21 July, 2017

Friday 13th: The Game Review

I was going to write a detailed review and put effort into it, but since the devs don't seem to care I won't care either. In Friday 13th, you can have a great time or a terrible time, depending on who you play with and the amount of bugs you run into. Generally from what I've found it's people who don't speak English, with those who do speak English either teamkilling you for fun or being excellent people.

The gameplay itself is pretty nice. You don't need to run scared all the time and you can actually fight back against Jason, though it's more of a way to buy time so you can get away than anything else. If you run, there are a large amount of invisible walls around the map, making it a risk to go anywhere that Jason won't look for you. Luckily, you do have the advantage around windows and cabins, and you are faster when you sprint.

The best part about this game, in my opinion, is that you can talk to eachother and Jason while playing. Trash talk, pleading, and misdirection brings a lot to the game. Telling Jason that the others are escaping in a car will make him usually pull out his map to see if the car moved, buying you precious time. And not just once did I hear someone plead for their life and told them I'll save them for last. Out of everything, being able to meaningfully interact with people the rare few times they know English is what makes it fun.

But then the bad is plentiful as well. Only three maps, many councilors being just terrible in general, a kickstarter-only Jason that is just flat out better than any other Jason you can ever hope to get and bugs+exploits still in the game long after launch leads to a feeling that this is not very well managed or planned out, and ultimately combining these factors with the devs being ban-happy at the wrong people and ignoring the people who do need to be at least warned leads to me concluding that this deserves a negative as it stands right now. At the very least until the devs bring about a serious effort to address everything they've been ignoring now.

Friday 13th is a nice idea, that was almost there. It's massively overpriced for what it does and would have been great if it was done by someone who actually gave a shit. Wait for a substantial sale if you do want to get it, because what they're asking for now is too much.

14 July, 2017

Predynastic Egypt Review

Predynastic Egypt is a resource management and optimization game in which you overcome trials and ordeals and establish Egypt as unified kingdom.
From humble beginnings with simple decisions to make to managing a large amount of workers while planning several turns ahead, Predynastic Egypt offers a pleasant if a bit simple of an experience. There aren't a lot of different mechanics involved, but they do not need to be. With a simple foundation and easily controlled, intuitive basic gameplay you'll be able to manage your tribe and deal with what Egypt has to offer. Multiple difficulty options allow you to customize the game to your liking while everything is explained in enough detail that you will not have to worry about not knowing what is going on, though it still doesn't give you more information than you really need.

One concern is replayability. As it is the same map every time, with the same ordeals every time at the same turns it becomes predictable and later playthroughs will feel repetitive. At the highest difficulties, it's all about solving everything perfectly, with perfect timing on everything and good luck on the random events. If you enjoy achievement hunting, you will get plenty of replayability out of it, but otherwise there isn't much reason to play it a second time.

As for the trials and ordeals, they are challenging when you first go through them, but fair. With a bit of planning and forward thinking you can win the game on your first try. Playthroughs after the first will make it a lot easier and unless you actively avoid doing them it is difficult to really fail at any of them.

A relaxed atmosphere and simple base mechanic means this is mostly a casual game, pleasant to play and worth the time to get it, Predynastic Egypt does what it tells you it does, does it very well, and overall delivers a good experience at a good price.