The main release of this week, of course, is Bioshock, which we will definitely talk about later. But along with him, a whole bunch of very worthy paid and free projects appeared in the store the other day.
The game, to be honest, came out on the 21st, but then we undeservedly missed it. The project is very curious, but completely devoid of gameplay. The player buys heroes for himself, sends them on trips, waits until they return (or drops crystals on this case) together with a random loot, puts on new clothes, pumps one of the three skill trees, and sends them back for loot. Despite the fact that, in fact, there is nothing in the game except a body kit, the project is fascinating. Here you have an excellent paper doll, and randomly generated texts describing adventures and monsters, and the very loot that is interesting to hunt for. But the game really lacks a problem statement, an answer to the question of what pumping will give me, why I’m doing it.
Lately, I’ve started to really appreciate games that you can play while holding your smartphone vertically. It is convenient to play such projects not only in crowded public transport, but also while getting ready for bed, lying on one side. It’s just a pity that not all developers remember this. Although the authors of Armies of Dragons are exactly aware. Their project is almost a classic tug of war. In other words, there is your castle, there is the enemy’s castle. Periodically, both he and you have the opportunity to generate a unit and send it to attack enemy positions. Whoever is the first to make a fuss wins. The key difference between Armies of Dragons from similar projects is a monetization “body kit” borrowed from battlers (unit types play the role of cards, each of which can be one of three colors on the field, working according to the “rock-paper-scissors” scheme).
It’s amazing that the concept of, conditionally, a racing runner is becoming popular only now. For some reason, many continue to clone Temple Run and Subway Surfers “head-on”, getting low sales instead of love, if not rotten tomatoes (and sometimes ideological borrowing reaches “copy-paste” scales, for example, it happened with Run, Forrest, Run). But it’s worth changing the concept a little (changing the boy with the surf to a futuristic tarantass), and we get quite a curious project, which is not a shame to play.
Brothers Ian and David Marsh (Ian and David Marsh) have found their Grail. His name is a self-copying of his own hit, Tiny Tower. Apparently, the guys were dissatisfied with experiments like Nimble Quest and Pocket Planes, so for the second year in a row they give out clones of their own original creation. If a year ago the copy was cute Star Wars: Tiny Death Star, then this time Tiny Tower Vegas took over this role. Considering that the original still has no ideological heirs, and the project has not lost its former “stickiness”, then NimbleBit wants and needs to be forgiven. After all, if Rovio is possible, why can’t they?
Let’s say a few words about him after all. The iOS version of the game can scare even a pixel art lover with its blurry textures and low resolution, but… – it’s still the same Bioshock with the brilliant music of Harry Schumann and Levin’s off-screen argument with Ayn Rand. Therefore, if touch control in shooters no longer scares you, then why not?
A pleasant project, when playing in which it seems that everything that is possible has been mixed into it, referring to the abstract book “All trends in the mobile industry”. For a complete set of Little Raiders, only collectible elements and stamina are missing, as well as “everything is in place”: role-playing elements, hero training, base construction, mission map, short game sessions, four resources, and so on. Dealing with this requires some effort. The question is, are many people ready for this?
The strength of the project is its positioning. They say, an original indie project, a mix of a puzzle and a bagel. In fact, it is a modern version of ancient puzzles in which every action of the player led to the movement of the enemy, with a very conditional role model. Something like 86856527, but, in fact, without any hint of RPG.