Recenzii recente de ໂ‧͡‧̫ໃ

TL;DR – This will weigh down your heart like it’s sporting a 20 ton anchor beret. But you will not regret the pain.

Note: Took around 10 hours not 14 as I put game on hold to watch a bit of The Walking Dead which turned into a marathon, silly me. :P

In life there are those with very certain objectives that they are intent on completing. Many of us look up to these individuals. Valiant Hearts: The Great War is tremendously goal orientated. It is a game that deserves the praise we give to those focused enough to live their existence out, dedicated to an important cause. I am sure that many games look up to it for the superior level in fusion of storytelling and gaming entertainment it delivers.

At first the familiarity is reminiscent of point and click games though it is far from it, the more you advance. Progression is achieved through guiding several main characters through a set sequence of actions to continue on their respective journeys as they experience the First World War. It is a puzzle adventure game that is the most basic it can be as a game without falling into any variation of boredom. You will be taken along an interactive journey of warfare, dodging bullets while under fire, digging trenches, plonking soldiers on the head with fist or ladle and receiving aid from an enormously well trained and helpful war dog named Walt. Walt is “uberadorable” and if you are anything like me, you’ll be turning to him for comfort by rubbing his belly each time you feel a little jolt of heartache playing this game. The lives of the main characters will interchange constantly over the course of this game and they will save each other’s lives and make new-found friends.

It is a story about average people and their part in a war that will never be forgotten. It is not biased or too depressing. However, it is intense towards the end and also during some of the later “boss battles”. Thankfully this game has zero tolerance against procrastination. You will not find yourself sighing like in some puzzle adventure games where you don’t know why you’re collecting a bunch of items or trying to finish the same puzzle for hours on end. Not a single function is for mere substance within the game. Every detail owns its own historical relevance and is provided to successfully enlighten the player about WWI (including weapons and tactics). It was a joy to search for as many artefacts as I could find (you can go back after finishing the game and look for any previously missed) and read all the extra material provided through photographs and descriptions. I will bet on the likelihood that some cool history teacher out there is using this as the most spectacular teaching material. It is not overly story-driven that it winds up like a visual novel and also has a good percentage of logical puzzles and basic “mini-games”.

The art is splendid like a good portion of Ubisoft games tend to be. It knows no age, gender or background and imagine it would be wonderful game play, not just for adults but for families together or even younger children alone. I took my time trying to read everything and indulging myself in all the gorgeous art but as the controls are basic, most will find the game play short, efficient and rewarding. Hints will appear courtesy of war pigeons and they are impeccably timed so you will likely figure things out yourself before the hints appear. They are clear solutions or obvious clues so calls for less online surfing. Saving is automatic but is frequent enough not to be bothersome after your initial adjustment at the start of the game.

Though the game is fiction it is based on truth that should be told until the end of all mankind and deserves all the “feels” it will make you muster. If there were a perfect book in this world specifically designed to amuse gamers, this would be it. The bookworm in me also wishes there were a book.

I think this is a first but I literally have no cons to note.

Uplay is aesthetic and has a separate achievements and points system where you can unlock extra features. I feel it lacks the community Steam has but it is a well made client that I do not mind using at all. It is a shame Steam doesn’t have achievements for this game as of yet. Also, this game disallows me from regretting my Uplay installation.

Tackling Steam’s “already running” error using Uplay (was a problem I encountered)
Shut down Uplay & game from Task Manager – Delete game content from Steam library – Delete Uplay – Go to Ubisoft website and download Uplay from there – Open Steam if not already open – Go to game list in Uplay and press PLAY from there – Steam’s navy popup will appear (may be in background, minimise windows to see it) – Click that popup to download – When finished click PLAY via Uplay. Imagine Steam as a guy in the shadows, they need to be there but when you play Uplay always play from Uplay client and just leave Steam in the background to do its thing.

Edited for layout.

TL;DR – If you enjoy real life jigsaw puzzles at all, this will give you hours of joy. Use it to unwind! If not, I don’t see how this game would differ from the real thing enough to show you the joy of matching pieces for hours on end.


Recently Indiegala had a free giveaway of Pixel Puzzles: Japan and Commando Jack so that’s how I came about this game. The most I’d heard of Pixel Puzzles: Japan was from achievement threads on the forums and how it was an easy finish(?). The achievements may be straight forward enough, but this game, like the monk that smiles peacefully at you through the whole experience, will make you start twitching like a broken robot (it ain’t easy). I spent 10.5 hrs, spanning two days finishing this game.

When I pick it up I’m thinking this’ll be easy as I’m an intermediate puzzle completist and completionist. This was a calculated presumption as when I was twenty one, I had a crazy stalker who scared my family and me so intensely that for a while (until we sorted the whole situation out) I would be cooped up at home and with a fixation of my own, jigsaw puzzles. I’d start at the living room table and end up moving to the floor for space. Family members would come and go to help with the progress and basically it would be hours of just staring at a bunch of puzzle pieces. This went on for a few months and by the end of it I was a fairly confident matcher of jigsaws. I also found some fantastic jigsaw puzzle enthusiast friends along the way! Even without the relaxing chimes and trickle-clunk repertoire of the shishi-odoshi (bamboo water pipe), which can be enjoyed whilst playing Pixel Puzzles: Japan, jigsaw puzzles are the epitome of equanimity and tranquillity. Some people wonder how exactly the tedious matching of a couple of hundred jigsaw pieces can ease stress. Most I know tend to feel better when they have something to keep them busy. Jigsaw puzzles enhance this experience by giving you improved concentration and a zen state of mind.

The first two hours of my play time sprung from my idiocy of not knowing how to start the game. I had no idea I was meant to choose one of the lower levels to the left and then press the black and white go button to the bottom left of the screen to start my journey. So I spent 2 hours piecing together two high level puzzles and failing to level up for it. Like actual puzzles, the more pieces in the puzzle, the higher the replay value is so even with the actual 8.5 hours I took to complete this game, I bet I could play it over a few more times before getting bored. I actually had fun playing the harder levels straight off the bat even though it was challenging.

The puzzle pictures are pretty and pleasant and everything is simplified with just you and your mouse clicking away. You have a koi pond surrounding your “puzzle board” where a nishikigoi swims around with the pieces of your puzzle. Puzzle pieces keep floating around the pond and it will be difficult to “fish out” the exact piece you’re looking for because of this. You click the piece you’d like to use and put them on the board in front of you and keep looking for jigsaws to make your final picture. The board can be viewed in a variety of colours which will help later on if you’ve misplaced pieces at the end. It is possible to take the koi out of your pond and place it into your bamboo stick (part of achievements). When you place pieces on your board there are two points to consider. One is that when your piece is put onto or very near its proper place, it’ll automatically shift into that spot (handy). This means you can use this when you can’t quite place a puzzle piece but you know whereabouts it may go. The second is a little cheekier and visibly up voted in Pixel Puzzle: Japan’s community hub as a cheat method. You can pile pieces directly on top of each other so that when you click the pile, the pieces will be selected in order from left to right of the actual puzzle. It’s simple and effective even if it isn’t placed quite on top of each other and isn’t in perfect order, but this play method will bore you so I recommend you don’t do it unless you’re near the end of a puzzle and would just like to stack pieces so you don’t lose any of them. I’ve already mentioned this twice so I might as well articulate this problem; you may lose sight of the last 1-2 pieces of a puzzle when you’re close to finishing it because it’ll be on top of some other puzzle piece and camouflage itself. This isn’t too bad because when you find the correct spot for a piece and it clicks into place, you can no longer move it. So when you lose a final piece and can’t find it, just drag your cursor around until a random piece moves. This is in relation to one of my favourite parts of this game because with physical puzzles, you’re constantly left with extra identical pieces and missing pieces that you have to send out for which is the downside of physical jigsaw puzzles. I no longer have to fret till the end, wondering if I’m going to be left minus a puzzle piece. Hooray! Another lovely part of this game is that puzzle pieces have the wackiest shapes. Some look like various animals, others are swirling like something Dr. Seuss made and are very cool. Though first impressions make it seem daunting, the original shapes will work out in favour of your game play as it’s easier to spot pieces which fit.

The first few levels aren’t necessarily in order of difficulty. I find lines easy and flowers hard so the levels fluctuated for me but by the last few levels, difficulty rises progressively and steeply. Yet it was always rewarding to see the final completed puzzle image (you don’t see a clear image of the original picture beforehand) as a fan of Japanese culture (the theme).

Even with a simple game like this there were points I found were in need of improvement. There isn’t a save button so if you feel tired and want to rest your eyes a bit or try and pick it up tomorrow, TOUGH! You either lose your progress or keep pinching yourself so you won’t fall asleep. I literally kept falling asleep in the middle of one puzzle last night and I finished it in twice my average completion time. I also didn’t enjoy how small the puzzle pieces became later on as they grew in quantity, because I use a laptop and though I’m not sure what it looks like on a PC screen, I was forcefully squinting by the end.

At the end of the day, Pixel Puzzles: Japan is a great addition to any puzzle lover’s game collection and though I was gifted it for free, the cheap $0.69 price tag is quite agreeable.

I've always been a stickler for indie games that remind me of a simpler time when I used to play games on my 2g mobile. They're miniature, monochrome and masterfully addictive. Now rest assured, Words for Evil is a colourful and entertaining casual puzzle game with an influx of characters. It reminds me more of what my ideal smartphone game would be as a child of both 2g-4g mobile gaming.

There are 6 stages, 19 characters/heroes (can play up to 3 at a time) and 84 monsters. It will speak to the collector in you, which is something I am. I wish it had Steam achievements because it has some awesome emoticons, cards and badges. As the developer is a designer, the whole game is inherently gorgeous.

Now keep in mind that as I've mentioned, it's more like something you'd play on your smartphone than a PC monitor. Which brings me to the only significant downside I've experienced being, the small display modes. Even with that I still love it though. It's fun on my laptop and I'm having no regrets for buying it at full price. It's a great addition for those rainy days or when your gaming device isn't quite up to par and you need something light...

So after just under 5 hours totalling a distance of 107.2km covered, my knees are aching because I've been sitting here trying to get to the end of this game. Light and fluffy, it may be but short game play it is not! There's not just a generosity of hero/monsters but an assortment of aspects in this game that'll keep you interested in levelling up every hero you manage to unlock (they're all different and super adorable, btw). Attacks fall under the simplified basic/strong/ultra attacks (length of words) in turn unlocking monsters and working to your advantage depending on what you level up in when you find Fountains (they also heal you 100%). As you progress, in line with any basic RPG, Strength (HP)/Agility (Damage)/ Wisdom (Mana) are your basic stats (you can add Luck (Gold) also), each hero has different strengths/abilities you can hone to your liking.

When you first play, the speed of how quickly you type full words (3 letters+) will "make or break you". Starting off, short words in frantic succession will lay the best results. Don't be embarrassed to type can, man, bat and hat in a row until you're at a moderate level. There are Loot Chests and Deadly Traps to test your word skills and you can buy weapons and potions to aid you in battle. There are very clear instructions in the main menu so check them out. As an on-rails game there is a set route you may not deviate from apart from when you swap between different worlds/levels. Keep in mind that as long as you're good at the word games, you shouldn't need the luck anyway which definitely wasn't an option for my lack of a dictionary. Personally, I found it much easier once I chose heroes whom inflicted more damage to monsters when they inflicted damage on me. In short, the monsters would lose lots of health as they were killing me which was helpful when "lost for words". Once you find your pace, unique words will hit harder and let your relax with the typing.

Though it wasn't too much of a downer for me, I should mention that I'm so busy looking at the word games (the screen is horizontally split in half, upper: RPG and lower: word game) that I have no clue how much my hero is losing health until I finish that game. Another bummer was how at times I'd type something and it would not compute in game. Playing other typing games on Steam, this was never a problem so I found it bothersome. Granted it would actually get me better words at times by mistake though, so yay!

If you've yet to master basic typing skills, it may either teach or frustrate you so proficient keyboard usage will help. If you don't like word games like word search, anagrams and the likes of Boggle, steer clear. As a word maven wannabe and RPG devotee, this game is a bundle of joy!

TL;DR It's an acquired taste.



Are you one of those people who think quaint is adorable and nurse a private curiosity for all the quirks in this world like it’s a badge of honour? Well, then! This may be the game for you. But then again it may not be, as I'm one of those people and yet I still failed to enjoy this game.

If you received Dominique Pamplemousse: It's All Over When the Fat Lady Sings for free or in a random bundle, there isn't too much harm in trying it out. If that's not the case and for some crazy reason you're thinking of buying it, I desperately urge you to reconsider because I don't know what I've been doing for two hours listening to the horrendous singing in this point and click detective story.

I got my copy like a lot of others, through my Humble Bundle purchase. The content is exactly what you see in the game trailer above where you get to click on things and listen to the characters talk/give clues into the case you're on while you, as the player are immobilised while characters sing their hearts out with a monotonous atmosphere.

I played this for an hour on my own but then I closed it but when I tried to play it again the next day. It had failed to keep my progress so I spent the remainder of my time using a walkthrough to push through. I like to try and finish games but this one was more like, 'Come too far to turn back at this point...' I'd got stuck anyway as I hadn't thought to look under Devon's bed and was running around in circles. If you stick to reading/exhausting everything then you won't get stumped as easily as there is literally nothing that you can do wrong in this game to change an outcome. There is a choice at the very end but even that has little merit to game play so meh. This is still a preference of mine for point and click mystery titles as it keeps the experience pleasant (if a little boring) and away from unwarranted stress. I don't actually play this genre after becoming overly frustrated whilst playing Sam & Max Hit the Road as a little girl (even though it's now a classic).

My admiration for stop motion animated work like the world famous, Wallace and Gromit series as well as full length features such as The Boxtrolls is on constant overflow. But with Pamplemousse it is akin to watching a tragic and horrific instalment of musical theatre and not being able to up and leave because you're lodged smack in the centre of a hot, stuffy hall along with all the other people who also are not enjoying themselves but ended up stuck there. I can only imagine how hard the creator worked to make this so I'm appalled at myself for having to leave such a negative review but as a game this feels more like those demo CDs you used to get for free in the 90s after buying some other popular game.

What's great is that you can multitask while in game, though. It opened in my Adobe Flash Player and so I could keep it running and minimise it while checking my email or I could keep focused on the story while eating dinner. You can also click to fast-forward/skip the talking in between though you have to put up with all the singing.

The story is all right and the characters are likeable. It was fantastic to see a genderqueer protagonist and also watch how the other characters started flailing at whether Dominique was "a girl or boy". It has light humour but you'll have to lower your expectations more and also find a way to get past the horrendous singing. I actually could take it no longer (though the voice acting was solid) and watched/played it like a black and white silent film by taking out my earphones and reading the subtitles for half of the game.

Though it is all right to play yourself if you're set on doing so and have the time as well as patience (the singing... it burns!!), the Dominique Pamplemousse guide by Burger is a good way to breeze through it in half an hour if you'd prefer.

Unfortunately, I dislike this game the most out of all the Steam games I've played so far. :( It's cute but I will not touch this game(?) ever again.

Episode 1. "A Boy Learns What Fear Is" of American McGee's Grimm was free so I decided to give it a go on both PC and laptop.

TL;DR – Cute, basic/easy game with mildly entertaining characters and stories. Will bore the average adult gamer. Is good for mindless “butt-stomping”.

Growing up I came across a series of books by Japanese author, Misao Kiryu (桐生操) titled roughly along the lines of The Horrible Truth Behind Grimms' Fairy Tales. I think they're officially known by the Japanese title Honto wa osoroshii Gurimu dowa (本當は恐ろしいグリム童話) or Dreadful in Truth. As there are probably only Japanese and Korean versions available (unfortunate 'cos they're a great read), chances are they’re unfamiliar titles but this is what sprang to mind when I ran this game. They're three volumes filled with the re-telling of famous Grimms' Fairy Tales with a very sinister twist. In Kiryu's books, Snow White is r*ped by King Dad (incest), her knight in shining armour asks to buy Snow White's sleeping body thinking it is a corpse (necrophilia), Cinderella goes right to home base the night she meets Prince Charming at the ball (fornication), Sleeping Beauty was also r*ped/"pricked finger on spindle" and the guy she ends up with either likes transvestites or is a closeted gay(?) because he'll only bed her in men's attire and Rapunzel locked in her tower was a pr*stitute, Dame Gothel(the witch), her pimp. I could go on, it was three volumes after all but instead I'll leave you with some articles in English to quench any morbid curiosity.

There's quite a bit of truth in the pages of Kiryu's series as many of the delightful stories we heard growing up were originally made to scare all into fear and wariness against the outside world. Brutality, sexual content, wicked villainy and death were all too common. There are plenty of materials on the "actual" fairy tales. For some interesting reading that may ruin the stories you have come to love, Emily Temple's article[flavorwire.com] (2012 piece) is a beginner's paradise.
Grimm isn’t as hardcore but is basically a watered-down version.

Grimm contains playful animation and cheeky puns with a somewhat stimulating story along with an abundance of cinematics between plays. It’s like an interactive storybook where the controls remind me of a beginner’s version of Super Mario 64. The graphics run smoothly on my low grade HP laptop but with it being such a colourful and detailed game, it obviously looks better displayed on a bigger monitor. I’m sure it could keep a toddler pretty happy for a few minutes, which is saying a lot. The first time I was bored and downloaded the game on my BF’s PC, skipped all the stories, just concentrating on progression. Then I started getting stuck in places where I’d have to jiggle my way out until at one point after a few scenes I couldn’t do it anymore and was completely stuck. I had to force close the game and left it at that.

When I came back to it a second time I used my laptop, which is a feeble thing that cannot run high performance games but luckily did fine with Grimm. You can control Grimm using a keyboard/mouse or both and it’s spectacularly easy to familiarise yourself with. If you’re used to FPS games, using a mouse will add fluidity but if you’re easily nauseous as I am, stick to the keyboard and it’ll be buckets more pleasant. :)

Tip 1: The game is ambiguous with instructions when “butt-stomping” at designated points in the Grimm world. When you play, you’re filling up the Dark-O-Meter at the top of the screen to the indicated goal first. Then, and only then can you butt-stomp under the butt-stomp arrow. It appears before you need it so when I didn’t comprehend this at the start I was stomping like mad under the arrow trying to figure out how to progress. :P

On my laptop I decided to go through the whole thing and listen to the story properly. It was surprisingly thought-provoking. Grimm the dwarf doesn’t like naïve, happy things and thinks children should know the truth about “the dark side of the moon” instead. Yet he’s a likeable character with a quirky, macabre sense of humour that seems misanthropic on the outside and philanthropic on the inside.

Once you finish watching the initial introduction (you can skip all the cinematics though I advise against it as it is half the fun) you have the choice between the Light Theatre and Dark Theatre. 6 scenes await you, each averaging 3 minutes. The faster you finish each scene, the better. You/Grimm are in a delightful little kingdom where everyone is dancing, joyful and ecstatic to clean stuff. You must walk, jump and best of all, “butt-stomp” on everything and anything and turn the scenery dreary, the people menacing, and practically just everything apocalyptic. There’s more to the actual story in each episode. In episode 1 Grimm wants the player to discover the meaning of fear in both an overtly depressing light (Light Theatre) and a positively realistic manner (Dark Theatre). Which is actually a refreshingly enlightened point of view for both adults and children alike.

Tip 2: It proves helpful not to skip the shorter clips between games that show you what you should do next or you may get lost. Also, use butt-stomping like crazy to save time.

So now I’m thinking, it isn’t that bad and could be pretty educational. But then come words like fondle and butt-stomping on top of things can kill dogs you’ve brought to the dark side into a splatter of red meat flying all over the darn screen while gleeful villagers awaiting execution are turned into hanging corpses. At this point it’s confusing to tell if Grimm was made for a target audience of children, adults or kidults. The attention to detail is imaginative enough and I kept a watch out for how different objects in the game “turned” albeit usually not being one to dwell on surrounding graphics/illustration. But I have a niece and nephew, ages 3 and 4 and I wouldn’t let them play this. It might be good, simple fun for adults who think dark things are cute.

When all is said and done, it’s still an entertaining game and well made apart from a few glitches/bugs. It is mainly concerned with the controls such as the accuracy of the hovering butt-stomp arrows failing the player, at times making it difficult to find the right spot to place your final butt-stomp. This causes the player to re-start a scene completely to get past the bug. It froze once but I can’t be sure it was the game’s fault or my lack of a proficient processor. As mentioned, crevices or cracks I’d get stuck in were tiresome. I had to give up on this game and pick it up again three times (PC/laptop) because of various problems.

No part of it was even close to so awful that I disliked it but the bugs got to me substantially and to vote up a game I’m uninterested in buying feels deceptive to me so here I am writing both good and bad and then telling you not to bother. If you’re interested in trying the demo, go for it. Relatively, it’s a cheap game and great quality for the price. I just can’t figure out the objective for adults playing this game. It lacks an addictive quality and has some mildly educational merits that would rarely interest a grown up. It’s darkly sweet but it’d be like buying an ornamental ceramic bunny for my dressing table and just looking at it from time to time. I actually feel pretty satisfied after reading Wikipedia’s episode list for Grimm[en.wikipedia.org] and feel like I’ve had my fill of light, gothic, storytelling.

Edit: format

Like many Steamers, I have a forever growing list of games cultivated for my minor addiction for purchasing video games. So in the perpetual sea of Steam deals and "Humble Bundles" I am quick to ignore the freebies offered in my Steam library without a second glance.


The only reason I happened upon Serena was because I was flipping through my list looking for another game and noticed this indie adventure horror title. I dig horror especially when it's heavily reliant on the story. When I first ran Serena it reminded me of walking through the alleyways and rooms in Amnesia minus the scariness and evil things lurking around each corner. Created via the same game engine (Dagon) as the upcoming Asylum, Serena is a positive preview of what's to come this year when Asylum is released. As it's based in one cabin with minimal room to roam, it doesn't expect much from you and is a practically zero stress game. If you like watching horror films but dislike partaking in gory FPS games, you'll enjoy the ambiance in Serena. It has sinister context set in a mildly soothing atmosphere which is the best formula for an entertaining but laid back experience. You don't do anything but click random objects and read/listen to plenty of text. It's a fun change of pace for horror gamers and easy to sample for those less inclined towards the genre. Just sit back, and enjoy the story. It's like those interactive flash games back in the day that just gave you a wicked storybook with sounds and moving pictures and that was it.


What's more, the game has no control menu so once you start you should aim to finish as it hasn't got a save mode either. It doesn't require one as it isn't challenging to finish and relatively short to play. There are specific places you can click with your cursor to hear snippets of memories and clues to what has happened in that cabin which has a intense atmosphere of "something gravely wrong" from the get go.


After a few minutes wondering about, clicking all you can, in turn collecting an abundance of information on the couple introduced in Serena, you may get stuck. If you do you always have the option of pressing SPACE BAR to toggle hot spots. That way you can scan any object you haven't checked out and move on with the story.


Personally, after 20 minutes I looked up and read llewellynator's play-through (no plot spoilers) on Steam's community hub and breezed to the end, finishing Serena in half an hour. It would have been even more entertaining had I saved myself from previously Googling the game and noticing a huge spoiler in the search results (basically the ending and what I'd find somewhere in the cabin). I suggest making sure you have an hour to spare just "wasting time" clicking stuff and seeing if you can get through the story on your own. If progression is slow, then use a simple run-through like the link above so you know which actions to take but nothing of what will occur.


Using a guide for my last ten minutes of Serena is a probable culprit but it wasn't a rewarding game and I could see why it's free (on PC). My review is a positive one only because it's free and quick, it is well made and finished the simple task it was meant to do which is tell a short horror story in the likeness of Edgar Allan Poe's literary creations.


The game itself has a bit of IRL drama behind it that wasn't too interesting to me as an outsider so I'll skip that and move onto the story. Serena is fantastically narrated by Josh Mandel which makes the repeated clicking, reading and listening more enjoyable. He plays Serena's husband, the character the gamer will play in first person. Your memory is foggy and you're extremely disorientated as you move around the dusty, abandoned log cabin you seem to reside at with your "better half". But she's nowhere to be seen so you look around the cabin, thinking back to distant moments that seem somehow distorted now. Your goal is to reach the end of the story by clicking certain objects in a somewhat set order and releasing a change in your perception, the truth of what happened to you and Serena and why.

Remember when you first played Tetris and after a while buildings started to look like Tetris blocks and you were trying to fit them all together?


I left the house today after playing DST for 40 hours (for a week).
It's winter here and all the real life twigs are calling to me to gather them.
On my walk I actually heard the haunting screams of rabbits being murdered.
Amid surfing the web, for a moment I mistakenly thought it was going to "get dark".
I am constantly hungry.


This is what it comes to.
Survival instincts resonated from not wanting to do stupid sh*t, like burn the base camp down in front of your mates will make you this way.

This is brilliant!

It’s a short clip at around 9½ minutes minus the ending credits, but to the point and engrossing.
It has re-spawned my interest in Killing Floor and a thirst for Killing Floor 2. As a horror fanatic I am now thoroughly looking forward to Type AB's next project, SHUT IN. I've never seen this type of stream on Steam and I'm really excited about it!!

I usually satisfy myself with mindless clicking at things that move, clubbing zombies and “flamethrowing” aliens enough to make a batter-happy Flintstone giddy. After a while the repetitive slashing and gouging puts a strain on my steadily numbing mind and I need a break. Brainiac games like Hexcells provides that pause from the world of action titles that many gamers find soothing from time to time. The minimalistic interface calms you to the core like entering your hotel room, the first day of your sunny beach-filled holiday. Easy-peasy controls and rules, as most strategic puzzle games tend to excel in, are explained through directions (though for Level 1 I felt the couple of trial plays planted in the beginning of each rule change, would have sufficed). I’ve seen plenty of reviews exclaiming it as comfortably easy to finish, which isn’t quite true as new rules are added regularly and consistently starting at Level 11. This lessens repertoire and makes Hexcells highly entertaining for a puzzle game of its kind. It calls for the elimination and deduction tools we have honed through countless hours of playing games such as Sudoku and Minesweeper. There is no timer so in a sense is closer to a Sudoku that’s pleasing to the eye. Hexcells adds the “chic” that Sudoku lacks and the logicality which Minesweeper is deficient in through functions which allow no room for the guessing games and visuality to match. No function is lacking or overdone in Hexcells. As Goldilocks would say, “It’s just right.” It is one of the most accessible and convenient game I have ever played. The UI looks fantastic for touch screens and as I’ve been marooned on my laptop for a few months, it’s always heaven to play low spec games that won’t freeze mid-play and still provide high quality content to keep me amused for consecutive hours. It is also a great game for a few minutes here and there as an easy to start, continue and leave at any time type game that doesn’t bore. For example, the widely loved classic, Peggle will have me dozing off in a few minutes flat although it’s a sweet little thing.

The intermediate level starts around Lv. 18-19 and I started finding it mind boggling beginning at Lv. 22. After that point some are comparatively easier than others which didn’t reflect the actual order or the levels. Thank goodness because the couple of easier levels here and there let me hang on to my sanity!

Most of the reviews I’ve read stated plenty of appreciation towards the needlessness of guessing the answers. There is 0% need to speculate and everything must be calculated if you want to play the game to its maximum. Keep in mind that if you mess up once you’ll end up with the obvious answer which means it’s extremely easy to use trial and error to pick through the games effortlessly. This sucks all the fun out of it so I suggest you aim for 100% accuracy each time you play or try and forget the hex you just wrongly clicked and move on to something else so you won’t end up getting everything easy. Another tip I have is to try playing it as fast as your mind will think and fingers will click because the music sounds better that way. It has one of those almost interactive tracks so that what and how you click will determine a different sound that in turns melds into the original score underneath it.

In all honestly, the aspect the feature I enjoyed the least was the music in Hexcells as it is repetitive and some parts sound like an orchestra of mobile phones with annoying, monotonous ringtones. (Note: I understand that there was only so much the developer could do and it wasn't that bad, I'm just used to better soundtracks is all. ;D) Which is why I eventually turned down the volume and even then I still couldn’t quite stand it. It wasn’t the relaxed ambience I was hoping for but it wasn’t as noticeable when playing at a faster pace (clicking hexes in acceleration) for reasons already noted above. A better example would be Duet, the strategic arcade game by Kumobius (iOS/Android). The music is directed via the player’s fingertips as they go through the puzzles and it is scored in a way that’s surprisingly meditative for a game of somewhat high difficulty. The fluidity of a game’s soundtrack influences a massive portion of its play mood in any genre. Other than that, I’m interested in buying the other two as well for a rainy day and hope the background music is a tad better than the first one.

A surprisingly immersive and aesthetic game that is effortless to get into and play for hours on end. It's entertaining for hardcore gamers and casual gamers alike and as much as it is engaging to play alone, it is also fun to play alongside others even without DST. I can easily run it on a laptop not built for any type of gaming which is a huge plus especially for a game so well rounded. This is one that I recommend anyone curious to try out at least once because the odds seem to definitely be in favour of your liking it. Please be warned that it is extremely addictive. Those who have enjoyed Minecraft or frequent games where the object is building or/and surviving etc will be thrilled with Don't Starve. Have fun! ;)