower left of the screen. If you tap that, you can zoom in/out or rotate the map or change the angle. Each of those controls has to be done separately and has a weird slider to make it happen. But the worst part is you can’t control anything from this mode. It’s view-only and it did help me a few times when I couldn’t see where I needed to go. But the problem is there have been a few instances where I managed to get to a spot in which the switches I needed were no longer within my view. The only way out of that is to reset the area, and that can mean redoing a lot if there wasn’t a checkpoint recently. I managed to stick with it and put up with these eccentricities through Level 16, but I threw in the towel on 17 when I kept getting stuck in the same position. This problem — among others related to the camera — could have been avoided by simply allowing for touch camera controls like pinch-to-zoom that would still allow access to the controls. I’m amazed that we’re three games in and this was the best they could offer. Even before getting stuck like that, there were a number of situations where I just didn’t see things I needed to get to because they were outside my view. The camera turns a pretty solid puzzle game into a test of patience. If the camera never bothered you in the other games, then by all means, pick up the third. But if you had issues with it like I did, I don’t think the new camera controls will change that. I also recommend watching some of my videos to get a better idea of what I mean, especially the last one.

Into the Breach

I subscribed to Netflix this past week in order to catch up on Stranger Things, but also because I knew Into the Breach was coming to the service. I had heard great things about it and, since it’s turn-based, it always seemed like a great fit for mobile. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to play a whole lot yet. I’m not even sure I got through the whole tutorial. I messed up badly and my game ended very early. I think my biggest mistake was that I didn’t choose where my mechs should start in each level, instead accepting the default placements. That often left me in a tight spit and unable to make any meaningful choices. I do like what I’ve seen so far, though, and I hope to spend more time with it next week. If you have a a Netflix subscription, it’s included in the price, so make sure to take advantage of it and at least give the game a try.

Blacken Slash

Blacken Slash is similar to Into the Breach in that it’s a turn-based roguelike. I admit, I was confused by a lot of it and didn’t feel like I was really getting the hang of it. This game does have the benefit of being in portrait mode so you can play one-handed on your phone. It also doesn’t require a subscription like Into the Breach does. Other than that, I personally think I would rather spend my time with Into the Breach, but check out my gameplay video and judge for yourself.

Genshin Impact

And last but certainly not least, I spent probably 40 hours this week playing Genshin Impact. Version 2.8 arrived the previous week, but the Summer Odyssey event featuring the return of the Golden Apple Archipelago was added a few days into it. For those who don’t know, the Golden Apple Archipelago (GAA) was a group of islands added last summer but only for a short time. It turns out that it’s a yearly thing, so this summer we returned there. But we went with different characters and each of them got their own personal island, including an entire domain that gave us more of their backstories. It’s absolutely bonkers how much content is in this event. It’s like they stuff an entire Witness into the game but are only giving us a little over a month to complete everything. I’ve been playing several hours every day and still feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of content. There’s so many puzzles everywhere and I’m trying very hard to solve it all without cheating. I don’t know if I’ll complete everything 100%, but it’s safe to say you’ll be seeing a lot more Genshin videos from me over the next few weeks. I’m not going to embed all the videos from this week, so if you want to see more, check out my YouTube channel.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week! I also started watching season 4 of Stranger Things with a friend, since it’s the one series we watch together. I also caught up on The Umbrella Academy and Love, Death & Robots. But after that, I realized there isn’t anything else I want to watch on Netflix. I’m really surprised, since I had taken a few months off from it. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re playing this week and I’ll see you back here next time with more of My Week Unwrapped!

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Stuart Claggett

    DiG-iT! Games has released version 1.1 of Roterra 3 with support for pinch and zoom camera functionality that was discussed in this article. The new camera option gives players camera view control beyond the fixed game cameras set by the game designers. An icon appears on the screen when you are in this mode.

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