NEO Scavenger

NEO Scavenger

Operating System: PC
Website: Official Website
Rating: 7/10
Comments: This, once again, is a survival game that is still in beta stages. The basic story is this: you wake up in a cryotube with a name and a bank account number but remember nothing else about yourself. You can see lights of a city at night and so you go out in search for answers only to find that the world outside is in a post-apocalyptic state and has in general gone to shit.

I love this game. It's so damn hard to survive! I've died in so many, many different ways, recovered from sepsis only to be struck down by gastro and have also has my things stolen in my sleep and gone on a killing vendetta to get my stuff back. And yes, I have also resorted to cannibalism when I was starving. It wasn't a pretty sight.

I can't wait when they'll have different quests and all that. My main problem is that I still don't know how to save the game... so when I first got to the city I was simply looking for some iSlabs but it was late and I shut down my laptop only to find that it didn't autosave and I had to start again.

Project Zomboid

Project Zomboid

Operating System: PC
Website: Official Website
Rating: 8/10
Comments: I don't normally like zombie genre but this game warmed to me. Well, more like it warmed my hoarding. Because I am always that person who has to drop a healing potion to pick up another healing potion. I like raiding houses, chests and boxes for loot and this game. My god this game. The amount of loot lying in peoples houses is amazing at the best of times... and other times the curiosity can get you killed. Like I did. Many, many times. MANY times.

The intro says it all: There are no survivors. There is no hope of winning. This is how you die.

You have to run around and gather the necessary tools you need to make sure that you survive the zombie apocalypse which has ruined the world. I love this game to bits and it's only in beta testing. I can't wait until it has extra plot and features. So much to look forward to!

Artist Colony

Artist Colony

Operating System: PC
Website: BigFish page
Rating: 6/10
Comments: This game is rather reminiscent of a Virtual Villagers setting in that you can control each of your people, train them in different art styles and all that jazz. The biggest let down - just like with VV - is that after a while you have people maxed out and they're still complaining about the garden being run down. You just end up needing a ridiculous amount of cash to restore the colony and that's where I started to lose patience.

The story is what really keeps you playing though. The gameplay itself is rather tedious in the end but you do what you have to. The story is a nice step-brother rivalry for the affections of a girl; a story which happened exactly the same way with the brother's fathers and their mum.

Adera

Adera

Operating System: PC/Mac
Website: App page
Rating: 7/10
Comments:I played the trial of this because I had it on my laptop so I figured "why not?" and I had no idea what kind of game it was. Turns out it's a HOG, and it is rather snazzy too. Story is that your helicopter crashes, you can't really remember what happened until you make your way back to the wreckage and see that it's covered in ice and seaweed despite being over a desert.

Since you have this orb you go exploring and can open portals to a different land. I actually really liked this game, it was rather simple but I always prefer the adventure-based games more and this didn't have many HO scenes at all. I also got excited about the fact that you can get collectables and achievements (because it links to Xbox Live).

The only downside is that I have to pay to unlock more chapters, and this game has 5 of them :C

Doodle God

Doodle God

Operating System: Everything
Website: Official Website
Rating: 7/10
Comments:  This game is so addictive it's not even funny. I played it online first then couldn't help but buy it for my laptop. Such a simple game and yet it brings so much happiness. There is so much more content with the laptop one (well duuur) because you get quests, puzzles and artefacts that you can make.

Actually, the artefacts are really hard to figure out. I had to hint every single time because I got stuck all the time. The puzzles are pretty tricky as well. You only get a few elements and have to make certain things... I never got far in those ones.

I honestly can't count how many hours I wasted in this game. I imagine it would be great on a phone when waiting at airports. Great way to pass time and very entertaining.

Grim Tales: Bloody Mary

Grim Tales: Bloody Mary

Operating System: PC/Mac
Website: BigFish page
Rating: 3/5
Comments: Don't you just love when you find incomplete reviews in a random notepad on your laptop? Yeah, I don't either. But that's what this is... and I'm not replaying this so.... yeah... I half remember this game being kinda cool with the mirror world and all that jazz, but I don't remember enough of the gameplay to fix this review :C

The title screen was enough to make me excited about this game, but after playing Stray Souls the cutscenes seemed rather lacking.

The plot is this: your niece wants you to go pick her up because she's scared and the kids there are all acting weird. Damn creepy shadows kids... Turns out to be the "mirror kids", which of course are evil, have taken over the normal kids bodies and you have to defeat them.

 

The map feature. God I love those. Because NO ONE likes to walk back and forth and back and forth just to get a bloody paper clip or something stupid like that.

The Great Gatsby: Secret Treasure

The Great Gatsby: Secret Treasure

Operating System: PC
Website: BigFish page
Rating: 2/10
Comments: I seriously thought this game would be awesome and like the movie or something, or at least set in the same era? But no. Little glimpses into the past but not what I was hoping for in a game with "Gatsby" in the title.

You're some architect. That's right. An architect. Not a detective, not a paranormal investigator, not a secret agent. An architect. So anyway, you get called in to renovate the Gatsby mansion and then for some reason your flatmate gets kidnapped? I dunno, it's a bogus storyline.

The artwork was decent enough but compared to a lot of the new HOGs, it did seem a little dated and an older style. The game seemed to lag a little when travelling between screens (which you needed to do frequently) and by the end I just didn't care about the plot. This game was so mediocre that I doubt I'll even remember it soon.