Mobile Friday - Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution - More Of The Same

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution, from NimbleBit, on my iPhone 14 Pro.

Playing Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution is more of a personal choice. it wasn't clear when it came out globally, but as someone who has played most of the games NimbleBit have released, i wanted to try it.

Because i'm a fan of NimbleBit games and still play their Trains and Planes games, whilst also thinking about getting back into Tiny Tower, i'm in two minds about Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution. The headline for this review is "More of the Same" which is both a positive and a negative. i know how the games plays, i know the rules and what's expected. but that also means there's no evolution, there's nothing new.

Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution feels like an old game. the tutorial is poor at best, the use of the screen is poor and feels like it was carried over from a different device, and there are some choices here and there that leave me more confused. a quick example of something small is how the button to upgrade your truck is on whilst the truck is driving, but you can't actually go to that screen. so why isn't it off like the City button is when your driving.

I recorded this video earlier in the week and have played it a little on and off since then and there are still aspects of the game that feel unbalanced. i have no idea why so many trucks are available when so few jobs are. i don't understand how the scrap/upgrade system work or how/when you get said items. And i have added the ice tyres to those trucks that can get them, but still don't know if there are negatives to using them on regular roads.

If Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution had come out years ago when the other hits from NimbleBit had, it would've felt like a natural fit. But now, it just feels old and not really in a positive way. games are much clearer now, either through an initial tutorial or additional smaller help boxes or tutorials as and when things unlock. I feel like games have much more animation, an example is how the animals clearly visible on screen don't move. if you're not going to animate them, why show them, why not have some cool crate for them. 

As it is, Pocket Trucks: Route Evolution is fine. it does nothing to evolve the genre nor does it really harm it. the gameplay look is as fine as it ever was. For better or for worse, it's more of the same and sometimes that's enough.

Version 1.2.1 Played.

Demo Play Thursday - Trinity Fusion On Switch

For this week's Demo Play Thursday i played the Nintendo Switch version of Trinity Fusion, from  Angry Mob Games .

I didn't know anything about this game going in, after i played the demo i saw that it has already come out on other platforms. so for me, i was looking to the demo as being my introduction to the game.

It starts well by telling the back story of this universe. i thought it was interesting. it ends on a character called Maya who seems to the the main character. But then when the tutorial starts we're a new character called Naira with no explanation as to who we are, where we are, nor what we should be doing. at least on screen there are basic tutorial instructions telling us how to control her.

But this lack of "Why" permeates throughout this demo and is what was the most frustrating part of playing it. When i died, in what was a cool death sequence, we get a brief bit of story before the gameplay starts up again and i'm someone new. again, not this Maya character we've been introduced to and not as Naira as before. the level was also different and you can hear in my commentary that i was very confused by the situation. But it doesn't end there as when i died a second time i was sent back to some sort of hub world, again with no context as to what was happening. it was a little difficult to know what to do here and it was more by accident that i worked out how to continue playing the game. as well as a lack of Why, the tutorial also is surprisingly limited in this demo. 

The lack of why and what our purpose is is such a let down because the gameplay itself is really good. combat is varied, the controls are responsive, the levels look great and there's some variety in where and how you navigate them. the music is fantastic and just as impressive where the decent load times, too. there is soo much to like about how it plays, that this demo gives the impression that they came up with the gameplay first and then tried to build a story around it, that's just how separate they fill.

The Switch demo for Trinity Fusion is well worth playing and a lot of people are going to enjoy how it plays. as i say i the video, with it's lack of story it'll be a great podcast game. But it's not for me. It teased a world that i wanted to play in, a story where there seemingly are going to be losses on all sides and no one is the winner. that sounded really interesting. But they gave me none of that here.

Backlog Conquering - Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut - Part 2 - Missions 4 And 5

Welcome to Backlog Conquering. This is a series were i play a game from my backlog that i may or may not have played before. the goal isn't necessarily to finish the game, the goal is to play it. that way, i can have an opinion about it.

Strike Suit Zero: Director's Cut is a game from Born Ready Games that i've had on PS4 since it game out on the PSN. 

I feel that the mission length and difficulty has gone up from the first 3 missions i did in Part 1, https://youtu.be/zBNkDWAqsXc, but that's not entirely the fault of the game. i made mistakes which saw my ship crash into another ship causing my shields, and armor, to fail. this means i died twice in this video and i came close a couple of other times, too. I feel that the story telling isn't happening as great as i'd like it to. there's a lot of chatter over the radio during the game but my focus is on the action so i'm not really taking it in.

Stories on Tuesday - Star Trek: Resurgence - Part 6 - Act 3 Part 8 to Part 13

The new game in the Stories on Tuesday series is the PS4 version of Star Trek: Resurgence, from  Dramatic Labs.

Part 5, https://youtu.be/QAaTFS_OkwM, ended when i was killed in a firefight. So the start of this Part 6 was me trying once more to get through said firefight. thankfully it wasn't an issue and it looks like i was very close in Part 5 to finishing it.

the choices i had to make in Part 6 were quite difficult. it really does feel like things are serious and that there are no perfect answers. For example, with Diaz how Federation can you be on a non-Federation ship. With Jara Rydek, how much can you stick with your captain when things aren't getting any better. the final parts are going to force upon me some really difficult choices.

Switch Funday - Splatoon 3 - Getting August's Salmon Run Item

This month's Splatoon 3 Salmon Run item is the Hard Hat Replica. The goal for this video was to get 1,00 points. that way i get the item twice and have a go at defeating a King Salmonoid. 

This Salmon run was wasn't great. it took 3 more jobs than July's did. In that Salmon Run, https://youtu.be/yHh_0RNRtBE, my team mates and i got to Wave 3 frequently, but this month we struggled to get past Wave 1 sometimes, and when we did it wasn't with a high score. the weapon selection, for me, wasn't great so it also wasn't that fun at times. we had a lot of Glowfly Waves, too.

Online Saturday - Battle Crush - Looks Good On Switch, Has A Great Tutorial, But No Sense Of Speed

For Online Saturday i tried the Nintendo Switch version of Battle Crush from NCsoft.

I haven't heard much about this game even tho it's doing well on Mobile Charts. i didn't know anything about it going in so i was hoping for a decent tutorial to help guide me. Battle Crush has a great one. starting the game for the first time, we're taken straight into the tutorial. each aspect of the basic controls were explained and shown before we get to do it. But what's also great is that once the basic stuff was finished, we're given the choice as to whether we want to do more advanced tutorials or start playing. for a game that's out across different platforms, this is great for players who know what to do.

But the tutorial does end a little quick. When i get to the home screen, i would've appreciated a quick message pointing me to the online matches. Those matches are also not labelled as to what the game mode actually is. i tried out all modes, but i guessed wrong what i thought one or two of them might've been. Then when you get to the character select screen, i also had to guess as to why some characters had purple logos on them. in that case, it's similar to what Pokémon Unite does in that you get a limited time with characters you don't have. 

I didn't mind the characters i played as, but when i was up against other characters it never felt balanced. we all seem to go the same speed when moving but attack speeds, ranges, and powers seem all over the place so when i was defeated by one character it immediately felt unbalanced and not in a player experience way.

Another aspect of the gameplay that bothered me was the speed of gameplay. characters move slower than i expected, weapon firing was slower than expected, and in a level the concept of time was weird. it's hard to describe. because we see soo little of the game stage and we move so slow across it, it felt difficult to judge how long it would take to get across the stage, how long it would take to get into a save zone. 

Battle Crush looks great on Switch and is very welcoming to new players. but the game itself isn't quite what i'm looking for. it reminds me of Fat Princess in how zoomed in both games are. but things move faster in Fat Princess, the levels were smaller, and they were designed in such a way to funnel opponents to each other. maybe the stages are either too big and open or too small in Battle Crush. But i do think it's well worth a try.

Mobile Friday - The Demonized: Idle RPG - Great Art But No Tutorial And Inconsistent Mechanics

For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out The Demonized: Idle RPG, from #Gameduo, on my #iPhone 14 Pro.

The video and screenshots on the app store caught my attention. the #PixelArt looked great and the action looked good, too. i was wondering if the game could deliver on what it said in the store, that there are Unlimited Evolutions, Unlimited Items and Skills, Amazing Boss Stages, Amazing Upgrades, and Various Reward Events.

After my hour with the game, it's fair to say i have some thoughts. unfortunately for The Demonized: Idle RPG, there isn't much to praise so lets do that first. the pixel art doesn't disappoint. the monsters, the bosses, the stages, the weapons, the skills, the accessories, it all looks good. as i say in the video, it'd be great if there was a button i could press to clear the screen so i could watch it all in action. The music is limited, but what it does have is good. tho i wasn't sure how appropriate it was for the setting and what was happening on screen. And that's about it.

The Demonized: Idle RPG has many issues but they mostly stem from one big fault, inconsistent game mechanics. for a game with no tutorial, it's not just confusing but also frustrating having to work out how to play it when the rules change depending on what you're doing. for weapons, there's an auto equip, but for accessories there aren't. for minions, combining extra of the same makes them stronger but with accessories they combine any extra into something else. levelling up your character's stats uses Stat Points, but upgrading them uses monster meat.

The Demonized: Idle RPG's translation into English also causes some issues. The Attack Skills are easy to understand but the Buff Skills seem more like magic. Then there's the whole issue with "Level Up" as there was no tutorial to explain it to me i thought it meant levelling up an item, weapon, accessory, etc. but in The Demonized: Idle RPG it refers to the fact you have collected said item and getting a reward. you're levelling up your Collection and getting buffs from having obtained items.

Even making progress in the game isn't straight forward. most idle games like this would have you complete a set amount of stages in a level before coming up against a boss you must defeat to progress to the next level. In The Demonized: Idle RPG, each stage in a level has a boss and to face that boss you have to press the orange boss button as it's separate. it's almost like a boss rush. when you fail to beat a boss, you start playing through that level. so if you fail to beat the boss of stage 6, you play stage 6 on repeat until you chose to face that boss again. None of this is explained so there are times i'm stuck repeating stages as i didn't know about the bosses.

There are many other examples in the video, but ultimately The Demonized: Idle RPG is not greater than the sum of it's parts. Gameduo need to rework or at least unify the game mechanics to make The Demonized: Idle RPG even the slightest bit approachable for more casual players. As it is, i can't recommend it. there really is some good ideas here, but they've failed to make something cohesive. 

Version 1.4.6 Played.