Hi everyone, and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss all the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. There were a couple of releases this week that took me by surprise, aside from the ones I already had access to. Things have been quiet in Genshin Impact, so it gave me more time to focus on other games. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get started.

Phone Escape: Hopeless

I didn’t know what to expect from Phone Escape: Hopeless, but I’m a sucker for games that use a phone interface for solving puzzles. This one has you waking up in a strange place to a text on your phone. The first thing you need to do is charge your phone, because the person contacting you says it’s all over when the battery runs out. You then use the phone’s camera to look around the room and interact with it. Meanwhile, the mysterious person contacting you will ask you questions that you can only answer by solving puzzles. Sometimes they’ll send you images to work with or even new apps. While the story itself was fairly predictable and overdone, I had a great time solving all the puzzles. There was only one that really bothered me because the intended solution didn’t seem as good as the one I came up with. Still, that didn’t sour the rest of the game for me. At $1.99 this game is a steal and I hope to see more from developer ENIGMATICON. If you’re a fan of room escape games, definitely grab this one, or at least give the free demo a try. Actually, it seems they have different puzzles, so play both! I also have a walkthrough for the full game here and for the lite version here.

Goetz

I’m a sucker for charming artwork in a game, so Goetz caught my attention immediately. It didn’t hurt that it was also advertised as a narrative puzzle game, which is also very appealing to me. So I decided to take a chance on it and was impressed immediately by the voice acting of the narrator. I was also enjoying the slapstick story about a knight being told there’s going to be peace in the land and no more fighting. But I’m struggling with the puzzles. They start off simple, where you just plan out a path to the exit. But once you’re given multiple characters to plan for at once, it starts to feel muddled. You can only see one path at a time and swapping between characters to see their paths feels clunky. On top of that, enemies sometimes have their own paths you need to take into consideration. The concept is interesting and I’m sure the puzzles themselves are clever. But I can’t get past the clunky interface. I even keep accidentally removing a knight from the board when I meant to just move the next one onto the board. As much as I’d like to see it through to the end, I’m already frustrated with it on the second chapter and I’m not sure I’ll be continuing with it. I recommend watching some of my gameplay videos to get an idea of what it’s like and if you’re already playing, I started a walkthrough here.

The Bear

I covered The Bear a couple of weeks ago, ahead of its release, but now it’s officially out for everyone to enjoy. I’ve since finished the game and can honestly say I had no idea where it was headed until I got close to the end. I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s a nice bittersweet story that’s good for all ages. I recommend doing one chapter at a time like a bedtime story, as intended. That way you can savor it. It is a short game that can be completed in about half an hour, so just know that going in and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. You can also play some of it for free before deciding whether to buy the rest of the game, so you have nothing to lose.

Boxes: Lost Fragments

I had finished most of Boxes: Lost Fragments last week, but I still had the fifth and final chapter left. I played through that over the weekend and was surprised at the spike in difficulty for the puzzles. It was the trickiest chapter of the game, but still very doable. Overall, I enjoyed the game, though I wouldn’t have minded more difficult puzzles throughout. Still, it’s nice to see The Room-like games of this quality releasing, especially ones that look this good. I also replayed it to make walkthrough videos, which you can see here.

Wildfrost

I only spent a little time with Wildfrost this week, but I managed to unlock a new tribe that gives me a new deck and new characters to play with. It really shakes things up and makes it feel like a brand new game — even though I’m still trying to master the first tribe. I have a long way to go with this game before I feel like I have a good handle on it and can beat it. But it feels very accessible and easy to jump into even if you don’t have a real strategy. I’ll definitely play more, but this week was already a busy one. I still recommend playing it, especially since you can try before buying.

Genshin Impact

And last, I’m still playing Genshin Impact, but there wasn’t a whole lot going on this week. I discovered a new mechanic in Fontaine’s underwater area that I had somehow missed, so I solved those puzzles and then completed floor 12 of the Abyss. I actually got 36 stars for the first time in a while, so that was nice. The version 4.6 update with a new area is coming in a few days, so you’ll see a lot more from me next week.

And that’s everything I played this week. I also want to mention that Amanita Design’s fantastic Pilgrims, which used to be on Apple Arcade, is now available on iOS and Android as a standalone app. I wrote more about that here. As for TV and movies, I finally watched Groundhog Day so I could see what started all the time loop stories. It was entertaining, but I imagine it was more groundbreaking when it first came out. Aside from that, I’m on the ninth season of The X-Files and it’s pretty awful. I’m on an episode titled Jump the Shark and that’s pretty on the nose for the whole season. But I’m almost at the reboot and then I’ll try to see if I can find the movies anywhere. And maybe the Lone Gunmen spinoff? Anyway, let me know in the comments section which games you’re enjoying and I’ll see you back here next week for more of My Week Unwrapped!