YQMaoski legutóbbi értékelései

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Don't be fooled by the outward appearance of this game. It looks like an old-school pixel art game that's not particularly exciting just by the screenshots. But the gameplay loop is rather addictive and it has certainly seen quite a few updates since it first became available on Steam.

Essentially you are looking at a game where you are only controlling the movement of a dungeon-diving hero while all of the attacks are on auto-fire with cooldowns. You collect a set of passives and active weapons along the way as you kill more monsters and picking up exp gems. The runs always end in death, the question is just how long you can survive.

During your run, you also collect coins that can be used in the meta game to give your next run some power-ups as well. With certain in-level progress, you also get to unlock other aspects of the game, some game-play changing, while others are cosmetic.

It's the easiest action game to play in terms of controls, while still presenting quite a bit of challenge. I haven't played all that much in terms of hours, but I can definitely tell that it's worth your time, and the set price of $4.99 US is more than reasonable.

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Sonority is a logic-based musical puzzle game that has progressive difficulty and can be played without background or understanding of anything musical. The puzzles rely on relative pitch for solving and can become rather challenging about halfway through the game. I have not yet completed the game but it's because I got stuck on a puzzle. Almost all of the puzzles are in serialized form and you progress from one to the next until you are done with the area.

One warning to those considering this game is that it relies on timed-elements a bit far into the game. This involves some puzzle solving along with quick movements/running in order to solve some puzzles. So for those who are not into the idea of needing to do things in a timely fashion, this game will require it after a certain amount of time.

The game is a sequence of puzzles that can be solved by applying relative pitch intervals in the appropriate statue elements in order to alter the physical terrain. By these alterations, your job is basically to locate a viable path for your main character to walk from the beginning of the puzzle room to the exit.

The character's movements are simple. She can only move forward in directions where she does not need to step up in any way. In stepping down, she can step down any time there is a single block difference between the current platform and the desired one. In other words, finding a path that allows the protagonist to move to the rooms' exists without needing to climb up except for when the room elements allow for such movements, such as a viable set of stairs or a ramp, etc.

You will eventually unlock 3 different musical instruments by which you can apply the musical note to the unlocking pathway steps. Each difference between the previous and current will move a puzzle element in a predetermined fashion. Your goal as the player is to figure out how these relative differences in pitch affects the room's movable elements, and in doing so, work your way to the solution.

Once again, no music knowledge or background is required. You can change the musical notation in letters to numbers if you so desire.

Both keyboard and controller mappings work well. I played mostly with a controller, and the way the controller is configured makes the gameplay involving different pitches rather intuitive.

Sharp and neat-looking graphics. Nothing spectacular, but also rather interesting to look at for the different elements/sections of the game.

The music and sounds are excellent for this game. I am contemplating purchasing the soundtrack for sure.

For people who enjoy puzzles but who does not mind the timed elements and the linear format of the puzzles.

Base price is $19.99, which may be a bit higher than what many would like to pay for relatively simple logic in a set of sequential puzzles of a game. But then again, the production value and the actual quality of the puzzles do make up for that. While the initial puzzles seem just too easy, they really are meant to give you your bearings before throwing the rest of the more difficult puzzles at you. I would say that the price is worth the overall fun factor of the game.

My very first time playing the game was recorded, so bear with me while I butchered parts of the game not really knowing what to do:
https://youtu.be/rBiJY0KZ6_g

Overall, Sonority is a fun game based in its path-finding logic puzzles, which have been made into a music-themed set that fits a stor that is rather interesting. The puzzles get frighteningly difficult as I had been stuck on one for quite some time before putting it down and deciding to write the review without having completed the game. The time-based elements can be rather tight on time, making the game perhaps less suitable for those who may not like puzzles that have strict time limits.

The game is definitely fun and the construction is rather clever at times. So if you are not bothered by what I have written, definitely give it a go some time. If the price is too high for you, certainly you can wait for a sale price that's more in keeping with what you may have in mind.

Score: 7/10

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

_keyboardkommander is a free typing-style game where you type out a story of a world after it's been overrun by zombies. The campaign is a series of chapters that gives a recounting of the end of days as we know it by a conspiracy theorist who has kept himself locked away and shielded from technology and cellular devices, thus his mind was not overwhelmed by the newest technologies that caused the downfall of humankind--into zombies.

Type your way through the written story as part of the campaign or upload your own .txt files in order to play the game with whatever documents you want to practice with. The game also allows for custom files in other languages. I did not test out the feature, but it's nice that you get this as an option.

Please keep in mind that this game is meant for people who have some basic understanding of touch typing. If you do not have the basics of this down, then it will be very difficult for you to make any progress in this game. This game does not teach touch typing at all.

There are 4 different kinds of weapons and 6 different types of zombies. Your basic weapon has infinite ammo. In addition, in between different campaign levels, you can spend your money to upgrade your weapons, max ammo, healing between levels, and you can also spend some money just to heal yourself. W

In the game, when you type out letters/words, you are firing your designated weapon at the targeted zombie. For the most part the computer auto-targets but if you want to change your focus you can do so by typing the letter above another zombie's head.

The zombies drop various ammo for the different weapons and also they give money or active items that you can use to push them away or cause them damage. (I think.) It's rather difficult to try to see what the thing you are typing to pick up actually is. Most of the time I found myself typing and trying to read a few words ahead so that I did not have to try to locate where the text was going to jump to right away.

That's the downside of this game, as most typing games focus on typing speed and have easy-to-read text, the way that the text jumps around to the various zombie targets on the screen makes it difficult at times to actually see what you have to type next. You can get a feel of what I mean in the uploaded video linked below.

Fortunately there are difficulty settings to make it reasonable for most people. I am a fair-good typist and I had trouble making it far enough on intermediate difficulty and I definitely did not progress very far on hard. I did not try expert mode. But there is an easy mode and one for beginner typists, which I believe is impossible to die in. In the easier modes, you also do not have to worry about punctuation. This is only required in Hard and Expert modes. I did not check out the endless mode available that jumbles the words and you can just keep playing if you can stay alive.

Graphics are fairly basic, but it beats practicing typing staring at just a text prompt. Though there are times when the text prompts jump around and you have to actually look and try to find where it will land after killing the previous zombie, this can get a bit disconcerting. Also particularly bothersome at times is when the text is overlapping with your weapons/ammo display on the screen in the bottom left corner of the screen, especially in the 3rd chapter of the game.

Pretty basic, nothing too exciting, but enough to not feel like there's a ton missing.

For people who want to work on touch-typing while reading a book/chapter. It's nice because you can upload and custom whatever the text is that comes out.

It's free, can't beat that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dalNPDsdjRw

1. Text jumping is a bit difficult when the prompt moves around the screen from one zombie to the next, causing undue delays in the typing.
2. Sometimes when the text is too close to the border, especially when the text overlaps with other UI elements, it can be difficult to read the word or the follow up prompt.
3. Only one save file is available. So you cannot play and experiment with different difficulty levels while keeping your progress. Fortunately the game is rather short and it should not be difficult to get back to where you were if you need to switch around--unless you start moving up difficulty levels.
4. Most typing games give statistics on the actual typing, such as percentage correct, number of errors, average speed, max speed, etc. This kind of statistical monitoring for the player will also be able to help the player to use the game to set benchmarks in terms of personal typing skills and goals--ultimately allowing more players to return to the game for more sessions.

Overall, _keyboardkommander is a decent typing game and I do like the story that accompanies the game as well as the fact that you can just upload your own text to type and to play the game. The game is free and is still a work in progress, the campaign story is not yet complete. Only chapters 1-3 are available out of the planned 5 total, with each chapter broken up into smaller levels.

Despite the flaws, I had quite a bit of fun reading through the story and gradually learning to look at the game screen instead of just finding the word to type. I was able to keep an eye on the zombies coming at me, the different types of zombies, and also look for differences in pick-ups. The most important thing to pick up in this game is actually the money, and the game has a rather seamless recognition of the letters/symbols/numbers that are designated for picking things up. They do not count as typos against you, even in the middle of typing another word.

Definitely a fun typing game, it might take you a little bit to get used to if you can touch type. It's not for everyone, like I said above, if you cannot touch type, then use another software for the basics for sure.

I received the product for free, as should be the same for anyone who has tried out this game because it's 100% free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Into the Loop is a single-button physics game with the rest all dependent on the momentum at the time of your button press. It's easy to pick up, but super difficult to master.

The main premise of the game is that there is a small spinning circle that is spinning inside another circle to start. When you press the action button, it releases the constraining circle and the smaller circle within flies off with the tangential vector, with nothing acting on the circle except for the game's gravity, until it manages to successfully land inside another big circle. The way it lands will determine whether it then starts to spin and gain velocity, and thus momentum, in clockwise or counterclockwise fashion. It can be released prior to or after reaching the game's designated terminal velocity of the object.

Each level has a number of point counters inside larger circles, and those circles you need to enter at least that many times to collect all of the point counters before the exit circle, in green, will apear and allow you to complete the level.

The game is broken up into 100+ preset levels where you progress through and gradually see all of the different obstacles that can be found within the game. These levels you have to play through one by one in sequential order. But once you make it past one particular level, you can return to it any time to try to improve your score (by time).

There is also endless mode, where after certain amounts of progression in the main game, you unlock. There are different features/obstacles in this mode, but you have to unlock them through playing the actual game and getting through the preset levels. This is no simple feat.

Endless mode does not account for time but gives you scores for getting into any subsequent big circle with a required entry marker. The scoring seems somewhat arbitrary, but seems to be calculated based on how fast you manage to leave the previous circle, to chain together more sequential actions. It's set up in this risk-reward system to give players the motivation to push that button perhaps faster than you really should. Once you complete one level(seed) in endless mode, you move onto another randomly generated seed and if you fail, you restart at the level that you are currently on, with your score reset back to 0.

To be completely honest with you, I am not sure if I am going to finish all of the main levels to see all of the game features. The game starts to wear on me after so many failures in a row. It's not that I cannot tolerate failure and in doing so, learning how to succeed. Some of the levels are just set up in seemingly sinister ways as to really try to test your patience. I am at 50+ levels and there are challenges that have some timed components that really make me antsy, plus I admit I just do not have the time to sit patiently and fail for the 100th time at a challenge and still have the motivation to keep going.

Minimalistic, but this works really well. It highlights the actual mechanical aspect of the game without too many flashy components.

Not much music, if any, I wasn't really paying much attention to it. The sound effects are also nothing to write home about, there's this whirring acceleration sound when the small object circle starts to speed up inside the big circles. Not much else really.

For single-action challenges with a strong emphasis on time of button press, many failures, and is in general rather difficult, the game is going to draw a very limited audience.

At $5.99, it's perhaps a bit more than I would like to pay for a game of this type. I understand there are enough levels to make me fail enough to feel miserable, and that there are endless randomly generated levels in that mode, but overall, I would like to see the game in the $2-3 range instead, it would just feel more at home there.

https://youtu.be/guzfY_Xcl8Y

Into the Loop is a game that is very limited in target audience, and can cause a combination of frustration and strange satisfaction upon completing a small challenge after many failures. It's not expensive but perhaps more than I would like to pay for it at the asking price. Make sure you know what you are getting yourself into before diving in.

I am cautiously recommending this one, because I do think it has its merits, but also not necessarily something I want unsuspecting players to drop money into and then proceed through the spinning torture chambers. Buy/play at risk of your own sanity.

Score: 6.5/10

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Sudocats, or sudoku for cat people, features 4x4, 6x6, and 9x9 sudoku puzzles that are using images of cats instead of numbers. It's a cute and relaxing way to spend a few hours fumbling around with images of cats while trying out this variation of the common logic puzzle. Fortunately the puzzles are not difficult at all, though having the cats on the page instead of numbers gives it an artificial difficulty spike that I was not mentally prepared for.

There are six preset 4x4 puzzles, nine 6x6 puzzles, and twelve 9x9 puzzles total in this game. So there are not very many. And you go in a stepwise fashion by either inputting the numbers cats or by penciling them in like you would with sudoku games.

The input function works by left-clicking to bring up the menu of all of the cats, and left click again on one of them to put the picture in place. Right clicking on the cat allows for penciling in instead. Right clicking on a square clears it. It works but feels clumsy. Of course I am not expecting to be able to press 1-9 on the keyboard like I might be able to do so on a regular sudoku, but some kind of a streamlined input would have been better. It's also too easy to accidentally right click and clear everything out of a square. I mean, all of this can be forgiven because there are cats on the screen.

Please keep in mind that the earlier puzzles do not seem to have unique solutions. I sat there fumbling around a bit trying to reason my way into a solution when at the end of what I could see by logic, I had multiple solution options. I am fine with not having unique solutions for each puzzle, but it does mess with the mind a bit if you are used to solving sudokus that are designed as such.

You can actually use the option to change the cats to numbers if you really cannot stand the appearance of the cats. But that's the biggest draw of this game. If you are just going to switch over to the numbers, might as well play other sudoku games on PC that have better input function and are all over the internet for free.

After solving some puzzles you will progressively unlock some hints that basically gives you an answer by using them. It's good if you are stuck, and you don't want to stare at the cat pictures that are driving yourself mad. Like I said before, the game has this silly difficulty spike with the cat pictures. I had a lot of trouble thinking about cats in squares. It's as if my brain just stopped working.

Autosaving was not a thing until a couple of days ago. Thanks to a recent update you can exit a puzzle and return to your progress later. This was much needed.

There is no clock counting up or down, so there's no pressure. Otherwise I might be pulling my hairs thinking about why it's taking so long for such easy sudoku puzzles.

Who let the cats out?

Pretty relaxing and calm, but also kind of boring after a while. You can use the slider bars for music and sounds as you wish and play your own music in the background.

As the name suggests, sudoku for cat people. But if you are a hardcore sudoku player, none of the puzzles here will be a serious challenge. It's really just meant to be casual fun and cute while looking at cats.

$1.99 US is the price, I mean, for a few simple sudoku puzzles, it might seem expensive, but the idea is cute and execution is at at least all right. So if you think you want to try it, it won't really make a huge dent in your wallet.

+cute
+relaxing
+cheap
+no time pressure
+nice idea
+get some fun tidbits
+developers seem genuinely interested in making changes based on player input.
+easy for 100% for people chasing after that I suppose, since it only has 27 puzzles total.

-game points out cat/number placing conflicts immediately upon input. Most people would prefer to check/verify with the click of a button instead of being pointed out an incorrect placement right away.
-no keyboard input, but then again, not sure how to practically do this for cats.
-no unique solutions for some smaller puzzles, just felt awkward.
-no undo/redo functions. You can only reset a puzzle completely.
-could use a bigger puzzle set or offer some additional challenging puzzles.

Sukocats does not feature fake cats, despite what you might think in hearing the name. Instead, it's simple sudoku puzzles with cat pictures instead of numbers. It's cute and relaxing, but also strangely difficult when the numbers are off the board.

Try at your own discretion, as it's clearly not a game for everyone.

For me, I had my fun and scratched my head a bit while staring at cat pictures.

Score: 7/10.

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Operation STEEL is a side-scrolling Shoot 'Em Up with progressive difficulty, choice of paths, randomization of bosses and run-to-run variety that offers a decent amount of fun. The game has a pretty classic arcade-style look and feel, and the enemies progressively increase in difficulty with their attacks and durability. There are some randomization characteristics in this game, so it has that "action roguelike" tag but it's not nearly as deep as some of the other similarly tagged games out there.

Each run starts with your basic ship and its standard equipped weapon. The progression and unlocking as you play on unlocks variety of obtainable weapons and passives that you can potentially get in following runs. This also increases the variety in how you tackle the game.

Unlike many other games that allows you to make meta-progression between runs, unlocking different starting weapons, etc., this game restricts you to the starting ships and no additional options at the beginning of the run. So the player cannot find what their favorite weapon/item/passive combination might be and try to stick to it run to run. Instead you are limited by your pick-ups, and the limited number within each run really lets the player try out all of the different things that you may have previously unlocked.

Balance isn't the best with this game, there are definitely weapons and passives that feel much more powerful and helps survival better than others. But overall, each run feels like a new adventure with good potential and each level contains two boss characters, one mid-level and one at the end. These are randomized in rotation so you can experience new bosses in previously completed levels.

There is a branching pathway between level to level, and each level has a unique theme, with different enemies, hazards, etc. So the game takes on new feels whenever you complete a new level and select the next. What is cool about the level-selection process is that in the beginning of each run, you can choose one of two starting levels, leaving the choice in your hands before you even start.

In between levels, you also enter the shop, where you can pick up some armor/repair, buy passives, upgrade your weapons, sell of what you don't use, all to help you progress a bit farther in that same run. The money does not carry over once you die and there is no point in saving up, since you will be starting fresh run to run.

Your ship's hitbox can be displayed through a menu option, and this may help you get used to how to maneuver around enemy fire. After all, there will be times that it seems impossible to escape a bullet-heavy situation without using a bomb or item, but realistically, an escape route may be possible through precision maneuvering.

There are local and online leaderboards, along with a time-attack (hard) mode, and also boss-rush modes available after you have made some progress in the game. These are nice inclusions to expand the demand for a different experience. Boss-rush is great as you can skip the tedium of playing through the hoards of regular enemies just to see what the next boss might throw at you.

The controls work pretty well overall. I used a controller, which is the recommended method of playing. Keyboard also works fine. I did like the fact that both the D-pad and the left joystick on the controller can be used to control your ship, while your main fire is done by holding down a face button. I will always advocate for finger/hand and gamepad/keyboard health for firing weapons that are not dependent on rapid and repetitive presses of a button. You will want to still let go of the fire button from time to time, as that draws the on-screen money/credits to you. If you do not, and they fall off the screen, then they are gone forever.

The graphics are hand-drawn and all of the enemies and bosses look unique. I also had no problems with optimization, even when there were a good number of enemies and lots of flying projectiles on screen. Pretty good graphics to help out the fun factor of this game.

The music offers fairly low gameplay impact but does help the mood overall. It does have that old-school arcade feel from the beat and synthed effects of the music. The sound effects felt pretty standard.

For those who enjoy Shmups for sure, this is definitely a fun game within that genre.

Base price of $14.99 is fair, though I would have preferred to see this in the $10 range. I have put about 4 hours into the game so far, and I am having a good time. I can see the avid Shmup fan playing this for longer sittings. For me, it's more about the short bursts of excitement, and I am glad that the runs are not very long.

I recorded myself playing for the first time in the video below. Keep in mind that the game offers more unlockable items/weapons as drops the more you play:
https://youtu.be/ky_LAo3DkxE

Operation STEEL offers short bursts of simple Shmup fun for me so it's a game I would recommend to you as well. Keep in mind that the game does not offer too much in-depth gameplay and with the short runs, low number of drops per run, there is very little with playing around with synergies, but just using whatever hand you are dealt. I also do think that the game would do better priced a bit more competitively.

Score:
7/10

I thank you for reading and hope you have fun, should you pick up this game!

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Coin Treasures is an active-clicking coin-slots game with slow initial gameplay that turns into more of a idler after you spend some time with it. It's fairly slow paced in the beginning and so you do have to give it some active clicking time before seeing where the game will take you. While the type of game is something that likely fascinated a lot of us as children or even as adults, the digital version here is not too exciting and loses its luster after a short while. Overall, the game is rather shallow and there is not a lot of meta game that one would expect to find from the multitude of clicker/idlers where there is a mathematical progression and working through a system where the numbers go up and keep going up.

Click to drop a coin down the machine and you can see where it is going to get pushed. Wait out the required time and click to drop another coin down. Rinse and repeat as you get more coins back you can keep using them to feed into the system. You also have an automatic coin generator that you can click on to speed up its progress. Occassionally you will see quests or artifacts drop, or perhaps you will have other bonus items or power ups, and pushing those items down the collection chute and you will earn some extras as well.

The game is very click heavy to begin with. There's no way around it. You have to work your way until you unlock the automatic coin drop, and even then, it's slow, very slow. The upgrades that gradually increase the speed at which you can earn free coins or that the coin drop can happen at faster paces get costly quickly, and so you will have to rely on your own mouse click for a long time yet. Fortunately the quests help you gain more coin/treasure to be able to make those upgrade purchases.

Then ultimately your goal is to watch your own score go up and up. It starts off at a pretty slow pace, but will eventually speed up. Your score includes the treasures, extras for quests, and also incluides the amount of coins you push down the chute overall.

Move a mouse and click on the top of the machine where you can expect a coin to be placed in this machine.

The artwork looks neat, but the optimization isn't the best. When you have a lot of artifacts on screen and in the background, along with plenty of coin action, the game stutters slightly. The UI could also use some improvements.

The music wasn't all that exciting. The sound effects were okay but can also be a bit confusing at times. I did turn it off for most of the time I stayed engaged with this game.

Here's the problem. People who don't like clickers/idlers probably won't like this game, unless they had a history of being fascinated by the coin pushing machines out there in reality. In addition, people who enjoy the particular genres of games might find this game rather a bit too shallow and there's not too much additional meta game to be played. Plus the genres have plenty of free games that have the right mathematical formulations to give players senses of accomplishment with the progression, and this game is rather lacking in that front. I find it difficult to push this toward any audience at the moment, even those who like clickers/idlers, because something feels fundamentally missing from this game. The game didn't really give me the satisfaction I usually enjoy from playing idlers/clickers. It didn't give me the drive to go back and play more.

The price is fine. Six dollars isn't trying to break your wallet or bank account but at the same time, there are parts missing from the clicker/idler games that I am used to. Plus there are so many free or cheaper games that have better mechanics and give more satisfaction.

Coin Treasures is fine for what it is, but it is too shallow and will have a difficult time competing for audience from other clicker/idlers out there because it's fundamentally too shallow. I find it hard to give a positive recommendation to any particular group of players at this time.

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Aeterna Noctis is an impressive-looking and geographically-expansive metroidvania with many difficult platforming sections among its beautiful environments. The intended platforming sections are often lengthy and difficult, thus having a much narrowed audience. This was only before the developers introduced an easier mode that allowed players to not be stuck behind a lot of difficult platforming sections, and so now the game is much more accessible to a wider audience.

That being said, there is still a certain amount of difficulty in both modes, so that if you truly want a relaxing experience, I would recommend that you look elsewhere. This is still not a game for everyone, and the price tag means that you might want to do your research before diving into it. You should also keep in mind that the easier mode does not unlock any achievements.

There is a lot of gradual learning of the game in the beginning and working through the different sections as they open up, with the newer abilities as you unlock them, and being able to solve more puzzles in other previously inaccessible areas. This is pretty classic design for a metroidvania. With the gigantic world available, there are ways to fast travel, and while it's not the most convenient of systems, they work reasonably well within the game.

It starts off a bit slow, but in other similar games, it takes time to unlock the different aspects of abilities and being able to string these things together to achieve the movement and special abilities to allow for improvising in tough situations based on what resources/tools that you have available.

The gameplay is heavy on platforming, as you may have already gathered by what I have said above. Much of the intended platforming can be precision based and you need to carry out a series of actions just right before moving onto the next section. Even though there is a lot of death and dying, there are also many checkpoints in this game, way more than many similar games will offer. This is meant to offset the difficulty so that if you die, you are not going to be going back all that far.

Granted, I still ended up getting stuck for very long stretches in the tough sections that I faced, but getting past it all was also very rewarding.

The combat for the most part are pretty fair. Most of the enemies have certain anticipated movements and attacks. You will usually be able to learn the patterns and expectations for most of the enemies and be able to get through them in no time. When they come in troves, that's when you will find yourself in trouble.

The boss fights that I have seen so far seem very well designed and offer decent challenges. And while there is some randomization in their attacks and moves, they are also pattern based in many ways and you will learn through dying and repeating how to deal with them. Likewise with checkpoints, you can keep on retrying bosses until you get through.

There are many quests and side quests for this game. For the most part you really do not have to worry about them. They kind of pop up and are completed as you go forward, and I did not bother myself with reading most of them so far. Perhaps this will change in the later parts of the game, but that remains to be seen. The quest log seems more or less an appendage to this game as opposed to a necessity.

There are skill points that you can gain through different challenges/secrets or by leveling up. There are skill trees with sections that unlock. By the way this game is set up I think that all of the different parts of the skill trees can be unlocked simultaneously. I do think that grinding for level ups can be rather tedious and I would not recommend it. After all the unlocks are generally more for convenience than necessary.

The map system in the game isn't the best, and for such an expansive game, a better system could be very helpful to the player. You can purchase some additional location revelations from a vendor but that gets pricey and if you do not want to spend a long time grinding for currency, then it's less useful even.

The controls work rather well on a controller. I do think that it's intended for a controller. The movement is rather sensitive and your action/reactions are clearly reflected right on screen. It takes a bit to get used to that movement and being able to handle the tough platforming situations, but everything is fluid and works well.

The aesthetics of this game are truly stunning, there is so much detail into the different environments. It's truly quite a sight to behold just running through the different sections of the game. I also found no issues with the optimization.

I actually really enjoy the music in this game. But the soundtrack gets super repetitive when you are dying endlessly in some sections.

Somewhat limited because even the easier mode can be a bit tough,

At a base price of $30, it is pretty reasonable if this is the type of game you are looking for. You knew going in that it is going to be a rather brutal experience and you relish in coming out on top of those heavy platforming puzzles after completing them. You are okay with spending hours repeating sections and dying nonstop before figuring out how to get on by.

+I have barely scratched the surface of this game, or so it feels, after spending about 10 hours playing so far. I am playing on the intended difficulty, and it's kicking my butt.
+The artwork is absolutely stunning and while I have some other display preferences, I can appreciate all of the artistic aspects of this game.
+The music is really fun to listen to, but in a game where I am expected to die a bunch and have to repeat certain sections, it can be repetitive.
+The platforming puzzles are actually designed really well.
+The fluidity of movement that goes with the platforming feels almost flawless after getting used to it.

-Difficult, perhaps too difficult for many players. (I am thinking that includes myself, and I just haven't wanted to play on the easier mode, because the platforming is really the best part of this game.)
-Map system really feels like it's not all that helpful, and you need to grind for cash to buy location reveals. Still, it doesn't feel all that useful afterwards.
-Quest system feels superfluous, from what I have seen so far.

Aeterna Noctis is an impressive game, with a lot going for it. I see that a lot of people are mentioning that the platforming is too difficult or unfair, but I do not think that's the case. If I had all of the time in the world to hack away at this game with no other responsibilities, I would have a blast from the beginning until the end. But alas, I wear too many hats to be able to spend the time needed to see the game to the end before writing, so there you have it, a review after seeing only the beginning of the game.

Nevertheless, I think that if you have read this far and are still interested, at least go try the demo (if it's still available), it really scratches the surface of the game in the very beginning phases, but at least you will get an idea of the way combat and movement works.

Overall score: 8/10

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Treasures of the Aegean is one very interesting puzzle-based parkour platformers with a historical fiction bent focusing on the lost Minoan civilization that, along with our protagonist, Marie, is stuck in an endless time loop.

Play as Marie as she slowly discovers tidbits of history and treasures around the lost ruins that appeared by prophecy and do everything before the next eruption in this unsteady geographic formation in order to slowly uncover the story hidden within.

The game gives you what seems like a fairly short time limit to start--roughly 15 minutes for the first loop and then the story progresses into longer future loops after you spend more time and discover more ancient artifacts--Marie cannot help but pick up everything she comes across in her treasure-hunting ways. The game gives you more time for more loot found.

Each loop builds on the previous in that any uncovered map areas are kept and the prophecy keeps evolving based on what you find. Keep in mind that you are not the only one here on the island looking for treasure or other items of interest. The story slowly unfolds as you play on, with story-related platforming bits that also paint a colorful background for most of the characters within the game.

The others on the island are soldiers who will shoot you on sight; however, there are no combat element to this game at all. These soldiers, some stationary, others pacing, are just another set of obstacles to avoid. If they shoot you, you can run away from the bullets and that's fine, but you cannot physically come into contact with the bullets or the soldiers, as they will knock you out, costing you some time to recover during the current loop. I wish there was a way for self-defense except for running away.

The other way to lose time during your loop is to ball from a rather significant height. Fortunately Marie is super tough and only spends about a minute patching herself up and before you know it, she's back on her broken feet like nothing ever happened, jumping, climbing, rolling, diving, and doing everything she was doing just before the impact.

The puzzles are pretty fun in this game, some you have to do multiple times, in that there are sets of puzzles that need to be solved as a package, and they are related to each other. If you reach the end of the previous loop and there's one remaining, they will all reset. None of them are all that unreasonable in terms of length, but most of them require getting a plan and then executing with plenty of time limits, so the gameplay can feel rather challenging at times.

Aside from that, it's the usual figuring out how to gather all of the lore and precious treasures scattered throughout the game, fortunately most treasures do not respawn between loops, only those tied to chain quests and are story-relevant.

Each loop you are dropped in one of the preset starting points but it's mostly random after you have explored a bit, and so it's nice because the game seems like it can be played no matter which part of the map you tackle first, second, or last. There are some parts that you cannot access until certain requirements have been met, but for most of the exploring, you can do as you wish in whichever order you choose.

The game works really well with controller and that is what I used to play this game. I did test out the keyboard as well and that also works without any issues. The controls and what show up on the screen are what I would say to be smooth and fluid, and exactly what I want to see in a 2D parkour platformer.

The artwork in this game is absolutely amazing, everything has a comic book feel and that's set up by the introductory story-scenes. The main game has some really nice biomes that look just stunning and the foreground/background details really make you feel like a modern-day visitor into a long-lost hidden world.

The music is very fun to listen to, and there are not many sound effects, but the movement/jumping and noise effects are all in place properly to add to that smooth feel of the platforming.

People who enjoy time-sensitive platforming with neat level design and tightly squeezed jumps and rolls, definitely check out this game. There is no combat here, and the enemies are just a set of annoying obstacles to avoid, and you just need to work around them mostly. If you are looking for combat, look elsewhere.

Base price is set to be $19.99, I haven't managed to progress quite far enough yet in my 9 hours so far, mainly because I am struggling with a couple of puzzles in one part of the map and trying to locate some stuff on another part of the map. I imagine that if you could figure out all of the puzzles, get everything in proper order, complete the different main game parts, you could potentially finish the game in 10-12 hours, and that's a pretty reasonable length game for this price. For me, with the way I am struggling, I might need another 10 hours to see the game to the end, and that's okay too. I am having a good time.

+The game's platforming is so smooth, and so awesome, that I wish all other platformers had this amount of movement polish in terms of flow, speed, and responsiveness.
+The artwork is absolutely stunning.
+The story is intriguing and it's making me want to see the game to the end.
+The music is pretty awesome too! I like that in different biomes, based on the lore and the backgrounds, you hear different music.
+Really interesting concept in the time-looping.
+The historical bits are really great, I am not strong in my knowledge of history, but I think this game has piqued my interest enough to do some side reading of my own.
+The really enormous map gave me plenty of stuff to run around and explore, and didn't feel too large because when Marie starts running, she goes.

-The time looping mechanism does cause you to have to redo parts of the game between loops. Some times this is feels completely natural, while other times it feels more tedious. There are definitely times I wished I didn't have a time limit and could just work my way through, though I can see how that would dramatically decrease the total amount of time needed to complete the game.
-No combat ability and our protagonist is a super human treasure huntress who can only run away from danger. It's mainly a problem because in some places the enemies are really annoying.
-Some small bugs that didn't actually affect my gameplay or experience. Nothing game-breaking.
-Map markers placed by the player are difficult to read, and when zoomed out, they become practically invisible, though this could probably be easily fixed.

Here's my first attempts at the game, no commentary:
https://youtu.be/HlzzijFvQnA

Treasures of the Aegean is a very fun parkour platformer with a time-loop component and some internal puzzles to work out. It's got its own flaws, but it's also got lots of stuff going for it that makes it quite an enticing title for a strong recommendation.

Score: 8/10.

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

Follow our curator page: IndieGems if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

Papetura is an abstract wordless point and click adventure told in a paper-sculpture world painstakingly made by the developer over many years. The quality of the finished game is incredible, even though it's short. I took my time with the game and spent under 2 hours finishing it, as the world is small and the puzzles fairly straight forward.

But the most impressive thing about this game is the hard work that went into creating the world. You do not have to look at it for long before you start to appreciate just now much effort was spent making the smallest of details. See this video here from the developer's YouTube channel to showcase some of the processes and care that had to go into creating the sculptures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRQCKOwOMtQ

In classic point and click fashion, you will be guiding the main character through a series of puzzles in order to progress the story along. The puzzles found within this game are all fairly straight forward and progression is linear as well. Because of the relatively abstract nature of the characters found within and that the story is wordless, there's not a lot of plot development that tugs at the players' heartstrings, nevertheless, every moment spent while playing this game is very enjoyable, if nothing else, then just by looking at all of the fine details in the sets created for the game.

One thing to note is that there are some tedious and slow-walking sections that if you are bothered by these, you might find the sections a bit lackluster.

Another hugely important item to mention is that in the 2nd half of the game there are a couple of small timed sections. For people who have trouble clicking and maneuvering around on a timed restriction, this can be troublesome. This is just a caveat, as I have a friend who is struggling to complete the game due to this.

You play with the mouse only.

This game doesn't just have graphics, it has art, in full 3D solid form, as every aspect of the game was carefully designed and hand-built as paper sculptures to give it that very unique look and feel. The game is simply beautifully constructed, and I spent most of my time oggling at the stuff on the screen during my time spent so far.

The music and sound effects are all done rather well. There are high points, low points, and everything in between. The sounds change depending on your interactions with the environment, and you will pretty much experience all of the music and sound effects because there is nothing optional here in this game.

For people who want to ooh and aah at some really impressive artwork that took the developer years to build and for those who want to support a truly impressive feat in indie game design. The point and click game within is decent and short but is also not outstanding in anyway, with not very challenging puzzles and the timed element causing headaches to some. You will get all achievements playing the game just once, there's nothing hidden, so it's an easy 100% for those looking.

The base price is $11.99/9,99€ and so the money:time ratio doesn't necessarily meet the requirements for a lot of people, but it is totally worth it. You are taking a bit of time to wander around the virtual museum of paper sculptures that were actually pieced together bit by bit, slowly, over years, by the developer to give this unique look and feel. It's truly a remarkable undertaking and the end result is something that we have never seen in a game before and may never see again.

Papetura is dazzling in its artistic prowess, and is worthwhile to look at just for this alone. The little game that accompanies the artwork is a bonus, and serves to showcase every bit of this small paper-made museum. It is fairly easy and there are hints that you can use to give you some ideas if you feel stuck.

I would recommend that anyone who is interested to at least wishlist and follow the game. I don't know if we will see a sequel or perhaps a parallel project because I cannot fathom the number of hours it must have taken just for the level designs. So enjoy this unique game design as it is truly refreshing.

I do wish that the timed parts can be a bit more forgiving, as my friend is actually struggling to personally see to the end of this beautiful game, which is sad.

Score: 8/10

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.