Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. Once again, this will cover two weeks of games instead of just one. I spent most of my time with Crashlands 2, as I got properly hooked on it. But I took a break from it to start Old Skies and a few other games, including a surprise release (for me) of World of Goo 2. There’s quite a bit to discuss, so let’s get started.

Old Skies

First, I apologize to anyone coming here who thought that Old Skies is available on mobile. It’s not, and I almost didn’t cover it because it’s a bit of a hassle to play and record on my PC. But once I started it, I remembered how much I liked the demo I played and decided right away that I’m sticking with it to the end. And that says a lot, because the last time I played any game on my PC was the Old Skies demo two years ago. That demo is actually the first chapter of the game, but I’ve now played through Chapter 3 and it’s been well worth it. If you’re not familiar with the game, you play as Fia Quinn, a time traveler from the future who takes customers on trips to the past for various reasons specific to each person. For instance, they may want to meet someone who had a big influence on them, or learn something that no one else has been able to figure out. Wadjet Eye’s previous game was Unavowed, which also didn’t get a mobile release, but the writing was strong enough to hold me to the end. The writing is the main draw here as well, but Old Skies really is the full package, with gorgeous art work from Ben Chandler (again), a soundtrack that’s easy on the ears, and puzzles that may involve dying over and over. I’m actually surprised by how entertaining a lot of the deaths are, making it sting less when you have to rewind and try again. I’ll definitely be playing through this to the end, and I’ll post more videos here as I record them. Unfortunately, there are no plans to release the game on mobile, so if you’re interested in playing it you should do so on PC/Mac or wait for the Switch release, which is coming soon.

World of Goo 2

It’s been over 15 years since the original World of Goo released, and I did play it even though I never covered it for my site. I’m not particularly good at physics-based puzzle games, but I loved its charm, which oozes from every game by 2D Boy and the Tomorrow Corporation. I had no idea that World of Goo 2 was even coming to Mobile until it was already out, but I was thrilled to see it. I’ve since spent about an hour with it and once again, I am not very good at it. I love the humor and it’s fun to mess with the little balls of goo and create bridges with them. But I stopped on a level where I was having trouble getting the game to accurately tell which goos I was trying to pick up. I kept grabbing the wrong ones and it was making it very difficult to build the structure it wanted me to make. Thankfully, you can skip levels and come back to them. But I’m worried they’ll just get harder from there. If you’re not sure whether the game is for you, I recommend watching some of my gameplay video. But if you’re usually good at these types of games, you’ll probably have a much easier time than I was having.

Primrows+

Primrows is not only a great pun for a game that’s about making rows of flowers, but it’s also a pretty solid high score chasing puzzler. There are a number of different modes to mess around with, but the gist of it is that you water the grid to make flowers bloom on each tile. The goal is to make as many of the flowers happy as possible by making sure there’s never more than one of the same in any row, column or quadrant. You have limited turns in which to try and pluck some flowers and take a chance that the right ones will bloom in their place. The more happy flowers, the higher the score. Things vary a bit between the different modes, but the basic idea is the same. I’m not sure if it will have long-lasting staying power for me, but I like that it plays in short sessions so you can pull it out whenever you have a few minutes to kill. It also plays great on both iPhone in portrait mode and on iPad in landscape. It’s also free to try before paying to unlock the full game, so I recommend doing so to see how you like it.

Black Mirror: Thronglets

I didn’t have a Netflix subscription when Thronglets released a couple of weeks ago, but I got one today so I could play the new chapter of Monument Valley 3 and took advantage of it. I knew it was made by Night School Studio, the folks behind OXENFREE, so I had pretty high expectations. But I still had no idea what I was in for. It’s a Black Mirror tie-in, specifically to an episode from the latest season, which I haven’t watched yet. You’re basically playing the game from the show, which is supposed to be the original tamagotchi before tamagotchi existed. After hatching one, you need to feed it, play with it and bathe it. And then it starts multiplying and you get better tools to try and keep up with them. But this was clearly never going to be such a straightforward game and things quickly get weird. The Thronglets manage to teach themselves English and then start to learn from both words and actions. And they have no problem calling you out when you lie. I also felt really bad about the Thronglets I managed to directly kill or let die due to negligence. It took me about two hours to complete the game and I was glued to it from start to finish. I highly recommend playing it and perhaps even subscribing to the $7.99 ad-supported Netflix tier for it if you don’t care about streaming anything and just want to play games.

Monument Valley 3

The first content update for Monument Valley 3 arrived recently, and it’s called The Garden of Life. It has you sailing around with your boat Totem to collect flowers and solve some simple puzzles before unlocking Chapter 11, which offers a bit more challenge. It should only take about 20 to 30 minutes to complete, but it’s still nice to see. I don’t know if I would subscribe to Netflix just for this one chapter, but if there are other games you’ve been wanting to play, this is nice bonus. I also have a full walkthrough for the rest of the game here if you haven’t played it yet.

Adventure Escape Mysteries – Baby Roundup

I finally got to playing the bonus game you get as part of the Adventure Escape Mysteries Dino Country VIP package. It’s called Baby Roundup and mainly consists of three different types of puzzles that get increasingly harder as you progress through them. Once you finish those, there’s a few puzzles involving Sugar’s baby t-rex, Lucky. And then you get to dress him up for a photo shoot! I enjoyed it, but if you don’t already have the VIP package from playing Dino Country early, I’m not sure it’s worth the $9 just for this. That’s something you’ll have to decide for yourself. I also have a full walkthrough guide for it here.

Adventure Escape Mysteries – Dino Country

If you didn’t pay for the VIP package for Dino Country, you can now finally play it for free. I also finished it and, despite the story being a little predictable, I enjoyed it. The art has really improved in these games and I loved the color palette, especially the sky in the desert scenes. The puzzles also had nice variety without any that were overly annoying. It was a solid addition to the Adventure Escape collection. Again, I have a full walkthrough here.

Crashlands 2

I’ve put quite a few hours into Crashlands 2 by now and beat the first boss. It’s still calling to me, but I probably won’t continue with it until I complete Old Skies. I’ll try to get back to it as soon as possible, though. I find it really easy to just get sucked in and start working on the next quest, the next craftable, or hatching and training the next pet. If you’re on the fence about it, I would highly recommend it — as long as you have the time for it! You can also watch all my gameplay videos here if you want to see more before buying.

Genshin Impact

And last, I’ve been trying to make time for Genshin Impact between all the other games, but I’m falling a bit behind. I’m only about 50% through the new area and version 5.5 is almost over. I also have to finish the event taking place now, which has players collecting coins and attacking each other with missiles and traps to try and secure the highest score. It’s not my favorite event, but some of the stages are fun. I’ll hopefully be able to make more time for the game next week so I can catch up a bit.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to these last two weeks. I also The Wedding Banquet and Sacramento in theaters. I liked them both, but they’re very different movies. I’ve also been watching The Studio and Our Neighbors & Friends on Apple TV and a few other shows that are releasing new episodes weekly. Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re playing and I’ll see you back here next time for more of My Week Unwrapped!