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I have become fully convinced that it is possible to squeeze an action roguelite down to iOS screens and keep the action manageable for touch screens. Gunfire Reborn did it. Fury Unleashed did it. Weirder variations like Descenders managed it, and even Dead Cells feels mostly fine on iOS (though vastly better with a bluetooth controller). So why then do I find myself feeling less-than-enthused spending time with ScourgeBringer? Well, the short version is that the core of the game relies on loosely connected ideas that never really form a cohesive whole.

Near perfect port

If the only reason you are reading this review is to understand how the iOS version of ScourgeBringer is, then know this is a high quality mobile port. The game looks sharp and plays well. It also has perfect bluetooth controller support if you are into that.

The only room for improvement I can readily identify is the lack of iCloud support. This includes not just the ability to share progress across devices but also retain your progress after deleting the app. This seems to be a rare thing to find across most iOS releases these days (unless they are Apple Arcade titles), but nevertheless it is a noticeable absence.

Deadly dasher

For those who may be less familiar with the game, ScourgeBringer is a roguelite where you play as a fierce warrior who can dash, jump, wall run, slice, and shoot her way through tiny, box-like rooms to take on bosses and try to uncover her mysterious past. These rooms are stitched together in a procedural way and your goal is to find your way through them to a boss that you must defeat before moving on to the next grid of rooms to fight through.

ScourgeBringer's combat revolves a lot around the traversal options you have in addition to the attacks you have at your disposal. Dodging, using cover, bouncing between enemies to interrupt their attacks, and lots of jumping are arguably just as important as the gun and sword you use to slay enemies. You can't just use these abilities to bypass combat, though, as each room in ScourgeBringer locks you in until you've defeated one or more waves of foes that spawn in. These combat encounters usually move pretty quickly and the game rewards you with more currencies to buy items and upgrades for your character by chaining together kills in quick succession.

Hash and slash

ScourgeBringer is structured just like a traditional roguelite, where death is expected and every retry gives you an opportunity to start your run with slightly better perks you can unlock with currency retained between runs. If the action is too intense, the game also has an “accessibility” menu where you can adjust things like game speed, health regen assist, and more.

All of this is fine. The moment-to-moment action is appropriately thrilling as well. I just can't get myself excited about playing ScourgeBringer, though, and I think it's because its entire design is lifted pretty directly from other games without a ton of regard for making the components work together or teach you–the player–how they should. In all my time with the game it wasn't clear to me what I can or should save my gun ammo for, for example, or why I should worry about deflecting bullets when sometimes counters damage me anyway. I kept playing ScourgeBringer trying to find answers, but would just keep finding more questions like these.

The bottom line

ScourgeBringer is effectively playable on small screens thanks to this iOS port, but even the most perfect port of this game wouldn't address some of the key design issues that eventually make its action feel tiring and tedious.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/scourgebringer-review/

It's hard to overstate how good a mobile game feels when it is tailor made for the device you are playing it on. Ports or titles that emulate other kinds of games on other platforms can be nice if they are carefully constructed with touch in mind, but something like Automatoys, where the game doesn't really feel like it would work anywhere else, is a rare kind of game. For what it's worth, outside of its feel, the game is somewhat skin deep, but a fair free-to-start model conveniently lets you decide if this digital toy/puzzle is up your alley enough to spend more time and money on it.

Digital ball in cup

Automatoys is a puzzle game where you guide a little ball through intricate mechanical toys with controlled taps. Pressing on the screen activates specific features of these toys that can do anything from activate a mini-catapult to tilt a ramp. Using this simple, one-touch control method, you have to time your taps to guide the ball through various different stages of the toy to reach a pre-defined exit.

The whole thing feels like the digital equivalent of a ball in a cup or those water games where you can hit buttons to jet water over bits of plastic to try and get them to different goal points. Automatoys is a lot more complicated than these and presents a lot more variety, but otherwise seems modeled after these kinds of puzzle toys.

Fantastic feel

The selling point of the gameplay in Automatoys is the amount of feedback you get as you navigate its levels. Your phone vibrates with remarkable accuracy to the ball clinking around inside your screen, making for a very tactile experience. This creates a lot of satisfaction when you are able to successfully run through the series of obstacles each level presents.

Automatoys also wouldn't work as well as it does if its machinery was hard to figure out or distinguish visually. Thankfully, the game keeps each level in full view and automatically tilts the camera to effectively highlight where the ball is at all times. There's also some great use of color to make sure the ball and all interactive objects are easy to identify at a glance as well.

Fleeting and free

Automatoys features a dozen levels, but the first three are available for free. To unlock the full game, you can pay $2.99, but you also might get your fill off of those initial levels alone.

That was certainly the case for me. Even with quadruple the amount of levels, Automatoys isn't a terribly long or challenging experience, and the core of what makes it a fun play is right there in those first few levels.

The bottom line

Automatoys is a cool thing that is worthy of praise. It isn't earth-shattering, but it also isn't trying to be. It's a game that firmly understands what is was made for and executes that beautifully. The best part is you can go check to see if you can agree for yourself and toss a few bucks the developer's way if you're hungry for more.

Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/automatoys-review/