Medieval Merge

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Time to get medieval in: Medieval Merge

Today's game is a merge game that doesn't give you very much room to work with. You arrive at a town overrun with enemies and strange vines. You must create or find weapons and tools to complete the quests. You can have multiple quests at once that are tracked by a quest log. This game also features limited energy that prevents you from playing long at all. There is also a premium currency that is used to buy more energy or missing pieces you need to merge up a step.

When you click on your scroll button, you get a list of all the quests that are around you. Some of them are locked behind a level cap. From my understanding, you can have up to 6 different quests at one time from my time playing this game.

The main game screen has a very limited amount of space compared to other games like this. The game starts you off with many producer items that take up space and you are forced to manage several different items lines at once.

Now like other merge games, you get a backpack where you have to buy more space with coins. You really have to focus on this one to get the most space that you can.

A quick view of the Option screens. Nothing stands out here that I feel I need to talk about.

If you run out of energy, you can click on the green plus button by the energy vials and watch a video to get free energy or pay premium currency to continue playing.

Next, we move along to your player level. As you complete quests you gain experience and gain a new reward for each level. You have to level to unlock new areas to explore.

We finish up the screenshots of this game with a picture of the shop. This game is very microtransaction heavy.

Overall:

 3 of 5 cogs.

As much as I like merge games, this game just felt too tedious and I gave up playing this game after trying it out for the blog. This game doesn't offer much that is unique compared to other merge games.

Story:

 3 of 5 cogs.

This game has some story. I didn't get very far but it seems to be a fairly standard story. Town gets taken over by monsters and the hero must fix everything because the villagers are inept.

Amount of ads:

 Optional only

There are only optional ads in this game for getting more energy or recharging item producers.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I do not recall ever seeing an ad for this game as I just downloaded it from the play store. The screenshots in the play store are accurate and not clickbaity.

Graphics:

 5 of 5 cogs.

I know I gave this game a middle-of-the-road rating but this game does have nice graphics. The style is very cartoony and has exaggerated shapes. The style is a bit unique compared to other games I've played.

Gameplay:

 3 of 5 cogs.

Tedious and very constrained compared to other merge games. I lost interest in this game because it's too difficult to do anything to advance.

Free play:

💯%

Yeah, the game is free to play but it's extremely difficult to get too far without obtaining more backpack space in this game.

Fun factor:

😐 Mediocre.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted on my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

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Case Hunter

 

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Dig up your steam-powered case files with: Case Hunter: Brain Funny Cases

Today I bring to you a simple point and click game where you play a detective. You have many scenes you play through and have to solve a few msyeries. A lot of these are very easy to play. This game is gender inclusive and features very rare gender fluidity. You have 2 main currencies and an energy bar that refills rapidly. I've nearly beat all the case files in just a couple of days. I will go over what currency is used where later in the blog.

You get a 7 day log-in bonus. You can watch ads to get double the currency. You can unlock at least 2 skins from the daily log-ins. 

Moving on you can use the ever common blue diamonds as way to unlock more skins. Each one of these skins appear to give a permanent buff to different categories in the game. I do not know if the effects stack but these effects only seem to work for the Tycoon style mini-game.

A very simple option screen. I won't spend too much time here as there is nothing special here at all.

Clicking on the shop menu brings you up to this menu. You can buy a few things here. Further down in this menu you can also buy special furniture themes for the hotel mini-game.

Each level gives you a breifing of what your goals for the level is. Each level generally only takes up only one screen, but sometimes you can move to other locations as well depending on the task. You literally must check everything to collect any items you need. Sometimes you can find blue gems in a level but there's a catch. A strange cat collects them in a kind of bank. Which you can only collect by paying real money.

When you complete a level you get a collection of coins. You can double these with a video if you wish. When you fill up the bar you can get a chance to collect a chest with bonus items. Sometimes you can earn blue gems this way. If you get a chance to collect a chest, you can also watch a video to claim all 3 boxes instead of just one random one.

After you play along the main case files, you will unlock the ability to run a hotel. All your coins go into buy a new room and filling it with various equipment. As you progress you unlock special rooms as well for your guests. Over time guests will have requests for you and you must give them different items. You get these items, at random from a timed delivery system. This often leaves you with a problem of sometimes not having any items. In that instance you can buy the item with blue gems or you can watch a video to get a small chance of the item you need being given to you. Lastly on the left you will get the ability to hire staff members that will also help provide for your guests. You can hire them for a short time using diamond or by watching a video. When you give enough diamonds or watch enough videos they become perment staff memebers.

You can click on the paint brush to enterinto design mode. Each item can be switched to a new theme. You can buy individual items yourself with diamonds, or watch a video to permently unlock the style for each room. Each style adds to your hotel's stars which are needed to progress more in the mini-game.

Finally when you clear enough files, you unlock special case files. Here it uses the same kind of mechanics but you have to collect clues and solve the mysteries. Most of these are easy and you could potentially solve them all in one sitting.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

Overall, this game has some promise but it seems to be in early development still. The concept is fun but there is not much content at all. This is a very middle of the road game, and very incomplete. There are many easter eggs in this game as well.

Story:

 3 of 5 cogs.

This game has some story as your slowly uncover clues about the drive the whole story. Sadly the story is incomplete so I can not score this any higher.

Amount of ads:

 Optinal only

This game has no random ads that pop in your face but there are many different optional ads you can watch to unlock stuff. This game handles ads pretty well when they load. Sometimes I have to fully close the game and restart it to get ads to properly load in the background.

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I downloaded this game from watching a video but I think there are similar games like this on the market. I can not say for sure if I got the same one in the video as none of the evens are in this game. Lastly, the screen shots in goggle play are accurate.

Graphics:

 3 of 5 cogs.

The graphics remind me heavily of Gravity Falls or Rick and Morty. Not really much else I can add to that for this blog.

Gameplay:

 3 of 5 cogs.

The gameplay is straight forward but very lacking. The game has a good base to start with but there isn't enough content to keep anyone playing unless it updares frequently.

Free play:

💯%

You can unlock everything if you are very careful and watch enough bonus videso in the shop to earn the blue gems. This game won't take you long to complete so I hope this game gets more updates soon.

Fun factor:

🌈 colorful.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

Thank You for reading my blog. Please consider donating to the tip jar as these are tough times and every bit helps. You can get updates by joining my newsletter. If you enjoy these reviews please show others this blog by retweeting or liking my posts on social media.

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Sliding Sea

 

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Load up the steamboats with refugees from: Sliding Seas

In this game, you are a survivor of a cruise ship that sinks. You become the mayor of this island and it is your job to build up the island and rescue other survivors. As you rescue others, the island slowly builds and grows. You can have survivors build other buildings to help everyone survive. Some levels allow you to retrieve lost items from the sunk ship and these allow you to change the scenery of the island. There is only 1 currency in this game and it is a premium currency. You can sometimes gain these blue diamonds from bonus crates that float in the water.

The Options menu gives you the ability to could save and find some hints. You can view other important information here if you choose to.

In the shop, you can watch a video every day to earn some free diamonds. Here you can buy a few different packs that give you power-ups and diamonds. You can spend diamonds to buy more powerups or retry a level. The last use is to refill your hearts as well.

You can click on one of the buildings you have to pay diamonds to change it to another type and you can see which VIP runs the building. VIPs will be recovered later in the blog. If you max out the level of the VIP that runs the shop, you get some kind of reward. I have yet to accomplish this so I do not know what the rewards are.

This game features 3 puzzle types I've run into. This one is the lost item mission where you must match water tiles to increase how rough they get. You make a match by a crate to start breaking it open. You can use one of the 3 different power-ups to progress in the level. The game does a good job of describing what they do so I will skip over them. The other two types of modes involve rescuing survivors. You can match tiles under the survivor to start forming solid land instead of ice like in the above screenshot.

The result screen gives you diamonds on each completed level. If you rescue more than the minimum amount listed you gain bonus diamonds. You can also watch an ad to double the diamonds you gain.

Rarely a survivor is a VIP and you need to prioritize getting these survivors to safety. I did not notice any increase in diamonds for rescuing them though.

on this screen, you can choose the skin for your VIP. Some of these VIPs have multiples you can save to gain a different look/person. As you do so, each VIP seems to be tied to a single building.

Over time you are given random quests to complete within a time limit. These can be for power-ups or sometimes diamonds. You tend to have 2 physical days to complete these tasks. 

Lastly, you can play some events that are limited time. These ones seem to have an independent energy system and you have to watch videos to gain bonus tries. These events give diamonds and other decorations.

Overall:

 4 of 5 cogs.

Overall, this is a unique match 3 game that does things a bit differently. The game feels repetitive but as I have progressed, I've unlocked a couple of different game modes, but there could be more that open as you complete levels. There seems to be a finite end to this game and there is some content to keep someone going for a while but I feel it would run a bit thin after a long time.

Story:

 3 of 5 cogs.

There is only a little bit of story I've run across in this game so far. It isn't the best setup but it gives a loose reason why you are doing things. As you unlock new buildings you get small clips of story as well.

Amount of ads:

 low

There are options for ads to gain various bonus gems but I can not remember if there are any ads in between levels. 

Accurate Advertising?:

💯%

I've only seen the video ad for this game maybe 3 or 4 times. The ads did not run very long from what I remember. As for the screenshots in the play store, everything is forward and transparent about gameplay.

Graphics:

 4 of 5 cogs.

The graphics are simple and bright, though they do not really stand out as unique. The art style is very similar to many other mobile games.

Gameplay:

 4 of 5 cogs.

As I have transcribed so far, this game has a few more interesting mechanics than the standard match 3 game. It is a nice change of pace from many games I've played in the past. I do not know how long a shelf-life this game will have but it is a relaxing game.

Free play:

💯%

Yeah, there are no paywalls that prevent you from progressing in this game other than a limited number of hearts that prevent you from eventually playing as much as you want. Though this game is pretty easy and you won't lose too many hearts.

Fun factor:

⛵ Full of water.

Are you an indy programmer or game dev?

If so, you can leave a comment or contact me on social media for a chance to have an interview with you posted to my blog. I am looking for many devs that focus on mobile programming. If you have a cross-platform game, that is fine too as long as it's on mobile.

Thank You for reading my blog. Please consider donating to the tip jar as these are tough times and every bit helps. You can get updates by joining my newsletter. If you enjoy these reviews please show others this blog by retweeting or liking my posts on social media.

Throw a cog(tip using PayPal) to your blogger.

Or you can donate with CashApp at #HakuzoSionnach.