Ratropolis

Ratropolis is advertised as a fusion of a roguelite, tower defense, city-building, and deck-building game. I'm not really sure about the roguelite part, but everything else is kind of correct. You have a little rat town, a deck of cards, money slowly ticking in, and enemies pouring in in waves from both sides. You interact with the world through cards, which cost money, usually create buildings, create more money, or spawn units to defend your town. Occasionally you recycle your hand and draw a new one. Add in some events to gain new cards and a few other things, and that's most of the game.

While the idea of this kind of fusion is nice and all, the execution is pretty terrible. The game doesn't look all that great, doesn't have a good variety of cards, and has some pretty serious bugs, like enemies clipping through your defenses sometimes and destroying your whole town while your defenders are busy with the ones who didn't clip through the walls. I don't have a lot more to say about it even. It just needs way more content, way more polish, and more stuff to do. Even with optimal gameplay, I'm kind of just spamming cards and maybe waiting for my redraw cooldown to finish. There isn't a lot of thought to be put into decision making.

So, short review, but yeah, there isn't much to talk about. The city building is weak, the unit diversity is weak, the enemies and combat are weak, the strategy is nonexistant... It's just an overall boring game, and I can't recommend it to anyone.

The Messenger

Among the older games I still had left in my backlog, I tried The Messenger today. It's a retro platformer metroidvania from 2018, with, honestly, a surprising amount of content in it. This short description actually describes the game quite well, as there isn't anything remarkably unique to be found here.

I have to start with the usual disclaimer that while I like metroidvanias, I'm not a fan of platformers, so anything leaning more on the platformer than the action combat side isn't going to sit all too well with me. Such was also the case with The Messenger, and I didn't get too far in the game. While it initially looks like there are quite a lot of enemies in the game and even some boss fights, everything still comes down to your platforming skills. A big feature of the game, at least in the beginning, is that by attacking something mid-air, you refresh your jump. These can be environmental objects, but are often also enemies or projectiles they fire. For that purpose, most enemies respawn after being killed to facilitate the platforming aspect.
You will later also get to experience a sort of grappling hook that propels you forward, as well as portals that lead you to a different version of the same map, and probably a few other things. I didn't get that far, as I got upset at the numerous instant kill traps in the game that set me back quite a bit, and so I quit. I will entirely take the blame for being weak-willed on this, but as mentioned, I'm not big on platformers, so any minor gripe will deter me.

I must, however, praise the amount of hidden and optional content there is in the game, as well as the amount of detail that went into minor aspects. They could have just given upgrades at regular points in the game, but they let us have some choice in what to buy in the store. They could have just respawned us at a checkpoint, but they gave us a little devil who joins us on our journey and eats a portion of our earnings instead. And they could have gone without having every character quip jokes at you, but despite usually being adverse to anything funny, they actually got a few laughs out of me.
On the negative side, I also didn't enjoy the "retro" feel of the game, as the low-resolution graphics weren't amazing, and much of the platforming didn't feel very weighty. Especially the mid-air jump refresh mechanic felt very unsatisfying to execute.

Overall, while I didn't like The Messenger due to my general aversion to platformers and the forced retro aesthetic, which I think hurt not only the graphical quality, but also how the game feels, I can believe this to be a fun platformer for fans of the genre. The main complaint about the part of the game I didn't get to is that it actually turns into a metroidvania, instead of a more-or-less linear platformer. I suppose I can't have an accurate opinion on what I haven't experienced, but having more content isn't bad if you like the game. It's not that long of a game. In any case, I can't give it a personal recommendation, but that doesn't mean you absolutely shouldn't play it.

Still There

Man, what a piece of art Still There is. Unfortunately, I don't say that in an entirely good way, but luckily, not in an entirely bad way either. I went in expecting a somewhat technical game about operating a complex machine with bits of story woven in at intervals. I got... almost that.

Still There is mostly a point & click game, meaning it's more about finding the right things to click, rather than solving a puzzle, and definitely not about getting to know your intricate spaceship controls well. While the controls of the spaceship look complicated, they are like that mostly because there are a lot of them. If they were all properly labelled, the game would become quite a bit easier, but then it also wouldn't take you much time to complete it. Additionally, the same controls aren't used many times, meaning that by the time you might learn them, you won't need them anymore. It's probably for the best, considering the puzzles don't have a lot of substance to them once you know what you're doing. On the other hand, I can't say I had any fun at all with the trial and error of finding things out either.

So the puzzles aren't very fun. Sadly they make up for about 80% of the game. This does include the time spent looking around inside the spaceship, which I must admit is intricately crafted. This is half of why I called the game a piece of art. The spaceship may be illogically complicated and the puzzles may lack actual substance, but they look really good, which is also what made me want to try this game in the first place. That's not a bad thing, but I'm afraid it also doesn't nearly compensate me getting bored of doing them.
The other half of art is the story which is sad and is mostly told in a very slow and abstract manner. Maybe that style would work somewhere else, but I feel that due to the story making up for such a small portion of game time, and the game being short overall, it comes together to less than a 50-page book equivalent. Something that short can't afford to tell itself that slow. In the end, I can't say it made me feel much.

In conclusion, I would most definitely not recommend Still There for the gameplay or puzzles. But there is definitely a charm to the game that is rather rare to find, and that I think might appeal to some people. I don't really resonate with it enough myself to say who those kinds of people are, but maybe if the idea of staying in a lonely, claustrophobic space ship, being affected by emotional trauma, and spending your days doing overly time consuming and convoluted tasks is a vibe that speaks with you, you could give it a try.

Bright Memory

Bright Memory (and it's sequel, Bright Memory: Infinite) got an explosive and very positive reception as soon as they launched. I believe this was the main reason prompting me to try them, as I heard they were mostly solo projects, and so the popularity of the reception was very impressive.

Bright Memory is a first-person shooter where your character also has an assortment of abilities to be used. The game focuses on high action combat and rewards more points for combos, prompting for slightly flashier gameplay. There is a clear focus on graphical fidelity and combat, although there is also a story unfolding. I'm rarely a fan of stories, but even by someone else's standards, the story is not worth experiencing. But what about the rest of the game?

Honestly, I was aware that Bright Memory is a very short game, lasting for about an hour for the first installment, and three for the second one. What I hoped to get for that brief time was impeccable combat, jawdropping visuals, and just maybe, a good-looking main character, since I don't think they made revealing costume packs for her for no reason.
While none of those aspects of the game were bad, they really didn't live up to my expectations. Sure, for a supposedly solo developed game (which I have some doubts about), it looks and plays great, but I've seen both better combat and better visuals from many shooters. So I don't really understand what the huge positive reception was about.

Overall, I don't really see a reason to recommend it. The gameplay is fine, but not amazing, and the whole game is so short that even if you did enjoy it, it would be over very soon. The developer quoting monetary constraints for the second game sounds silly, since the first should have brought in on the order of several million euros. If they ever decide to make a full-length game, I might try it, but I wouldn't try another one of this length.

Minit

I've had Minit in my library for a while, and I finally got around to playing it. It's published by Devolver Digital, who publishes a lot of indie games by various people. Some are games with more tried-and-true mechanics and a significant amount of content, and some are more experimental things, like Minit here.

Minit is a very short game, apparently completed on average in some 2-4 hours. It's also a very simple game, only giving you an interact key in addition to basic movement. The gimmick is that you only have a minute (hence the name of the game) to play, before the game starts all over. Most importantly, you, as the player, retain your memories, so you become better with each run at accomplishing your goal, whatever that is. I guess it's also important that items you find show up at the start on subsequent runs, and a few actions in the world persist, but not most. The game doesn't give you a concrete goal, rather sending you off to find things to do. It does have an end though, and if you are so inclined, you can browse the achievements to find ideas what to strive for.

Despite its short average length and absolutely nonexistant run length, it quickly lost my interest. I would say the idea is new, but I've been aware of Outer Wilds since maybe 2015, and a couple other less-known games that explore this sort of time loop. Especially in the case of Outer Wilds (though I haven't played the release version), it has a longer time loop, and a much more interesting world. The time loop gimmick does not do anything for the game on its own, and Minit's gameplay is boring. The world is barely interesting, the puzzles are basic, and I'm not somehow more captivated by having to restart every minute.

So, I wouldn't recommend Minit. Not only is it too short, it's also too unremarkable. If the idea of restarting the game every minute is, for some reason, very appealing for you, go ahead, but from an adventure / puzzle game standpoint, it's quite shallow and boring.

RollScape

Something possessed me to try out a rather unremarkable game that just launched instead of going for another from my backlog. RollScape seemed like a simple dopamine hit that I could beat under 2 hours and refund. Not that I want to abuse the developer, but because I genuinely don't believe it's a good game or a worthwhile purchase. And I was mostly right.

In RollScape, you roll a six-sided die and move forward that many alternating black and white tiles. Each tile starts out with giving 0 points, but the shop at the side lets you buy upgrades which increase the amount of points you get. You can also upgrade your die to roll bigger numbers, and there's a few special upgrades as well as powerups at milestones in the game. The points give you both, well, points, to buy more upgrades, but also energy, which lets you buy more rolls. As upgrades and energy costs get exponentially more expensive, it's your goal to make good enough decisions (and have an amount of luck) to stay ahead of that exponential curve.

It's a very basic incremental game loop with a failure mechanic. I'm sure most of the effort was spent making the graphics, but even then, this is easily a solo project that maybe took a few months. It does what it needs to, but without even a metaprogression system, there really is nothing to do after beating the game in an hour. There are some extra game modes, but it's basically just more of the same. It's a fine game for an hour, but nothing new, and not worth the price. I wouldn't recommend it.

Plebby Quest

Plebby Quest tries to be a more casual take on the grand strategy genre, probably most inspired by Crusader Kings. I figured that since my main problems with Crusader Kings were its excessive micromanagement and too large a focus on roleplaying, then something like this might be a fun little alternative. How wrong I was.

Plebby Quest definitely does have more of a focus on gameplay, with interpersonal relationships and successions not even being a thing. You simply control a country and fight against other countries. Diplomacy still exists with trade and alliances though. The second biggest difference (after not having to worry about succession) is the heavy focus on individual generals and troops. Both can level up, giving more troops to generals, and increasing the stats of troops and even allowing them to learn new abilities. You also take personal control of all battles, issuing commands to all your troops, giving you more influence over the outcome. Further, the game is not real-time, but instead is played in turns, with each general giving you one action per turn to be spent on combat, gaining resources, research, or something else.

There's more stuff in addition to what's listed above, but there's no point in going into all the little details. It's still much simpler than any grand strategy game, while having a somewhat similar feel. While the simplicity is fine, there are two major problems. One is that there is somehow even more micromanagement. I can not set things up according to some rules. Every turn, I have to tell every general what to do, and if it's not combat that I have to oversee, it's some other little minigame that they decided to insert because they thought just playing the main game wasn't fun enough? I don't know. The minigames were fun the first 10 times, but if I have to do them every turn, they get quite tedious. Secondly, the clicking. Oh god, the clicking. I have no idea who in their right mind decided that everything needed to have, without exaggeration, three times more buttons to click than necessary. I should not need to manually dismiss each source of income every turn. I should not have to listen to some character giving me three lines of dialogue every time I buy a medal for a unit, which I can do three times a turn. In fact, all the dialogue they added is insane. Flavor text and descriptions are fine, but I have to dismiss every single dialogue like a pop-up box.

I can't comment too much on how good the game is outside these problems. It's probably fine - I didn't see any balance issues or anything like that. But the two issues I listed above make the game unplayable. I, again, do not exaggerate, when I say that the turns could probably be around 10 times shorter if pointless clicks and minigames were excluded. After just two hours, I was beyond frustrated. I was angry that I was wasting my time and the game wasn't progressing. Sadly, these issues are far too deep ingrained into the game. It's hopeless, and I can't recommend anyone play this.

Prime Mover

A slightly older programming puzzle game today - Prime Mover. It has clearly taken inspiration from Zachtronics games, most noticeably the leaderboard at the end of each level, showing how well you did compared to others. But what about the gameplay? Is it any good?

Primve Mover is a game about moving numbers from the input(s) to the output(s), transforming them along the way. This all happens on a small grid, with the numbers moving on the board, step-by-step. Aside from basic wires, you're also given a duplicator, an alternator, a deleter, and a piece that sorts by positive/negative/zero. You also have an adder/subtractor, a lock, and very powerfully, a piece that toggles an adjacent piece.
While playing the tutorial for these pieces, I already noticed it was rather dry. The game introduced the pieces very concisely, but it felt more like learning than playing. There were some story bits mixed in, but for god knows what reason, they had decided to write it in non-human letters, so I had no idea what the story was about. Similarly, interacting with the board was really, really annoying. I kept accidentally deleting pieces, or putting down wrong pieces, or wanting to shift the whole puzzle around by a few squares, which was luckily possible, but an absolute nightmare. The "coding" part of the solution should be frictionless, not this.

After the tutorial, I wasn't smoothed into the game. The puzzles immediately jumped in difficulty a whole lot, which was also kind of jarring. I noticed two key problems with the way the puzzles were made. One is that, due to the slow nature of the numbers and the importance of which order they were output, it was important to synchronize different parts of the circuit. The only tool for that was the toggle-and-lock combo, but that required that the two circuit pieces to synchronize be next to each other, which meant running a lot of extra wire. Normally, one could count that as being part of the space constraint, but because this game actually has infinitely nestable subboards, it has infinite space, and near-infinite maneouver room. The developer claims this is a defining feature of the game, but I find this to be a terrible crutch that excused the developer from actually designing his puzzles well. Perhaps if I could save the subboards as components that do more advanced operations that I could re-use later, but no such luck.

Overall, while the puzzles Primve Mover presents are interesting and difficult, the tools for solving them are not. The developer has not managed to make a user-friendly UI, and hasn't managed to make good use of the spatial aspect they designed their game with. Ultimately, I feel the game boils down to writing code with just very basic operators and a lot of boilerplate, which is more tedious than it is fun. Programming puzzle games always have to walk the fine line between feeling like a job and feeling fun, but I think Prime Mover falls significantly more into the "feeling like a job" side, and thus I can not recommend it.