Recent reviews by neizod ネイゾッヅ 黒猫

I've wrote a review in Thai for a long time here: https://www.blognone.com/node/88779

Shenzhen I/O is a proper 2nd installation of the coding trilogy from Zachtronics (the 1st was TIS-100, and the 3rd was EXAPUNKS). This one is quite friendly than TIS-100 in term of interface, but the puzzle is still brutal (limited space everywhere). So, if you love to have more freedom, then EXAPUNKS might work better. But this game is good if you want to step up the challenge! (Zach's games starts with the hardest, then get easier by the time it releases lol)

so american lol

emily is away

kill time? yes.

kill too much time? also yes.

not a bad game. but don't forget to allocate your time for half a year (or more), if you wish to 100% the game

i remember this game was super fun when i was young.

maybe my memory deceived me. maybe me, as a little child three decades ago, had no other interesting kill-time games to play, so i replayed this title again and again.

going back to it now, i only curse the game.

it's not about the imperfect port with unfamiliar sprites, or the too-loud background music, or the non-tight controls. it's all about the game design principles in the first place.

most levels will lead you to death by obscuring the path (you cannot pan the camera or have a mini-map to help you with planning). sometimes, the game even throws new mechanics at your face around the end of a considerably long level (so if you can't guess what the mechanic does, you need to replay the whole level). and boxes with hidden items/enemies are never fair (since you cannot "peek" into the box, but need to rely solely on memory, trial & error). the best example is none other than Nuts & Bolts, Cellblocked, and Southpole.

other levels are just busywork that ask you to collect over half a thousand chips, or collect chips after disoriented yourself by warping to many long corridors, or push 10+ boxes into bombs/water in order to create a path to the exit. those are Blink, Hunt, and Castle Moat.

but the ultimate Blobnet is, maybe, the most frustrating one by far (which, i'm not going very far into the game). this is the same level that i gave up on back then. --- the frustration of this level goes a little deeper than it looks: the blob occupies 2 tiles when moving, so there's never time to react, or to observe and learn the blob's pattern of when they will move.

don't linger too much on your nostalgia, that's all i could say :(

SHIPWRECK 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

The game was released in Early Access (EA) in December 2022, with a promise of completion within 3-12 months. However, the last update was in April 2023, and there haven't been any further patches ever since (not even news). It's also worth mentioning that the developers have released two more games---one in June 2023 and another in Autumn 2024---seemingly leaving this game behind.

Putting aside the delays in development, let's focus on the game itself:


First and foremost, although it's been mentioned by many, I'd like to emphasize this again: this is NOT an idle game; it's a management game. While I'm personally fine with either genre, but at least the game should be named correctly to set the right expectations.

Currently, there's no option to save mid-level. This is especially frustrating for levels where you need to achieve the perfect 10/10 "like" score. And no, the fact that it's an EA game doesn't necessarily justify the lack of a save system. Handling "version migration" is a foundation of software development.

The user interface could also benefit from some basic quality-of-life features. For example, when a reward is earned, why not display it at the top of the list (or even auto-collect it) instead of requiring players to scroll through the list themselves? In fact, why is there a reward system like this at all? Successfully selling 100 cups a day is impressive for an employee and might grant them some bonus reward. But from the perspective of the shop owner, where's that "bonus" money comes from? Is it from the landlord / the government / your grandpa? I guess not.

There's little to none interconnection between levels. After completing one branch, you start the next branch from scratch. Does your reputation disappear away when you open a new branch? Your money not carry on? Why not allow players to continue improving their existing branches to have more features (see shapez for example). This issue becomes more frustrated in later levels, where players need to spend half an hour redo tasks they've already completed again and again, before getting to access the new content in the level.

The 100 Bobo Coin system also feels super unreasonable. Completing the story mode gives you around 20 coins. Am I supposed to grind the repetitive endless mode for another 20 more hours to met the requirement?


This mechanic is particularly especially problematic.

The cats on-screen are black, and the collectible balloons that spawn are also black. This makes it incredibly difficult to spot them. Is this yet another game in the 100-Hidden Cats genre?

The math behind the balloon mechanic is simply non-existing. If you're unlucky, you might only get one balloon. But if you're lucky, you could get 10 in a row. The first balloon has a 50% chance to generate three more, and each of those balloons also has a 50% chance to generate three more as well. This means that the 2nd-level balloons have an 100% - (50%)^3 = 87.5% chance to keep the chain going. So, the entire mechanic is entirely dependent on the first balloon triggering the chain reaction. This doesn't feel balanced or fun at all.

The point is, this meant to be a management game (or even an idle game), but the balloon mechanic makes it overly reliant on luck. This feels off, and it doesn't align with the gameplay that was originally promised. Why turn this into a clicker game that constantly demands on-screen attention?


The supermarket mechanic seems to be a single good mechanic of the whole game. It reflects real-world "economy of scale" and encourages careful planning, as buying in bulk is a lot cheaper. However, this mechanic was hidden from level 3 onward, to regain access to it once a day, you must buy a newspaper and prey for RNGsus to smile upon you... Just why?

If you don't buy a newspaper, you're completely immune from bad news (like, increased ingredient costs due to a shipping issue, or a power outage that shortens the day). This doesn't just fail to reflect how the real world works---it's not even logical within the game's own setting.

The game has a lot of nonsensical upgrades. For example, the motorcycle can go over 300km/h, but the delivery range is only around 300m... I don't think the developer particularly care to made games that matches the real world, i.e., doing no research.

It's also clear that the game isn't built with proper management mechanics in mind. Players are encouraged to experiment with different mixers to find the best one, but there's no log/graph/chart to help track previous results (see SimCity).

Lastly, the option "I'm out" in the quit dialog feels abrupt, maybe to the point of rude, equivalently to "กูไป".

thanks for a free game. it is not a bad game, and i have to admit i had some fun playing it. but, let's be honest, the frustration outweights the fun.

• the ball is too unpredictable. when it bounces at the edge of the screen, instead of making a symmetric reflection (like the dvd logo), it bounces in a totally random direction. that makes killing monsters depend on luck rather than skill. also the ball ends up in weird uncontrollable places, making retrieving it dangerous.
  
  
• the monsters also act too randomly. at first, i thought they would only change direction when they hit the edge of the screen. however, they can change direction anywhere anytime, making the process of dodging them unreliable. --- i mean, the monsters can have complex direction-changing (or even chasing the player) behaviors, but at least they should have some pattern, not a total randomness.
  
  
• the 1-up collectible, portrayed as naked npcs, run faster than the player. so there's no way to collection them when they run away from us (and they do change direction randomly too). also, lore-wise, why don't they run away from the monsters?

note that i'm playing the game in a single player mode. maybe the chaotic aspect introduced by heavy usage of randomness could be better suited the 2-players mode? i don't know, i don't have friends to play with.

freedom

the control is super clunky, and the game bugged out to the point of unplayable. also finally solving the puzzles don't feel so satisfied (either too simple, moon logic, or relying too much on hunting for the only clue)