Earlier this afternoon, Jared and I gave Traal [Free] a spin. It's a top-down horror slash puzzle game that tasks you with solving the mystery of a dungeon while avoiding its various inhabitants and spike-y obstacles. Don't let the simplistic, almost retro-y visual design fool you: this thing requires some serious patience and wits.
Look familiar, maybe? Traal first appeared as a flash game. You can play it here with a keyboard. That page, by the way, notes that Traal is the end product of a 48 hour dev cycle, which is kinda blowing our minds.
Anyway, if you're in the mood for something different on iOS, this might be it. We love the ideas and themes, even if bits of the scenario design are a little wonky. Give it a look below:
Breach Entertainment's Shardlands [Free] now has a free version on the App Store. And get this: this version includes three levels that aren't in the full game. So, even if you've been up, down, sideways, and otherwise all over the original release, there's a reason to try the free one anyway. Kind of a weird strategy, right?
Shardlands, if you didn't know, is billed as an atmospheric puzzle game and that feels pretty true to what's going on. In the game, play as a person who wakes up in some sort of magical cave and is tasked by a talking spirit with collecting shards that, for some reason, have the power to transport you to other caves. Shards can also give you magical powers, like say, telekinesis, which comes in handy whenever you need to construct makeshift bridges out of platforms. Give it a look:
Earlier this afternoon, Jared and I sat down with Momonga Pinball [$2.99], a pinball game with an impressive layer of presentation slapped on top of it. In the game, you'll play as a flying squirrel tasked with taking down a band of owls that sacked his village and, as if that wasn't enough, kidnapped all the folks who were living in it. In practice, this boils down to flipping the squirrel into targets across a bunch of colorful objective-based levels.
Think pinball, but with adventure game sensibilities thrown in for good measure, and you've got a good idea of what this game is all about. If that word picture doesn't do it for ya, we've got some video below.
We're still not sure about Momonga as a whole. If you don't dig pinball at all, you probably won't dig this. But the visuals are off the chain. See if it clicks with you.
Fans of the Myst series should clear their plans for this weekend as Riven: The Sequel to Myst [$3.99 / $5.99 (HD)] for iPad just hit the App Store. We posted recent details from Cyan on this enhanced version last month. Also, in the event that this is also news to you, Myst [$4.99] has been available on the iPhone for quite a while as well as realMyst [$6.99 (HD)] for the iPad which abandons the slideshow nature of the game in exchange for a real fluid 3D world.
Forum user Candykiller dug up this really awesome "Making Of" video which I hadn't seen before of Riven, and really, this serves as a fabulous introduction into the game even if the video quality is a little low. Check it out if you're into what went into developing these classic games-
Riven is a huge game, clocking in at over 1GB for the iPhone and 2GB for the iPad once fully installed, so if you've got a smaller device you might need to clear some room.
As we mentioned back in December, Minecraft Pocket Edition [$6.99 / Free] passed the 5 million units sold mark (and that's before including the crazy download numbers from Christmas) and developer Mojang was busy working on an update for release later this month or in early February. A couple of the Mojang team members responsible for the Pocket Edition have taken to Twitter to dish some details about what we might be seeing in this upcoming version 0.5.1 update.
Jens Bergensten, who was a lead designer for Minecraft on desktop and recently jumped over to work more heavily on the Pocket Edition, tweeted yesterday that the sand and gravel blocks in Pocket Edition will soon succumb to the effects of gravity, just like in the desktop version. He also tweeted a picture of clouds which fellow Mojang'er Johan Bernhardsson has added to Minecraft - PE. You can see a screen of those clouds below, but Johan goes on to mention that only newer devices will support the clouds while slower, older devices will remain with a pure blue sky.
Hopping back over to Bergensten's feed, earlier today the developer tweeted a picture of some new blocks that are coming to the mobile Minecraft, which you can see below. If you are a big player of Minecraft on desktop or console then chances are those blocks will look pretty familiar. Below that are a couple of screens showcasing some new block-placingbehaviors which the team is testing out, but will depend on how well they work with the whole touch interface of the game. Finally, Jens says that armor will "probably" be a part of the version 0.5.1 update too.
While the new update stuff certainly sounds cool, what everyone has been asking about since the beginning is when proper caves will come to Pocket Edition. Well, bad news folks, as Jens reveals that generating caves causes too much of a performance drop so they aren't planned for the immediate future. While on the topic of things not coming to Minecraft - PE right away, his twitter feed also reveals that the Enderman won't be appearing on mobile at this time and the online multiplayer that is planned for the Pocket Editionwon't be coming in this next update either.
But hey, I don't want to be a Debbie Downer talking about things not coming to Minecraft - Pocket Edition, because the reality is that the mobile version has grown by leaps and bounds since its initial release and our review back in November of 2011. Having Jens Bergensten working on the mobile edition will I think accelerate its progress a great deal too, as he's even stated that the Pocket Editionneeds to catch up to the desktop version. That gets me excited.
Look for version 0.5.1 to hit in late January or early February, and we'll continue to stalk these poor Mojang employees' Twitter accounts scrounging for information. We'll also keep our eye out for some official announcements regarding Minecraft - Pocket Edition straight from Mojang's website.
At first or second glance, The Blockheads [Free] might strike you as just another one of those 2D Minecraft games. And while that's kinda true, The Blockheads has a lot more to share outside of punching trees and ore. It has its own secrets and style, as well as a neat party component that has you recruiting and using other avatars to hollow out your own place in the game.
If you've been kinda struggling with learning everything The Blockheads has to offer, we got your back. Earlier this week, we talked with the game's creator David Frampton about some of the basics of The Blockheads, as well as some high-level strategies. Here's some of the things we discussed.
The whole roguelike thing can seem kind of intense—the permadeath, particularly. It's all struggle and strife and the near-inevitable fall. It's hard to relax when you know each and every move could be your last, after all. Dungelot [$1.99 / Free] makes the whole formula much simpler.
It's the mythical casual roguelike, in fact. Yes, you will die. You will die often. On the way to those deaths, though, things will be relatively relaxed. Combat is simple. Inventory management is simple. Exploration is a matter of flipping tiles and seeing what's underneath. It's almost perfect for the world of casual mobile games.
"Almost" sounds ominous, but there's only one thing seriously holding Dungelot back right now: there is no save system. Now saving isn't always a roguelike thing, but it's kind of a problem when you switch to another app and your game is gone. Or when there's a crash and your game is gone. Or when… well, you get the picture.
Skygoblin's The Journey Down [$2.99] is a classic point and click adventure with a certain visual similarity to Grim Fandango, due in part to the way that many of the characters' faces are modeled on African tribal masks, and a setting and mythology that owes as much to African diasporic culture as Grim Fandango owes to Latin American traditions.
The game's actual protagonist, Bwana, comes from a long line of blundering adventure-game protagonists: Roger Wilco, Guybrush Threepwood, Sam & Max, and Liz Allaire, among others. Despite this, it took me a little while to become comfortable with the antics of Bwana and his brother, Kito.
In the gaming culture we have, a game where most of the characters are neither white nor some "stand-in" for Caucasian (pale-skinned elves, for example), is automatically significant in racial terms. At first, Bwana and Kito's cheerful and careless ignorance was uncomfortably reminiscent of a Stepin Fetchit routine, as they are surprised that the power company cut them off over a mere four grand in unpaid bills.
The reference to the old "lazy and ignorant" stereotype, and the fact that Bwana and Kito speak with a distinctive Caribbean accent, seem like the setup for a series of stale Rastafarian stoner jokes. Thankfully, as the game progresses, the characters grow beyond the stereotypes. The truth about Bwana and his brother is that they have lived by clinging to the literal and metaphorical edge of society, and are being not-so-slowly "pushed off." Thus their journey to the fabled Underland is both an escape from desperation and (potentially) a cultural allegory.
I don't want to make The Journey Down sound like something other than what it is: a comedy adventure game. For a comedy adventure game, it does contain some serious elements and broader themes, as well as the usual productive misuse of everyday items that characterizes the genre.
Technically, the game is well-put-together, with a very convenient swipe-to-show-hotspots mechanic and low overhead: it ran well on my old 4th gen Touch, and better on my new Mini. The art is original and fresh, and the reggae-jazz soundtrack is superior.
The puzzles are of middling difficulty and they all make sense, but are run-of-the mill fare overall, with one exception that I won't spoil here. The voice acting is good, and many characters have optional dialogue branches that provide tantalizing clues to the nature and mythology of the world. Unlike, for example, Telltale's The Walking Dead [Free], dialogue isn't used to make key decisions with lasting consequences.
Like The Walking Dead, The Journey Down is serial, and this game is part one of four. Seriality and a black protagonist are just about the only common points between The Journey Down and The Walking Dead, and that's not a bad thing. The combination of lighthearted play and serious themes in this game fits with its world and it's own Bwana-like story: a free retro-styled version of the first chapter (PC only) attracted enough positive attention to drive the commercial development of the series.
I'm looking forward to the forthcoming chapters of the series, but my ultimate judgment of the series will depend on how Skygoblin handles the larger themes in the world and the continued development of the characters, especially Lina, a confident and intellectual woman who is clearly central to the plot, but who spends this game waiting for Bwana and Kito to get their act together.
The mobile and touch version of adventure game sensation The Last Express [$4.99] is now on sale on the App Store. Starting now and for a limited time, you can grab it for $2.99 instead of its usual $4.99. Not bad at all, eh?
A fun note: this is the first time Dotemu has offered The Last Express at a discount. It was released in October of 2012, and has stayed at its launch price despite seeing a few updates since.
The Last Express is widely seen as a fantastic adventure and mystery game. Its look is certainly dated, but it does have some pretty interesting things to share. Soak in its focus on the micro elements of an adventure game while enjoying puzzling out a conspiracy.
The first time Lost Treasures of Infocom [Free] hit the scene it was 1991. The treasures weren't actually all that lost at the time —all the games had been published in the '80s and Activision had only dissolved Infocom two years earlier. Now, over twenty years on, it seems a bit more reasonable to call them lost.
"Treasures" isn't much of a stretch either. Interactive fiction is still chugging along nicely in some of the quieter corners of the gaming world, but there's no doubting that the text adventure was in its heyday in the 80s. Zork, Trinity, A Mind Forever Voyaging—Infocom's games defined a genre. If you've ever typed your way through a game you're probably playing something inspired by Infocom's parser, if not its games. From standing in an open field west of a white house all the way to depths of cyberspace, Infocom explored the universe.
Mike Singleton's The Lords of Midnight [$4.99] was originally released for the ZX Spectrum in 1984, on magnetic cassette tape. It was quite possibly the most ambitious game of its time, and you can see the roots of the modern open-world RPG in it as well as its influence on later strategy games and the development of the graphical adventure game. The iOS port is by Chris Wild, and his devotion to the game, and its sequel, Doomdark's Revenge is obvious.
The first thing that will strike most players is the unique look of Lords of Midnight. Rather than embrace the "pixelated" look of most classic and retro games, Singleton and Wild decided to keep the aesthetic of the original, with its bright, crisp primary colors, while sharpening the images to the resolution of modern devices. The result is distinctive and perfectly lucid in its presentation of meaningful information, but it does take a little getting used to – at first, the game looks like a construction-paper version of Lord of the Rings.
Certainly Lords of Midnight is deeply and unabashedly indebted to Tolkien. The scenario is familiar: on the night of the winter solstice, the Witchking Doomdark invades the lands of the free. Disunited human lords, fey creatures of the forest, and tower-dwelling wizards must be united to fight him even as one unique individual, Morkin the half-Fey, sets out into the heart of the enemy's territory in a perilous quest to destroy the Ice Crown, the focus of Doomdark's power. There's even a wretched Gollum-like creature, Fawkrin, who may play a crucial role in the story.
Unlike its inspiration, however, Lords of Midnight includes contingencies. To win, either the armies of Luxor the Moonprince must conquer Doomdark's citadel of Ushgarak, or the Ice Crown must be destroyed. The game is lost only if Morkin is killed and the armies of the free are defeated. Moreover, there are are at least two ways to destroy the Ice Crown, but I'll say no more of that...
Lords of Midnight bills itself as "epic" and still feels epic today, even thought the world is smaller and can be explored much faster than in a modern RPG. This is partially due to a remarkably clever multiple first-person perspective system and a turn-based mechanic in which each of your characters can use up the hours of the day independently, and then Doomdark's forces move by night.
I keep comparing Lords of Midnight to the modern RPG, but the developers describe it as an "Adventure Strategy game." There are no levels to gain, or skills to learn in Lords of Midnight. Inventory plays a nominal role and is managed automatically, and combat is resolved instantaneously and without explanation. The look and feel, however, is much closer to Wizardry (1981) than Kings Quest (1984), and Morkin's quest feels more like the sneaking about that Frodo and Samwise do than the object-use puzzles of text and graphic adventure games.
I think modern players will find the Strategy component of the game more familiar, as it plays a bit like an ancestor of King's Bounty (1990) and especially the subsequent Heroes of Might and Magic games. You recruit the diverse Lords of Midnight to your cause, and they in turn recruit infantry and horsemen at fortifications. Armies only travel with a hero/lord, and they can meet other armies on open ground or lay siege to the enemy's keeps and citadels.
Heroes without armies can fight Doomdark's scattered minions (Wolves, Skulkrin, Trolls, and Dragons), but have no chance against an organized army. The difficulty curve is surprisingly flat for these lesser battles, and hard to predict unless your hero has one of the "-slayer"swords, which seem to give a 100% success rate against the specified enemy type.
In my first game, Mokin encountered wolves on the first turn. Figuring he could take a few wolves, I told him to fight, and then he was (permanently) dead. That's it. One entire path to victory foreclosed before turn 2. In another case, I had a different hero fight dragons without an army or Dragonslayer sword on the first turn, and he slaughtered them.
This is one of the legacies of game design of the period that may make it hard for some fans of modern games to get into Lords of Midnight. Another is that not only do clashes between armies happen between turns, but there's no combat report: to find out how many soldiers each side lost, you have to go to the Lord(s) in question (assuming any of your heroes still live).
Clues that are strategically helpful and/or relevant to Morkin's quest can be garnered at towers and occasionally elsewhere, but the process is tedious and the average answer is useless, something like "the Lord of Utarg can be found at the keep of Utarg." It seems like the best strategy is to play a couple of games just to gather information (the game is not randomized in this way), and then play to win. On a related note, the in-game tutorial tells you that you don't have to read the included novella, but if you don't, you are likely to waste time trying strategies that are intended to be impossible, like trying to confront Doomdark's armies head-on on the plains of Blood.
The game's interface is well-designed for touch, and is easy to navigate and use with one significant caveat. At least on my 4th gen iPod Touch, I had to aim low on or even below the smaller icons in order to select them. This sometimes caused problems with the pop-up tutorials, where missing the small book icon could cause the selected character to move forward one "space."
I mentioned the lucidity of the game's art before: this is one of its greatest strengths. Unlike in most modern overrendered games, you always know what you're looking at in Lords of Midnight. If there's an army far off on the plain, you can see their banners but not make out their numbers. When seeking a magical "henge" or one of the towers of the Wise, you will be able to see it in the first-person view before it shows up on the automap (unless something tall, like a citadel or mountain range, is directly in the way).
Once you get used to the game's combat mechanics and the touch sensitivity, this clarity of vision makes it easy to avoid "stupid" mistakes. The way you can play a couple of minutes at a time with no worries about losing your progress and little concern over forgetting where you were shows both that the original game is suited to mobile play and that the adaptation plays to that strength.
If you're interested in classic games, especially fantasy and/or strategy games, Lords of Midnight is a must-have. On the other hand, if you are an action gamer whose idea of "old school" is Goldeneye 64, you'll want to give this one a pass.
Mike Singleton died this past fall, and with him any possibility of a long-intended final game rounding out the trilogy. Wild's release of the iOS version on December 21st, 2012, the winter solstice and the night the world was "supposed to" end but did not, is a fitting tribute.
2012 had a lot of cool surprises and good games, as you've probably noticed. But not all of those good games could be neatly categorized. This post is for the weirdos, the games that straddled too many genre lines or are members of genres that have too few rad games to sufficiently flesh out a "best of" post.
You'll see some oddities in this listing -- games that really stretch the meaning of game or apps that just have stupendous gaming elements. There's also titles that can be firmly categorized, and would have been, if there was more to celebrate.
It'll be interesting to see what 2013 will bring. Will we see way more card games than we did this year? What about open-world god games? New trends might have us re-thinking the way we categorize and the lists we bring to you.
For now, though, here's our best of the best of the rest of 2012.
Topia World Builder, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Topia World Builder has the creation and the emergent systems we look for in a solid god game, but shrugs off messy scenarios. In the game, you can build valleys, rivers, trees, and animals. Then, you can watch world you've created work. It's kinda wild.
Hatchi - A retro virtual pet, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Hatchi is a spiritual successor to the Tamagotchi. In the game, you hatch a pet monster and then care for it, subtly changing the way it grows and forms as you do so. The retro visuals and simplistic mechanics might be a drag for some, but for those of us who had a pet monster on a keychain, they struck the right chord.
Magic 2013, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is a brilliant follow-up to a rad series that not only show you how to play Magic the right way, but allows you to jump in without plunking down dollars for cards. It's also nice that the core action of Magic is front and center throughout. This is truly a joy.
Zombies, Run!, $3.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - If you like jogging, but hate the tedium that can sometimes come along with it, consider giving Zombies, Run a try. It measures the distance you run and all of that jazz, but it also tells you a great survival story in the process. The audio has some neat hooks in it that gets you running faster, as well as systems that reward you for the effort.
Shufflepuck Cantina, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Shufflepuck Cantina is what happens with adventure game meets sports game. Presented as a "space western," Cantina tasks you with dominating a bar's shufflepuck table, while also learning about the world's creatures, characters, and mysteries. It's weird, but we think you'll dig the game's commitment to seeing its premise through.
Organ Trail: Director's Cut, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Organ Trail is an awesome little satire that rips on Oregon Trail. In the game, you play as a survivor of a zombie apocalypse on a journey to get his friends to a so-called Safe Haven. Along the way, you'll have to hunt for food, as well as repair your car's tires and mufflers. This is one you shouldn't miss.
Micro Miners, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This is a weird one. In Micro Miners, you control a horde of little miners and are tasked with collecting every possible scrap of resource as a screen scrolls eternally downward. Solid controls bolster the experience, while a great art style really sells it.
Skee-Ball 2, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Skee-Ball 2 is, oddly, a big favorite around here. It's a Skee-Ball game through and through, but it feels remarkably good, boasts a ton of lanes and balls, as well as a good amount of collectibles to obtain as you rock out.
Role-playing and adventure games are great when you've got a lot of time to burn, want to participate in a massive story, or just want a game that's meatier than normal. We want them to fill up our lives, to hook us, and not let go. That's just how it is.
These are well-explored genres on almost every platform, including the relatively new ones like mobile. As a result, developers have a ton of expectations to manage. They've got to nail scale and scope. They've got to create uniques universes and fill them with interesting enemies, villains, characters, and scenarios. And most importantly, they've got to wrap this all up in a cohesive, accessible package.
A ton of RPG and adventure games were released in 2012, but only a few were able to really deliver on those promises. Our listing is of the best games that delivered.
Walking Dead: The Game, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - [ TA Plays ] - Walking Dead: The Game is a five-part episodic series that takes place in the gory and wretched Walking Dead universe where the people are often much more dangerous than the undead. The adventure told a genuinely heartbreaking tale. Great writing, superb voice, and great controls allow you to feel the emotions the game wants you to.
Penny Arcade's On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - One of the more remarkable things about Rain-Slick Precipice 3 is how it melds old and new school RPG design into one coherent package. This is a funny game and a deep game, as well as thoroughly entertaining one from a story and combat perspective.
CHAOS RINGS II, $15.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - In a lot of ways, Chaos Rings II is the quintessential JRPG. It's kind of grind-y, it's linear, and the story is nuts. But, Chaos Rings embraces what it is, much to the game's credit. It's a refined take on the genre and the tradition, both meaty and familiar, as well as consistently solid.
Squids Wild West, $1.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - The thing we appreciate about Squids the most is how action-y it feels, despite the fact that it's ultimately a turn-based strategy RPG. Superb art and sound work bolster combat and the game's various RPG systems, which by the way, are really good.
Ravensword: Shadowlands, $6.99 - [Review] - [Hands-on] - [Forum Thread] - Crescent Moon Games continues their legacy of offering Western-style RPGs with vast open worlds to explore and stellar visuals in Ravensword: Shadowlands, the follow-up title to the 2009 original. Shadowlands raises the bar yet again for what is possible on a mobile device. You can spend hours with the lengthy main storyline, and partake in dozens of side quests along the way. Shadowlands is a fully-realized world that fits in your pocket, and is just begging to be explored.
FINAL FANTASY DIMENSIONS, Free - [Review] - [TA Plays] - [Forum Thread] - Square Enix managed to capture the feeling of their earliest Final Fantasy titles with Dimensions, and it felt incredibly at home on mobile. Probably because it was originally released for mobile phones in 2010 before releasing on iOS this year. We reviewed the free initial version just to see what kind of experience it offered for zero dollars, and it's actually pretty cool how you can buy additional chapters as you go through IAP.
Saturday Morning RPG, Free - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - This game offered a pretty simplistic, retro-feeling RPG experience at its core, but earned its merit by tickling our '80s nostalgia bones with witty and humorous dialogue along with a mind-blowing amount of parodies and nods to some of our favorite childhood memories. Saturday Morning RPG continues to grow and expand too, getting progressively better with each new chapter released.
Liliâ„¢, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - [TA Plays] - Lili is an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous game, and even was used as a showpiece for the new widescreen iPhone 5 when it was unveiled. Beyond just looks though, Lili managed to do some pretty progressive things for an action-RPG-adventure game. First its protagonist is a smart female devoid of the typical sexed-up stereotypes reserved for females in many games. Second is that it employed a completely non-violent form of combat, which actually played right into the game's overall them quite nicely.
Devil's Attorney, $2.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - [TA Plays] - Devil's Attorney took the basic idea of a role-playing game and took it in a really interesting direction. Here your role is that of a sleazy attorney who must defend some equally sleazy clients. Your turn-based battles play out as courtroom cases, with the plaintiff and defendant sides each exchanging blows. Its style and humor added to the whole experience and really pushed it to the top of iOS games released this year.
McPixel, $2.99 / [Free] - [Forum Thread] - [TA Plays] - Oh man, McPixel you guys. Essentially a point-and-click style adventure game, McPixel lets you loose in a variety of completely absurd scenarios. Inspired by the MacGruber character on Saturday Night Live, which itself is a parody of the MacGyver TV show, you'll need to learn how to diffuse each situation before blowing yourself up or otherwise killing yourself and others in various crazy ways. Like classic point-and-clicks, the answer is rarely the obvious or logical choice, which is all part of the fun.
Arranger, $0.99 - [Review] - [Forum Thread] - Probably one of the most unique adventures you can take on iOS this year is in Arranger. It's heavily retro-inspired and revolves around exploring a crazy world in search of your full set of musical instruments. The style of the game is often over the top and crazy, which adds a lot to the appeal. Its focus on music and inclusion of tons of neat mini-games made Arranger a standout title this year.
Earlier this morning, Eli and I spent even more time with Waking Mars, our 2012 game of the year. Waking Mars [$4.99] came out before we started our video series, so we decided to do a TA Plays with it to close the coverage loop. It's a lengthy video, so buckle up.
It goes without saying at this point, but Waking Mars is fabulous. One thing we kind of key in on during this video -- outside of our riveting GDC and Denny's discussion -- is how awesome Mars's systems designs are. Specifically, the ecosystems aren't strictly just a product of your own interactions with the ground. Plants can plant Plants and set off tornadoes of emergent activity. It's a neat touch.
If you haven't seen Waking Mars before, this is a good way to jump in. The video shows the entire first chapter of the game and ends right as the second begins.
I wasn't expecting Choice of Kung Fu [$2.99] to be my new favorite in the Choice of Games lineup. My first thought was "okay, a gamebook fighting game, well, why not." I expected plenty of fight scenes and lots of attacks named after animals. The opening scene of the game, a bandit attack, immediately delivers on both. What I wasn't expecting was the depth of historical, mythological, and philosophical accuracy to the game.
Before I lose any of you, let me assure you that you can play the game for the fights: there are plenty, and they are engaging. You can even play through the game as a brash and hot-headed fighter with no interest in enlightenment or mysticism.
Earlier this afternoon, Jared and I gave Traal [Free] a spin. It's a top-down horror slash puzzle game that tasks you with solving the mystery of a dungeon while avoiding its various inhabitants and spike-y obstacles. Don't let the simplistic, almost retro-y visual design fool you: this thing requires some serious patience and wits.
