Niche

A genetics survival game.

Overview

Niche is a turn based strategy game where your animals have a relatively short life span but can reproduce.  Traits are varied, some are better than others depending on the local biome. To win, you must explore islands until you eventually come across your "home" island.

Genetics

There is a good variety of traits that can be passed down. Some traits are simply better than others, but most depend on the other traits the creature has and the biome it is in. For example, "can hold breath" and "can swim fast" are good to have together, but pointless if you don't have both, and terrible if there is no water.

Creatures have a dominant and recessive gene, either of which can be passed. In addition, you can assign "mutations" to really speed the breeding process.

Survival

On each map you must find food and nesting materials which keeping warm and safe from predators. There are many ways to accomplish this -- you could have mighty creatures that hunt, or poisonous creatures that forage. The trick is to maintain variety in your herd with individual creatures able to successfully fill a role. For example, it's good to have a hunter, a forager, and a swimmer but if you mate two of those you will end up with offspring that is good at nothing.

The Fun

This is an interesting take on a genetics game. Because of mutations, you can change the composition of your tribe relatively quickly. 

Every island has interesting tactical challenges.

The Boring

Progressing through islands is somewhat of a maze, although there are spoilers online. I ended up in "newbie land" for a very long time and eventually got bored. 

There is a lot of micromanagement, and I am unsure how important it is. Breeding might require carefully finding the best match in the tribe, or maybe you can just generically call some of the animals "good for breeding". There are "immunity factors" which are passed down, and you are forced to pay attention. 

When moving around the map, I want more of the information readily available. When I select an animal and consider gathering food, I often have to switch screens to see how good he is at gathering. That should be quickly available. When considering mating, I have to look at the DNA screen and then switch over to the mutation screen to get the full picture. Those two screens should have been combined.

When an animal is sick, you don't want other animals near it. However, you can only see if an animal is sick when you click on him. This means I often have to double check which animals are sick. This should be clear on the main screen.

There are three overlays for the different senses. Having to switch around is a pain. They could all be combined, or if that is too busy, let the use choose which filters are on. I always wanted "sight" and "hearing" and I never wanted "smell". 

When moving, sometimes available hexes showed as unavailable until I changed the camera angle. That's a bug as far as I'm concerned.

Should You Buy It?

My recommendation is no. The tactical level is the majority of the game, and it's tedious. It seems that optimal play would be to stay in the newbie islands for a long time to collect a ridiculous amount of food, and then evolve your tribe in a way that doesn't collect food well. The mutation system is good --breeding in this game would be unplayable without it -- but it takes away from the breeding feel.

Note that this review is based on one incomplete playthrough. It's possible I took a bad turn and missed out on the fun of the game. If you do give the game a try, I would recommend reading travel tips. The rest of the game is okay to play with or without spoilers depending on your preference.

Deep Rock Galactic

A 4-person coop exploration shooter.

Rock and Stone

In Deep Rock Galactic you play a future dwarf mining for a soulless mega corporation. It's best with four players but can be played with fewer and is plenty of fun solo. You have to accomplish the mission goal while being swarmed with alien bugs. There are moments of fun exploration and moments of the terror of being overrun. 

The Good

Combat is fun. Exploring is fun. Mining is fun. If you prefer one of those aspects, you can play a class that excels at it.

The atmosphere is great -- the uncaring corporate executives, the casual racism against elves, the love of mining.

The level system is pretty good. You gain levels and unlock things. It gives you a goal to focus on, if mining ore and killing bugs isn't enough on it's own.

The community is great. If your friends are lame you can get on Discord to find groups. Mostly, they are too good for my tastes -- they blaze through missions and are all high level. But they are friendly and don't mind helping out noobs.

The Bad

There is nothing bad, you pointy-eared leaf lover.

Should You Buy It?

Yes. If you liked Vermintide and Left for Dead and have three friends, Deep Rock Galactic is a no-brainer. I wouldn't get it for single-player, but playing with one or two friends is plenty of fun. 

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - Tournament Edition

 Dungeon Crawl

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup (DCSS) is the best roguelike game out there. Once or twice a year they hold a tournament to coincide with a major version release.

Tournament Play

I'm still playing a lot of dcss. You can read more about it in my previous review of dcss. Recently I tried out one of the tournaments. You join a team and play for about two weeks. Your team gets points based on what it achieves during that time. 

The whole concept is a bit silly. An experienced team might be able to cover all of the achievements and try to figure out how to optimize score, but an intermediate team probably just wants to get as many wins as they can. 

Some of the points categories are wildly disparate. Like, "fastest real-time game" vs. "fewest turns taken". Those are quite different because to minimize turns taken requires more thought, while a fast game will be very inefficient. Other categories require exploration, getting runes, or arbitrary challenges, all of which conflict with being fast or efficient. 

Furthermore, DCSS is about the most solitary game I can think of. Most of the game is made of quick almost-obvious decisions where a different choice is only marginally better or worse. When you make 1000 decisions in six hours, there isn't much room for collaboration. 

Why Play Tournament?

Despite the silly and contradictory nature of the tournaments, they are great fun. The different achievements encourage new types of play, but since winning is important you don't want to flex too far from your comfort zone. Teams might seem silly, but they give some community and make it easier to ask for help in rough spots.

So, overall, the tournament was great and I plan to play more in the future.

Opus Magnum

A flexible puzzle game of automating machinery.

Overview

Since this was a well-reviewed game, it was a no-brainer for me to pick up. I typically like this sort of game where you build machines. This one has a story and crisp graphics and controls.

Unfortunately, while Opus Magnum seems to have potential, I didn't find it to be fun. 

Puzzles

Each puzzle consists of building a machine to turn raw materials into a finished product. You are given a wide sandbox to accomplish this. While this seems like a good thing, it means that all puzzles are pretty easy to solve in a brute-force kind of way. Once the puzzle is finished, you can see how well you did compared to the rest of the world. That's a great feature, but there are three metrics -- cost (how many pieces did you use), speed (how many turns does the machine require to finish), and efficiency (how many tiles did you cover). 

Having different metrics is great for the sandbox feel. You can choose to optimize for one metric or sort of balance efficiency among them all. However, the game never rises beyond the sandbox. It is possible to set arbitrary goals, but that's not how I want to play puzzle games.

Modes of Play

Three of my Steam friends had already played the game. When you complete a puzzle, it compares it to your Steam friends. That helped engage my competitive spirit.

Some puzzles weren't interesting and I would brute-force a solution. Others engaged my desire for elegance. I tried to "always optimize speed" but my designs were similar and repetitive.

Should You Buy It?

While Opus Magnum isn't for me, I think a lot of people can find value from it. I've done a lot of programming, and playing Opus Magnum is very much like refactoring code. Someone who find programming fun and isn't burned out by it might really love Opus Magnum. Also, someone who generally enjoys machine puzzles but isn't hardcore might find these puzzles challenging. 

Oculus VR

 Oculus Quest

VR gaming is pretty much there.

History

The first halfway decent 3D game I saw was Magic Carpet. It used stereogram dots, where you uncross your eyes to see 3D. It wasn't totally satisfying, but it showed what could be done. I am surprised that it has taken 25 years for good 3D games to be available.

Quest 2

The Oculus Quest 2 is a standalone wireless headset with two wireless controllers. It can run independently of any other device, or it can be used as a dumb headset to play PC games in 3D. There are a lot of mediocre games available, but there are some really amazing experiences out there. 

Games

I'm still pretty new to it, but here are the good games I've played.

Beatsaber: This is at least half of the reason I wanted an Oculus. It's a simple rhythm game, but you get to swing your controllers like lightsabers and occasionally dodge obstacles flying at you. Very satisfying. 

The Room: I liked the PC editions in this series, so getting it for Oculus was a no brainer. This was amazing, at least to me as a new Oculus owner. The puzzles are less intricate and perhaps easier than PC versions, but the immersion is fantastic.

Red Matter: Suggested to me because I liked The Room. Very immersive, simpler puzzles.

Bigscreen: A strangely satisfying social app to watch movies. For watching movies by yourself, this likely won't replace the convenience of a TV, although it gives you a large screen in a portable format. Someone else using the TV? Want a big screen while lying in bed? Put on the headset. Where Bigscreen really shines is for watching movies with other people. Want to see a movie with a friend in another city? Easy. You have avatars to see each other and the voice chat works well. Also, you can join a large theater with strangers to recreate the movie-going experience during quarantine.

PC Games

I've downloaded a few crappy PC games to try. After some annoying configuration, it all worked well. The only "good" game I've played is Star Wars Squadrons. If you are the kind of person to buy a $100 joystick to shoot down TIE fighters, you will love shooting down TIEs in 3D. 

I was hoping to play Skyrim and Fallout 4 in VR, but they are separate applications that command full price. I've played both of them to death so I doubt I'll buy the VR version.

Price

The price is reasonable for anyone thinking of purchasing a game system. I hope that Oculus will compete well with Playstation and Nintendo. 

Negatives

The biggest negative is that Oculus is owned by Facebook and they require you link your Facebook account. It might be possible to create a dummy Facebook account, but I have heard tales of dummy accounts being deleted and people losing all of their Oculus software. The Oculus has a camera and microphone, and I would not be surprised if Facebook used them for their own nefarious purposes.

The Oculus Quest 2 is mostly consumer friendly, but it still has quirks. The head strap, face plate, and lens holders aren't perfect although there are aftermarket solutions. The lenses are easy to scratch and they don't offer replacements. If you wear glasses, they don't do vision correction in software so you need your own lens. The provides solutions are annoying (wear contacts or use the headset extender to give more room for glasses). There are aftermarket solutions which work pretty well, but now you are getting into the realm of hobbyist. 

Should You Buy It?

I'm just gonna go ahead and say yes. The Quest 2 surprised me with how well it works. For value, think of it like a console with an upfront cost and $15-$30 games, most of which are pretty short.

 Mindustry

Half building game, half tower defense. Note: This review is a year late.

Overview

You build factories, mines, and conveyors to create ammo which feeds weapons. Those weapons destroy invading enemies.

Compare To

Factorio

Mindustry is like a streamlined version of Factorio. You can't do nearly as much cool design as you can in Factorio, but some people find Factorio to be overwhelming, or don't like having to build complicated systems.

Rimworld

These games don't really have much in common, other than the occasional wave of enemies to fight. Rimworld is best when thought of more as a simulator than a strategy game, while Factorio is just building and fighting with a very thin plot.

Tower Defense

Although Mindustry seems like a tower defense game, it really isn't. Tower Defense is usually about efficient tower placement to counter enemies. Mindustry is more about building efficient factory and delivery systems.

Should You Buy It?

Yes. Mindustry is free or cheap. It's easy to get into and plenty fun. If the premise has any appeal, it is a no-brainer to install and give it a shot. I prefer the PC version, but the mobile app also has good reviews.

Endless Space 2

The never-ending sequel to the never-ending space 4X.

It surprises me how little the 4X genre has changed in the last 30 years. Endless Space adds some interesting features, but it's fails to address the core gameplay issues that really make or break a 4X game.

When comparing Endless Space 2 to a classic like Masters of Orion, I am struck by how many of the new systems feel like they add complexity without depth. For example, consider space combat.

Space Combat

There are an amazing number of options for space combat. There are different hulls, half a dozen basic types of weapon, two defense systems, and dozens of optional modules. All of those can be further modified into a mind-boggling number of combinations. Using a hero adds a whole new dimension of specific fleet bonuses. Then, depending on the engagement, you can choose from a number of battle plans. That all sounds great, but in the end you are just playing rock-paper-scissors. If the AI is smart enough to counter a focused build, the best strategy is to use a balanced mix. 

To be fair, it's not quite that simple. When you research better scissors, the enemy has to build more rocks to counter. However, the complexity involved is largely unnecessary.

Heroes

Including heroes in this type of game is always a bit awkward. It's easy for them to be either meaningless or overpowered. The balance seems about right in Endless Space 2. My biggest complaint is the skills interface. For the most part, the skill choice is obvious depending if the hero leads a fleet or sits on a planet. However, the interface makes it difficult to distinguish between the two. Eventually I dreaded having to choose new skills. Also, sometimes it is unclear where a hero would be most effective. I really want a button to auto-assign the hero to where he will be most effective. It doesn't have to be perfect, but I really don't want to sit around doing math to figure out where to send my economy hero ever 10 turns.

Species

There are quite a few different species in the game. This is a great feature that's been popular since Masters of Orion. However, this implementation leaves something to be desired. 

The worst problem is the annoying micromanagement. I want a button to "optimize research" or something like that. Such a button exists, but it doesn't work. This is a constant problem because of population growth, planetary developments, terraforming, and population transfer.

There is a missing feature to destroy population. For this, there are some poor workarounds. You can convert population into generic military force (which is wasted during peacetime). That would be fine except it takes precious planetary build time. Also, I don't think you can select the specific species to convert, which defeats the purpose. Another solution is to send population to a full planet. They spend the rest of the game in orbit. That's fine, but it feels like cheating. It also requires a planet that you don't mind being constantly full and unable to change the species. The easy solution for this would be to get rid of the "send them away" loophole and then provide another mechanism to remove the population. Perhaps the military conversion is good enough, even though it is expensive.

Politics

Actually, this feels about right. There is a lot of complexity there, but I was able to largely ignore it and just suffer the consequences. It remains an area where I can get better at the game, and it doesn't seem overbearing. 

System Build Queues

Why is this so hard to get right? For every colony, I want to start with building-A, building-B, and building-C. I want a button to automatically filter out upgrades that use scarce resources. Some upgrades, I don't want to see unless my colony is sufficiently developed. The AI governors are terrible, and for me, this should be the fun part of the game. The interface is poor. There are only 20 or 30 total possible things to build -- why do I have to scroll so much, and why isn't there a brief summary of what each upgrade does? This should be a core features of the game, why is it worse than what we had 30 years ago?

Diplomacy

The diplomacy in these games is always pretty bad. This one seems better, but not great. Still, I'm happy to see these system improve.

Story / Random Events

This was kind of new to me and it was surprisingly satisfying. It injects a bit of flavor into a dry game and mixes things up a bit. I couldn't really tell how impactful the events are. I imagine it might drive diplomacy and alliances. It might give incentive to avoid a full peaceful or military strategy.

Research

My main complaint is the poor interface on the technology tree. It takes too long to figure out what each technology does. 

Conclusion

I got too bored to complete my first game. I was spending 90% of my time doing tasks which should have been automated or simplified. I don't know what the gold standard is today for a 4X space game, but I hope it isn't this.

Crashlands

 Crashlands

A fun little game with some action, crafting, and collection elements. Kind of like Don't Starve, but less survival and more action. It has more direction and is much less of a sandbox than Don't Starve.

It's a fine game for light action and some crafting. I'd rather play Diablo, Don't Starve, or Realm of the Mad God, but for an easy single-player experience, Crashlands is just fine.

 Bomber Crew

A cute game of crew management.

Overview

In Bomber Crew, you send your plane out to do bombing missions in WW2 Western Europe. Most encounters involve trying to destroy a ground target while being harassed by enemy fighters. Most tasks are pretty simple but the meat of the game comes when you need to do too many things at once. 

Various Mechanics

Management

For the most part, your seven crew members do not need to be managed. When everything is going well, very little interaction is required. The stress of the game comes when problems arise. If the electrical system goes out, you need to order someone to repair it, then later order him back to his station. When a lot of things go wrong at the same time, it is overwhelming. Two gunners run out of ammo, the mechanic needs medical attention, an engine catches fire, and you are passing over your bombing target -- what do you do? This stress brilliantly captures the feel of "long periods of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror", although without the boredom.

RPG

Your crew gains levels, you buy equipment, you unlock new stuff, you improve your airplane. The RPG elements could be improved, but they aren't bad for such a simple game.

Permadeath

The game is a little awkward when you lose your plane and crew. Instead of losing the game, you get replacements. These replacements are fairly well leveled, but likely weaker than what you had. This means that death just makes the game harder until you can recover. However, it makes me lose the connection I feel with my crew. Losing your plane is fairly easy to do.

Mechanics That Don't Work Well

This game has some cool mechanics that don't really play well.

Parachutes: In practice, it is rare to be in a situation where you need parachutes and have time to use them. Earlier in the game, medkits are far more useful.

Item Unlocks: This just feels clunky to me. Why not have everything unlocked from the beginning but be cost prohibitive? 

Survival Skills: If you plane goes down behind enemy lines, your crewmen might survive. That's cool and all, but it wasn't an important part of the game. My crew are far more likely to die during a mission. This mechanic should either be magnified or removed.

Crew Advancement: This is a huge missed opportunity. You only have one set of crew, they have unique roles, and death is reasonably frequent. When a crewman dies, you recruit a replacement. When a crewman is wounded, he is ready for the next battle. This isn't bad, but with a few tweaks, it could have been a really fun system of recruitment and training, similar to XCom. You could maintain backup crew that slowly gain levels from training. On easy missions you could swap some of your backup crew to give them more xp. With a full backup crew, losing your primary crew wouldn't hurt, but if you then lost your backup crew that could signal the end of the game. Forcing wounded crew to lose a few missions while they recover would make for interesting strategic choices. The frustrating thing is that all of those system almost exist -- crew gets wounded, there is a screen for recruitment, etc.

Other Annoyances

• Ordering the crew is often awkward. If a wounded guy is next to a turret, clicking in the area might heal the crew, man the turret, or just stand there doing nothing.
• Not enough feedback for who is selected. You are ordering people around but didn't realize you had the pilot selected? The ship starts to plummet.
• Selecting things is difficult. I've lost a few missions because I simply couldn't convince the crewman to pick up a medkit. I still haven't figured this out, even after asking Google.
• Parts of the plane are difficult to access. The inner port engine is hard to click on. The bomber station is hard to click on while doing an emergency dive. 

Should You Buy It

Despite the complaints, I do recommend Bomber Crew. It is cheap, easy to get into, and fun. It has some depth and replayability. I didn't finish the campaign, but someone with more patience, a faster brain, or the willingness to save-cheat would not have any problems.

Dicey Dungeons

 A cute roguelike deckbuilding dice game.

Overview

Dicey Dungeons is another entry in the genre of permadeath exploration card games. However, instead of a deck of cards, Dicey Dungeon uses collectible equipment. Instead of shuffling a deck, Dicey Dungeons rolls dice.

Similarities

Dicey Dungeons would like to claim similarity to the popular Slay the Spire (see my review of Slay the Spire). However, Dicey Dungeons is much less complex. A better comparison would be to Dreamquest. 

Style

The sound and graphics are simplistic and cutesy. It wasn't for me, but not especially distracting. When the sound got repetitive, I turned it off.

The Bad

It forces you to play all of the classes on an easy level before you can ramp up the difficulty. This meant I was bored while playing, but there seemed like the promise of an interesting game later. By the time I hit the "interesting" part, I was ready to shelve the game and didn't give it much of a chance.

Some of the classes require a lot of unnecessary analysis. The Witch has a lot of choices available depending how you wish to arrange your dice. For me this leads to analysis paralysis as I seek to find the optimal solution. It is a common complaint I have with games -- where I wish there was an undo button so I could rollback any predictable choice. So long as I don't reveal anything hidden or trigger a random event, a game should let me easily explore different choices.

Should You Buy It?

I would likely recommend Dreamquest and Slay the Spire before Dicey Dungeons. However, everyone has different tastes and Dicey Dungeons offers something unique.

Factorio

This was one of my most highly anticipated games. I waited for years for it to come out of early access and happily paid full price when it did.

Overview

Factorio is a game of optimization and refactoring. You build machines that build better machines that build even better machines. The bulk of the game is figuring out how to optimize supply chains. There are aliens who attack from time to time, but that feels like a minor element of the overall game play.

For me, the fun of the game was trying to come up with good designs that were scalable. There normally isn't much time pressure, but you have to design in real-time so if you are constantly interrupted by alien attacks. 

Multiplayer is lots of fun, but I love cooperative multiplayer games. In Factorio, having another player around has three advantages. First, it lets two brains solve problems. Some designs are complicated and it's nice to say, "you make the widgets and I'll make the gadgets." Second, there are lots of distractions in Factorio. Aliens attack, systems run out of materials, etc. Often one player will be deep in thought what the other is able to handle maintenance. Third, it's always nice to have another person around to celebrate accomplishments and discover cool things. 

Replayability

After one playthough, I don't feel the need to play any more. I probably will start up a new game to see if it's like a new game, or just drudgery. 

Compare to Other Games

I'm going to make a separate blog entry to compare Factorio, Rimworld, Don't Starve, and Oxygen Not Included.

Factorio is extremely similar to Mindustry, although it's a lot deeper. Mindustry has more "game" where you have challenges to overcome. Factorio is more about the process. 

Should You Buy It?

Factorio is a winner for me, but it's exactly the game I've wanted for a long time. This is not a simple question. 

20XX

 A mediocre port of a mediocre game in my least favorite genre. Online coop was awkward. Not recommended.

Star Control: Origins

Overview

Star Control: Origins is somewhat of a sequel to the wonderful Star Control 2. It's a game of exploration and space combat with a plot and a comical backdrop.

My Take

Overall, I found the game to boring and quit after 16 hours, barely scratching the plot. Combat using the Earth ship isn't much fun. The plot is too farcical to be engaging, while the humor isn't funny enough to hold my interest. Exploration is dull, perhaps because I wasn't engaged. Collecting minerals is also dull.

Nostalgia

I loved Star Control 2 and was hoping to revisit that love. I wanted to see the giant Urquan dreadnaughts. I wanted to hear "launch fighters". I wanted the pkunk to swear at me to keep from becoming "too good". None of that exists in Origins. The framework of the game is the same -- explore, fight, get minerals, talk to aliens -- but it's with new races that I don't care about. 

Perhaps games have evolved far past Star Control 2 and a remake wouldn't stand up. Maybe I need faster engagement, although 16 hours feels like a fine effort on my part. 

Recommendation

Sadly, I wouldn't recommend Star Control: Origins to anyone. If you decide to give it a try, commit to playing for longer than I did. Maybe the game is lots of fun when you aren't using the Earth ship for fighting. Perhaps someone other than me will feel the sense of adventure when entering unknown territory. Maybe I am old and jaded, but a fresher mind would find the humor engaging.

XCOM: Chimera Squad

XCOM: Chimera Squad

Chimera Squad tries to boil down the essence of XCom. In some ways, it is more streamlined. In others, it does not have as much soul.

I'll assume people are pretty familiar with XCom, so I'll just address the differences here. When I write XCom I generally mean XCom 2.

Tone

XCom tries to be gritty and realistic, given the ridiculous premise of alien invasion. Chimera takes a more lighthearted approach. Instead of 3D cutscenes, it has comic book panels. Where random commentary in XCom was serious with some humor, Chimera is more humor with rare bits of seriousness. XCom is often very cheesy, but it takes itself seriously. Chimera Squad is much less so. This had the effect of me being far less engaged in the plot.

Operatives

In Chimera Squad there are 11 different operators. In XCom there are 5. However, the roles in XCom are far more customizeable. The end result is that it is far easier to build tailored squad in XCom. 

Another big difference, is that you only have a fixed number of operatives in Chimera Squad. You start with 4 and acquire 4 more often the course of the game. The operatives are always healthy enough to join a mission, although they can accumulate enough wounds so that you will voluntarily hold them back to heal. Basically this means you could play the entire game using only 5 squad members (4 for the mission and 1 to heal or train). For me, a big part of the charm of XCom is juggling wounded operatives.

Missions

The biggest change in Chimera Squad is the breach system. Encounters are played out sequentially. This counters my biggest complaint about XCom, the possibility of activating multiple pods at once. However, the actual encounters have small maps with few real tactical options. Furthermore, there is no strategic planning possible. You can't choose to sneak around the back, or send an operative to flank. Also, it has one of my biggest pet peeves in games, which is when you can heal during an encounter but not between encounters. I found myself intentionally delaying ending an encounter to give my healer time to top everyone off. This effect isn't so bad in Chimera Squad -- only one of the roles can heal, and it's not required. Also, you can change the settings to automatically heal between encounters. Perhaps I could try playing where full-heal was enabled on missions when I send the healer but not otherwise. It still doesn't help with the suit of armor that slowly heals the person wearing it.

Overall

In the end I could finish my first campaign because I wasn't engaged. Perhaps I needed a harder difficulty setting. But really, the tactical battles were not deep, there was no exploration and strategy during missions, and the "world map" decisions were not especially deep or interesting. There is a lot of competition for tactical games out there. Chimera Squad is quite good at that and is cheap, so in the end I would recommend it for that. However, I hope XCom 3 has a lot more meat to it.

Another similar tactical game is Into the Breach.

Curious Expedition

Curious Expedition

Curious Expedition is an entertaining roguelite game. 

Who Should Buy It

Anyone who is a fan of the turn-based roguelite genre should enjoy this game, at least for a while. I petered out after 20 hours having played fewer than half the available classes. It's not nearly as deep as some of my favorite roguelikes, like Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, but it really scratches the itch to explore and there are some fun systems going on. 

Who Should Not Buy It

This game is so cheap and accessible, I'd recommend it to just about anybody who showed interest. However, if you aren't a fan of strategy, roguelike, or turn-based games, this isn't for you. Also, the art style is very retro, which could be a turn-off for some people.

The Room 3

The Room 3

There are currently three episodes of The Room. It's a beautiful escape-room style of puzzle game. The plot is interesting but can be ignored if you just want to do puzzles. For the most part, the game is pretty linear. There are a few satisfying opportunities for cleverness, but for the most part you just appreciate the artistic design. 

Normally I prefer deep puzzles, but those are easy to get in other places. The lore and beautiful design make The Room (and sequels) very satisfying to me.

Frostpunk

A city-building survival game.

Frostpunk

If I had known this was the same developers as This War of Mine (review), I would not have played it. Still, it was fun for the 10 hours it took to see the first story.

Overview

Frostpunk is a game that tells a story of survival while building your base and exploring the world. There are a number of resources to manage and varied ways to manage them. The dropping temperature is a unique mechanic that informs how your base will evolve. 

Story

The story aspect of Frostpunk is strong. I tend to ignore story in favor of gameplay, but Frostpunk has numerous choose-your-own-adventure style decisions to make, and those decisions have a large impact on the story and the gameplay. I imagine the game would be fairly dull after one or perhaps two playthroughs.

Base Building

Not bad. The interesting temperature mechanic breathes some life into what would otherwise be a mediocre building game. 

Technology Tree

There are two different tech trees. One is very typical of the types of research we have seen a thousand times. The other is a system to write laws. It is interesting in that the effect happens immediately, with a waiting period before another law can be passed. At first it seemed the laws were neutral in that they provide both a bonus and a penalty. I expected it to be an interesting way to respond to emergencies -- for example you could set guards to patrol, which would reduce crime but require more labor. However in practice, laws have little downside and you generally want to pass new laws as quickly as possible.

Exploration

You can build scouts to explore the surrounding world. This is pretty neat, but really it's just one more option for resource generation. "Should I build another coal mine for coal or a scout that will discover random resources?"

Should You Buy It?

If you liked This War of Mine, then yes. If you want to see an interesting combination of survival, base-building, and storytelling, then yes. If you want to explore difficult moral choices in your strategy game, then yes. Otherwise, no. Frostpunk combines these elements in an interesting way, but doesn't excel at any of them.

Rimworld

Sims, survival, and base building.

Rimworld

Rimworld is a fun game of base-building and survival. Depending on your settings, it can be brutal and unfair. 

Gameplay

Rimworld is largely a sim type game where you give your dupes/pawns/sims do all the work. However Rimworld has a bit more micromanagement than most. Quite a few things have to be ordered directly. Also, there is very little automation in the game. The job priority system is pretty good, but there are many situations that are not covered so be prepared to frequently override orders.

Goals

There is a lot of sandbox in Rimworld. Simply surviving can be challenging and it's easy to make your own goals. The victory condition isn't especially satisfying but there is a lot of fun to be had on the way.

Compared to Other Games

Dwarf Fortress: Rimworld is very much like Dwarf Fortress but more accessible. The graphics are primitive and the interface is decent but not great. It's not especially noob friendly, but compared to dwarf fortress it's a piece of cake. There isn't as much depth as Dwarf Fortress, but there is as much "game".

Sims: If you removed graphics from Sims, it would have a lot of similarities. You build houses and manage pawns needs. You can do a lot of evil things in Sims, but nothing compared to Rimworld where you can harvest organs, get your enemies addicted to narcotics, and sell slaves.

Oxygen Not Included: ONI is nicer to play, a better sandbox, and much prettier. It feels smoother, like Rimworld has disjointed systems cobbled together. ONI also has a great system for automation of machinery and pawn. While I generally think Oxygen Not Included is better, Rimworld has more game to it. For the most part it's easy to survive in Oxygen Not Included but beyond that you have to establish your own goals. It's a whole lot of fun getting to those goals but challenges are self created. It's "fun" figuring out how to clean the carbon dioxide from the base, but it's your fault you got there in the first place. Rimworld throws periodic events at you that have to be dealt with immediately.

Recommendation

Watch someone play for a bit. If the art style is a turn off, skip it. I liked it a lot, but I burned out after 100 hours and that doesn't come close to Oxygen Not Included.

Slime Rancher

Slime Rancher

Kind of a simple silly game but it scratched an itch. I liked the collection, exploration, and base building.

Everspace

Everspace

Not my thing. I've never loved keyboard+mouse for action spaceflight. This game doesn't seem to add much to the genre.