AppReviewToday- All

Hi, my name is Kristina and I work as the office manager of Mid Atlantic Consulting. We are a Macintosh Support, Service, and Consulting Company. I will review one iPhone app every day coming from a non-tech like me. Add your comments and I will try to reply.

  • Roia review

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    Roia is a game about connecting with nature and–quite literally–molding it so that it can flourish. It's also a puzzle game of sorts, but that almost feels beside the point. Playing Roia feels more like a relaxing journey than a “game” in the more traditional sense, and that's good, except for the rare occasions where the experience tries to be a bit more game-like.

    Go with the flow

    In Roia, you can sculpt landscapes to your liking using simple taps and drags that can change direction between going up or down via a switch in the lower corner of the screen. Your goal in manipulating terrain is to guide a flow of water that is somewhat determined by the game environment and further directed by a bird companion that will sit and perch at places you should have water flow to.

    At first, the environments your in are complete blank canvases that you can manipulate as much as you like, though as you guide your river further and further down the mountain you start to encounter fields, wildlife, and other obstacles that you may need to flow around or under to progress. The game is divided into chapters that revolves around these changing environments, though the entire experience flows between them just as smoothly as the water you are manipulating.

    Uncharted waters

    Most of the progression inRoia seems geared toward challenging your land-sculpting abilities in increasingly intricate ways. All of this feels natural, though, as the obstacles or complications in directing your flow of water all feel entirely natural. I'm being intentionally cagey about what the obstacles are, because a lot of my enjoyment in Roia stemmed from coming across these things entirely by surprise.

    I won't say that I enjoyed every minute of the challenges thatRoia put in my way. In fact, the tail end of the game can feel a little onerous just because some of your landscaping can get obscured by environmental features and make it difficult to see or control things behind them. Perhaps some additional layer controls or something could help alleviate this issue. Or, you could just press on through it.

    Rushing waters

    Even with the less pleasant challenges hindering my progress,Roia did not take all that long to work through. After just a few sittings I hit then end, which was both a surprise and a bit of a relief. Roia decides to end right about at the time that its welcome wears out, and does so in a way that is pleasant.

    For anyone who really fancies the landscape manipulation mechanics,Roia also sprinkles little side puzzles and secrets all throughout the game. Just know that if you beat the game, there's no easy way to go back to these challenges without just starting from the beginning.

    The bottom line

    Roia is at its best when you're just chilling out to its wonderful soundtrack and in a flow of land sculpting. There are moments in the game that intentionally disrupt this to provide some challenge, create some surprise, and add some contextual storytelling which feel necessary to make it a full experience as opposed to a toy. Some of these segments could potentially use some refinement, but overall Roia is still enjoyable for what it is as it is.

    Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270144/

  • Zenless Zone Zero review

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    I am no stranger to gacha games, though since 2020 I've only really had eyes for one of them.Genshin Impact completely surpassed my expectations for what a satisfying gacha game could be and I am still a daily player of it to this day. It's still great, and its ability to compel me has made me curious about Hoyoverse's other titles. None of them really grabbed my attention until Zenless Zone Zero, though. Although I do not think that it has the same level of ambition or staying power as Genshin, I do think ZZZ plays in a similar space and can reach some of the same heights.

    Hollow heroes

    Zenless Zone Zero is an futuristic action rpg where you play as a proxy known as Phaethon. In this game world, there was some kind of calamity that caused spheres of dark energy to envelop parts of the world. These spaces, called “hollows,” are extremely dangerous, though there are people who venture into them to complete various missions or jobs. The role of a proxy is to guide these adventures through hollows safely.

    This is the stage upon which Hoyoverse crafts what is basically a dungeon-crawler with fast-paced action combat and light puzzle-solving alongside a steady release schedule of agents to entice players to gamble in-game currency for. It's at this point I'm supposed to make some kind of value judgement about gacha games, but I won't. These games are pretty commonplace now. You know what you think about these models already. Play them or don't. Enjoy them or don't. I'm not your dad. All I'll say instead is that–for the purposes of this review–I spent my time clearing all but the absolute hardest mode in the game (i.e. Shiyu Defense Critical Nodes) without spending any money, and confirming that all of it is doable and satisfying as a free player.

    Closed world, open possibilities

    When compared to something like Genshin Impact, ZZZ feels more like a companion and response to shortcomings of the former as opposed to something meant to push things forward. There's no open-world here, and the adventures feel a lot less grand and mysterious. You aren't even a stranger in a strange land, but rather someone who lost their primary proxy account and has to start grinding their rep back up to where they were. As such, the vibe of the game is much more like that of a daily routine, though the game's story mode certainly has eventful setpieces that disrupt the regular days of running a video store, hanging out with friends, and playing in the arcade.

    By being a somewhat more contained and subdued world, though, Zenless Zone Zero is able to really focus in on its style and combat system, which are the game's highlights. The result is a game that overall is super sharp and expressive, capturing the vibes of playing the equivalent of an anime you discovered on Toonami in 2000, albeit one that animates at 60 frames per second. The combat here is also fast and fluid, with a focus on teambuilding and strategy in addition to fast reflexes, pattern recognition, and combo mastery. Of course, skill alone will only get you so far, as there are multiple layers of leveling and gearing that you also have to grind out, but the level of challenge presented at every point in the game besides one (Shiyu Defense) is completely manageable without spending money or even premium currency that is doled out for free.

    Cheap thrills

    It's this level of tolerance for free players that I am finding myself enjoying perhaps the most with Zenless Zone Zero, at least in a way. The limitations of not being able to get every character or even max out the ones that I have adds a layer of difficulty that I enjoy overcoming specifically because the game allows for it. Optimizing all of the resources, prioritizing characters, and making the most of what I have and actually succeeding feels great. It's a formula that also helped Genshin Impact click for me, but here it feels more pronounced since there isn't nearly as much exploration to do on the side.

    Outside of the gacha system, there are still limiter systems in place like multiple currencies, stamina, and even a player rank that you have to grind up even if you only want to play ZZZ for its story. These limitations don't feel especially better than they do anywhere else, so I could see this being a dealbreaker for folks with little tolerance for this kind of gameplay design. The goal here–as always–is to get you playing regularly, which can be satisfying if you enjoy acquiring and building up new characters for evolving endgame challenge content, but otherwise comes off as rather annoying.

    The bottom line

    There's nothing about Zenless Zone Zero that will change any set feelings about gacha games. But, assessing it for what it is, it's a great one of those games that offers something different from this new wave of gachas that reward dedicated play as much (if not more) than those with deep pockets.

    Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270155/