Demo Dive week continues! Too many games, too little time. As unfortunate as it is, playing and writing a little tidbit on every single demo I am dipping my toes in would be likely impossible. Nonetheless will make sure to talk about at least a few, those that managed to tickle my fancy, to raise some emotion inside my gizzards. Today I'm looking at three fun games in a broad variety of genres! Let's roll.
THE OPERATOR
Holy dang that was too brutal of a cut-off! I wanted so much more to play, hooked instantly, and then the demo ended. I almost got upset about it, not gonna lie. THE OPERATOR is a new game in this emerging genre I would say of 'connect the dots, find the clues' games, that aren't exactly your regular detective story. You're not at the scene, never there in the grime and the dirty, but sitting behind a screen, using tools of invigilation to scrounge up kernels of information to fill up a bigger picture. It's like assembling a puzzle without having the corner pieces! The first game that introduced me to this flavor of clue-based investigations was ORWELL - a brilliant piece of fun. This one is woven from the same fabric for me.
You're a fresh agent of the Federal Department of Intelligence, a cushy desk job when you're in short terms a hotline for field agents. Whenever the action Janes and Johnnies get stuck on their cases and need to find out any tidbit of info that can help, they call you, in broad strokes. Your job? Find the data. Collate it. Scrounge every piece for inconsistencies, and find the missing pieces to help the case.
All that wrapped in a hugely immersive setup. The game itself is your federal PC screen, with the apps, notepad, command prompt - the whole shebang. Every interaction seems to be fully voice-acted, which is impressive to be sure. Even that short demo managed to make me appreciate the design and the vibe the game sells. The music sounds excellent, and the engagement was high from the start - it's fun to hold this power of information and use it well. But the biggest selling point for me was how the case was handled. It wasn't some rudimentary search for keywords or a matter of getting some obvious pieces. You analyze pictures and camera feeds. You check numbers and data. You even need to tinker with settings on devices to find out the details you've been missing before. It's interactive in a way that is so very satisfying to play with. I'm impressed and now quite starving for more - when does this game come out again? Hope it's tomorrow!
NECROKING
Awesome. That's the word I'm going to use. I didn't expect it either! It's not some underhanded throwing of shade from me, just... The screenshots don't sell the game as well as playing it does! NECROKING is a deckbuilder, roguelike strategy game where you guide your army of skeletons as an undying lich lord to glory! You wander through the countryside, pillage villages, gather power, increase your mana and most importantly - build your deck of minions. It has all the trappings you'd expect; Melding cards together to upgrade your summons, using various shops to level up yourself in your run, modifiers to difficulty, you name it.
There isn't much innovation on display, your mind won't be boggled by some unique feature or mechanic. The combat has a bit of freshness to it, though. You need to be very wary of how are you spending your resources, which are limited and in demand. Good placement of your units on the battlefield matters as well, and bad positioning might lose you in a battle. The freedom to traverse the big map adds to the fun too, giving you as little or as long as you need until reaching the goal to test your deck against the boss.
It's plain ol' fun. The animations and pixel art style are precious. The game has excellent pacing, always something to do, to chase. Even in the limited demo, I could already see potential in various decks, focusing on different units, strengths, and even spells. Pretty excited to play the full version.
HEXOCITY
God damn it's Dorfromantik. Yup. That should conclude the demo review, really, and it's not even a comparison to slight the game. I love Dorfromantik. Everyone loves Dorfromantik, gods damn it! But okay, to be fair, HEXOCITY has a few things going for it that make it stand out from the big father of the genre revival. Things I would love to see included more often in tile-laying games. First, and foremost, we have the auto-snapping. Love that. Delightful. The way a tile automatically rotates to try to snap to the surrounding tiles already matching the sides properly is a great quality-of-life improvement. Or how about getting little abilities that keep you in the game by letting you refresh tiles, delete them, or even make a perfect tile for your needs? Excellent!
So okay, seems HEXOCITY provides some unique bits and bobs that make it stand out well and on its own. It was fun. Addictive in that good, tingling way. I didn't even realize where half of my night had gone while playing the demo. It looks great, sounds great, set in this clean, synth-wave aesthetics. The demo's single mode right now does not limit its replay value and I had a blast chilling to the jazzy retro-funk tunes when assembling my little island utopia of the near-future. If you're looking for your next injection of tile-laying game, check this one out.
Comentários