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Thief Simulator 2:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The nine-to-five daily job routine hasn't been for you. From a young age, you realised that being told what to do and how to do it for a small amount of money per hour is ridiculous. Oh, and that hourly rate is the gross wage - the tax department is going to take a good chunk of that! "If you’re paying taxes, it means that you’re making money." No kidding! What you did discover, however, is that you enjoy working at night, being your own boss and making up to six months' income in one night, tax-free! You even get extended holidays with all expenses paid if you are unlucky and caught by the police. You'll experience it all in Thief Simulator 2.

Thief Simulator 2 is a first-person simulation game developed by Cookie Dev and published by PlayWay S.A. on the Steam platform on the 3rd of October, 2023. The game is also available on PS5, and the Xbox Series X|S will be released around September 2024. There is also a Nintendo Switch version currently in the works.

Thief Simulator 2 consists of a Story and a Free mode with three difficulty levels: Easy, Normal and Hardcore. If, like me, this is your first experience with a game in this series, I strongly suggest playing the Story mode - not only will the missions become progressively more challenging, but you'll also have new tutorials to show you how to use new gadgets and techniques as you progress through the game.

In the Story mode, you have infuriated some big guys in town. A friend of yours hands you a lifeline - he is willing to settle the issue with the gang in exchange for your doing some jobs for him and paying him back. Most of these jobs will take place on Maddison Street, where there are 16 houses to break into. There is apparently another street, but I haven't managed to get to it in my 15 hours of gameplay. There are also heists to complete, which can only be activated from your hideout.

Your first couple of jobs will be a walk in the park, but from there onwards, you'll need to elevate your skills and ensure you have a plan of action to complete your missions. It is essential to identify how many people and pets live in each house, along with their daily movements. There are a few ways to find out. The first one is to watch them from a safe distance, marking them using the middle button on your mouse and then clicking the right button to activate the Planning mode. That can take some time as the Planning mode will only record the individual you marked for five to six hours, and with 24 hours in a day you'll be watching the individual all day long. And if the house has four tenants, including pets, you'll be watching that house for a few days. The second option is to head up to your hideout and use the dark browser on your computer to find break-in tips for each house, including information on the tenants' routines, the security system and loot. But it will cost you money to access that information. Alternatively, you can plant a micro camera in the house letterbox for a day, but you'll only be able to discover the tenant's movements this way.

To get access to new tools so you can break into houses that have better locks and security, you’ll need to gain experience to unlock new skills. How do you do that? By stealing goods! Also by completing missions on the Hell Neighbour website, which vary from planting evidence, to stealing or breaking a specific object, to photographing rooms in a house. Accessing the dark browser from your hideout, you can choose Thief Contracts and Claim Rewards, and receive money for your trouble. Go to Joe's Pawnshop to sell any items that you’ve stolen, or check the Black Bay app on your computer first to see if you can get a better price.

Every time you level up, you'll gain a skill point that you can use to unlock a new skill. However, most new skills also require a level of experience. So, if the next skill to unlock requires you to be level five and you are only at level three, you must level up twice before you can unlock that skill. There are 31 skills to unlock, including eight special ones.

Regarding the gameplay, I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised. The camera movements and the animations are smooth. I like the fact that you have to plan your break-in, not necessarily meticulously, but you’ll need a specific plan for each different break-in. For instance, if you have to destroy an item, such as a washing machine, and the tenants are at home most of the time, a daytime break-in is out of the question - it must be at night, with all the exit points open and your car close by. There is a lot of stealth and suspense all the way. It’s fun to have to move super slowly around individuals sleeping in their beds, and open drawers, cabinets, and wardrobes really gently so as not to wake them. But what if they do wake up and spot you? Well, if the tenants are not armed and your car is nearby to facilitate your escape, even if the cops are called in, you'll probably be ok. But if your vehicle is parked a bit further down the street, you might need to hide somewhere, such as in a dumpster, under a bed or inside a wardrobe until the cops leave. It also depends on whether you’ve already been spotted that day, in which case the cops will be on higher alert and it will take a good while before they drop the search. I like the various actions, such as pickpocketing, unlocking doors with different tools, hacking locked stolen phones and laptops, opening containers with a torch and safecracking. Make sure you read any notes you find lying around, as they might contain hints about where to find a stash, such as a parcel code. And if you stroll in the park and the public phone rings, maybe take the call for a speedy mission. All these aspects work together to make Thief Simulator 2 a good game.

The graphics and the soundtrack are great. I haven't experienced any issues so far, although I understand the game was released a while back on PC. It has been translated into 14 languages and has achievements and trading cards.

Positives:
~~~~~~~

+ Great graphics and soundtrack
+ Two modes of play with three difficulty settings
+ The skills tree is small but relevant
+ The developers have thought the concept through and offered a high level of realism
+ It's fun, addictive, full of stealth and suspense
+ Achievements and trading cards

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~
- Large items such as televisions and printers that you throw out the windows don't break when hitting the floor.

They nailed this concept! Watch, plan and execute the perfect robberies and then sell the proceeds to the local pawnshop. Be super silent, don't be seen, and live through tense moments in Thief Simulator 2.

8/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Angelstruck:
~~~~~~~~~

This is it! The underworld supreme master has chosen you to reach the Holy Gates of Heaven. But the fight on your way there will be brutal as the Almighty has raised a humongous celestial army to defend it. Be ready to face his most trusted and fearless lieutenants; dispose of them individually and the Holy Gates will be yours!

Angelstruck is an action roguelike bullet hell game developed and self-published by Feral Paw on the 6th of July 2024 on the Steam platform.

The game has three levels of difficulty. The first two levels form the warmup, in which you must beat the first three bosses, and in the Easy level of difficulty you need to defeat five bosses. After you have managed to complete the second level, it will unlock the other two, which are the Hard and Nightmare levels.

After clicking on the start tab, you’ll land on a page where you can see all the perks and second weapons you can unlock. They are divided into four levels, each with eight perks and one secondary weapon. The first secondary weapon will already be unlocked, but everything else will cost you fire coins to acquire. Depending on your score, you’ll receive a certain number of fire coins at the end of each run. The more significant your score, the more coins you’ll receive. The other important point to know regarding the perks is that each of them has a loading cost. For example, all the perks on the first level have one loading cost, while all the other perks from the second to the fourth levels will cost from two to eight loading costs. When you select your perks from the subsequent runs, the chain above the first level, which has ten slots, will start to fill in. If you choose a perk with eight and two others with one loading cost, the chain will be full. What I like about this is that you can swap perks from one run to the next to see if they are beneficial for you to beat the game.

The gameplay will become challenging after you manage to beat the Warmup and Essay levels. The game is set on one screen with changing backgrounds as you beat stages. Your character will be on the large platform at the bottom of your screen, constantly running left and right to avoid incoming projectiles and enemies. It will also have the ability to jump and dash. Dashing can destroy enemies, which is an additional bonus. Each stage will consist of several waves of enemies coming from the top of your screen or appearing suddenly within the screenplay. The screen has two gauges: the one at the bottom is the second weapon, and the one on the top left side is the multiplier. As you destroy enemies, both gauges will start to fill in.

The weapon is divided into several slots, and if you have two of these slots, you’ll be able to use your secondary weapon twice at the standard power. If you let it fill in until the gauge is at the maximum, the effect will be far more significant when you activate it. The multiplier gauge will keep filling in over and over, and each time it reaches its full capacity, it will automatically apply an additional multiplier until you get hit by a projectile or incoming enemy; then, it will go back to zero and the process will restart. You can select an extra ability every three to four waves. However, you can only add five abilities during each of your playthroughs. Some of them are passive, such as the lighting, while others can boost your damage, add more bullets to your clip, get a shield and a few others. You can also upgrade these additional abilities until they become overcharged. If you have two of these abilities overcharged, you get a synergy that gives your character more significant attacks or defenses and upgrades the power of your secondary weapon. But bear in mind that you can only add five new abilities per playthrough. I enjoyed the different types of enemies as you move through the stages; some of them will drop green orbs occasionally. These orbs will replenish your health when you shoot them, and let me tell you, you don’t want to miss them.

The warmup and easy levels of difficulty were a walk in the park, but I have been struggling since I hit the hard level. With each playthrough, I experiment with different perks and constantly use different abilities while playing, but I can’t pass the fifth boss. This is a seriously challenging game, which is what you want. The first five bosses are pretty tricky, and understanding their sequences and attacks will take a while. What you need is to face them with full health; otherwise, you might struggle just like I have.

The graphics, sound effects, and soundtrack are excellent. The game is fluid, and the controls are accurate. I recommend playing with a gamepad instead of your mouse and keyboard. The game has been translated into ten languages and has full controller support. The only issue I encountered was losing all the perks I purchased after an upgrade.

Positives:
~~~~~~~
+ Great graphics and soundtracks
+ Four levels of difficulty
+ Good number of enemies
+ Ten bosses to beat
+ Fun, fast and challenging gameplay
+ Great price point
+ Achievements

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- No trading cards as yet
- Lost all the purchased perks after an upgrade
- Might be a tad too tricky for newcomers

Angelstruck is a well-priced, fast, addictive, challenging and fluid bullet hell game! It’s one of those games you always say to yourself . . . just another run!

8/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Contra: Operation Galuga:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Red Falcon is a terrorist group that has been coordinating strikes all around the globe. They've set up shop on the small Galuga Archipelago. When the archipelago was rained upon by a mass of small meteors, the Earth Federation government noticed the terrorists’ base and didn't hesitate to send their special GX-Army soldiers to destroy the criminal organisation. Everything seemed to go be going to plan until the Federation lost all contact with their soldiers. That was three days ago. The consensus is now clear: the Red Falcon is much tougher than anticipated. To add fuel to the fire, the Federation scientists' satellite networks recently detected a gravity anomaly, and the source of this anomaly started right in the centre of the Galuga Archipelago. Is the Red Falcon on the verge of creating the doomsday gravity super weapon? There is no time to waste. They have to send their last two elite soldiers immediately. Code name Contra: Operation Galuga!

Contra: Operation Galuga is a run-'n'-gun side-scrolling action game developed by WayForward and published by KONAMI on the 12th of March 2024 on the Steam platform. The game is also available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.

The game consists of three modes of play: Story, Arcade, and Challenge. The story and the arcade modes have eight levels, from average to lengthy. The challenge mode has 30 specific tasks to complete, each with win-and-loss conditions and some with a time limit.

You’ll probably start with either the Story or the Arcade mode. First, you have to select the difficulty level from Easy, Normal or Hard, as well as the health level. You can choose the health meter, which gives three health bars per life, or the 1-hit kill, which is self-explanatory. In the Story gameplay, you can choose between two soldiers, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, for the first two levels. As you progress, you'll unlock another three characters. At the start of each level, you choose your character; they will have three lives to spare throughout the stage. Your goal is straightforward: make your way to the end of the stage as fast as you can, kill as many enemies as possible and beat the boss of each stage. You'll receive credits at the end of each completed level, which you can use at the perks shop to help you on your next playthrough. The Arcade mode is pretty much the same, but you'll be able to select one of the seven characters available as long as you have unlocked them through the story mode. The other difference is that in the Arcade mode, you start with a certain number of lives to get to the last level and boss.

The gameplay is fast-paced and frantic, and the controls are super responsive. You can play with a friend on a local share screen or via remote play, and it will probably be super crazy. Playing single-player is also intense, and you must be ready to repeat stages several times before beating them. Out of the eight stages, you'll be running forward in most of them, shooting at incoming enemies and enemies coming from behind. But you'll also be double-jumping, dashing or lying down to avoid incoming projectiles. In a few stages, you'll be on this hovercraft type of bike, and it will be extremely chaotic from the start - it's really fun. There are a few power-ups, and they will come and go as you progress through the stages. You can upgrade them twice but lose the second upgrade if you are hit. If you died and the power-up you were using before your death was on the first upgrade, you'll lose it when you respawn. You can have only two types of power-ups at any given time, and you can swap them by pressing the LB or RB buttons on your gamepad. You can also overload the power-up by pressing the LT button, and depending on the power-up, it can either create a shield for several seconds or activate super-powerful projectiles. Remember that you'll lose the power-up immediately after you overload them. I find overloading power-ups particularly effective when fighting the bosses. You can request a power-up if the shield under the health meter is complete - to charge it up, you only need to keep killing enemies – but you never know which power-ups you're going to get. I also like that you can sharpshoot at the enemies by pressing the RT button. It locks your character on the spot, and you can aim your right stick with precision and shoot the enemies.

Some levels have mini-bosses halfway through, and a couple of them are really tough to beat. I don't think I managed to pass one of them the first time - it always took me a couple of shots, the little buggers. I loved the boss fights! They're fun, fast and not that easy to beat at first, but when you get new perks, it’s a different story, and it will probably be time to switch to the hard difficulty. My only issue is that the game kept crashing on the last boss, which annoyed me, especially when I managed to get to the last stage in the arcade mode. Apart from that, no other issues at all.

The graphics are stunning. Great soundtrack and sound effects, and the controls are responsive. Full controller support and the game has been translated into 11 languages.

Positives:
~~~~~~~

+ Great graphics
+ Story, arcade and challenges game modes
+ Fast-paced and addictive gameplay
+ Three different levels of difficulty
+ Great boss fights
+ Achievements and trading cards

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- The game kept crashing on the last boss fight

Contra: Operation Galuga is an absolute winner! It's fast-paced all the way through, and it's a stunning run-'n'-gun side-scrolling game.

8/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Reus 2:
~~~~~~

Everyone has heard of the Big Bang Theory, and I am not referring to a television show of the same name. You know, the idea that the universe began as one point and has been expanding ever since. So, let's say that you are the new Big Bang, and with the help of terraforming titans, you can create new worlds and shape them as you like, helping people of these worlds to thrive, grow and reach their full potential. So, the next question is, are you ready to create your first planet? Of course, you are, but be prepared as it's not as clear-cut as it looks in Reus 2.

Reus 2 is a strategy puzzle game developed by Abbey Games and published by Firesquid on the 28th of May 2024 on the Steam platform.

After launching the game, you'll land on the solar system page. There will be nothing much apart from the option tabs on your first launch, but as a returning player, you'll be able to revisit all the planets you have previously played on, as well as your score and the rewards you received for completing those playthroughs.

When creating a planet, you must first select its human spirit, which is what your first tribe will be more inclined to focus on. The human spirit will have an additional bonus for a specific resource in the world, or possibly a task. On your first playthrough, you'll have access to three out of nine human spirits, all of whom have a specific focus. For example, The Sage Human Spirit focuses on food. The other spirits will focus on gold, prosperity, and technology, and a couple will focus on two.

Once you’ve selected your human spirits, you’ll need to select your giants. The giants are classified into three groups: plants, animals, and minerals. You'll have three out of six giants available for selection on your first playthrough, and each one will be able to erect a couple of specific biomes and resources.

The next step is to select your level of difficulty, then the final Era and the mode of play. As you level up, you’ll unlock new human spirits, giants, eras, terraforming tools and more.

The planet is now created, and no surprise, it's round! Your three giants will stand in the background while your first tribe, dressed lightly with a leaf, are waiting patiently to know where you'll let them settle on the planet. But before they can build a village, you’ll have to create a biome with one of your giants. There's no Waterworld scenario here; all your tribes have to settle on firm land. The world will have 25 patches you can terraform, with each patch having two slots to place your resources.

What I like about the interface is that everything is right in front of you. You can increase or decrease the game speed, and all the options for the giants are at the bottom of the screen. The camera view is good as you can zoom in and out using your scrolling mouse button, and the letters A and D on your keyboard allow you to move left and right on the screen.

But there is one thing you need to pay special attention to: the menu on the top left side of your screen. It will show you prosperity, population, technology and gold points. You can access the planet shop from the same menu if you have unlocked it. Just below it, all the tribe tasks will be displayed. It will start with a small task, and you'll be rewarded with prosperity points for completing the task. In the first Era, you'll have only 30 Eon points at your disposal, and every resource you choose will cost you 5 Eon points. As you progress through the tasks, rewards will include new tribes and drafts, which you can use to add news items to one of the biomes on the planet. You'll always be presented with three options, so choose which is the most appropriate for your world. The tribe reward is always good because you get additional Eon points each time you have a new settlement in your world. But it can also be tricky as you need to make sure you have enough patches and slots to have any chance of reaching tasks for your tribes.

That brings me to the Era completion tasks. Each Era has three tasks to complete, which can be a variation of things or just prosperity points. If we take the latest, you'll gain a star each time you reach the amount of prosperity points required. You'll receive a three-star rating and new rewards if you achieve all these tasks within the Eon limits. If you have already secured three stars on a previous game for any of the Era, you won't gain any new content as it has already been unlocked.
You can access the Planet Shop as you level up your game profile. You can purchase extra turn (5 Eon points) terraforming tools, such as the expansion charge, which adds two patches to a biome or the mountain charge, which adds an extra slot on three patches. You can also purchase a border expansion so one of your tribes can expand their territory immediately or even purchase a draft change for a biome. Other items are available through the Planet Shop, but they all cost population (food), technology and gold points. Every time you purchase an item, the next item will become more expensive.

The more I play this game, the more I like it. The strategy aspect is around combining bioticas (resources) to extract the maximum number of points for each resource. You'll get to select between several projects for your tribes during your playthrough, each with specific rewards. So, you must clearly understand where you are heading and remember how many Eon points you have left to use. After 20 hours of gameplay and completing 17 worlds, I’m still finding new combinations. It's a great game!

The graphics are excellent, and the interface is straightforward to use. I didn’t experience any bugs whatsoever during my 20 hours of playtime. The game has a great gamepedia and content.

I’d like to see more Titans, and more variety in the Random Titan option. In ten games, I had the same Titan nine times in a row. Maybe the option is just not working properly.

Positives:
~~~~~~~

+ Great graphics
+ Great Gamepedia
+ Several modes of difficulty
+ Fun, addictive and challenging
* Good number of resources for each biome
+ Achievements

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- Titan’s randomised option at the start of each game doesn’t seem to work properly
- No trading cards at this stage

Reus 2 is an excellent strategy/puzzle game. After 20 hours of gameplay, I’m still finding new combinations. It’s terrific!
8/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Ancient Spirits: Columbus' Legacy:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's 1953. Virginia Carter and the famous archaeologist Professor MacNara have embarked on a journey to find Columbus's lost ship. Several expeditions had been attempted before, but all the archaeologists vanished without a trace. After finding the 500-year-old Galleon in immaculate condition on a small island beach shore, Professor MacNara's excitement of being in front of this majestic vessel was so intense that he couldn't resist being the first one to jump on board, despite being warned by Virginia not to do so. And like the other archaeologists, he simply vanished! Help Virginia discover what happened to MacNara and the other archaeologists in Ancient Spirits: Columbus' Legacy.

Ancient Spirits: Columbus' Legacy is a hidden object game developed by Cerasus and published by HH-Games on the Steam platform on December 29, 2023.

The game starts on the beach in front of the Galleon after a brief introduction from Virginia Carter's perspective. The introduction includes several screenshots and a voice-over, which is nicely done.

The first part of the game will involve riding the Galleon, visiting rooms and decks, and then exploring the island, which has an additional 15 locations to discover, including an underwater area. You'll go back and forth between all the locations throughout your five hours of gameplay. What I find impressive in this game is the staggering number of hidden object stages; there’s one at every corner. You'll have to find objects by words or identify faded objects in the main panel at the bottom of your screen. Most of the objects are relatively easy to find, but a couple of them are cleverly placed, and I found myself clicking on the help button - a paintbrush in a jar - more often than ever before in this genre of game. You'll also have a few mini-games and puzzles, which are quite decent; some took me slightly longer than usual to figure out. Mini-games include finding the difference between images, finding your way out of a labyrinth, and connecting water flow to vegetables by rotating squares on a large grid. You'll also collect objects throughout the game that you need to activate puzzles or reach new areas.

It's probably one of the best hidden object games I have played for quite some time because of the sheer number of hidden object stages, fun mini-games, and puzzles. The voice-over at the start and end of the game is also a bonus.

Apart from an issue I had at the start when launching the game on a high resolution, the game ran well all the way through. As you would expect, the graphics are decent but of an old-generation style, being a republished game from 2010.

Positives:
~~~~~~~

+ Nice but outdated graphics
+ A large number of hidden object stages
+ Fun mini-games and puzzles
+ Fun little story
+ Voice-over introduction and ending
+ Good price point

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- No achievements
- No trading cards as yet

Ancient Spirits: Columbus' Legacy has a hidden object stage at every corner, fun mini-games and puzzles and a reasonable price point.

7/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Capes:
~~~~~

Twenty years have passed since the Supervillains won the battle against the Superheroes and took control of King City. A deal was struck between the Secret Government and the Supervillains entity known as the Company. As life has become a little more peaceful in the streets of King City since the peace breakthrough, the powerful Company is providing its members with better food and medical supplies than the rest of the citizens. But recently, they have been scooping those citizens with superpowers off the streets, and none of them have been seen since. An old Superhero, Doctrine, who has been hiding since the treaty, has taken a group of young Supers under his wing to take up the fight against the evil Company. Do you have Superpowers? Then join the Capes Now!

Capes is a superhero turn-based strategy game developed by Spitfire Interactive and published by Daedalic Entertainment on the 30th of May 2024 on the Steam platform. The game is also available on PS4/PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

Capes has a lengthy solo campaign, as far as I can see after having played 25 missions, including the main story and side missions. With 28+ hours of game time, I am still on the second act. It is pretty impressive, and I am genuinely enjoying the game.

You start with two superheroes, Facet and Rebound! As you progress throughout the story, you'll unlock another six supers, each with specific powers. Facet's ultimate power can stop all enemies within close proximity for one turn, while Rebound can go on a frenzied attack and damage all enemies within a particular area. What has become obvious to me since the first mission is the importance of your character’s movements so they can combine their powers each turn to maximise an attack or a defence action. It’s also important to charge each of your character's ultimate powers as often as possible during each mission. Facet will gain a recharge point each time an opponent hits him, while Rebound will charge her ultimate power by stabbing enemies from behind. You can see the various team-up combinations for all the heroes when you are at the hidden base between missions.

For each mission, you can have up to four heroes, whom you can choose before the mission starts or press the recommended tab to nominate heroes for that mission. Missions have three difficulty levels: easy, medium and hard. Each mission will also have specific objectives to achieve, with skill points attached to each objective. There are three to five objectives per mission, and you'll bank all the skill points of the objectives that you successfully complete. Then you can use these points to upgrade your character's powers and other actions. A few of your Supers have additional abilities to unlock, which you need skill points to acquire. Experience points are also given when you successfully finish a mission and are automatically passed onto the characters you use in that mission. These points also help your character to level up, giving access to upgrade the character's powers and actions. Each character can level up five times. You might not have many issues completing the easy missions, even if you haven’t successfully completed all the objectives. But be ready to replay medium and hard missions several times before you beat the level - they are challenging missions, let me tell you!

In terms of the gameplay, well, it is a typical turn-based tactical strategy, and as mentioned, movements and combining heroes' powers are the key to your success. You have to make sure that your characters are close to each other so they can combine their powers, while at the same time keeping your distance from attacking enemies, as some of your heroes don't have many life points or any defence whatsoever. It can be tricky. Also, it is easy to revive a fallen hero as you usually have only two turns to revive them if fallen. If one of them has fallen three times, it’s game over.

In terms of the design, levels are mostly compact, but some are of average size. In regards to the enemies, as you progress through the game, not only will the enemies keep coming in more waves, but new and more challenging opponents will make their entrance to spice up the difficulty level. I have faced off against two of the main Company bosses, and they were a struggle, especially Alpha, who kept duplicating himself.

The story is fun and cheesy, and I thoroughly enjoy the cartoony illustrations before each mission, which have good voice-overs, too. I also appreciate that the developers have worked on elevating the relationship between heroes. As you progress through the game, you’ll unlock cut scenes of conversations between characters, which you can find on the dossier tab at the base.

The graphics, soundtrack and voice-overs are excellent. I experienced a few frame-rate drops here and there, but apart from that, there is nothing significant to report. The game provides a good difficulty progression, and it is challenging and addictive. The game has been translated into ten languages and offers full controller support. But if you’re like me, you might prefer using your mouse and keyboard.

Positives:
~~~~~~~

+ Fantastic graphics and comic-book-style illustrations
+ Lengthy campaign
+ Fun, cheesy story
+ Good voice-overs
+ Eight different heroes and superpowers
+ Good variation of enemies
+ Fun and challenging gameplay
+ Achievements and trading cards

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- A few frame rate drops here and there

Capes is an excellent, addictive, lengthy and challenging turn-based strategy game with a cheesy story and epic fights on small and well-designed levels. Capes are my new favourite Superheroes!

8/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Men of War II:
~~~~~~~~~~~

So far, in 2024, I have had the pleasure of playing a few strategy games set in the World War II era, all of which were turn-based. So, when I was offered the opportunity to play Men of War II, a real-time strategy game, I jumped on it like there was no tomorrow. Sixteen hours of gameplay down the track and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game due to its vast content. Well, here are my two cents worth regarding Men of War II.

Men of War II is a real-time strategy game developed by Best Ways and published by Fulqrum Publishing on the 16th of May 2024 on the Steam platform.

The first thing that impressed me when I launched Men of War II was how much content this game had. If you enjoy playing singleplayer campaigns, you'll have access to various missions and modes for all three factions (Germans, Russians and Americans) available in this game. Four different campaign modes, three of which have a combined 102 missions and the conquest campaign, which is an offensive and defensive skirmish type of gameplay. There are four scenarios, and each map has a faction HQ at each extremity and around 15 locations to conquer. Each faction will take turns making an offensive at the closest location on the map, and the other faction will defend it. If all locations are gained by one faction, it’s game over. It’s fun and interactive and can go on for ages. And if multiplayer action is what you are looking for, you'll have three PVPs and one PVE mode at your disposal.

On the other side of the spectrum, I don't think it’s necessary to force players to be continually online during singleplayer campaigns, which this game requires. To give you an idea, I was AFK for three to five minutes for a coffee break, and when I returned, a popup menu was up telling me to click on a button to continue my game or I would be kicked out; the timer was nearly out of time. The other thing that struck me was the sheer speed of the gameplay and the fact that you have no options to slow it down. I was quite overwhelmed seeing all AI units AI (friendlies and opponents) moving so fast while I was just trying to get my bearings on the map and beginning to implement actions. So, it might be a good idea to first launch the tutorials, which, by the way, are excellent. You also earn experience points and supplies and can use the latter when you play a PVP game. You earn experience points, supplies, and money after each successful mission, and you use the money and experience points to unlock new units and purchase these new units for your battalions, divisions, etc.

The gameplay is good, and I like the interface as all the commands are just a click away. Depending on what campaign you select, some missions will have only a certain number of units, while others will give you access to reinforcements, which are called echelons in this game. As far as I can see, there are up to three tiers of echelons, and in some missions, there is a certain amount of time to wait before the second and third echelons can be utilised. I am unsure if there are more than three tiers of echelons, as I haven't played all the missions. What was clear to me very quickly was that you have to give orders to every soldier, tank, and canon. Yes, you can select a group of soldiers and give them orders, too, but I found that I was having fewer casualties by strategically moving and placing each unit one by one on the map. All foot soldiers come in groups of various numbers; for example, the infantry units will come with a group of five soldiers, and each soldier will have their own weaponry, ammunition and helmet in their inventory. Infantry units can dig trenches and foxholes, while engineering units can erect barbed wire and place mines and anti-personal mines as their main perks. But you can view fallen soldiers' inventory and pick their gear and ammunition. There are also boxes to be found; you can inspect their contents and pick up what you might need, although because of the speed of the gameplay in specific missions, it is quite hard to do. There is a huge number of units for all three factions, from infantry units to tanks, cars, sidecars, trucks, canons, artillery cannons, anti-air defences, planes and all guns, machine guns and rifles from the era.

In terms of realism, I think the developers excelled here. Pretty much everything can be destroyed on the map, and the animations of fallen soldiers are top-notch. You can see where every bullet and ends up. The AI is pretty smart, and you can play each mission on the easy, normal or hard difficulty.

Yes, there are gameplay issues, such as the occasional infantry units getting stuck and being unable to be used. I had a few problems with some units that were shaking for a while. In my view, the loading time is a tad too long. I had a few games at the online PVE and I did have fun, but I haven't tried the PVP mode as it is not my cup of tea.

The graphics and sound effects are excellent. Unfortunately, the voice-overs are average, and the German and Russian accents are lousy. Overall, the game is very sound and offers massive replayability for both solo and multiplayer campaigns, but I don't understand why we must be connected to play campaign modes.

Positives:
~~~~~~~

+ Great graphics
+ Good Sound effects
+ Three factions with large numbers of units
+ Three campaigns with 102 missions and one conquest campaign mode
+ Great tutorials
+ PVE and PVP modes
+ Hundreds of hours of gameplay

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- Must be constantly connected to play the campaign modes
- The gameplay is too fast, and you don't have an option to slow it down
- Several bugs here and there

Men of War II has a massive amount of content and realism that will appeal to veterans as well as newcomers to the genre. Get ready for hundreds of hours of gameplay.

7/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Genopanic:
~~~~~~~~~

SIMBIRSK is a private organisation whose unauthorised activities are to develop experimental genetically modified organisms or GMOs, and it suffered a significant setback in its underground research plant on the planet TRIES-2B. As TRIES-2B has been placed under quarantine, no humans are allowed to be sent under such conditions, and therefore, we are sending you a robot to retrieve all GMOs from the research centre. Don’t panic; Laik, the Doggo virtual assistant will be with you throughout the journey in Genopanic.

Genopanic is a platformer game with puzzle elements developed and self-published by Mobirate on the 18th of May 2024 on the Steam platform.

The research centre on TRIES-2B is divided into six levels where all the action will occur. After arriving on the planet, your first task will be to reach the station via the automatic suspended train. It will not take too long to go through, which I consider a little tutorial. You’ll learn the hacking puzzle game, which will occur several times throughout your playthrough and recognise where levers are to activate a ladder to reach secret passages and compartments within ceilings.

At the start of the game, your character will only have one ability – jumping - and no weapons. But as you progress, your robot will acquire four different weapons: a plasma cutter, a plasma and a freeze gun, and a flamethrower. You’ll also get an animal catcher and a gravity gun to move large crates in the middle of your path. In terms of new abilities, the jetpack will allow your character to fly around until the energy bar is depleted. The dash pack allows you to dash and the gravity boots to double jump. You’ll find all these goodies somewhere within the six levels; you can’t miss them as they are in yellow chests.

The levels are well-designed, with fun enemies to kill and good obstacles to avoid. Your robot will only have three bars of health throughout the game, and each time it is hit by a minor obstacle, such as spikes or an enemy, it will lose a bar of health. But, if a beam hits your robot or falls into a larva or acid, it will immediately lose all its bars and be sent to the last save point. There are plenty of savings within each level, and they are not usually far from each other, which is good for progressing through the game but decreases the game’s difficulty. I would have liked fewer of those, as you cannot increase the game difficulty in the settings.

As mentioned, there are plenty of secret passages through the caves; some are easy to spot and others are cleverly hidden. The easy ones are where ceilings or walls have yellow tape, like the tape the police place across doors to restrict access where there’s been a murder. The ones that are more difficult to find are where walls, ceilings and floors are of slightly different shades of colours. Sometimes there are no secret passages, and the only way to get through is to destroy the obstacle in front of you, using your flamethrower to melt down a wall of frozen bubbles, for example.

This game has a few bosses, and each has its attack and sequences, but it won’t take long to beat them. What took me a few attempts to clear was when my character was followed through the cave by black matter, as I had to find the secret passages quickly so I could reach the door and escape before the black matter caught up with my little robot. You’ll have three of these chases during the game, two will be vertical, and the last one will be horizontal at the end of the game.

The game offers four different endings, which gives the game good replayability. Although it is a linear platformer, I am not sure what different choices I needed to make for the other three endings. In my case, I only captured five of the six GMOs; therefore, my robot was stuck on the planet. I knew the one I missed as I could figure out how to get him out of the tree on the second level, and as there are no portals to get back to other parts of the station, I tried my luck with what I got!

The pixel artwork and soundtrack are excellent. The levels are well-designed, and each has its own feel and theme. I played the game with my Xbox controller and am super impressed with the tight controls. You can play it with your mouse and keyboard, but I haven’t tried it. The game has been translated into 14 languages. Unfortunately, I experienced several crashes throughout my playthrough, which impacted my final score.

Positives:
~~~~~~~

+ Excellent pixel artwork
+ Six well-designed levels
+ 19 different enemies plus obstacles
+ Fun to play with super-tight controls
+ Several puzzles throughout the game
+ Four different endings
+ Achievements

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- No difficulty settings
- There were several crashes throughout my playthrough
- No trading cards as yet

Although linear, Genopanic is fun to play with super tight controls. If you enjoy playing platformer games, make sure to try this game.

7/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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RISKY CHRONICLES and the curse of destiny:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ladies and gentlemen, a new explorer is born. His name is Risky. He looks a little bit like Indiana Jones and, like him, thrives on new and dangerous adventures. Armed with a gun, a knife, and of course, a classic fedora hat, he is about to start his next adventure with you in RISKY CHRONICLES and the curse of destiny.

RISKY CHRONICLES and the curse of destiny is a platformer game developed and self-published by Consulog on the 26 of April 2024 on the Steam platform.

The game consists of 10 well-designed levels of average length, each with their own specific enemies, and most of them providing a boss fight at the end of the stage. Most stages are presented as platformers, but a few levels have a slightly different presentation. The underwater level, for example, is essentially a side-scroller where dangerous fish move up and down; you can avoid them or shoot at them. The last level sees Risky in heaven pushing a bubble, avoiding obstacles and enemies. In a couple of levels you have a little bit of a variation where the first part is your typical platformer and the second part has Risky on a bike either in the desert avoiding circular saw blades being thrown at him, or in a cave avoiding large rocks. The game will take under three hours to complete the game and doesn't provide much replayability.

There are plenty of save points throughout the platforming levels. You can't miss them as they are a shiny blue light, and they will definitely help your progression in the beginning when you don't know the entire level. But when you do know the level, there are so many that it significantly decreases the game's difficulty. The other point that reduces the difficulty is the large number of extra lives you can collect throughout each level. In one level, I reached the boss chamber with 11 lives to spare! To make it even easier, once you’ve reached the boss chamber, the next time around all you need to do is go to the portal close to the start of each level, and Risky will be teleported right next to the boss chamber. It’s nice but unnecessary, in my view.

Don't get me wrong here; Risky will lose many lives in this game, and some of these deaths will be due to obstacles such as sculptures shooting arrows, cannons, and rocks of different sizes dropping from different places and in one level by gliding Eskimos. There are the usual spikes and a few other traps. You’ll lose most of Risky's lives when you fight the bosses. I thoroughly enjoyed the bosses, and most of them took me some time to beat, especially the vampire.

I enjoy games like this one that have a retro feel and simple mechanics, where all you can do is jump to avoid a small rock, or crouch to avoid projectiles, and you can't shoot with your gun while jumping. But I think there are some fluidity issues, like Risky taking his time to go up or down ladders and crawling faster than running. This game was fun, and the graphics and music were excellent.

Positives:
~~~~~~~

+ Nice graphics
+ 10 levels to complete
+ Well-designed levels
+ Different enemies from one level to the next
+ Fun boss fights

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- Too many extra lives within levels
- Short game
- Not much replayability
- No achievements or trading cards as yet

Risky Chronicles is a fun little game with good boss fights, but it is far too lenient with extra lives, making it too easy to finish.

6/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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Shockwaves:
~~~~~~~~~~

Shockwaves - what a fascinating phenomenon. Thunder is a shockwave, created by lightning carrying extreme heat through the air faster than the speed of sound. Jet aircrafts create shockwaves when they breach the speed of sound. Then there’s shockwave therapy, as used for kidney stone removal, for example, something I know well as the recipient of such therapy many moons ago.

All of which got me to thinking . . . could our brains create such a phenomenon? Playing this puzzle game could be the way.

Shockwaves is a numbers puzzle game developed and self-published by Qualia Interactive on the 23 of February 2024 on the Steam platform.

The game is simply represented as a rhombus-shaped grid, within which are three layers of smaller rhombuses. The outer layer consists of a 5x5 grid of small rhombuses, the middle layer is a 3x3 grid of small rhombuses, and right in the centre is one lone rhombus.

The object of the game is to create a chain of shockwaves throughout the grid to gain the highest score possible in each mode. You do this by strategically placing numbers within the layers of rhombuses, according to the rules of each mode.

There are three modes: Puzzles, Endless and a third one that unlocks after successfully finishing 50 puzzles, which I haven’t yet accomplished.

In the Puzzle mode, you must reach the highest number - 256 - within a given number of moves.
Additional challenges appear from one puzzle to the next in the form of squares on the grid with numbers inside. These become obstacles that will most likely make you think more than twice before you make a move. The ones I have completed so far took me several attempts.

In the Endless mode, you aim to get as many points as possible until you cannot place any more numbers on the grid.

As much as I like to play different modes in any genre of game, the Endless mode grabbed me from the start.

So, how does it work?

In the Endless mode, you are presented with one number at a time, either a 2, a 4 or an 8, which you must place on the grid. The goal is to push two of the same number together to create a shockwave, but what you are looking for is a chain reaction of shockwaves. Why, might you ask? Simply because it multiplies your score after the second shockwave.

Let’s say that you start an Endless game, and the first four numbers presented to you are 4, 2, 4 and 8. To make it simple to visualise, imagine putting one number in each outer corner of the rhombus. To create a shockwave and score points, you must have two numbers next to each other, and then place a third number next to the pair to start the count.

So, using the example above, in one corner you have two 8s, the next corner has two 4s, the third corner has two 2s, and the last corner has two 4s. Whatever number you get next, you can either place it anywhere within the grid, or start the count by placing it next to any pair of numbers.

For example, if you place the next available number next to the two 4s, it will create the first shockwave, which will be an addition (4+4=8). This will send a shockwave to the following pair of matching numbers, which will multiply your score by two (2X2=4). The next shockwave will be multiplied by three, four, and so forth. My best multiplication so far was by eight, and let me tell you, it’s a buzz to see this chain of reactions, especially if you are running out of empty rhombuses in the grid.

You might choose to create a shockwave for the purpose of freeing up a space to place a specific number onto a new position on the grid. All you need to do is to place the number you receive next to the number you want to move, pushing it in the direction you want it to go and freeing up its previous space. If two of the same number are pushed next to each other, a reaction will start.

The other option is to add to a number to boost it. So, if you have a line of three numbers, such as 4-2-8, and your next number is 2, you can add your new number 2 to the existing 2 to make 4, so the sequence becomes 4-4-8. And if the next number is 8, you add it to the number 8, which becomes 16, while the number 4 is pushed next to the other number 4, which then becomes 8. And, of course, it can start a chain reaction if there are other pairs of numbers on the grid.

The number 256 is the highest number you’ll get on the grid, and when you push two of these together, they will explode, freeing up the two spots. But remember, you only get to place the numbers 2, 4 and 8. It feels like a chess game where you have to remember all the moves you’ve played to get a chain reaction and keep as many free spots on the grid as possible to continue playing; otherwise, it will be game over.

There is not much in terms of graphics here apart from the grid changing colour from time to time. It would have been nice to have some pictures in the background, adding to the aesthetics. The game runs well and is very addictive; it’s one of those games you could go back to repeatedly when you have 20 minutes to spare. And the price is right!

Positives:
~~~~~~~

+ Three different modes of play
+ Fun and addictive, and the puzzle mode is challenging
+ Great replayability
+ Good price point
+ Achievements

Negatives:
~~~~~~~~

- The aesthetics could have been better. Maybe some background pictures would have been nice
- No trading cards as yet

Shockwaves is a fun, addictive numbers puzzle game with excellent replayability. Guaranteed to send shockwaves to your grey matter.

7/10

Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

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