My Week Unwrapped: December 2, 2022 – Reigns Three Kingdoms, Antioch Scarlet Bay, IMMORTALITY, OPUS Echo of Starsong 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. There were some releases this week that I’d been looking forward to for some time, but I also continued with other games I’d already started. There hasn’t been much going on in Genshin Impact lately, so that gave me time to spend elsewhere. Anyway, let’s get to the games.

Reigns: Three Kingdoms

I knew Nerial was working on another Reigns game for Netflix, but I didn’t realize it was due out so soon. It released this week and I was surprised how easily I got sucked into it despite this being the fifth Reigns game already. Reigns: Three Kingdoms shakes things up a bit by embracing the whole simulation concept started with Reigns: Her Majesty Easter eggs related to Synaptic Insight Technology Systems. I’m not sure if anything ever came of it in the other games, but in this one we’re playing a simulation and that’s the company behind it. The goal is to go back in every time we die and pick up where we left off, trying to conquer all thirteen kingdoms. There’s also a card game where you battle other armies using the troops you acquired. I was enjoying it for a while, but after a few hours I encountered the same problem I always do with these games. It gets super repetitive when you start seeing the same cards over and over again despite having so many cards you’re missing. It also doesn’t do a good job avoiding cards that lead to quests I already completed. Another issue is that it’s hard to balance all the factions and avoid death while also trying to find new paths and cards. The formula works fine at first, but the longer you play the more repetitive it gets and the harder it is to stay interested. Also, the AI for the battles is pretty awful. There were a number of battles I was so sure I would lose — especially when I was outnumbered and out-powered — but I never lost a single one because the AI always sabotaged themself. Anyway, I might give it some more time, but I’m not sure I have the patience to see it through to the end. Meanwhile, you can watch more of my videos here.

Antioch: Scarlet Bay

Antioch: Scarlet Bay was initially meant to release in 2017, but it got pushed off several times. I’d been looking forward to it ever since it was first announced, so I was excited to finally be able to play. It’s a co-op murder mystery game in which you play as a cop and either a friend or a stranger plays as your partner. You each take turns choosing dialogue options and also which places to go next. It’s a really interesting idea and I so badly wanted to like it. Unfortunately, it’s executed poorly. It was only small issues at first — the game takes a long time to pass info back and forth between the players, so there’s a lot of down time. My friend’s game also crashed and she had to switch devices to get it working again. I recommend playing with someone you can communicate with outside the game in case something like that happens. The game itself didn’t give me any indication that something wrong, so I only knew because my friend told me. Once we got past that, though, there were a myriad other issues that were harder to look past. The achievements were all in French, for one. Also, the game often shares dialogue options between players even if it doesn’t make sense. For instance, I chose a racist remark and the game gave my partner the option to rebuke me for it. But when she didn’t, it gave me the same dialogue option. So I could rebuke myself for my own remark? There were also some other very questionable lines in the game that we’d sometimes choose just to show each other how bad things could get. We also encountered issues where my friend repeated what an NPC said instead of responding to it. Overall, there are just a lot of issues with the flow. Too many times we would talk over each other instead of conversing. And the game often thought it was being funny when it really wasn’t. I wanted to stick with it to the end just to see where it goes, but we’ve already played close to 3 hours and neither of us is all that into it anymore. If it lasts much longer we’ll probably quit before finding the killer. I’m disappointed that this novel idea that was in development for so long ended up like this. I don’t think I can recommend it unless you just want to laugh at all the weird inconsistencies. And if you want to see more of it in action, you can find all my videos here.

IMMORTALITY

I finally rolled credits on IMMORTALITY, and it left me with a lot to think about. I’m still piecing it all together in my head and trying to make sense of it all, but I feel like I might still be missing some pieces. When I have the time, I want to sit down with all the clips I found and try to see if I could figure out what I’m missing — especially hidden clips. This was quite an experience, and much longer than Her Story. There’s also several movies going on at once, along with some other extra footage. So it takes a lot more time and energy to play and I’m going to need to give it more attention before I feel like I’m actually done with it. I do highly recommend it and if you want to see more of my playthrough, I included all of my videos here.

OPUS: Echo of Starsong

I finally continued playing OPUS: Echo of Starsong after completing the first chapter a couple of weeks ago. I played through the first half of Chapter 2, which surprisingly took me two hours. I got to explore space, traveling to different areas and scavenging any valuables I could find. I also experienced my first loss — which wasn’t completely unexpected, since the game advertised it — but I was still surprised it happened so early in the game. I’m starting to get attached to these characters and I’m also enjoying the exploration aspect, so I’m looking forward to playing more. Based on what I’ve seen so far, I would easily recommend it. I also started collecting all my videos here if you want to see more before deciding whether to buy it.

Station 117

I already finished playing Station 117 last week and gave my impressions, so there’s not much more to say. But I finished my step-by-step guide this week and also made my video walkthrough for it.

Genshin Impact

And last, I’m still playing Genshin Impact. There isn’t a whole lot going on right now, though. The Hypostatic Symphony event ended and I’m just waiting for the 3.3 update next week that will bring the new character, the Wanderer. I also published my 1000th Genshin video!

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also binged Wednesday on Netflix and The Devil’s Hour on Amazon Prime. Wednesday was fun but entirely too predictable. The misdirections were predictable, and that made everything else also predictable. I still enjoyed it, but I was hoping it would have surprised me more. The Devil’s Hour was quite gripping, but the ending left me with a lot of questions. I’d still recommend watching it. 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!

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. HelloWorld

    Hi there !
    Is it just me or are there less and less adventure games being released on iOS ( or Android for that matter) ? It’s really frustrating seeing so much stuff coming to Mac / Pc, and so little on mobile now. Maybe it’s a false impression, but i remember there were more adventure games being regularly released up to maybe 4 or 5 years ago on iOs, and nowadays it’s so rare. Maybe the economy of the platform ( the price they can ask for the games) makes it harder for developpers ?
    Have you noticed the same thing or is it just my imagination ?
    By the way, love your site , it introduced me to so many great adventure games in the past.

    1. AppUnwrapper

      Yeah I do think fewer devs are taking chances on mobile these days. I’ve even seen a lot of my favorite games disappear. It seems like Apple Arcade and Netflix are the only sure way for them to make money on mobile.

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