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Hi everyone and welcome back to My Week Unwrapped, where I discuss the games I’ve been playing over the last seven days. This has been a weird week, because playing a new game made me go back and give an older game another chance, then quit it again in a fit of rage, then pick it up and play more. So if you’re wondering why there aren’t more games on this list, that’s a big reason for it. I’ll talk more about it below. So here we go!

The Bonfire: Forsaken Lands

I had been following progress of Xigma Games’ The Bonfire: Forsaken Lands for a while now, mostly because of the art style that reminded me of Alto’s Adventure, but also because I was intrigued by the idea of another game like Kingdom: New Lands. I had played Kingdom for about forty-five minutes and then died. Due to its permadeath, I would have had to start from scratch if I wanted to keep playing. So I abandoned it. But The Bonfire gives you the option of starting from scratch if you die by playing in Hardcore mode. If you prefer to just start the day over when you die, you can play the Normal mode. Unlike Kingdom, it’s much harder to mess up, so redoing the day should be enough to fix your mistakes and make it to the next one. Enemies only ever come from one side, there are never too many of them, and as long as you have enough guards you should be fine. So the game starts to get boring after a while when you realize that. Also, there are some confusing aspects, a very cumbersome user interface, and a lackluster ending. So this wasn’t exactly the more casual Kingdom I was hoping for, as it lacks the magic and finesse that makes Kingdom so appealing. Not to mention riding around on a horse. I wrote more here in my review, where you can also find gameplay videos of my entire playthrough. I also made a walkthrough guide for those who do decide to play and need some help.



Cotrio

Cotrio is a relaxing yet challenging math puzzler that feels very unique and has a lot to offer, but can sometimes falter. Rather than rehash my thoughts on it, I’ll let you read my in-depth review here.



Part Time UFO

HAL Laboratory’s Part Time UFO released a couple of weeks ago but I wasn’t sure if t was for me. I finally started playing and I’m still not sure it’s for me. It’s a cheerful and cute game where you control a little UFO with a grabber. He takes on little odd jobs where he has to pick things up with his grabber and then place them down. For instance, the first level has you reloading oranges back into a truck after they spilled our. Each level has a time limit in which to complete the main objective, as well as two less obvious objectives that get you two extra medals. You need these medals to unlock new jobs, and they can be tricky to pull off. The good thing is, I believe you can try for the extra medals separately, without having to also stay within the time limit. So I’m going to work on those and see how I feel about the game after some more time with it. I do recommend the one-handed control scheme if you decide to play, as you don’t have to pay attention to where your fingers land. In any case, you can watch my two videos below to see it in action and I’ll keep you updated on my impressions as I play more.



.projekt

.projekt is a puzzle game by the developer of Evo Explores and controls a bit like Minecraft in that you need to pile cubes on top of each other. But you’re not really building houses or pirate ships. Instead, you’re shown two abstract shapes to either side of you and you have to place cubes down that will form both shapes. It’s an interesting concept, but I need to spend more time with it and see if it holds my attention. I like how after you complete the first chapter, it adds a new min/max challenge for each level, where you can go back and try to place the minimum number of cubes needed to meet the goal, as well as the maximum number that can still meet it. It offers some replay value and more of a challenge for those looking for one. Anyway, you can see my gameplay video below and I’ll be back with more as I continue playing.



Kingdom: New Lands

Like I said earlier, I gave rage quit Kingdom: New Lands pretty much right after I bought it, and thought I would never look at it again. I don’t like games that waste my time, and a permadeath village builder is pretty much the definition of a time-waster. And yet, after completing The Bonfire, I felt like giving it another try. I did love the pixel artwork and atmosphere, after all. And I have a soft spot for any game that lets me ride around on a horse — or any mount, for that matter. But after hours spent on the first island, thinking I was doing well, my crown was stolen around day 50 and I hated myself. I hated myself for putting all that time into the game knowing that failure and permadeath was a possibility. I vowed I was done with it. And then a day or two later I was playing again, restarting until the randomly generated elements seemed to be more in my favor. And then I finally got off the first island. I again swore I was done, as the second island didn’t seem all that different and I felt like I’d had enough. And yet, I continued playing, failed miserably and yup, you got it — I started again. So you can see the first hour of my latest attempt below. I don’t think things are going that well, and I don’t know why I keep coming back for more punishment, but somehow I can’t shake the game now. I guess we’ll see how long I stick with it. Maybe I’ll write a proper review eventually.



Lost & Alone

I actually played the point-and-click adventure, Lost & Alone, a while back and wrote a walkthrough guide, but I noticed recently that a lot of people were using it, so I finally made a video to accompany it.



#WarGames

I also got early access to Sam Barlow’s #WarGames, an interactive series that mimics video chat where your only choice is which cameras to focus on. I don’t know if it can be considered a game, but it’s still pretty trippy the way each person gets a unique experience without even really knowing what choices led to it. I’ll have more to say about it tomorrow, but I just wanted to remind everyone to keep an eye out for it.

And that’s everything I’ve been up to this past week. It may not seem like much, but all those hours I poured into Kingdom sure made the week go fast. Anyway, let me know in the comments section what you’ve been up to and feel free to give me some pointers to help me survive the second island. I’ll be back here next week with more of My Week Unwrapped!