With all the farming sims in the gaming scene, I do wish we had more scifi themed titles. Just imagine the potential? I could use robots to plow the fields for me, and all sorts!
I can only think of one scifi farming sim. That was Innocent Life for the Sony Playstation Portable. I have been playing it more in recent months (Emulation is a wonderful thing!) and despite the enormous grind and unskippable cutscenes when I’m forced to watch the characters walk slowly from one area to another, I love the game’s atmosphere and worldbuilding.
Why am I going down this weird trip down memory lane? If I don’t review a futuristic farming sim now, my beginning will be wasted. Thankfully, I am going somewhere with this, and today’s episode of Scar Tries features my opening experience with The Last Craftsman. A code was provided by AuraTummyache through Keymailer for this piece, thank you for that! It is available in Early Access.
While The Last Craftsman has been well received on Steam, it seems to be criminally overlooked with only a handful of reviews. That’s a shame, because this is an impressive crafting sim packed with features. While it is more designed around research and development than farming, you can still make a ton of money through crops. The advantage of all the future technology comes into play here, as much of the grind that other farming sims possess do not apply here. Crops grow without the need to water them every day, and you can automate a lot of production. This gives you more time to explore the expansive map The Last Craftsman offers. It did not take long for me to realize just how much effort AuraTummyache has put into his game.
The basics of the genre are all present here. You are the new craftsman in the town of Gear Springs after the previous architect died, so it is down to you to deal with the whims of the citizens! The map is fairly large and split into several zones, and offers a ton of places to explore. The biggest strength of The Last Craftsman for me is the research system. Items come with dozens of different properties such as Plain, Cute, Fruit, and so on, and you have to tailor the town’s needs to those properties. Fortunately the research mechanic helps this a lot, and by sacrificing resources, you gain more knowledge and the ability to craft new things. It is a simple gameplay loop but that is the beauty of it. I just found myself eager to keep exploring.
I have reviewed a lot of farming sims on here the last couple of years. The Last Craftsman might not be the most refined, but it is probably the most refreshing. I was not sure about it when I first started playing it, but a few hours in and it really left an impression on me. For $10, you can not do much wrong with that price, and there is more than enough in The Last Craftsman to keep your interest.
It is time for another bite-sized review! Today, we’re off to the lovely town of Sunnyside in Japan in a charming farming sim. Well, just calling Sunnyside a farming sim is slightly incorrect, and there’s a lot more to the game than meets the eye. Big thanks to the lovely folks at RainyGames for providing me with a review code.
Sunnyside is a pretty big game with a ton of content, so consider this a general impressions piece. I’ve played about twenty hours of the game so far, and I feel I’ve got enough of a grasp on the mechanics to share my thoughts. I’m writing this during a mini UK heatwave, and everyone knows how much we British folk love complaining about the heat! Seriously, the combination of island humidity plus no AC is not a pleasant time! So I’m hunched over my laptop with cooling fans set to full power, hoping I can be productive.
Launching into Early Access last month, Sunnyside started with the usual launch bugginess, but many of the bugs and technical issues were quickly squashed by the team. It’s sitting on a ‘Mostly Positive’ score right now, which is probably where I would place it too. Before I dig deeper, I can say if you are in the mood for a farming simulation game with some interesting mechanics and a great atmosphere, Sunnyside might just be the game for you. As an Early Access title, it is in active development and will see some unfinished stuff behind the scenes. Its current price tag is $29.99, which is what I would expect for a large game like this. For Early Access, some might call that a little high, especially given the rough state.
Sunnyside features a fairly robust narrative alongside the typical farming gubbins. You play as a lady who moves into the rural region from the big city, determined to try something new. Despite her big sister doubting she has what it takes, she can secure the run-down farming plot, losing most of her money. I was delighted to find out you will lose the game immediately if you don’t bid on the plot, so that’s a funny little thing the devs put in. It made me laugh. Either way, you get the farming plot, receive some help from some happy locals, and the game begins in earnest. With the aid of construction drones and some modern technology, the usual farming grind is not as frustrating in Sunnyside.
Let’s slow down to discuss the characters and dialogue. Overall, I quite like the characters in Sunnyside. There are many, and they seem fairly well written from my experience. They have their distinct personalities and quirks that make them stand out. One pitfall of having a town full of people to befriend in these games is being able to make them unique, and Sunnyside does a decent job with that. I’m torn on the main character you play, however.
Her dialogue is very straight, to the point, and almost robotic. You’ll be meeting a ton of people in the early game and I found myself speeding through the dialogue scenes. I’m not saying her dialogue is bad because it might be a character trait. Given her relationship with her sister and all the interactions I’ve experienced in the game, it is possible our main character just might be that personality. I haven’t got any insight from the developers on what their intention was around the main character, but if it is a deliberate writing choice, then I’m happy to keep it as is. It was just something I needed to point out, as I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed something off with her dialogue.
There are some odd science fiction elements too. While discovering the local cave for resources, you’ll come across a strange robot from an alien race, lost and confused. This robotic chap is called Sparky, and you’ll be bringing him with you on a long journey to uncover the secrets behind this civilization. The caves are also full of weird creatures who will attack you on sight, leading to a deckbuilding combat game. This is just one of many mechanics in Sunnyside. While I was surprised by the twist in the story, the combat is relatively enjoyable with many cards to use. You can adjust game difficulty in several areas from economy to combat, and I appreciate the amount of accessibility Sunnyside offers.
Visually, Sunnyside is very easy on the eyes. Getting around has a couple of frustrations with invisible walls (some paths are blocked off which felt weird to me) but overall the exploration is great. You get access to a bike fairly early on which helps exploring even further. This is a pretty large map to explore, and being able to call any vehicle to you from the phone is a big perk. One problem a lot of farming games share is getting around the world, and Sunnyside bucks this trend. You get access to other ways of transport as you progress in the game, but I have yet to unlock them.
To conclude, what can we decipher from my experience in Sunnyside so far? It offers something refreshing from the usual farming games with the setting and storyline, and it gives players enough tools to overcome some of my usual gripes with the genre. It is fairly easy to make money, it looks great with its gorgeous atmosphere, and I felt emotionally attached to the gameplay. As an Early Access title, it does not skimp on content, but it carries some rough edges despite the improvements to performance since launch. I’m still really unsure of what the main character’s dialogue is built around, but overlooking these things, I can still recommend Sunnyside in its present state.
However, this is a tough market. First impressions are important, and while Sunnyside has improved a lot since its launch, it is still a little janky. Farming sim fans will probably enjoy what Sunnyside has to offer, but they might want to wait a little longer for performance improvements before diving in. Regardless, I was looking forward to Sunnyside for months before its launch, and I’m fairly happy with it so far.
I am doing something a little different for this piece! Into the Emberlands launched in Steam Early Access last month, a cosy exploration roguelike developed by Tiny Roar.
I wrote a full review on SteamDeckHQ, so here’s the link to my piece up on there for a full overview of the game, including extensive Steam Deck testing (which is the main reason for the site!) I decided instead of writing up a full review again for here, it is a better use of my time to make a short summary, and if you’re interested in a longer piece to just go to my review there. I write for a few outlets these days, and with so many projects going on I feel like a kitten running after a dozen balls of string in every direction!
Into the Emberlands is a pretty charming game even in its Early Access state, boasting colorful visuals, engaging gameplay, and enough meat on the bones to warrant its asking price. Seeing how you can buy Emberlands for $6.49, it is difficult to say no to that. Hell, I spent more than that yesterday getting a massive slice of cheesecake delivered to my door for the Wimbledon Final!
While the game’s loop rarely steps beyond fetch quests, I found it more engaging than I expected. You can unlock extra help for future runs in the form of more wood or a starting axe, which aids the replayability. In terms of flaws, I found Into the Emberlands a little janky around the edges, especially with input lag on the computer when clicking on an event or loading a menu. This is less noticable on the Steam Deck, but it is enough to mention. There should be more than enough to keep you engaged, and I still love booting it up for a quick dose of gaming when I need something comfortable to play. Into the Emberlands is a cosy cup of hot chocolate, and easily gets my recommendation.
It’s gonna be a busy few weeks ahead! Tacticon is on again this week, and I have a bunch of reviews I am working on. Expect some more interviews in the following weeks as well with the wonderful creators behind these games!
It’ll take me quite a while to get through Sea of Stars, but if my first impressions are anything to go by, it’s going to be a hell of an adventure. This latest indie RPG comes from Quebec’s Sabotage Studio, the developers of the acclaimed The Messenger.
The developers were kind enough to send over a review key for me to look at the game. I’ve been plugging away at it over the past couple of days, with about 12 hours of progress done. Given that I’m not even halfway done, it’s easy to expect the review will take some time.
But one thing’s for sure: Sea of Stars is living up to the hype and then some. It’s a grand and engaging adventure that’s satisfying in its combat and enticing in its story. And despite a few incredibly minor issues that will hopefully be patched out, it’s set its hooks deep into me already.
Fire of the sun, light of the moon
Harness the power of the sun.
Let’s talk about the combat first. I already had an idea of how this played, thanks to the demo released back in February. In practice, it’s already been a consistently fun and rewarding combat system, and I can see it appealing to both retro fans and newbies.
Much has been made of the game’s comparisons to games like Super Mario RPG, Illusion of Gaia, and Chrono Trigger. And they’re certainly warranted; any fan of 90s RPGs will be right at home here. I also got a substantial whiff of Mario & Luigi in it, especially with the combo moves. You have to juggle a few factors at once, including elemental weaknesses, enemy positions, charging enemy attacks, and available magic points and boost power.
While it’s a deep and layered combat system, it’s also very approachable. If you’ve never played an RPG before, Sea of Stars would be an excellent first choice. You can grasp the core concept very easily, and there aren’t so many mechanics and meters to keep track of that it’s overwhelming. The biggest challenge is determining the optimal strategy, which requires paying close attention in the heat of battle.
Feeling like a star
Visit plenty of beautiful locations in Sea of Stars.
Sea of Stars immediately made a stir thanks to its wonderful aesthetics. You’ve probably already noticed the lovely pixel art through these screenshots, and in action, the game looks absolutely stunning. With beautiful color palettes and some excellent music tracks, it’s already a heavily absorbing adventure.
More than its aesthetics, though, I’m also really into the story and characters so far. With a wacky pirate crew, some excellent party members, and an old order of the Solstice Warriors to talk to, there’s plenty of love and care into these characters. I’ve gotten quite a bit ahead of the introduction, so I won’t be writing any story spoilers here.
Just know that the game takes maybe an hour or two to get going, and then a couple more hours to REALLY get going. For a game that’s expected to take about 25 to 30 hours with no side content, there’s hopefully plenty more great story bits and characters to come.
If there’s one aspect I can criticize Sea of Stars for, it’s that the dialogue needed a bit of a tune-up. Not the words themselves, but rather the grammar; there’s a few typos that needed ironing out. That’s something that could easily be fixed with a few patches, although of course, it’s not the most important factor. I haven’t encountered any other bugs so far, and hopefully that will remain the same throughout the rest of my playthrough!
Sea of Stars shines in its first impressions
Face off against incredible foes.
I’m happy to report that my first impressions of Sea of Stars are highly positive. The combat is engrossing for both RPG veterans and newcomers, and it’s a beautiful game filled with charming characters and storylines. And while the text perhaps needed one last proofread, it’s hardly enough to take you out of the adventure.
Sea of Stars is developed and published by Sabotage Studio. It is available now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam. You can also play it via Xbox and PC Game Pass. A free demo is available to play right now.
The digital version costs $34.99 USD. A physical version for Nintendo Switch is on the way, but Sabotage Studio hasn’t announced a price yet.
Thanks to Tinsley PR and Sabotage Studio for providing a review key!
No people, animals, or drugs were harmed in the making of this review.
Video games allow us to do many things that we wouldn’t do. From copiously murdering peasants in Kingdom Come Deliverance to slaughtering gang members in Cyberpunk, they let us be someone we are not in real life.
That brings me to today’s episode. Drug Dealer Simulator 2 launched on Steam a couple of weeks ago. Big thanks to the developers at ByteRunners for providing a review copy. When I started playing, I had doubts due to the rough technical performance. Multiple crashes in the opening couple of hours, frequent frame drops and a host of other glitches like broken moving animations turned me off at first. Fortunately, Drug Dealer Simulator 2 was added to the Geforce Now cloud service. I no longer had to worry about my laptop melting like an ice cream in a heatwave, although I wasn’t saved by stutters. In its current state, it requires a pretty powerful system and even with the RTX 3060 rig on Geforce Now, I had a few stutters here and there.
I’m a little surprised they released this as a full title instead of Early Access because it is rough around the edges. Part of the technical problems have to do with my ageing laptop, but there are plenty of bugs infesting this beautiful archipelago. We don’t have many games that are dedicated to the drug business, so it is nice to see another one. I played a lot of Byterunner’s first drug sim and found it enjoyable despite its jank. Seeing DDS2 in the rough launch state was a little disappointing.
I do have some good news, and for all the issues I have with this game, I’m enjoying myself. It needs a lot of work, but there is an engaging game here. It kicks off with your player character (Eddie, apparently) in the gorgeous archipelago of Isla Sombra to start anew after escaping the law. Upon finding a grotty hideout, it is time to rebuild that lucrative drug empire. The voice acting is a little stiff, but it gets the job done.
I recommend advancing along the main missions at least for a couple of hours because they give you better tools such as the power boat, new vehicles and money to get started. You are open to exploring most of the world from the start, and this is a gigantic map. There are cheap ways to travel with barges and buses, but vehicles are the way to go. I’m not a fan of the limited save system (you can only save inside safehouses) but there are plenty to go around and you are never too far away from a save point.
The drug labs are for… well, you can guess. You start off small selling cannabis and build up from there. There’s a lot of detail and time management that went into the drug growing mechanics, and while it involves a fair bit of waiting, there’s enough to do that you shouldn’t get bored. Clients will come and make requests, and you’ll build up your budding empire by making alliances. Gangs might make your life trouble when travelling at night, and I had fun beating the tar out of them in fistfights. The combat is a bit wonky but still seemed to work alright. DDS2 offers a bunch of difficulty options to make things as relaxed or challenging as you wish.
Despite some odd animations and physics like climbing a ladder or jumping over a fence (it’s hilarious but it’s not how ordinary human veins jump), the exploration is pretty damn fun. There are several ways to travel across the big open world, and while it has some muddy textures with terrain, the water is gorgeous.
So far, Drug Dealer Simulator 2 has been a bit of a rollercoaster of highs and lows. Every time I get annoyed with buggy physics, frame drops, and the limited save system, I find myself wanting to play more. I decided on a shorter impressions piece today because I want to see how the game plays in a couple of months. If you don’t mind some jank and want to dive into this strange little gem, it’s worth the time. Otherwise, it is probably worth waiting a while so that the performance problems get squashed.
Despite the enormous success of Dead Cells, I only started playing it recently. It’s easy to overlook just how much influence Dead Cells had on the indie gaming industry. While I enjoy roguelikes, I’m a little burnt out on them. So many are out there now that it’s working out which ones are worth playing.
We’re still in the Steam Summer Sales, and I’ve been making a spreadsheet of stuff I’m interested in. I’m weird like that, but it helps me prioritize what games I want to play. I’m at the point with my library where I want to buy games I know I’ll play sooner than later. I will probably write up my Steam Sale pickups once the sale is over, but for now, I get to enjoy the endless search. Onto today’s episode of ‘Scar Tries’, that brings me to The Rogue Prince Of Persia. There was a reason I mentioned Dead Cells because the team that took over from Dead Cells development in 2019 (Evil Empire) is behind Rogue Prince! Some of my rambles are on topic.
Onto Rogue Prince. The Prince of Persia franchise has long been a popular one, and Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown back in January was a pretty good time, all in all. The Rogue Prince of Persia takes players back to the Persian realm as they try to fight off the massive Hun invasion. Launching in Early Access on the 27th of May, Evil Empire managed to push through some tricky times and the result is a solid piece of kit. Despite the technical problems and optimization facing players at launch, I was lucky to avoid most of it.
As this is a ‘Scar Tries’ article, I’m sharing only my early impressions of the game, so this won’t be a very long piece. I’ve finished just a few levels so far. The current Early Access version features the first act of the story with six levels, a bunch of secret areas, and two boss fights.
With Sargon under relentless attack by the mighty Huns, the player must save their beloved city from the horde. Rogue Prince is incredibly fast-paced even by action roguelike standards, blending aggressive swordplay and acrobatics to create a solid gameplay loop. The usual roguelike structure is in here: finding increasingly powerful buffs and artefacts, unlocking new tools for future runs, and finding new characters to interact with. It’s a difficult game for certain, but I like how well Rogue Prince balances challenge with accessibility. Evil Empire wants The Rogue Prince of Persia to be playable for everyone, and I’m having fun. Movement feels fluid and enjoyable. While I had success playing with a mouse and keyboard, Evil Empire recommends you play with a controller.
The enemy Huns come in different forms. Some like the classic grunts will die easily, while others need their stance broken before you can wail on them. Both you and your opponents can go down quickly if not careful, so keeping mobile is key. With the excellent movement and different tricks you can do during gameplay, the combat feels challenging and fair in equal measure. I got my ass handed to me several times during these initial impressions, particularly the first boss fight. Even when I lost, I still had fun.
Ultimately, that was the biggest takeaway I had. The Rogue Prince of Persia has a long way to go, and the current Early Access version only contains a sliver of the content available. Despite the early setbacks, Evil Empire is easing into this new development cycle. If you’re in the mood for a good-looking action roguelike with great movement, The Rogue Prince of Persia might just be worth looking into.
Good things come in small packages, and the newly released Shrot meets that description beautifully. If you’re in the mood for an RTS that is simple to pick up, Shrot might just be the game for you. For transparency, this is not a long article. As part of my ‘Scar Tries’ experiment, this is for games I’m experimenting with to see if it is worth more time.
The Steam Summer sale is nearly upon us, and that means spending a chunk of cash on games that I’ll eventually get around to. We all suffer from the backlog trap! I’m trying to get better at that, but it’s always nice to pick up some video games.
Developed by Spytihněv, Shrot is a spiritual successor of sorts to his first game HROT, a fantastic FPS that everyone should try at least once. This is designed to be a small real-time strategy game influenced by the RTS titles of old, and it accomplishes that role pretty damn well. You can buy Shrot on Steam for 10$, although it currently has a 15 per cent discount until July 4th. After tinkering with it for a few hours, Shrot is worth the asking price. We don’t get many RTS games anymore, so it’s always nice to appreciate the ones that do launch. Shrot is one of the good ones!
Shrot calls itself a ‘bite-sized’ RTS, but it packs a decent amount of content in such a small package. Between the campaign, multiple tutorial missions, multiplayer and an unlockable sandbox mode upon completing the campaign, there’s more than enough for strategy fans to enjoy. The graphics might be archaic, but you’ll never get lost in the terrain trying to find your units, and the interface is easy to understand.
As gameplay goes, it is relatively simple as strategy games go. There are only two resources in the game: money and oil. There is a capitalism joke in there but I’m not going to bother pointing that out.
Plop down an oil pump against that delicious lake of brown gold to gather oil, which is needed for everything from generating electricity to building stuff. Money is gathered with combine harvesters that roam the map for hops. That’s a new one, but it suits the harsh setting of the game. You can train a wide range of units, from infantry and cavalry to tanks and engineers, and they all have their different uses and strengths. Engineers can build pontoon bridges and clear minefields, while aircraft have the advantage of the sky (Obviously). The dozen mini-tutorial scenarios help with understanding how they function. Shrot might not be as complex as other strategy games, but there is more than enough depth for you to enjoy.
With so many game releases, it is easy for some to slip between the cracks no matter how good they are, and Shrot deserves more eyes on it. It does not cost much, it runs on pretty much anything (It’s even playable on the Steam Deck with the WASD/Keyboard profile), and it’s a lot of fun to play.
Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to play more of the campaign.
One downside to seeing many games released every day is attention. Some games get a ton of it, while many others lack the coverage they otherwise deserve. As my mother likes to say, I ‘only got one pair of hands’, so it is a challenge working out what games to prioritize.
It’s exciting digging through the underlooked hidden gems! We’re officially in summer here in the UK, which means humid weather and small brick houses. Excuse my British complaints about the weather! I’ve got a lot of reviews upcoming here on SG. While my work over at SteamDeckHQ takes priority, I love what I’m doing here. The Steam Summer Sale starts in a couple of weeks, so I’ll happily delve through my massive wishlist and see what I can pick up.
That brings me to Trappist, a colony sim that needs more attention. Trappist is quite the endearing little game, the work of solo developer Sirrah. The colony sim market is pretty competitive. Most of my recent reviews feature them in some shape, and it seems I’m not tired of them yet. That’s a good thing because Trappist packs serious quality in a tidy 15$ package. I’m not far into the story campaign yet, but I’ve played enough to get a feel of the mechanics and the gameplay loop. So far, I’m impressed!
Following the traditional evacuation of Earth after it becomes a wasteland, your happy little Ark full of colonists arrives in the Trappist-1 system, 40.7 light years away from the Sol system. Naturally, these colonists from Earth want to get their feet wet on new planets, and that is where you come in. There’s a lot of dialogue alongside interactive tutorials to learn the mechanics, and the lore in-game is surprisingly meaty for the genre. As someone interested in narrative, I enjoy checking out stories in my games, and Trappist combines the threat of interstellar travel with comfortable gameplay well.
At its heart, Trappist is a space colony simulator, and it throws a lot at the player to manage despite its humble design. Managing the Ark, surveying planets to locate good landing sites for colonies, bringing citizens down onto the planets and building settlements are all part of the gameplay loop. The colony management has all the basics. Buildings need power to sustain their production, while colonists need food and water to avoid dying horribly. It also helps building houses to keep them safe.
The usual colony sim gubbins are all here, and I appreciate how Sirrah approached the management systems. Buildings are put down instantly while resource production requires little micromanagement. Making sure your colonists survive can be tricky at first, especially early on when you’re relying on ferrying resources from the Ark to each colony, but things get easier. Trade logistics are automated once you have a couple of colonies going. It reminds me of the excellent Slipways in how they both minimize fuss, although this has a more organic city management design.
Honestly? Trappist does a lot of things well. The graphics, while simple, still look nice, especially the planets. It runs on very modest hardware without trouble, and it is relaxing to play while still offering enough challenge. The colony management doesn’t waste time, either, so it doesn’t feel like you’re spending ages micromanaging a thousand colonists’ needs instead of focusing on the gameplay. A recent patch also added controller support, and I’ve had fun testing it on the Steam Deck. The only irritating thing I found was that it was occasionally problematic when clicking on a planet colony, but that might be a problem with my keybindings rather than an issue with the game.
While Trappist is technically complete, it is still in active development with more in the pipeline. It might not be the longest, deepest, or most engaging colony sim out there, but the full package on offer is solid. With so many games released and in development, time is a resource that can’t be ignored. I’m more cautious now about what games I decide ‘this is for me right now’ while putting others into a backlog library if I’m not willing to engage with it for the moment. I’m happy to say that Trappist joins my ‘To finish’ list.
You can buy Trappist on Steam for $14.99. If you’re in the mood for a comfortable colony sim that’s still challenging with a good story, Trappist might just be what you are looking for.
Pros
Considerations
Comfortable gameplay while still offering enough options and challenges to make it engaging
Main story is not particularly long (but still fine. New Game Plus options add extra replayability)
The story is pretty solid!
I sometimes have trouble with the controls
Despite its minimalist take on citybuilding, there’s more than enough meat in this sandwich
Great performance even on low hardware (and Steam Deck playable!)
The weather has been odd here in the UK. It’s either blazing sunlight or torrential rain, and I’ve been caught out in the downpours more than once.
Things are going smoothly enough on my end, and you should expect more articles in the coming weeks. I’ve got a dev interview with the lovely mind behind Little Odyssey releasing next week, including a few impression reviews. Summer Game Fest was incredibly busy, featuring a delicious buffet of game reveals and release dates. Streets of Rogue 2 is probably my most anticipated title from the festival, and I can’t wait for August.
Today, I’m featuring Penkura, an Early Access survival game from 2018 that’s enjoyed a rebirth of sorts! Developed by Lionsart, they’ve managed to return full-time to the development of Penkura, and I’m incredibly happy to see that.
Game development is hard, even more so when it’s a small team behind the wheel. Given how turbulent the world has become in the past few years, it’s a small wonder we can make toast. I’ve been on both angles of game development, both as a guy who games and reviews them and working in the industry, so I try to be understanding. It’s why I’m so happy that these guys managed to return to Penkura after a long hiatus. They have an incredibly ambitious game, and it is a delight to play. These are very early impressions so far, but I know for certain this is a game I want to keep playing.
At its heart, Penkura is an open-world survival crafting RPG, but it is so much more than that. Part exploration FPS, part topdown base builder, I’m impressed how much Lionsart has crammed into this game. It carries a bunch of time travel science magic, featuring deep, underground complexes and powerful artefacts. The sci-fi/occult setting is pretty damn unique for the genre, and it’s one of the most in-depth survival worlds I’ve played in a long time. Just check out the narrative on the Store page:
“Deep beneath Antarctic ice, a Polish research team uncovers an ancient temple, a portal to a captivating new world.
As Earth faces overpopulation and devastation, Project “Gemini” initiates the migration of humanity to this promising planet. For 41 years, pioneers traverse the singularity, until contact is mysteriously severed.
Now, as a mercenary, you embark on a perilous journey through the unstable gateway,
tasked with survival and uncovering the secrets of the unknown world beyond.”
How cool is that?
With its Unreal Engine, Penkura not only has great visuals, but it runs darn well for an Early Access game. Even on my obsolete, slightly unfit laptop, I experienced no crashes or stutters, and the environments are beautiful to look at. With the aid of a sentient AI, your job is to uncover the truth behind the ghost city. This is a hardcore survival game, so you’ll need to manage important things such as sleep, food, water, and oxygen. Death punishes you by losing your items, although you can retrieve them afterwards. With the new world’s environments and fauna wanting your blood, this is a dangerous world. No pressure, then?
I acknowledge this is not a full review. Heck, it’s barely an impressions review. With my schedule so hectic right now, I wanted to get some initial thoughts on Penkura out of the way and play enough to decide if it warrants further exploration. My answer to that is yes. Oh god yes. Penkura is a fairly unique game with a lot on offer. Now that Lionsart is back full-time on development, the next few months will be interesting.
I always appreciate games that challenge me. I appreciate them even more when they give players the option to tweak to their liking. It might be why I struggled to get into Elden Ring. I love the game but I am terrible at it. That’s not the game’s fault of course! It’s me, not you.
You may have noticed the new title. Before I go into today’s article, I have a few updates. Things are going reasonably well on the writing side. Steam Next Fest starts soon, and I’m looking forward to covering some games in that. Whether I’ll write an article about it will depend on my free time, but we will have to see! Between writing for Steam Deck HQ, TheStrategyInformer and here, that’s a lot to manage. I apologise to those waiting for me to send interview documents, post-up interviews, and reviews! Over the past months, I have built up quite a backlog and I’m disappointed in myself. Due to ongoing health and new work coming in, I feel like a puppy presented with a million different plushies to play with.
While it is my intent to cover as many games as possible, I’ve decided to try something new. “Scar Tries” will be for experimental games. They won’t be all that different from my Bite-Sized Reviews, but they might not go into as much depth. I have not been able to play as much Death of A Wish as I would like, but hopefully, this little piece will tempt a few people into picking it up.
It is rather pleasant weather here in old Blighty. A couple of thunderstorms last week that were a delight to watch (they are always more pleasant watching from indoors), but it’s slowly getting warmer. Hopefully, I can get out for some more walks!
Anyhow, that’s my introduction rambles done for the day, let’s talk about Death of A Wish! This game launched back in March, and it’s only recently I have found some spare time to play it. I only wish I played it sooner because Death of A Wish breathes class from every pore. While it is one of those difficult games I usually run away from, it offers a ton of ways to customize how you want to play it. To those who know my reviewing tastes, I prefer customisation and accessibility in my games. I’m happy to play tough games, and running into a boss fight over and over again is sometimes a delight. I’m experiencing that right now with No Rest For The Wicked. I’m still in the first bloody map, dying constantly against the big knight boss blocking my way to Sacrament.
Is it frustrating? Hell yes, but I’m loving my time in No Rest For The Wicked so far. Death of A Wish feels like that too. I spent about an hour on the first real boss fight, dying about twenty times until I figured out the best way to handle him. I’m no shakes with these fast, violent action RPGs, and it always takes me a while to get used to them. Death of a Wish is no exception, favouring frantic close-quarter combat where enemies hit hard. You have to be on your toes constantly to stand a chance, and DeathWish offers plenty of combat options. Yes, I’ll call it DeathWish from now on. I like giving nicknames.
While I enjoy the gameplay, what drew me to DeathWish is the visual design. I know that sounds strange given the abstract graphics on the show, but they blew me away. Set in a dark, occult world, your job as the player is to gain revenge upon the cult that fathered you. The worldbuilding is top-class as the player delves into this broken world of nightmares. The environments feel like a demon has ripped them from the fabric of reality itself, and the character sprites reflect this. DeathWish is a brutal world and pulls no punches: the Store page is full of content warnings. Combined with a chilling soundtrack, DeathWish punches above its weight class.
In combat, Deathwish offers plenty of customization both with its Aria system and the accessibility settings. There are tons of ways to tailor your character by equipping different ‘Virtues’ and it adds to the fluid movement and tutorials. It looks like a lot, but the early game was fantastic in teaching me how to play. If things are too difficult or easy, you can turn on modifiers with just a button click. In-game cheat codes without needing to unlock them? They are always fun to play with.
I will feature Death of A Wish in a more in-depth ‘Bite-Sized’ review later, but I’m pretty impressed with it so far. What do you think of the ‘Scar Tries’ format? Have you played Death of A Wish? Let me know!
This zombie survival game has been through the wars. I remember its appalling technical state in 2020, but after years of content updates State of Decay 2 has become one of my favorite sandbox RPGs to play. There’s just something satisfying about building my little community in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.
Taora Survival launched at the end of May, and it feels like a State of Decay game. As soon as I discovered it, I knew I had to give it a shot. Big thanks to the developers Tulpar Games for granting me a review code to check the game out! It is out in Early Access for a base price of £11.79/$12.59, with a 10% discount until June 6th. By the time this goes live that discount might not be available, but that is still a very reasonable price tag. While it needs a lot of work with optimization and bug fixing, it is an enjoyable enough time to recommend.
The closest indie title I can compare Taora Survival to is Survivalist: Invisible Strain. That was another game I played a lot of in 2023. As for what to expect, we’ve got all the parts of a zombie survival game. We’ve seen this throughout the genre. You collect resources, construct buildings, craft items, and survive the zombie apocalypse. It’s not winning any prizes on the creativity front, but it’s decent enough. It’s difficult to think of how to describe Taora’s gameplay without feeling like I’ve rehashed it a thousand times. We know what zombie survival games are like. It’s an early-access game with a core gameplay loop already present. The developer plans to add more content and quests throughout its development.
The biggest roadblock preventing me from playing it more is the performance. I already experienced a lot of bugs, like my character’s equipment randomly vanishing, dying without any indication of what happened, and a couple of hard crashes. My laptop is not high-end by 2024 standards, but it meets the recommended requirements for the game. Even on the lowest settings, I experienced a ton of frame drops. That might be because of the old graphics card in this laptop, but I’ve played heavier games that had fewer performance issues than this. Optimization is something Taora Survival desperately needs. After one crash I found that my 8-hour save had been deleted, and Steam was unable to recover the file. A tad unfortunate.
With this in mind, Taora Survival needs a lot of work. However, that is what Early Access is for. While my technical experience with the game left a lot to be desired, I see the potential in this game. It carries a low price tag and there’s more than enough meat in this zombie sandwich to enjoy yourself. I would recommend having a more powerful rig than my old-man laptop. As long as Tulpar Games is committed to fixing the bugs and optimizing the game, we could be onto something special.
What a busy couple of weeks it has been! Before I delve into today’s bite-sized review, I have an announcement to make.
SteamDeckHQ is one of the definitive channels for everything regarding the hugely successful Steam Deck. The staff there are lovely people, and I’m happy to announce that I recently joined them as a feature writer there. It’s been a long time coming but it’s going to be a fun journey!
That does not change much for my articles here if anything. They will all continue, but they might be a little less frequent as I adjust to the new shenanigans! This is still my platform to cover all the fantastic indie games that exist. Interviews will proceed as normal. We’ll always be open! I just may need to prioritize things like affording stuff.
Internal Thoughts: Do you mean more Rimworld DLC so you can do more horrible things to characters in your video games?
We should move on to today’s review, huh?
Synergy is an interesting little game. Launching last week in Early Access, it has all the makings of a nice city-builder. The graphics are gorgeous, inspired by Moebius for sure. As soon as I booted into my first game, the art style breathed it into every colourful line. I’m the last person who’ll call myself an art expert. I’m not. I’m more like Baldrick’s art talents from Blackadder. Jean Giraud was one hell of an inspiration, and Synergy is the latest video game that drew from his incredible artwork.
I’m not used to beautiful city builders but Synergy’s visual design drew me right in. This is a saturated market, especially in the indie scene. While the competition is not quite as fierce as the roguelike scene, there are a ton of games out there. With 2024 hits such as Manor Lords, Farthest Frontier, Time to Morp, Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles, and Roots of Yggdrasil, that is a lot of games Synergy is competing against. Now that I think about it, I’ve covered all but Farthest Frontier recently here! I’m addicted to city builders.
The key argument Synergy needs to address is: how does this differ from the competition? How does it stack up against other games like it? That’s always something to challenge ourselves when games release, but especially so in Early Access. Asking players to part with money upfront to test a game that’s constantly in development requires a ton of trust, after all. After several hours of playing with the tutorial and the sandbox mode, I’m still unsure what to think of Synergy. It looks fantastic and it plays fairly well, but right now I’m struggling to recommend it over the competition. Due to juggling a lot of pies, I haven’t played as much Synergy as I would like, so consider this an early impression.
That doesn’t mean I think the game is bad. Quite the opposite. The premise is simple enough. In a strange alien world, you must guide your tribe to prosperity. In this inhospitable environment, it is all about survival. In the Early Access version we have, you can play the tutorial level, the WIP campaign with two-story scenarios, or go full-on sandbox. The tutorial is pretty well done, and it solves one of my pet peeves. Learning organically while playing is my preferred way to play a tutorial, and Synergy offers that in spades. In sandbox mode, you can replay any map from the campaign, which is a nice feature.
What I liked about economy mechanics is how much it focuses on research. It’s a new alien biosphere and nobody knows how things work yet. Therefore, you have to study the flora and fauna scattered across the world to learn how they support human life. The number of ways different plants can be used to build the settlement is kind of awesome. The environment must be spared from your parasitic nature, so harvesting plants needs to be prioritized over tearing the resources out completely.
It’s also cool how much Synergy values water purification. It’s a rough world out there, and no access to clean water is a fast road to the ‘Up Shit Creek Without Paddle’ scene. Studying the biomes helps to work out what the best route to take. It’s a similar system to Stranded: Alien Dawn’s observing mechanic, although in Synergy you use a specific building instead of instructing an NPC.
As for the gameplay, the abstract 2.5D graphics are pretty to look at, although there’s no way to react with the colonists. That’s a shame, as I like zooming down into my settlements and watching them work. There are no traits or characteristics that set one colonist apart from another, which makes Synergy feel a little soulless at times.
For Early Access, I think Synergy is a solid enough city builder. The amount of content available is decent, given the price of 25$. The isometric graphics are beautiful and I enjoy the educational/scientific focus the game has. I just feel right now, the early access version currently available might not be the best fit in this stage of development. When going up against its fellow rivals, that 25$ does not stretch as well as other titles do.
There is a good game here, but players might want to wait for some more updates before picking it up.
There’s something oddly relaxing about doing something so mundane.
Even taking something as simple as ‘Fantasy Delivery Boy’ into account, I’ve found a strange kinship with games that make boring concepts addictive to play. Death Stranding took that idea and dialled it all the way up to what I call ‘Batshit Insane’. It’s a game that I’m still trying to understand. I’ve had difficulty getting into Death Stranding, although that is because I chicken out of the anomalies that hunt me down. Having to deal with them when trying to make deliveries while carrying a baby in a glass tube isn’t my idea of a fun Saturday night. I prefer cosy nights in, making sure my death colony in Rimworld thrives.
Back to Death Stranding. Despite all my struggles getting into the game, the way it turns travel into a deep game mechanic is fascinating. Managing weight loads for balance and navigating mountainous terrain should not be as engrossing as it is, but I’ve been surprised before. When I just need something simple to relax, I do ‘dull’ things in games. Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a great example: driving across the world while listening to podcasts or random stuff on YouTube is a great way to unwind. It’s not the only one for the ‘truck sim’ vibes I love. I’ve played X4 Foundations a great deal over the past year, largely roleplaying as a wealthy explorer. I’ve racked up dozens of hours just sitting in my spaceship while my pilot ferries me across the galaxy like an unpaid taxi driver. I’m weird. I find things like that fun.
That was a long introduction, huh? Little Odyssey is a strange little game that scratches the ‘mundane but engrossing’ itch. And that’s the reason why I rambled about glorified delivery boy games earlier! The work of single developer Simon Fita, Little Odyssey launched on Steam last week. I hope it gets some attention because this is a meditative zen game if there was one. You also get to ride a giant pet turtle. And you can pet him. That wins awards on its own.
The core of Little Odyssey is incredibly simple. Set in a small desert world, the player is tasked with exploring this strange landscape with their turtle companion. Besides that, this is the primary goal of the game. The graphics are cute and while they aren’t particularly amazing, the ambience of the world is fantastic. I really felt like I was part of the Tongs Delta. The graphics combine 2D character models with 3D environments, and it works better than you might think. Combined with the sounds of the world, playing Little Odyssey is rather absorbing!
As for game mechanics, it’s a little deeper than one might expect. The main gameplay revolves around small delivery jobs and upgrading the adorable Turtle mount, but you have some things to consider. Cargo space is limited, so you need to be careful what contracts to take when travelling from village to village. As the Tongs Delta is a desert world, water is scarce and valuable. The cute little Turtle needs his water sips as much as you do, so Little Oddysey does provide some additional challenges to consider. Despite these extra roadblocks, the game has no time constraints. The game plays to the pace of the player, which is just as well. Turtles aren’t well known for being racing cars! Simon has balanced the relaxing heart of his game with just enough mechanics to make the journey exciting. While the game is simple in design, it is surprisingly engaging.
Interaction with the turtle and other villages across the world continues. They’re all basic with a few lines of dialogue, but it is worth talking to them. Sure, some NPCs tell jokes my dad would be proud of, but they always bring a smile to my face. Riding the turtle around the world while listening to the howl of desert winds is immersive and satisfying. Little Odyssey has nailed these little moments. Of course, I keep him happy with little pets. He deserves them.
It is a little more intensive technically than I expected. While it’s perfectly playable on modest hardware, I found my old laptop struggling a little, especially heat-wise. That’s more down to my ancient machine’s internals than anything in Little Odyssey, but it is something to think about. There aren’t any real ways to tweak graphical options, and there’s no way to go into settings from the main menu as of yet. I would like the developer to add these in, as it is a basic QOL feature.
In terms of stability, I haven’t come across any bugs right now, but I did run into some weird crashes when testing it on my Steam Deck LCD. While playable, it ended up crashing a couple of times. One time it forced the Steam Deck to completely reboot, losing all the progress I had. One of the reviews on Steam recommended switching to Proton 9.0-1. After some last-minute tests, I can confirm that Little Odyssey works as intended while using the specific Proton version. While it lacks controller support, it plays great with the Keyboard and Mouse control settings in Steam OS, and there are already several community profiles to try out.
I need to play more Little Odyssey, but as early impressions go, I’m enjoying myself. It’s deeply relaxing to play, and the pet turtle is adorable. Games are improved with cute animals. While the gameplay is simple, that’s the whole point of the game. There’s just enough management to keep me engaged while I explore the world and deliver packages to people across the Tongs Delta. It needs more quality of life features in the settings, and perhaps a few more ways to interact with the world, but this is a solid little game.
Pros
Considerations
A charming and cute exploration game that’s surprisingly engaging
Lacks some quality of life features. I would like to see more graphic settings
You can pet and ride a giant, adorable turtle
Controller support not implemented yet
Excellent sound design sells the ambience when travelling through the world
Surprisingly intensive on hardware
Low price tag
Steam Deck requires the Proton 9.0-1 version while playing this, or you will crash
And that wins the award for the least original phrase related to this game in the universe. Great job.
What a busy couple of weeks. Between some massive Early Access releases and LucaNarraCon, I’ve digested games like I happily digest cheesecake. Manor Lords, No Rest For the Wicked and Hades 2 are just a few games I’ve been playing over the past few weeks, and that review list continues to grow. Before I move on to today’s episode, a couple of things.
Thankyou to everyone who reads these. I’ve received some great feedback and lovely messages from people who like what I do, which I appreciate more than ever. 2024 continues to be challenging on every level, and it’s been difficult to make the content I love with my ongoing health issues. I try to be as transparent as possible, but there are days when I just have to put health before content. I’ve got a ton of projects I want to publish for you all, nearly all of which involve exciting video games and the like. One of them is a complete deconstruction of Cyberpunk 2077, now it is effectively finished on a development level. The longest article I’ve ever written was my review series covering Cyberpunk in 2021, and I’m looking forward to returning to it!
Time to Morp is a cute little game. Colony sims are one of my favourite genres to play. Even with my expanding tastes to try a whole range of genres, the colony sim is one genre I will always return to. When I grow tired of playing roguelikes, I sit down with some Rimworld war crimes. I picked up the Anomaly expansion last week and finally decided on the mods for my next playthrough. With over 600 hours in Rimworld, I’m likely to get addicted to it once again. It is just one of those games!
Where were we? Ah, yes. Colony Sims! Time to Morp launched in Early Access a couple of months ago and has been fairly well received so far. When the publisher Yogcast Games reached out to me to see if I was interested in covering it, I leapt at the opportunity. Since its release back in March, the developers at Team Halfbeard frequently updated the game, patching bugs, making balance tweaks and adding more content. They get top marks from me on communication. If this was a scoring contest, the name ‘Team Halfbeard’ alone wins my ‘Coolest Dev Name’ award. Alas, there are no competitions for that. Perhaps I should start one. Here’s the Steam link where you can buy it:
Time to Morp focuses on the cosier side of colony building. Rather than deciding between feeding kids sawdust and using them as cheap labour, this game is more mellow. Set in a colourful sci-fi world, it reminds me a little of Slime Rancher and other creature collections like it. Starting small, your task as the token grunt is to explore the planet and learn everything you can about it. As the captain of the research ship barked out orders, I quickly got used to the game’s mechanics.
With its colourful palette and easy controls, Time to Morp is easy to fall in love with from a visual point. Being able to explore the world in the third person rather than as an omniscient god hand has its advantages. There’s even a photo mode if you’re like me and enjoy taking constant screenshots during gameplay. An expansive encyclopedia and scanning feature make it easy to find important locations and resources while keeping players up to date with every tutorial and detail. I like knowing things. The tutorial blends with the standard game fairly well through constant task lists and quests from the crew members. These quests are often very simple, but that is the point of the game. Character dialogue follows the same mould, with Sims-like speech as voice acting. This is fine, and it honestly adds to the charm.
I would like it if the Captain did more around the house. He enjoys standing by with his thumb up his arse while giving me orders! Sadly there’s no way to feed him to my growing army of critters, so I’ll stick to insulting him in this review. The core of Time to Morp is Morps, which are fairly cute, cuddly critters in many different colours and forms. They roam the planet and it’s up to you to look after them. Slime Rancher is the best game to compare this to, although Time to Morp takes a more sandbox approach. By building zones for Morps and resources, they make an excellent automation machine, and the research tree expands upon that. Huh. Perhaps there is a little slave labour in this game. Oh, well.
While this is an initial impressions review, I prefer this format when exploring Early Access releases. With development so fluid, anything is liable to change, and Team Halfbeard have many plans for their game. Full controller support is on the way, and while it is playable with a controller already, I’m looking forward to that. By and large, I found it enjoyable on the Steam Deck but most of my time has been on my aging laptop.
This won’t win any prizes for deep character development or anything too complex, as it is built from the ground up for a relaxing experience. Everything about Time to Morp sells that. While I find the zone management systems a little clunky (The requirements for a viable zone can be annoying to fulfil while building the zones around annoying trees, for example), I’m surprised how well Time to Morp grabs me. For those who want a relaxing, relatively stress-free colony sim, Time to Morp has plenty to offer in its current state.
Pros
Considerations
A charming colony sim that adds automation and creature collecting
Early Access with many content changes/additions in the works
Cute graphics while being easy on performance makes the game easy to get into
Full controller support not implemented yet
Excellent UI and approaches its sandbox, relaxing gameplay with accessibility for all
Zone management can be a little confusing
A reasonable amount of polish and gameplay for the 20 USD price tag
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