Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. I had been looking forward to Wales Interactive’s The Isle Tide Hotel and now it’s finally out, so I’ll share my thoughts on that. Otherwise, I did try out one other new game, but the rest are all games I’ve played before, including revisiting one that’s still in beta. There’s a good deal to discuss, so let’s get started.

The Isle Tide Hotel

The Isle Tide Hotel is the latest full-motion video (FMV) game from Wales Interactive, who thankfully have kept up with their pattern of releasing games on iOS at the same time as other platforms. I love the premise of the game. You play as an estranged father trying to rescue his daughter from a strange cult that meets inside the Isle Tide Hotel. You’re invited there by an investigator who wants your help finding your daughter, Eleanor. First you need to get into the place without a proper invitation, and then you need to work together to figure out where they’re keeping her. My biggest issue with the game was the pacing. The camera spends too much time watching the main character go through every motion. There’s too much time wasted between scenes and choices. I was already getting tired of it early on, but then near the end of the game there was a section with a hall of doors and before I could choose the next door to go through, I had to watch the same exact closeup of his face. It wore me down and by the time the credits rolled I was more relieved than anything else. I was sure I didn’t want to play again, because I managed to rescue Eleanor and didn’t see the point. The story was also a bit incoherent. But today I convinced myself to go through one more playthrough to see what I could find. It was still incredibly silly (how did the main character open a combination lock without knowing the passcode? No explanation, as far as I could tell.) but was a little more enjoyable thanks to being able to skip scenes I’ve watched before. I also appreciated early scenes more now that I had a better idea of what was going on. But I still ended up at same place with the same decision at the end. I chose the other option and it was pretty underwhelming. I don’t know that I’d go in for a third run, but maybe? A lot of the plot doesn’t make sense and there’s so much cheesiness. But now that I went in for that second playthrough, it’s made me curious about what else I’ve missed. So I’m not sure I can really recommend the game, but if you do play I would suggest giving it more than one playthrough to get more out of it. Note that it’s also free to download and try, with a $4.99 IAP to unlock the full game. So play the beginning for yourself to see if it hooks you.

Merge Circle

I was curious about Merge Circle, as it looked very different from every other merging game I’ve played. I didn’t expect it to be so hectic, though. I thought I was going to have a relaxing experience but it’s actually very fast-paced and requires decent reflexes. The way it works there’s an object in the center of the circle with other objects around the edges of the circle. The middle object rotates constantly to point at the others. You then tap the screen to make that object shoot at the one it’s pointing at. It will then affect it based on what it is. For instance shooting a single flower at another single flower will upgrade it to two flowers. But shooting a single flower at a triple flower will downgrade it to a double flower. You can’t control the movement or the object in the center — all you can do is decide when to shoot it off. There are also black holes you can use to get rid of an undesirable object. It’s an interesting idea, but I personally find it too stressful. There’s a timer in the corner and if you take too long to complete the level, you lose stars. I was too aware of that timer and it made me trigger happy and then I’d mess up and need to restart. So I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I’d hoped to. I think there’s definitely an audience for this kind of game, but it’s not me. Thankfully, it’s free-to-play with an IAP to make it fully premium. So try it for yourself and see if you like it.

finity.

I first played finity. two weeks ago and was enjoying it a lot but found it difficult. I decided this week to spend more time with it and see if I could beat my high score. And I did — twice! It still gets overwhelming around the same point, but my high score is now around 4700. I want to keep playing and see if I can get past Silver II ranking and continue to beat my high score. So it’s likely you’ll see more videos from me. If you have an Apple Arcade subscription, definitely try finity.

MEGA MAN X DiVE Offline

Last week I played some of MEGA MAN X DiVE Offline but didn’t have much of an opinion yet. Unfortunately, after playing through another chapter, it still didn’t grab me. It feels a little too generic and I pretty much forgot about it immediately after playing. I would highly recommend playing some of the free-to-play version before dropping $30 on the premium one.

Panik Flip!

A while back, I played an early beta version of an upcoming puzzle game called Panik Flip! I liked the overall idea, but didn’t love the timers and things that made me feel rushed. Since then, the game has gotten a lot of updates and now feels better to play. The map is split up into more relaxed levels and timed levels. You’re still scored on the relaxed ones, but you can ignore the timer if you don’t care about your score. I personally would do away with the scoring altogether, but I understand there are others who like that kind of thing, so I think this is a pretty good compromise. The developer is also looking for more test subjects….err… beta testers, so if you’re interested in trying it and giving feedback, you can email [email protected].

Genshin Impact

And last, I’m still exploring Fontaine in Genshin Impact, but now that each area is over 90% complete, it’s getting difficult to find what I’ve missed. I did finish the quest with the guy who got buried in the sand and also rescued all the sea otters and now can play with them all together whenever I want! Other than that, I’m just doing the limited events and saving primos until there’s a new character I want. The upcoming 4.1 update looks amazing, though, so I’m looking forward to that.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I also took advantage of a deal for Paramount+ together with Showtime and am finally watching The Good Fight. I should probably slow down, though, and stop binging it so hard. 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.