Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. This was a fairly busy week, with some new releases, a couple of Netflix games, and one that’s not out yet. I made more progress with Hades, caught up on Genshin Impact, and tried a premium game disguised as a free-to-play game. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get started.

GHOST TRICK

Believe it or not, I never played GHOST TRICK before. But the remastered version got ported to iOS recently, so it seemed like the best time to finally take the plunge. I’ve only played through the first chapter so far (which is free, by the way), but I’m loving the humor and story as whole. The puzzles that involve possessing and manipulating objects in the environment seems like it has a lot of potential and I’m eager to see what lies ahead. I do wish the game had been full screen on iPad, but I think they needed to use the sides to display information. In any case, I recommend at least playing the free chapters to see if you want to pay for the full game — assuming you haven’t played it before. And I’ll hopefully have more to say about it after I’ve played more.

Highwater

Highwater has been on iOS for a while now, thanks to Netflix, but for some reason I never gave it a try. I forgot about it until it got a release on other platforms recently. I also noticed it’s by the same developers of Golf Club: Wasteland, and that got me even more interested in it. One of my favorite features of GC: Wasteland was the radio in the background that gave you context about what happened in this world that became flooded and almost completely uninhabitable for humans. Highwater takes place in the same world — or at least one very similar to it. Everyone travels by boat between little islands, scavenging for resources and fighting over them when it comes to that. The game is split between exploration by boat and turn-based battles. I was fully engrossed for the first hour and completely expected to be in for the long haul. But by the end of my second hour I was getting tired of it. The story wasn’t really pulling me along like it did in GC:Wasteland and the battles started getting longer. The longer battles made me realize how slow they are and I started to get impatient. While I did enjoy most of the time I spent with it, I don’t think I’ll continue. Still, if you have a Netflix subscription I think it’s worth checking out.

Twinworld Survivor

I was intrigued by the concept of Twinworld Survivor, as it’s advertised as a free-to-play game that allows you to hack the system to get everything without spending any money. And yes, it’s premium, costing only $2.99 with no IAPs. So it seemed promising. I’m also a big fan of Vampire Survivors, so I’m always on the lookout for similar games. I do like the actual gameplay for the most part, but it is extremely buggy. Almost every run was plagued by invisible walls that prevented me from moving where I wanted to go, often forcing me to walk right into enemies because I couldn’t move past them. A number of times I also had arrows pointing me to chests that were missing. Other times I would stand right on top of a chest but it wouldn’t open. There’s just way too many bugs and it makes for a very frustrating experience. Hopefully that can be fixed. But aside from that, there’s too many things to collect and upgrade. I felt like I was spending more time in the menus than on the battlefield. And some of those menus would get stuck for about 30 seconds or so and all I could do is wait for them to close. It’s just a very clunky experience with a ton of unnecessary bloat. I recommend watching some of my gameplay before deciding whether to buy it.

The Bear

The Bear is a game releasing on April 16th that’s basically a bedtime story for all ages. I got an early copy of it and played through the first two chapters so far. I’m not really sure what the World of Gra is, but the game definitely gives off the vibes it’s going for. I liked how all the controls are gesture-based. The first chapter had me playing as a little guy pulling a big “bear” along through tunnels. The second chapter had me playing as the “bear” carrying the little guy around across planets. You basically have to pull each arm at a time, then the legs, then pull his body up. It’s all very simple but I appreciated needing to put in that extra bit of effort to make it feel more like I’m doing the actual climbing. I’m looking forward to playing through the rest of the game and will have more impressions for you after I do. You can actually pre-order the game right now for free and play the first chapter when it releases. Then there’s just a single IAP to unlock the rest of the game.

Hades – NETFLIX

This is my third week playing Hades on Netflix and I finally beat Megaera, the first boss. It was fun getting to that point, but I did not enjoy Asphodel, the next area. It’s covered in lava and I kept getting burned while dashing around to avoid enemies. I didn’t last very long there and then learned that every time I start a new game I’m going to have to beat Meg again. I mean, I knew this was a roguelite but part of me was hoping that there would be a checkpoint of some sort after I beat her. I can’t see doing this same thing over and over, especially knowing what’s waiting for me on the other side. So, as much as I enjoyed the game until now, I don’t think I’ll be playing it much more. I did unlock all the weapons, though, so I may just mess around with them on the easier levels. I still think it’s worth playing even if you don’t stick with it to the end.

Genshin Impact

And last, I caught up on Genshin Impact by playing through Chiori’s story quest and the latest even that has you shooting at slimes with a cannon. I also wished quite a bit trying to get Neuvillette but I stopped at 60 pity. I’ll probably wish more another day, but I was having really bad luck and didn’t feel like it was going to turn out well if I kept going. Other than that, there’s not a whole lot going on right now, as the big update comes in 4.6.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this week. I’m still watching The X-Files and made it to season 8. I’m actually surprised how much I like Agent Doggett and it’s interesting seeing Scully trying to be Mulder and coming up with all the wild theories. I’m glad I stuck with the show. 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.