Some puzzle/farming/sim games
Feb. 20th, 2023 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrFirst, a games recs rec! Puzzle Lovers on steam have an incredibly thorough library of puzzle and narrative game reviews, and I've had a lot of fun poking the discount section to find a varying selection of fun little games on deep sale.
That's not where I got all of the games below, but I did get them all significantly on special, and I'm not sure I'd rec any of them full price. The only one which would run on my mac was Townscaper.
Return to Mysterious Island, Winkeltje: the Little Shop, Detective Grimoire, Mystery Solitaire, Nullum, Moves, Staxel, Townscaper, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town
Games I enjoyed:
Return to Mysterious Island: 2004 point and click adventure game, mostly about figuring out which items to combine and use for what problem. This was genuinely pretty good, asides from being dated, and whitewashing Captain Nemo. The plot is very basic (woman gets stuck on a mysterious island, figures out how to get home, encounters some mysteries on the way) but the protagonist is endearing, and the puzzles are well constructed and integrated with the story. I had to use a walkthrough at a few points but mostly because I'd missed picking up an object.
Winkeltje: the Little Shop: Plotless management sim, where you buy/craft/grow materials and sell them for a profit, then expand your shop, fulfilling a long series of challenges. I enjoyed this a lot for like 10 hours then suddenly had had enough and stopped. I usually find this genre too stressful but the easiest mode is super easy. You have to pick one of two gendered body types for your character but can switch between them at will and it doesn't affect anything. I didn't get very into the decorating mechanic but it seemed fun.
Detective Grimoire: a mildly entertaining murder mystery point and click puzzle game. Amusing in parts, and mostly pretty straightforward, but I vaguely recall needing a walkthrough for some parts and I didn't realise there was a Suspicion mechanic I could have gotten extra story/points through until the game was over.
Mystery Solitaire: Arkham's Spirits: plotless basic solitaire game with spooky aesthetics. Worth the $1 I paid for it but not good.
Nullum and Moves: Little puzzle game with different mechanics involving rearranging numbers to cancel out. Ok. I apparently played for 20 minutes total but they were in a bundle for like $1.50.
Games I was meh on:
Staxel: a blocky farming sim with a Minecraft aesthetic. Didn't grab me. You have to pick one of two gendered body types.
Townscaper: Cute little town building toy. Perfectly fine I just got bored after like 30 seconds.
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town: This is one of the games that inspired Stardew Valley, and I'm sure it's a lot of fun if you can get into it. The gameplay seemed fine and the aesthetic was very cute. The writing was cliched but adequate, but so heteronormative that it set off my dysphoria and I had to stop playing. You have to pick one of male or female but all the romances are playersexual, and the love interests all seemed pretty cute in a tropey sort of way.
That's not where I got all of the games below, but I did get them all significantly on special, and I'm not sure I'd rec any of them full price. The only one which would run on my mac was Townscaper.
Return to Mysterious Island, Winkeltje: the Little Shop, Detective Grimoire, Mystery Solitaire, Nullum, Moves, Staxel, Townscaper, Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town
Games I enjoyed:
Return to Mysterious Island: 2004 point and click adventure game, mostly about figuring out which items to combine and use for what problem. This was genuinely pretty good, asides from being dated, and whitewashing Captain Nemo. The plot is very basic (woman gets stuck on a mysterious island, figures out how to get home, encounters some mysteries on the way) but the protagonist is endearing, and the puzzles are well constructed and integrated with the story. I had to use a walkthrough at a few points but mostly because I'd missed picking up an object.
Winkeltje: the Little Shop: Plotless management sim, where you buy/craft/grow materials and sell them for a profit, then expand your shop, fulfilling a long series of challenges. I enjoyed this a lot for like 10 hours then suddenly had had enough and stopped. I usually find this genre too stressful but the easiest mode is super easy. You have to pick one of two gendered body types for your character but can switch between them at will and it doesn't affect anything. I didn't get very into the decorating mechanic but it seemed fun.
Detective Grimoire: a mildly entertaining murder mystery point and click puzzle game. Amusing in parts, and mostly pretty straightforward, but I vaguely recall needing a walkthrough for some parts and I didn't realise there was a Suspicion mechanic I could have gotten extra story/points through until the game was over.
Mystery Solitaire: Arkham's Spirits: plotless basic solitaire game with spooky aesthetics. Worth the $1 I paid for it but not good.
Nullum and Moves: Little puzzle game with different mechanics involving rearranging numbers to cancel out. Ok. I apparently played for 20 minutes total but they were in a bundle for like $1.50.
Games I was meh on:
Staxel: a blocky farming sim with a Minecraft aesthetic. Didn't grab me. You have to pick one of two gendered body types.
Townscaper: Cute little town building toy. Perfectly fine I just got bored after like 30 seconds.
Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town: This is one of the games that inspired Stardew Valley, and I'm sure it's a lot of fun if you can get into it. The gameplay seemed fine and the aesthetic was very cute. The writing was cliched but adequate, but so heteronormative that it set off my dysphoria and I had to stop playing. You have to pick one of male or female but all the romances are playersexual, and the love interests all seemed pretty cute in a tropey sort of way.
