Bree Maybe
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Checkpoint GamingLatest Reviews
The survival city-building genre is generally considered to be quite intimidating with high hour counts for even just one scenario and incredibly in-depth mechanics that will take multiple attempts even to begin grasping. This is where Dawnfolk makes an effort to differ from the usual fare, making use of familiar mechanics and easily comprehensible visual design to make a survival game that is still difficult but not so unapproachable.
We’ve seen a lot of new half-farming sim, half-something-else games in recent years. Rune Factory is one of the original examples, and a few years ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin a game that was half farming sim and half side-scrolling beat ‘em up. Farmagia, on the other hand, is a real-time action game where monster tamers, known as Farmagia can control monsters in battle.
I’ve never been all that good at gardening, despite being a person who loves plants and wants a home full of them. So Botany Manor sounded like a bit of a dream to me, a game where being good at puzzle-solving makes you good at growing plants. Developed by Balloon Studios, Botany Manor is a puzzle game that doesn’t put too much stress on its players, designed to be more relaxing and therapeutic than challenging.
It can often be difficult to make characters feel instantly real and relatable. Sometimes it takes hours of gameplay to begin to emotionally connect with a character, so it’s always impressive when a game manages to do it in less than two. Published by Annapurna and from much of the team who brought us Gone Home, Open Roads is a road trip game following mother and daughter duo, Tess and Opal, as they follow a path of mystery starting in the attic of their house.
It’s been a long time since we’ve had a Prince of Persia game – 14 years in fact – and it’s been even longer since we’ve had a 2D entry in the long-running series. So quite understandably, a lot of people were excited by the announcement of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown back in June of last year.
After accomplishing the utterly daunting task of reviewing The Lord of the Rings: Gollum earlier this year, I was itching to play a game set in the universe of Middle Earth that isn’t a potential contender for the worst game of the year. The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria was already on my radar, so it seemed like the best bet.
As an enjoyer of tasks that most people consider menial and boring, I have always been a major supporter of the farming sim genre. I’m always raptly waiting for the next release in the Rune Factory or Harvest Moon series and blatantly ignoring every open-world AAA experience unless it includes a cooking minigame as a bare minimum.
Interesting puzzle games are always a treat, but with so many brilliant entries in the genre, it can be difficult to find a way to stand out. This means that creating a mechanic that feels fresh and interesting is nearly essential. Luckily, Viewfinder is a game that boasts one such mechanic, describing itself as a mind-bending experience where you need to reshape reality by placing objects in the world.
Middle Earth is an incredibly interesting world to set a game in. Developers have been trying to capture the magic of Tolkien’s work in an interactive form since 1982 with The Hobbit text adventure game all the way to the present day with the announcement of a new Lord of the Rings MMO.
I love resource management games. Whether they be city builders, farming sims, or even a side mechanic in a game that largely focuses on other gameplay styles. Terra Nil immediately stands out as something completely different from its contemporaries in the genre as the game operates in entirely the opposite manner. The key thesis of Terra Nil is the return of nature, instead of the destruction of it in the name of progress. It’s an idea that is as novel in concept as it is brilliant in exe...