Reviews by green_knight

Haunted Domains
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Marvellously Haunted

This game takes a common concept (matching colours/requests in specific workflows) and adds three dimensions, multiple locations, and many funny details. (Werewolf Elvis impersonators? All present.) It also pulls off the trick of being challenging without being overwhelming: this is tremendously playable. The game never makes you feel stupid or unlucky when you fail a level.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Apr 27th 2018

Sticky Linky
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Fun Physics

This is a great idea, but could have done with a little more polishing (the uninspired name gives it away): some of the levels are uneven (I hate having to rely on luck to be able to solve a puzzle); you're at the end of curated levels before you realise (and the last one is a stinker). My feeling after finishing was less 'oh, wow', than 'meh'. Worth having, but this will never be a favourite of mine.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Apr 23rd 2018

Dinosaur Hunt
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Never got to 'play'

I got this deeply discounted on Steam, figuring that at a dollar I could not get wrong. I went into the first tutorial area, a dino came out of nowhere and killed me. And that's pretty much how every effort ended: I had no chance to dodge or kill my enemies, and half the time, I could not even see them in advance of being eaten. This was not a fun experience.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Apr 9th 2018

Mount & Blade: Warband
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Let down by controls

I am writing this review with a torn heart. On the one hand, I really appreciate what this game is trying to do - the graphics, while not the bestests evar are good enough and smooth enough to allow full immersion; and I wanted to love this game.
I found it unplayable because the gameplay is *too* immersive - you have to mimic your character's moves closely with that imprecise instrument, the mouse - move to left and click, move up and right-click, each stroke has a precise counterstroke. The game also gives you a perfect horseriding simulation - you'll find yourself going round in circles and being ignored by your horse - but my hand-eye coordination, combined with occasional computer lag does not allow me to actually PLAY. The only way I could hit targets when mounted was to halt the horse and stab feebly. Which is a shame, but however nice this game looks, it is not worth the time to learn how to master even basic controls.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Feb 21st 2018

The Mahjong Huntress
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A lot of puzzle game

(own it elsewhere)

The one niggle I have with this is that some of the puzzles are impossible to solve - if by 'solve' one means fulfilling the preconditions - without using additional powers. The story itself is amusing (and does not end in clichee, yay!); and when you're done with THAT, there's >200 further levels. If you enjoy an unconventional mahjong, this is the game to get.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Dec 24th 2017

Hard West
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Hostile Environment

(I own this game elsewhere)

Any game unintuitive enough that I can only play by going online to work out the mechanics will never be my favourite. The harshness and gore I was somewhat prepared for (though they are not favourite features in any game), but what turned me off completely was the female NPC being fridged in the very first scene. You don't want me to enjoy this? Fine. I'm not enjoying it. Goodbye.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Nov 23rd 2017

India Garden
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Feels phoned in

(played the demo, decided not to buy)

I've got Chateau Garden by the same developer, and have played it _a lot_. This is almost the same game with a little difference - small adjustments in gameplay (but more similar than different), different level design, somewhat different graphics (but same layout) for the 'garden design' part. Same music.

Given how much I love Chateau Garden, I was hoping to like this just as much - instead it felt tired and repetitive. I don't think it matters _which_ of them you buy - they're great on their own - ... just don't buy both.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Nov 21st 2017

King's Bounty: Armored Princess
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Slightly Fragmented

This is a nice follow-up to the original King's Bounty: the difficulty is a little more uneven (leading to much running around in the hope of finding an enemy I *could* beat), some of the changes in gameplay were annoying rather than enhancing gameplay, but there's a great selection of new troops that offer new gameplay.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Sep 22nd 2017

King's Bounty: Warriors of the North
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Downhill trend

This is a game I never finished because it simply went on too long and I lost interest - there are a lot of interesting troops and quests, but I was also running into a fair few bugs (I struggle with the miniature text, I can play around the invisible troops, though they make fights... interesting, but not getting rewards for completed quests sucks.)

I also hated being railroaded by the story: You have to fulfil quests that I really did not want to do in order to proceed, and then you get told 'you should not have done this'. Well, duh.

Overall, you're better off replaying the first two instalments in this series.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Sep 22nd 2017

Torchlight II
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Fun Dungeon (and elsewhere) Crawl

I liked this better than the original - you get to go out into the landscape a bit more, it's not quite as linear, which means you have more terrain to use strategically.

I got 40+ hours of enjoyment out of this; wholly recommended.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Sep 22nd 2017

Ballad of Solar
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Keeps its promises

This is the kind of game you play when you have no brain and need something that's quick and amusing: the graphics are a bit twee, but in a good way, and the gameplay is straightforward. This game makes a real effort to create an ongoing narrative, which I appreciated.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Sep 22nd 2017

Alice's Patchwork
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Fun Images to puzzle out: what's not to like? Quite a bit, actually.

Turns out, the gamification of it. You can see only five pieces at a time, they're often very obscure (which would be good), in order to progress you must solve these puzzles very fast and without a single mistake. This often means restarting a level until it's possible or until you've memorised the exact position of all pieces.

I find it ironic that of all the games I play (which includes a fair few action games like Shadows of Mordor) this is the one where physical restrictions (inability to hold down the mouse button and move the mouse with precision for long stretches of time until I have found the right spot for a piece) lose me points/mess up levels most often. Instead of fun, I found this game stressful.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Sep 8th 2017

Fortune Winds: Ancient Trader
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Solid short-form game

Trade a little, explore a little, fight a little...

This is a game with very simple (but not boring) gameplay and marvellous, marvellous graphics, perfect for a quick round. You can adapt several different strategies, but the game never needs you to sit there with spreadsheet and calculator at hand.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Aug 31st 2017

Avalon Legends Solitaire 2
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Level 45. Had my money's worth already

This is a mixture of solitaire and kingdom builder, which makes mechanisms that otherwise often irritate me - replay levels to grind more gold - actually meaningful. The levels are lovingly crafted; both the visuals and the gameplay are keeping my interest so far, and given the varied level-up options, I would guess this has as much replay value as the excellent SevenSeas solitaire.

This is well-crafted in every aspect, and I am enjoying it tremendously.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Aug 30th 2017

Sakura Day Mahjong
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Gamification of Games

Play more to shuffle! Play levels over and over to be lucky enough to hit arbitrary targets (exact mode of scoring unknown) so you can unlock the next level! Waste a shuffle so you can see which tiles you're looking for!

Mahjong already *is* a game. It doesn't need to be gamified. I played this through once because I was curious about the last set of levels, but after I finished, I deleted it with a sigh of relief - and I continue to look for a Mahjong game that I *want* to replay for the sheer fun of it.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Aug 2nd 2017

Claws & Feathers
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Uneven puzzle game

It's also quite possibly the most irritating type of puzzle game: some of the gameplay is fixed and you need a good strategy to solve it, while some of the game is completely random and you need a lot of luck to succeed.This does not make for a good combination.
I found the levels either too easy (there's only one solution, and it's obvious) or too hard, with nothing in the middle, which leads to a lot of frustration and no replay value.
This is a well-crafted, amusing game; it just doesn't come together for me.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Apr 3rd 2017

Griddlers: Victorian Picnic
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Not There

I like the genre, I have liked other offerings from the same developer (Egyptian & Sherlock); I have disliked an older game (Asian Griddlers), but this is the one that makes me say 'no more'. Too many of the levels try to be cute insetad of solvable (when there is more than one solution and you need to go by the preview picture or use hints, the puzzle has failed), and there's a bug in one of the sections that means you cannot play half the levels in it. The crowning glory is the level where there are too many numbers to fit on the display, so you solve the numbers you can see and surprise! make a mistake because there's an extra field you could not have known about.

This is a game that could have been fun if the developers had done their job and tested it with an eye to gameplay. 'remember the image and click the fields that come closest' is, I suppose, a game of sorts, but not the one I signed up for and spent my money on.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Nov 15th 2016

Detective Riddles - Sherlock's Heritage
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Does what it says on the tin

It's a collection of grid puzzles, nothing more, but nothing less. Unlike the 'Asian Griddlers' from the same developer, this is a bunch of challenging puzzles that will help you pass the time. There's no particularly strong story to this, but it doesn't need one. And for me, it works perfectly under 10.11, so no complaints about that, either.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Oct 28th 2016

Asian Riddles
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Not quite there

I bought this because I have the awkwardly named 'Egypt Picross Pharaohs Riddles' which I enjoyed very much. The pictures here are too symmetrical, which makes the gameplay more awkward, and several puzzles have more than one solution, so you end up guessing according to the picture rather than solving the puzzle as such. Equally annoying is that you can't cancel a bad guess in mid-move; together they add up to a rather unsatisfying experience.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Oct 23rd 2016

Egypt Picross Pharaohs Riddles
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Challenging Puzzle Game

This is a nice challenging game when you need a breather: you need to do maths in your head, but all puzzles had exactly one solution (even if some of them are very tricky); on the whole, much more addictive than I had expected.

by green_knight, United Kingdom - Oct 23rd 2016

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