This was a fun little game. My sticking points weren't logical, since the challenges were of modest difficulty. Early game I was stuck about what to do with the cup of coffee, which I consider a UI learning issue. Late game my last challenge was the easel and matching monitor which I was stuck on because that wasn't a normal easel. Though I'd absolutely believe things like that exist IRL. Just not in my office.
I'm not sure if I'm missing something or I just haven't unlocked all the game mechanics. I can click if I want, buy upgrades with my gold coins, enjoy looking at my acquired crew and wonder if they do anything, wonder what I'm supposed to do with the purple bagged cat kibble, and speculate that the canned food is supposed to be a premium currency eventually given that I see ways to spend it but not ways to earn it. It's not a lot to do, and mostly comes down to clicking or not clicking. I've unlocked two "levels of influence." Maybe there are important parts of the game that unlock later, but I can't tell, and nothing interesting seems to have unlocked with my two earned levels, so I'm doubtful.
Hey there! This is an early beta stage, we're currently working on new updates as we speak. Hopefully we will be able to solve some of the issues that everyone has been talking about, and start rolling out upcoming features as well.
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This is one of my favorite puzzle mechanics, and this implementation is cute. There are a few significant problems with the game play, though. There are WAY too many clues. By the end of hard mode, I noticed I wasn't scrolling through half of the clues before I was done. If the completed clues disappeared instead of graying out, I wouldn't have to hunt for new clues. A lot of the objects look similar and are arranged differently in each room at the beginning of a level. I don't know if that's a deliberate effort to up the challenge, but that's not my favorite kind of challenge. The majority of my "bad guesses" stemmed from mistaking one object for another in haste.
If the game mechanics are fantastic, and they are, then you might imagine that the grind wouldn't be a problem since it just lengthens a good experience. But the game isn't fun enough for this much grind. Overall, I enjoyed the game but am quitting well short of the medium badge. 3/5
While I found the game to be okay, the issue I had with it was the lack of clarity about almost every part of the game play. I spent a too-large proportion of my play time trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. I checked out the shopping cart icon before I opened my base, and couldn't do much without micro-purchases. Later, when I did open my base, I had no idea that the shopping cart might be where I would go to install new base modules, because I thought of it as the place where the premium features are sold. I figured it out eventually. Very few of the game mechanics were obvious. If one captain lets me have four ships, then surely another captain will let me have more? Apparently not, any more than a third captain will. I'm thinking that the number of ships is determined by the maximum number allowed by any ONE captain and not the total. Other examples won't fit here, but all-in-all, I would have had more fun if most of my game time wasn't spent in bewilderment.
I got this out of sequence. I didn't solve the sliding tile game at first because I didn't realize I could slide anything. I just clicked on things and nothing happened so I thought it might be something that becomes relevant later. Once I was at a dead end, I decided to experiment with cocktails. I successfully guessed at the gin & tonic recipe (the ratio wasn't what I would use in RL, but mirrored the in-game screwdriver,) then googled Galliano, and ended up with a bunch of white cubes and a dead barfly before the show started. It made unlocking the Harvey Wallbanger recipe later a little of a letdown. I wonder how many other drink recipes you can make just by playing around, but not enough to restart the game and experiment.
The game play is polished, original, and fantastic all around. It's interesting that compared to other games of similar format, getting your ball stuck up above a row of solid bricks so that it bounces up and down and takes out tons of bricks quickly can be a huge disadvantage in the very early game. The issue with the game being grindy, in my opinion, is a combination of the large number of playthroughs that are necessary after a while to continue to purchase necessary upgrades and the fact that those upgrades don't speed up the early game. The moment that I decided I'd played enough was when I was back to bouncing my single starter ball up and down in order to earn the power for my second ball and I realized how much I didn't want to go through that part again. Still 5/5 for an amazing game with some balance issues.
Putting in an hour or two to get better at the roulette of things doesn't sound seem like a fun time, although I do believe as the developer says, that it's somewhat possible. That kind of practice is better for when it's a skill I will either enjoy acquiring, or be glad I have later. Other games I've played that involve pressing the red button over and over have had red buttons that hide. Also... avoiding overkill is not the best criterion for an auto-targeting system. While it's possible to design a game where distributed fire is the best strategy, I don't see that this is an example. Interesting, original game play design, but too much repetitive decision-less interaction. 3/5
In the long-run, avoiding overkill is the wisest approach for this particular game. I'll stand behind that because I've seen thousands of scenarios that support it.
The original game is fun, though pretty easy once you get the hang of it. The only levels with a bit of challenge were the ones with a little zigzag to the final design, which complicates the task. Still, between the very comfortable interface, the nice visuals, and peaceful music, they make an enjoyable few minutes. Quiz mode was a completely unrelated game, and I only played a few levels before deciding that these were much easier to recognize than real constellations, but doing so was not holding my interest. Pro mode lost the comfortable interface, some of the attractiveness of the visuals, and the music is less enjoyable when I'm not already feeling peaceful. So I quit that mode too.
Not a bad game. The difficulty balance seems to welcome free players, at least at my early level. The combat UI could be better. I decided early that with several skills to use, I wouldn't be able to use them strategically fast enough to make up for not using them as often as auto mode. So I turned on auto for the brute force of it, and started looking at something else while the combat finishes. The disciples are hard to browse. If I want to see my high level air units I can filter to them by unchecking the other three elements, but the filter isn't sticky. If I want to go back to the list of air units I need to uncheck the other three each time. A unified inventory display would be nice too. I keep winning things I can't use yet, so it just seems like they disappear until some theoretical future time when they might be helpful for something undetermined. It would be nice to be able to see everything, especially if it comes with hints about the items potential future use.
The only one I found really challenging was the angry bird, and that was because I didn't know that the protruding nose would keep the ball from dipping all the way into the paint. Maybe I just forgot from a previous Factory Balls, since no one else seems to have gotten stuck on that.
Graphics are polished, but the gameplay isn't interesting enough for me to even get frustrated by all the road-block pay-to-play stuff. Battles are dull, route choices are blind and therefore meaningless, xp gains are insufficient to play continuously forcing replay which is more dull than the first time. I did like the auto-duel button, but I'm not sure that says anything positive about the game. The core game really needs more to it if you have any hope of drawing in players enough to be willing to spend. And you should definitely let people get through the tutorial before having to wait for their water/energy to recharge. Not letting people get through the tutorial is like inviting them to leave.
I'm regretting levelling a few of the crew to level three. I have beaten level 21 a few times, and I'm giving up because I don't know how many more times it would take to buy the last ship upgrade. Is there a final level after fully upgrading the ship? I may never know.
The final battle is worth retrying. On my first attempt, with three fully upgraded ships of the line (discounting cargo, which wasn't upgraded), I got the ghost ship down to 700 hp with a combination of quick shots and hull shots (all dynamite). On my second try, the ghost ship got its concentration of fire way off, did all of my ships some damage, but I took it out without losing a single ship. On the third attempt (due to trouble with the badge), the concentration of fire was back on track but I took it out again with my last ship in decent shape.
Anyway, the lesson learned seems to be that in a close battle like this the random number generator makes a big difference.
Decent game, but it has execution efficiency issues that become problematic toward the end. Add to that, the final challenges were of the kind where you can only walk away and wait for the money to roll in. Frustrating when the game is thrashing and running in slow motion. Starting new territories, I was often frustrated waiting for money to put in necessary infrastructure while the previous cities' shops were sitting on enough millions to win the game. The transfer function was far from generous, and the only time a transfer was required by a game challenge, the required transfer was backward into a completed city.
This game is generally called Kenken. There are a couple of sites online that have new Kenken puzzles daily - and harder ones than these (NY Times and kenken.com). If you want a more challenging puzzle (and one that doesn't do the match for you), check out one of these sites.
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Hey there! This is an early beta stage, we're currently working on new updates as we speak. Hopefully we will be able to solve some of the issues that everyone has been talking about, and start rolling out upcoming features as well.