Blog Swap Review: Slide

Slide
Developer: Arman Dezfuli-Arjomandi
iTunes Rating: 4.5 Stars (141 ratings as of 27 August 2012)
Game Center?: 
Version Details: 2.0.1 (released 06 August 2012)
Age Rating: 4+
Price: Free

Slide is a simple game that mimics the act of unlocking your iPhone, iPod, iPad. When that was thought explained to me, I didn't understand how the game could be interesting for more than a matter of seconds...

Gameplay

The idea of this game is to unlock the most... slides I guess. There are four levels you can play: Classic, Twist, Doubles and Revenge. In each level the game play changes ever so slightly, but these slight changes make the game addictive. There are 5 rows and the lock could appear in any one of these five rows, in any order. If you don't unlock one and all five get filled up, then it's game over.

In Classic, all you have to do is slide the lock to the right, just as you would when you unlock your i-item. The idea is to keep unlocking them to get a bunch of keys which'll allow you to have boosts/upgrades. 

In Twist, you have to slide the lock to both the left and the right. This adds a level of confusion into the game especially when the game gets into the pattern of doing 5 rights, and then throwing in a left.

In Doubles, you get... doubles. Trust me, not as easy as it sounds. Since you only have 5 slots, if you miss one and then you get a double it's game over before the game has even really began. I play on this one a lot, but have yet to master using both hands to play the game... So this one is still tricky... 

In Revenge, things get faster, throwing in lefts, rights and doubles... Of course, in all levels the game get's faster but when you only have one thing to worry about. The difference between Revenge and Doubles is the fact that in Doubles, you only have right locks... In revenge you have left doubles also. Talk about confusing. 

But the more locks you unlock, the more keys you earn which means you get to have more upgrades!

Addictivity

So as I said, this game becomes very addictive as more upgrades as used and as you become more confident in each level, you can move onto the next level. I wouldn't say this game is as addictive as others... but it doesn't require any internet connection to play it so I find myself playing it in the car or at my nans (where there is no internet) for hours!

Controls

So in this game you swipe, just like you would to unlock your iPhone, iPad, iPod. And that's honestly all you do in the game. You tap different buttons to get the upgrades, options etc on the main menu, but that's all you do. 

When you tap into the upgrades section, once again all you do is tap to access the upgrade you want.

Menu

There is one main menu and this allows you to access all the four levels, along with the upgrade menu and the options. Although the symbols at the top of the screen aren't easy to understand, you just have to click them once and then you never forget which button is which. 

Sound

The sound is really out of place in this game, and I'm not exactly sure what to say about it.. It really does seem completely wrong for it. It's just a guitar I believe. So I'm not really much of a fan of this music...

Graphics

Not a whole lot could have been done with the graphics, given the fact that the game mimics the unlocking system of the iPhone. However, once you get certain upgrades you get the occasional line of colour as for example: if you have the upgrade that gives you a 1% chance that you'll be saved at the last moment, then a line of purple might appear as it follows the lock off sceen (unlocking itself, and saving you from a game over). Very simple, very plain but it works well with the simplicity of the game. 

Difficulty

Honestly, this game isn't very difficult at all. All you do is simply slide to unlock. 

Learning Curve

Very easy to pick up on, as all it does is mimic the unlocking system (I feel like I've repeated myself a lot in this review, but really! That's ALL this game is!) I don't think this game has a tutorial (I've had it for a LONG time!) but then again, it really doesn't need one. 

Overall: 7/10

Overall, I love the simplicity of this game. But there really isn't much to it... What it does, it does well. It only has the occasional issue of not always picking up your finger when you try to slide the lock... Perhaps the sound needs working on, as I honestly just play the game on silent most of the time as I don't think the sound matches at all... I don't see what else could be added to the game, but then again I couldn't understand what could be added to the game a while ago and then they added the idea of 'keys'... so who knows, maybe there will be something added?

Crazy Freefall Ride

Crazy Freefall Ride

Developers: Mad Head Limited

iTunes Rating: 4 Stars (11 ratings as of 26 August 2012)

Game Center?: Yes

Version Details: 1.0 (released 04 August 2012)

Age Rating: 9+

Price: Free

Crazy Freefall Ride is a fun, simple reaction game where you are put in control of a free-falling carnival ride and have to stop it before it reaches the bottom. The catch? The lower it goes, the more points it gets!

Gameplay

Crazy Freefall ride is a pretty simple game, there is a grand total of one button, seriously just one. You press this button when you want the ride to stop and try to get it as close to the bottom as you can without it reaching the floor. The closer you get to 1m from the floor without hitting 0m, the more points you get. You also get a "rank" for the area you land in ranging from Nice, to MAD!! You have to get in at least the first of these coloured areas to succeed in the game, if you press too early or too late you lose. Starting at 50m high you increase in stages of 10m after each successful stop you get.

Addictivity - 7/10

The game is pretty addictive and the first week or so you have it, you'll find yourself playing it non-stop! However this effect does cool down drastically after the honeymoon period and you'll playing it less and less. I still play it and when I do I play for quite a while, but this is usually when I have nothing better to do...

Controls - 10/10

The controls are simple but perfect! All you have is all you need and it's clear as anything. A whopping big red button in the corner of the screen, it's impossible to miss and the tutorial makes everything clear.

Menus - 9/10

There aren't many menus and you won't use many of them more than once. However one the icons on the main menu is a bit... confusing. A button that I would associate with controls is in fact a link to more apps. Other than that I have no issues at all with the menus, you don't really use them and all the other icons are self explanatory and as I said, you won't use them anyway. The main menu has links to more apps, credits, game centre high-scores and a mute button.

Sound - 10/10

I honestly love the sounds in this game. When playing I often find myself humming along to the background music (insanely catchy) and copying the cute talking when you get told the area you land in (Coo! Play it and that will make sense...) 

Graphics - 10/10

The graphics in the game are also good, simple and a nice pastel palette. I just can't tell if the character is a rabbit or not... I think it is...

Difficulty - 8/10

The game isn't actually that difficult if you have good reflexes, until you get to around 150m high. That's when you start picking up enough speed that it gets harder to land in the areas. The only thing I would have to complain about is the areas stay constant. You can't change them or the difficulty. Maybe a nice addition to the game would be to increase the difficulty and make the areas smaller?

Learning Curve - 8/10

There really isn't much to learn to play this game. It's simple and great fun, especially if you have somewhere there to "play with" and try to get as low as you can (Tyler got 1m I only got 2m...) But again, the game might be a little too easy and too simple, it needs something else, maybe just achievements to aim for?

Average Score - 8.8/10

Overall Score - 8/10

Crazy Freefall Ride is a fun game and if you need something to kill some time then it's definitely worth a download. But if you want a substantial game to last, this is not for you... It's very, very fun until the novelty wears off and then it just becomes a small distraction.

Missed Post...

I apologise for the post I missed on Monday, this was due to me starting up a new YouTube channel starring Tyler and I, AndyxTylerPlayGames. It's where we both play games and we have some ongoing projects as well as some other interesting things lined up for the future. Right now we have AndyxTyler Play Rayman Origins, AndyxTyler Play The Adventures of Shuggy and Andy Plays Dust: An Elysian Tail.

Please go check out the channel, we update regularly with a nice mix of videos also a new AndyxTyler Play Rayman video went up today:

If you like what you see, go check out our other videos and subscribe so you know when new videos go up.

The usual posting schedule WILL be back tomorrow!

Epic Raiders

Epic Raiders

Developers: Gamevil USA, Inc.

iTunes Rating: 3.5 Stars (16 ratings as of 12 August 2012)

Game Center?: No

Version Details: 1.0.1 (released 03 August 2012)

Age Rating: 9+

Price: Free

Epic Raiders is possibly the best RPG I have played on the iOS devices and captures console MMO styles with a twist for handheld/mobile gaming that gives it a nice difference in flavour to the console counter parts.

Gameplay

Epic Raiders is an RPG which I utterly adore! It lets you make a party of 4 characters of different classes with special abilities and uses. You battle your way through levels and areas, each level consisting of a number of waves of enemies. You earn loot to equip your party with and coins to buy and upgrade what you currently have.

There are a number of characters to choose from; from Knights and Barbarians to Saints and Mages. You can up to four characters in your party at a time and there up to eight to choose from in the game over all. How you use them and piece your party together will give you different strategies and help you overcome different battles along the way.

The only thing I would say is, some of the characters seem quite expensive to unlock and don't seem worth the money put in to them, (Mages and Temple Knights are 20000 coins and you get about 1000 per level you re-do, 1500 for a new level).

The game does have a lot going on and definitely asks for a lot of time and enters the inevitable grinding stage that all RPG's enter at some point to stop you from levelling too quickly. However the grinding stage in this game seems to appear very early on (or I suck, I don't know...) so you find yourself going back and finishing levels easily but not being able to progress because your characters, skills and equipment aren't good enough. 

Every time you finish one level you get a special rarer piece of loot in the shop that only appears that once, if you can't afford it, tough! I find that gold in this game has too many uses and gets spread way too thinly across all these possible prospects. You need gold to upgrade your characters equipment, skills and buy new equipment. 

Addictivity - 7/10

The game is quite addictive, however it does get to the grinding stage quite soon. I would like it to progress a little faster... As I've done the first area and now I just seem to be re-doing the same levels over and over to level up and get new loot.

Controls - 9/10

The controls are simple, tap a character to select them and tap an enemy to attack them. Tap anywhere to walk there and some skills (such as healing) require dragging from one target to another.

Menus - 9/10

The menu's are good but seem to loop around a lot. You can access lots of menus from whatever screen you're on and that isn't really a problem, just I sometimes tend to get a little lost.

The first screen allows you to choose a save file, delete them or change the options and check the instructions. When you first start a game you can choose a difficulty (I'm playing on Normal) and you can't change this at any point, so choose wisely.

Then the main screen has links to the shop, inventory, skill selection, party selection, and also links to the PvP and online areas of the game. (I haven't tried these so I won't talk about these).

Sound - 10/10

The sounds are very good, the sound effects can be a bit repetitive but other than that, they're good and fit in well with the over all feeling of the game.

Graphics - 10/10

The graphics for this game are amazing. I love them, the cartoony feel and use of bold colours are two things that give the game personality. The use of small Chibi (Japanese style that literally means 'small person') style characters also adds to this personality.

Difficulty - 7/10

Like I said above, I've completed area one of five and I've already started to grind for loot and exp. I'm not sure if this is because I'm not very good or because the game is quite difficult, but seen as I'm on Normal I'm taking it to be the latter.

Also, the use of coins is a bit thinly spread. You need coins for skills, equipment and new characters. You just don't seem to earn enough to keep up with the way the game progresses difficulty wise.

Learning Curve - 9/10

The game is quite easy to pick up and new things are explained to you as they crop up, however navigating the menus can take a little time and there seems to be a lot involved in the game for every player to know and be good at everything the game offers.

Average Score - 8.7/10

Overall Score - 8/10

Epic Raiders is good but it's not the best RPG I've played (they're my favourite type of game to play so I've definitely played better) But as a new game on a new device it's very good. There are some things I find hard and some things I don't agree with such as the thinly spread uses for gold in the game. But it's fun to play and it's a good game to have and kill some time on every now and again.

Raccoon Rub

Raccoon Rub

Developer: Xi Zhang

iTunes Rating: 3.5 Stars (17 ratings as of 06 August 2012)

Game Center?: Yes

Version Details: 1.1.2 (released 23 May 2012)

Age Rating: 4+

Price: Free

Gameplay

Raccoon rub is a game where you have to massage raccoons in many different ways in a certain time limit, it makes use of the touch screen in various ways but simply uses the swipe and tap mechanics. The game is split into "worlds" by the use of different characters and each character has a number of levels each.

In each level you must do what each icon tell you to do in a small time limit to fill up a bar in an overall time limit. You get stars depending on how fast you finish each level and score in the form of waffles, which you use as an in game currency.

Every couple of levels or so you get introduced to a new gameplay mechanic, starting off with "hands" where you just connect the dots without taking your finger off the screen and later get icons such as "stones"; tap them all in order, and "towel"; draw the shape as accurately as you can.

The waffles can be used to unlock different characters earlier (you unlock them naturally with stars as you progress) or to use boosts in game to make the game easier. The game allows you to buy waffles through in app purchases but you earn them slowly as you progress through the levels. At the moment there are 5 characters each with about 10 levels.

Addictivity - 7/10

The game is fun at first, however you easily get overwhelmed by the amount of gameplay elements, you get a new massage technique every couple of levels and some of them can be very hard to control. One in particular that I can never get to work is where a small circular icon comes up and you have to move your finger around the icon, or inside the icon... it's not very clear what you have to do and either way I try and fail to do this icon every time!

Controls - 8/10

The controls are good, but not great. As I said above some of the gameplay elements are very tricky and I think that is due to the choice of how they want the controls to work. Some of them are easy to do and work very well but others are hard and really do not work well at all.

Menus - 10/10

I can't fault the menus in this game, they're well designed and simple to follow. The level selects are the typical for iOS games. Swipe to select a world and then you get multiple choices for the levels where you can swipe for more levels.

The main menu is also typical; with options, a link to an in game store where you can spend the waffles on normally priced boosts as well as some overly priced (designed for the in app purchasers...) boosts that make the game easier by making the bar fill up quicker and extending the game time. You can also spend the waffles on gaining double waffles and also removing the ads.

Sound - 8/10

The background for the main menu is good and I like it quite a bit, however the in game music is not as good... Also the sound effects are really, really. REALLY! weird (and questionable...) and repeat way too often. It get's really annoying when you have a raccoon going "ooo!" every few seconds...

Graphics - 8/10

Again, the graphics are okay but not great. They don't seem to make use of the Retina HD output which most iOS devices have available now and the result is very fuzzy graphics that look out of place with everything else on the market.

Other than that issue the graphics are good, a nice balance of bold colours with pastels which results in a nice overall theme. The in game screen is well designed and everything you need is there and easy to find.

Difficulty - 7/10

Raccoon Rub has the issue of too much going on at once... The game has a lot of different gameplay elements and you're given a short time to execute some of them and it results in the game being quite difficult once you accumulate a number of the massage techniques that you must use. if the game got rid of some of the harder ones, or used less in the same levels then it would be a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable I think.

Learning Curve - 6/10

The learning curve to the game is very unbalanced. You're introduced to new techniques way too often and the number of them results in game being bogged down with details and features. There is way too much going on at once and it makes the game hard to play and hard to enjoy... Which is a real shame I think.

Average Score - 7.7/10

Overall Score - 7/10

Raccoon Rub is an average game with too much going on, which really lets it down. It could definitely learn that less is indeed sometimes more. I think if some of the gameplay elements were removed, not all used at the same time, or at least give more learning space between them then it would make the game easier and more enjoyable. I enjoyed the initial honeymoon period of the game but I've definitely gone off it in time.

Blog Swap Review: Mino Monsters

Mino Monsters

Developers: MinoMonsters Inc.

iTunes Rating: 5 Stars (315 ratings as of 18 July 2012)

Game Center?: No

Version Details: 2.1.0 (released 09 July 2012)

Age Rating: 4+

Price: Free

Wait, wait...who are you?

Sorry! I'm stealing the blog for this tiny post. Andy and I (Tyler) have blog switched for today, and so this post only requires a tiny introduction. My name is Tyler-Rose and I run a book review blog, which couldn't be any more different from Andy's iOS review blog... For one day a month, I'll be posting a game review here and he'll be posting a book review over on my blog! I think that serves as an introduction! Onto the review!

Mino Monsters is a simple game where your monsters battle wild monsters, although you can only collect certain monsters...  Very simple game, beautifully designed and insanely addictive.

Gameplay

Mino Monsters starts off by giving you the choice of three monsters to take on your quest -Sounding familiar yet?- to capture a variety of different monsters and battle a variety of different bosses. The idea is to tap the monster you're attacking or to tap on various different powers your monster has. Although there was no tutorial, as such, the game is simple and easy to figure out. 

If all of your monsters (maximum of 4 and minimum of 1) are to die, you sometimes get helpful hints. But the simplicity of the game is what makes it so addictive, to the point where you don't need the tutorial because you pick everything up as you go along. That doesn't mean the game doesn't have it's harder levels, because believe you me - it does. But despite this, it's still fun to play. 

The idea of the game is to collect experience, energy and health (as well as Candy -to catch monsters- and mino credits -to buy monsters, health and other things-) and defeat monsters throughout the three islands and a mystery island. Each main island has four steps, apart from the third island which only has one stop as it isn't complete. The mystery island costs 69p to buy, but with the mystery island you get access to a mega rare monster and 25 mino credits.

Along with the monsters you get boosts as you defeat bosses, some examples are 'luck' (a four leaf clover) which makes your attack 'lucky', and a 'defence bubble' which attacks the enemy and defends you completely from the next attack - along with more difficult boosts to collect such as the 'golden heart' which, when you activate it, gives your monster loads of health hearts.

Addictivity

I hardly ever come across a game on my iPhone that I play all day everyday, Mino Monsters was definitely a first. The simple gameplay and cute/adorable monsters make the game addictive for me. I want to level up my monsters, get them all the best powers and I want to collect all the cute rare/mega rare monsters. If a game looks good and is easy to play, chances are I'll get addicted to it, at least for a little while. But Mino Monsters has got me hooked and keeps me going back. 

Between battles, the time it takes for each stop to regenerate a new monster ranges anything from 3 minutes to multiple hours (depending on the level you're on, and whether or not it's an ordinary stop or a stop with a boss). 

Controls

There are only two controls in this game, tap and swipe/scroll. You tap the monster to attack it, or tap the power you want to use. You also tap the island you wish to play on, and then the stop you want to play. You tap the bush, then the monster and then the attack button. Unless a box appears under the bush, then it's a single tap and then you move onto the next stop.

Swiping and Scrolling appears on the above menu, and when you click the 'Team' button because you have to scroll through the screen to make a selection on which monster you want on your team. Followed by a simple tap! 

Menus

The menu's are simple and easy to navigate through, you swipe across the islands until you come across the one you want to go on, and then tap it. It's quite simple. You unlock the island's as you defeat the boss/es in the previous island. There isn't much to say about the menu's other than they all follow the same graphics as the game and are easy to understand and use. You don't have to double tap in the main menu, only when you select the island and then are selecting which stop you want to go in. 

Sound

The game has a really cheerful soundtrack when you're on the islands tapping away at bushes or on the main menu. When you go into battle with bosses and other monsters the music changes from happy and cheerful to generic battle music - without being over the top. The music doesn't offer as a distraction whilst battling, and it isn't overpowered by the sound effects nor do the sound effects over power the music. 

Graphics

I love the graphics in this game, mostly because the monsters are cute. The colours are bold, which I guess makes it almost childish because the colours are attractive and eye catching. The bold colours add an element of fun to the game, and I really enjoy that. Sure it's a game about killing monsters but the cute graphics and bold colours remind you of the fun behind it.

Difficulty

Honestly, each level increases in difficultly, and are designed to increase in difficulty otherwise where is the challenge in defeating the bosses? But if you are stuck you can always go back and play some of the easier levels to increase the level of your team. I find myself stuck on certain levels for days at a time, but as soon as you level your team up to the same level as the boss you're stuck on, it becomes so much easier. Although the Fire island is apparently really hard (Andy made sure I knew this when he spent about 20 minutes complaining about how hard it was this morning!)

Learning Curve

The game is pretty simple, which means the game is pretty easy to pick up on. Although there is only a basic tutorial, so you do end figuring out most of the game alone. The tutorial tells you how to attack and the rest you get through helpful tips if you die - for example if you die it might pop up and say 'level up your monster' or 'tap the shield to defend yourself'. A simple game, with simple controls doesn't call for a long tutorial. The game does get harder, which is to be expected but there are ways to get through it. 

Overall Score: 9/10

Given the fact that the game is incomplete (still waiting on the fire island to be completed) means this game can't have a perfect score. Alongside that, so far we've only found that two of the monsters (your starter and Sprout) actually level up. The developers have a few things to add and work on, but that doesn't take anything away from the fact that this game is brilliantly addictive. 

Nihilumbra

Nihilumbra

Developers: Beautifun Games SL

iTunes Rating: 5 Stars (14 ratings as of 19 July 2012)

Game Center?: No

Version Details: 1.1 (released 28 June 2012)

Age Rating: 9+

Price: £1.99

Nihilumbra is just... Wow. This game is so amazing and it has hardly any ratings but they’re all 5 stars (a few are 4 stars but only about 2 or 3). I think this may be due to the fact that it looks a little bit like a stigmatic and oh-so-hated “Art” game. However, Nihilumbra is a side scrolling puzzle platformer with some truly original game mechanics and an engaging story that will keep you hooked.

Gameplay

The game starts with a small blob in this place called “the void” a desolate place of nothingness that has somehow spawned a conscious being. You travel through this area that teaches you the movement and jumping mechanics and eventually escape into the real world.

Here you find yourself in a truly beautifully designed landscape, a snow-capped mountain path in the middle of a blizzard. As you travel along this path you come across a scarecrow and change your shape so you look more human. This is where the real game starts, you follow the path until you reach a place you can’t go and are forced to follow another path. Here you find a glowing flower and discover something amazing. Colour. This is what the game is all about, you travel from a place of nothingness and find all these colours and beautiful landscapes and you don’t want to leave them, you want to discover more. However the void wants to be complete and is after you.

The colours serve another purpose though; you paint the surfaces to give them new physical properties. Each colour does something to the surfaces that you will have to use as you progress through the different landscapes and find new colours to add to your palette.

The narrative of the game is amazing; it really sets the tone and the feeling of the game. Sometimes it echoes your feelings in an eerie way, but at others it tell you what your character is feeling at this point, it tries (and ultimately succeeds in my opinion) to put you right in the shoes of the character. The story is really gripping and interesting and I really want to see what happens at the end, especially as in the description on iTunes it says: Unlock a great surprise by completing the game, replayability assured.

Addictivity - 10/10

The game is fun and the story is interesting, the game mechanics are good and there are multiple ways to solve each puzzle, some easier than others. I’m currently in world 3 of 5 and I’m about half way through the game as a whole. It really is amazing and well worth the higher than normal price tag.

Controls - 10/10

The game has two control methods, on screen buttons or tilting the device. I haven’t tried out the tilting because I’m more of a fan of buttons but the buttons are well designed. They’re not big enough to overtake most of the screen space, but they’re not so small that you can’t hit them accurately. The buttons are used to move your character left and right and there’s a small button on the right that you use to jump.

Using the colours is a bit more complex. First you have to choose your colour; this is done by a small menu at the top right corner of the screen. An orb shows you the currently selected colour and tapping this opens up a treelike menu where you choose another. Once you have your colour you can simply paint over any surface and it coats it in that colour. It’s that simple.

Menus - 10/10

The menus are simple to understand. There’s an options menu where you can choose from multiple languages (this changes the onscreen narrative) set the BGM and SFX volume levels and also choose which control setup you want to use (you can also do this at the start of a new game, it asks). There is also a feedback button where you can choose to leave a rating or pass the game around on FaceBook and Twitter.

Also on the main screen there is a profile selector, you can have up to 3 profiles, or save files, on the game and you can choose here which you want to play. Tapping “play” will take you to the void if you’re playing a new game (this is a tutorial area that you can’t play again if loading) if you’re loading it will take you to the level select screen. Here you can choose what area you want to play in and can also choose what checkpoint you want to play from.

Sound - 10/10

The sound in this game is beautiful, the background music to the menus is amazing and each level has its own score which fits in perfectly with the landscape and adds to the atmosphere. If you’re going to play this game I strongly recommend you play this with the sound on, it really adds to the game immensely.

Graphics - 10/10

The graphics, like the sound, are absolutely beautiful! The levels are all amazingly well designed and recurring aspects of the game, such as the magical area you go to when you discover a new colour, are just as beautifully done. As I said, I’m only on the third area and still have another 2 to go, I’m really looking forward to seeing what they are, and also what colours I’ll be unlocking.

Difficulty - 10/10

The game is balanced perfectly well, adding new colours adds new challenges to the game but you also have to use everything you have learnt as you progress. The colours don’t have one single use, you can use each of them in multiple ways (apart from green that seems to only have one use) and you can combine the use of colours to get the desired effect. For example pushing a large block is only possible if you use blue to ice the floor up and then you could make it stick part way down a wall, after you push it off the edge, using brown.

The hardest bits of each level are at the end where you have to outrun the void, dodging obstacles and using what you have learnt throughout the level to progress. Unless you’re very quick thinking and can react well then you’ll have to attempt these levels multiple times.

Learning Curve - 10/10

The game is incredibly easy to pick up; each new element is introduced well. When you gain a new colour you travel to a small tutorial area where it gives you a small over run of some of the ways you will have to use the colour. Then you’re warped back to where you were and have to carry on up the path you couldn’t go before with your new found power. During the level it will give you new ways to use the colour and will introduce ways to use more than one colour at a time.

Average Score - 10/10

Overall Score - 10/10

Wow. My first perfect 10... Honestly it couldn’t have gone to a more deserving game. This really is the most beautiful game I ever played and I can see why some people would class it as an art game (heck, even I did when I first played it). But Nihilumbra is so much more than that, it has great gameplay to go along with the art side and they tie together amazingly well. The story is gripping and I honestly love it, it brings up issues of belonging, wanting to live, whether it’s pointless to live if you’re just going to die and many more. I honestly love this game and think it is well worth the £1.99.