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.