Source: Cashmoneys
Price: £18.99
Where To Get It: Steam
Other Reviews: Release

I can, even at this relatively early stage of Klei’s survival sim, see a few obvious things. Firstly, due to the very nature of Oxygen Not Included, I get easily frustrated. Secondly, plumbers and electricians are deities among humankind. Not a lot of this makes sense until you realise that the core element of the game is that it’s a survival management game… In a closed system. Oxygen is most definitely not included. It must be earned. And, past about day 10, this is a near constant struggle.

Yes, I get frustrated with it easily. But that definitely doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the vision here.

When Digging Out Water-Pools Backfires Horribly, a TMW Special.

In any case, the basic idea is very simple: You start with three “Duplicants” (clones, basically), stranded mysteriously by a teleporting gate (that also, periodically, is able to “print” new Duplicants.) They start with a ration box, and a small room that has some oxygen, and from there? Well, everything. Outhouses. You need those. And sinks to clean up. Wait, now you need water to wash with. Beds. Food. Electricity to power de-oxidisers and research stations. Algae to run those de-oxidisers, and dirt and more water for research. Wait, crap, you forgot about the carbon dioxide buildup, got to put that somewhere… And the poop. And the bad water. And so it goes, on and on until you’re trying to displace all the waste heat your generators and de-oxidisers and wires and pipes are making.

It is, perhaps, the first game I’ve come across where it becomes more complicated the more established you are. Because, of course, all of these actions, from growing to laying pipes to manning fans and giant hamster wheels, take time. And sure, more people will mean more gets done, but more people also means more CO2 generated. More food eaten. And, because Duplicants have flaws like consuming more oxygen than their compatriots, having a weak bladder, farting a lot… You have to choose your Duplicants wisely, as well. Heck, everything has to be chosen wisely, and, as I’ve mentioned, the further you get, the bigger the scale of the things you have to do, to deal with the buildup of problems over time. I highly expect, by the time I get to day 50, that I’ll have to build an oxygen pump at the top of my base, running a heat dissipating pipe through several areas I don’t care about (but will have to dig through and survive), before finally pumping that good, and most importantly, cooler air near the bottom of my base. Not the exact bottom, you understand… I have to have somewhere the CO2’s going to… Oh wait, now I need to dig down. Crap.

Not Pictured: Me panicking as I realise I’m going to run out of Algae *and* Hydrogen before I can build and power a Slime to Algae Converter.

Right now, there isn’t an end-goal to the game, although there are tantalising hints and things to be discovered. Offices, isolated in the middle of this asteroid in nowhere. Vending machines, with notices not to put harmful materials in. Brains in jars, that give your Duplicants new or improved skills, providing you find them. And, of course, beasties. The simple Hatch, which can be useful for their ability to eat things and poop coal, but will also, unchecked, eat the food destined for your colonist’s bellies. The Slimepuff, which can make slime in areas of polluted oxygen… Whether you want them to or not. And, of course, germs. There’s more, obviously, but I want at least some mystery for the new player.

Overall, I look forward to seeing where Oxygen Not Included goes, because when it comes to survival games, you can’t really top this in terms of challenge without becoming deeply unfair and unfun. As it is, I can see the long-term frustration inherent to its core premise turning folks off, but I also appreciate the thought and craftsmanship that’s gone into making even surviving to 100 days plus possible without resorting to “Eh, this thing just makes the air cooler/adds oxygen/just removes a need” to this point.

MYSTERY!

The Mad Welshman is pleased to announce that Klei have entered the hallowed ranks of “These developers slightly intimidate me.” He politely asks that they not abuse this honour.

Filed under: Early Access Releases, Game Reviews by admin

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Source: Cashmoneys
Price: £14.99
Where To Get It: Steam

It’s not so bad, being a robot miner whose uncle left you some kick-ass robot powers strewn around the very place where he’s gone missing. Well, y’know, apart from all the times you got disassembled because you got too curious… Or found yourself further on the path toward finding your Unc than you were maybe prepared for. But, generally speaking, being a robot miner isn’t bad.

…Yes, that is a Post-Facts reference. Yes, I’m wincing just as hard as you are.

A wee backgrounder before we continue: Steamworld Dig was the story of Rusty, a mining droid who dug deep, discovered an ancient, electronic evil, and put paid to it via digging, selling ore, gaining and using special abilities from lost technology, and buying ladders just in case he screwed up and dug too far. It was an interesting game, but also a somewhat grindy one at times.

I can happily state that this sequel, while still having the digging and the exploring and the selling ore and finding whatnots, is a tighter, less grindy game. Gone are purchasing teleports, replaced with a (mostly) handy pneumatic tube system that serves as checkpoints, and an ability you can earn later on that allows you to teleport to the surface anywhere that isn’t a cave or a plot-important area. Ladders, similarly, exist in a sense, but the game relies more on the more traditional mobility powerups to speed getting around and gate progress. For example, one particularly clever segment has you using a hookshot to cross a very windy segment of desert, with the most difficult segment involving timing your walljumping to coincide with very short periods of lower wind speed, and, importantly, very little of it feels frustrating.

Here, we see the hookshot being ohgodwhywon’tthelavarobotsgoaway…

Well, except for one feature, but that’s pretty much a personal preference: I really, really don’t like bosses who are invincible for the majority of their pattern, and there are a couple of those. Nonetheless, overall, Steamworld Dig 2 trades a lot of its procgen for something that, in the context, works better… tight design. From the very first, you are taught to use your powers until they feel natural, and then asked to think of them in slightly different ways. Hookshot as means of climbing. Hookshot as means of passing an impediment. Hookshot as means of clearing nuisances. Hookshot as boss avoider. A lot of the time, while there is a difficulty curve, it’s mostly only when the game seriously changes up the formula, or introduces something you’re not prepared for that you notice that. So yeah, props on that. Anything bad?

Well… Not… Really. The game isn’t going to win any awards for writing, with most characters being both functional and one-dimensional (Here’s the cowardly greedy mayor, and his long-suffering mother. There’s the shy mechanic, surprised and pleased when you actually want to hear the tutorials or them nattering about the tech you’ve gotten. Merchant. Archaeologist. Most folks are defined by their role, more than anything else.) But beyond that, it’s a well designed action platformer with clear direction, clear visuals, and some cool powerups. Honestly, that’s all it needs to be.

See, this *looks* intimidating… But thankfully, it’s a lot more chill than it *looks*

The Mad Welshman took quite a few screenshots. And then he realised a lot of them are spoilery as heck. Consarnit.

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Source: Free-To-Play (Tables come from Pinball FX2, mostly)
Price: Free (Tables are DLC ranging from £1.99 to £7.99 packs, 1 table (Sorcerer’s Lair) included, with option to trial play tables)
Where To Get It: Steam

It’s nice when I get to say something has improved. Even if it’s basically a new lick-of-paint, some community features, and quality of life improvements, it’s still nice. And so it is with Pinball FX 3, by Zen Studios, a free to play pinball game with tables-as-DLC. Let’s get into that.

The Biolab table, complete with cute monstrosity.

Pinball games, thankfully, are somewhat simple in terms of basics, so let’s sum this up quickly: The shift keys control the paddles (Left side paddles on left shift, Right side on right shift… A scaled down version of how pinball machines’ paddle buttons are generally placed on either side of the cabinet), Space tilts the table (Used sparingly, firstly because it’s rarely needed, and secondly because pinball machines don’t like it when you tilt them, punishing someone trying to cheat by lifting the table with a loss of control, and consequently… The ball), and Enter starts the game or, held down and released, launches the ball. Bam. There’s also camera and powerup controls, but those are either not used so often, or are clearly shown when you have a powerup unlocked and usable.

No, the real joy is in how the tables of the Pinball FX series play with the basic rules of pinball. The special modes in the Marvel: Infinity Gauntlet table (Yes, based on one of the many times cosmic gems and Thanos co-incided) can change the camera, elements of the table… Even the basic rule that shift flips the flippers, rather than holding them down, is exploited in the Mind Gem mission. In the Aliens table, the game will, at certain points, flip to a game you wouldn’t possibly have on a real pinball table, a segment where you’re piloting the APC down a corridor, dodging debris by shifting left or right with the paddles. Even some of the earlier tables have their own, separate mini-tables for certain minigames, and each table has its own twists. Epic Quest, for example, has a combat system, an XP bar, and spellcasting. Yes, on a pinball table. No, I’m not messing with you. Right ramp for Sword, middle left ramp for shield, smash bumper for smashing, and you get XP for completing quests and beating up monsters.

See? The, er… XP and HP bars are a little hard to pay attention to, however, seeing as they’re *below* the flippers, and you’re generally paying attention *above* them.

So, let’s talk about upsides and downsides. Firstly, if you did not have Pinball FX2, it’s no longer available for sale, nor are the tables that were licensed to it, and it alone (A list is available here). There is, at base, only one table available for free (Sorcerer’s Lair), but the table sets are, for the most part, reasonably priced at between £1.99 for some individual tables, and £7.99 for the Bethesda 4 table pack (With most at £6.99 for three tables, and bundle options.) Due to the updated visuals on tables, the game has higher system requirements, and is not quite as accessible as FX2, specwise. New tables have already been licensed, such as in the Universal Classics pack (consisting of ET, Jaws, and Back to the Future.) A downside is that the high-score table seems reluctant to share with me some friends’ scores, counterbalanced by an, overall, friendlier UI.

Finally, there are community improvements, powerups, and challenges. Tournaments, for example, are easier to see, and there’s a “matchup” mode where you can play multiple tables to try and get the top spots each month (Alas, the tables chosen aren’t guaranteed to be ones you own, and yes, this is a subtle way of trying to get you to buy tables, along with the Wizard Score, partly based on the number of tables you’ve played. I’m not going to begrudge this considering that the game is microtransaction free, honestly.) Similarly, tables now have different ways to play them, such as the three challenge modes (1 ball mode, 5-minute mode, and Survival mode, where you have a minute to reach an ever increasing score level, the clock resetting each time you get the score up to the maximum of 15) and powerups. Unlocked partly by playing the table normally, and partly by completing the challenge modes to a certain level, these add a bit of variety and score to your game, such as more score when hitting bumpers, or the ability to rewind time a certain number of seconds, improved by use.

Two modifiers and one powerup can be chosen per table, although modifiers level up just by… Well, going farther, or hitting more bumpers, for example!

How does it feel? Well, there’s quite a variety to the tables, so the feel varies quite a bit. Weakest in my opinion is V12, a table with a high emphasis on edge ramps and a limited lower play field, and have had the most fun with the Aliens, Sorcerer’s Lair, Epic Quest and Mars tables, but I’ve sunk a fair amount of playtime into the game, feel like I can ignore the tables whose properties I don’t particularly care about and still have a good time (Sorry, Balls of Glory pack, I don’t particularly want to remember that time where Family Guy was shit, or, y’know… Family Guy in general), and the tables are reasonably priced in reasonable packs. The tables have easily accessible guides as to how they work, and trial plays so you know roughly what you’re in for before (IE – before you say if) you buy, so… Yeah, I quite like it!

The Mad Welshman likes a bit of pin-of-the-ball. It reminds him of ye olde days of cabinette arcades.

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