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.

  • The Abandoned Planet review

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    I wouldn't say that puzzle or adventure games are really titles I seek out all that often, but I also primarily play games on mobile devices where many games of this ilk tend to release. I still keep games like these at arm's length in part because of a couple of common issues I find with them, which include mismatches between my logic and that of the developers and also sometimes a general lack of direction. At the outset of playing The Abandoned Planet, I felt blown away by the degree to which neither of these things happened in the slightest. They do end up rearing their heads later on in the experience, but their delayed onset kept me invested to see this one through to the end.

    The Room in Space

    The Abandoned Planet follows a core formula that was largely popularized by The Room series of games. You play as a character who finds themselves under mysterious circumstances, and you wander around in first-person interacting with objects, combining items, and referencing clues to solve puzzles and move forward.

    The way The Abandoned Planet sets itself apart is by changing the setting to outer space and then layering on a lot of other appealing adventure game bells and whistles–full voice acting, gorgeous pixel art, and a satisfying mystery.

    Tight Space

    InThe Abandoned Planet, you are an explorer who crash lands on an alien planet who is basically just looking for a way to leave. Along the way, you encounter a bunch of strange alien objects that take you to all sorts of locations across the planet as you search for some kind of useable vessel to return to earth.

    What really gripped me in the opening moments ofThe Abandoned Planet is just how ready it seemed to have you rip through the entire experience. Puzzle solutions were somewhat apparent and locations really restricted the amount of different things to solve at once so you never wandered around aimlessly. On top of that, one of the first things the game teaches you is how to tap on your characters portrait to highlight interactive objects to make the prospect of pixel hunting totally irrelevant.

    Uneven spacing

    This approach might not appeal to everyone, but it is what fueled my interest in completingThe Abandoned Planet. I have played far too many meandering puzzle games with annoying logic gaps that something with a serviceable story and really straightforward puzzles that kept that story moving felt highly compelling.

    That said,The Abandoned Planet strays from this design approach in the latter chapters of the game. Things become much more abstract and involve back-tracking through a ton of different areas, and–in addition to my own distaste for this change–the game's navigation system does not feel especially equipped to handle this broader scope. Luckily, The Abandoned Planet does not spend a ton of time in this more aimless mode before ending, though I will say that the game's conclusion feels like the beginning of a more intriguing story than the one told in the game itself.

    The bottom line

    All told The Abandoned Planet does a pretty good job of delaying the onset of some of the more irritating aspects of adventure games. Although they do emerge eventually, there is still enough to enjoy about what this game offers to make it worth your while.

    Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270268/

  • Resident Evil 2 review

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    There's a lot of different ways I could approach this review ofResident Evil 2, but I don't write long so I just have to pick one. My choice is coming at it from the perspective of someone who has not played the original game for even a second. Seeing this remake with absolutely zero expectations from what the landmark title did back in 1998, I can say that this game absolutely rules and delivers the definitive survival horror experience I've been looking for on mobile.

    Running scared

    Resident Evil 2 puts you in the shoes of Leon S. Kennedy, a young police officer who arrives in Raccoon City amidst the breakout of virus that turns everything it touches into undead monstrosities. In an effort to just survive and get out of town, you find yourself uncovering what happened here and work to put an end to it.

    Although this setup seems pretty boilerplate for most Resident Evil games, this game captures the feel of being in this situation better than most. There are always new horrors and tough situations waiting around every corner, and more often than not you are barely scraping by with a only a few armaments on hand.

    Laser-focused labyrinth

    Perhaps the highlight of Resident Evil 2 is the setting itself. Very quickly into the game you find yourself trapped inside the Raccoon City Police Station, but its byzantine structure reveals an interconnectedness to other parts of city infrastructure to create varied and horrifying environments to wander through. As more and more paths open up, you are free to wander between them for the majority of the game and backtrack to find new gear or secrets, but to do so you also need to brave through any enemies that might reawaken there.

    This leads to an experience that tells a linear story, but gives a lot of room for players to have quite different experiences, all within an arc that shouldn't take more than 10 hours to see credits roll on. As a perfect example of this, I found myself finishing Resident Evil 2 with seemingly infinite ammo for a weapon I never even found, which ended up making me really have to stretch the meager supplies I could use even further.

    Two games in one

    After completing Leon's story, Resident Evil 2 offers a ton more to do in it, including a playthrough with another character, challenges, costumes, and more. It also is a free-to-download game that lets you try it out before committing to a purchase so you can make sure it runs well on your device and you feel good about playing it there.

    If you're familiar with my previous coverage of Resident Evil games on iOS, you should know the story here isn't really different. The controls are fine if you have a controller, and game performance is on par with all of their previous releases, minor bugs and all. None of that got in the way of my enjoyment of Resident Evil 2, especially since this one is so darn good.

    The bottom line

    I have no idea how the Resident Evil 2 remake compares to the original game. All I know is I thoroughly enjoyed the kind of white-knuckle survival action this release delivers. For anyone disappointed by some of the more silly and action-oriented Resident Evil releases on mobile have been, this is the game you've been waiting for.

    Source link:https://www.148apps.com/reviews/review-270287/