Month: February 2021

Minimal Dungeon RPG

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The Game

Minimal Dungeon RPG by CapPlay, is just what the title says – a minimalist dungeon crawler with RPG elements for mobile. The game will present you with various blocks that you must tap in order to overcome the obstacle they represent. Sometimes they will be enemies, other times they will be some sort of resource. There are also blocks with padlocks on them, these are unlocked using either silver or gold keys, often these will have better loot than the standard blocks. There are also blocks which will offer you keys, loot or skill points in exchange for cash. Each dungeon level will have a series of rooms that you will need to navigate before reaching the final boss for that level. Beat the boss and you’ll progress.

Your character has 5 types of skill points, but you can only invest in 3 – HP, ATK or DEF – all of which fairly self explanatory. You will also be able to equip loot that you find, be it a weapon, chest piece, helmet or shoes. Equipment uses established RPG colour and naming hierarchy (Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary). There are also set bonuses for some legendary equipment that will give you extra bonuses. The game has a main story mode and every 5 stages you will reach some sort of base, where you can go on an adventure (independent of the story, for grinding), grow seeds (you can spend fruits on stats upgrades), replay old levels or buy items. You can also go on a one off adventure, which is essentially a single floor of a dungeon and you don’t regenerate health over time, sometimes these can end a lot quicker than expected.

Worth it?

Overall a brilliantly simple and fun game. The core game play loop focuses around tapping and exploring the dungeons, but the variety in layouts and available tiles, as well as loot, all keep you coming back for more. There are points where the story will become challenging and you need to break away to grind up a bit. The game is very non-intrusive when it comes to gatchas and videos, although could potentially benefit from a daily login type reward (currently checking on your seeds is your main motivation to check back regularly). Occasionally there are parts of the dungeon that may be locked off by a video, I’d say it’s really down to you on whether you feel like watching it at that stage, but if you don’t you aren’t really missing out on all that much. There are some premium currency options, but these are generally unnecessary. The game looks, sounds and plays great and is perfect for anything from quick time-killing session to an extended dungeon crawling marathon, as it has that “just one more room” appeal.

Tips

  • Don’t buy equipment from the random vendors unless you really need it
  • Always pay for extra skill points in dungeons
  • Explore the full dungeon before proceeding
  • Fish in multiple spots at once, while the animation plays out
  • You can leave a story mode dungeon and go back to the base without losing progress
  • If you are stuck you can grind levels and equipment in adventure mode
  • In adventure mode your health doesn’t restore, use springs and herbs to maintain your health points

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The Burnable Garbage Day

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The Game

The Burnable Garbage Day by GameOn Co. Ltd is a casual mobile game with a powerful message and some really amazing graphics. The game is set in the distant future where you are a cleaning robot who has discovered that Earth has been covered in garbage, humanity has disappeared and nature is struggling. You quickly discover that some humans have been frozen away in settlements and you can help them rebuild society.

The core gameplay loop focuses around you tapping away the rubbish and completing quests for the various settlements you discover tucked away under all the garbage. Each city you unlock will come with a set of quests and its unique set of items that it produces. You are limited in the number of clicks you can do by your battery, which recharges over time, when you level up, clear an area or by using a battery pack. As you unlock more settlements you will have access to more items, which will in turn allow you to complete more quests. Completing quests will give you xp and level up the settlements. While it is a very simple and repetitive gameplay, it can be quite addictive as you unlock further regions, new settlements and upgrade yourself.

Worth it?

The game does have a bit of a gatcha side to it with the battery aspect, but you can find a lot of spare batteries during your adventures (or from quests), there are also some short ads whenever you level up (after level 10), but overall nothing too intrusive. There isn’t much to the game, but it’s nice and relaxing and something you can come back to for a few minutes every few hours. Town’s take around 5 minutes to reset their quests, once you unlock a few regions you can bounce between towns to get quite a longer session in. The story and the message of the game are quite relevant to the challenges we face as a species. The robot (you) is quite endearing and some of the dialogue with its voice assistant (Biri) can be quite amusing. It could be nice to have some sort of daily login reward or achievements. There are some minor text and translation errors, but they don’t detract from the overall experience.

Overall I’d definitely recommend it as a casual time-waster game, the ads are not intrusive, you can buy an ad-free version for £2.99, which is a great way to help out the developers. There are plenty of regions to unlock, each with its own set of challenges, resources and towns. It’s an aesthetically pleasing game with a great message, endearing and funny dialogue and story line, perfect for a quick session that will keep you coming back regularly.

Tips

  • Try and get the gold chests in each area as soon as you enter it
  • Once you encounter the vending machine it’s worth visiting it every time it appears to get more batteries
  • Many of the settlement upgrade quests are fairly easy to guess, if in doubt read the item descriptions – they are usually quite close to what the quest giver is asking for
  • The Dolphin in the tropic area needs Stone Axe to make him feel cool
  • The Octopus in the volcano area needs Honey Flavouring to help him calm down from his nightmares

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The Wanderer

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The Game

The Wanderer is a mobile game made by Jamie Parish, an indie developer. The game draws inspiration from other post-apocalyptic titles (a few nods to Fallout), you will be challenged to survive and wander around the irradiated plains of what used to be a civilised world. At the beginning you are given a base camp where you can manage and store your resources, upgrade certain devices that will aid your survival and generally rest and reset between exploration missions. The core gameplay loop consists of you venturing out from your camp to various points on the map where you hope to find resources. Each hour of movement will cost you water and food, which you must replenish with the resources that you find. You will also have to maintain your health, illness and radiation levels as various foods or events can have an impact on those.

The game gives you some neat customisation options when starting out as well as a list of options that can make your playthrough even more challenging (should you choose to enable them). You will also have skill points to spend and you’ll earn more each time you level up. On your adventures you will often encounter random events where you will have a choice between several interactions – sometimes you may run into someone who requires some items, other times you may get attacked by irradiated monsters or bandits. When you arrive at points of interest you will be able to collect resources, these will reset each time you return to your home base. While there isn’t much to the core loop it can be quite addictive as you try to collect the resources you need to upgrade your tools and the ultimate goal is to repair the old van, which will massively aid you on your journeys.

Worth it?

The game has come a long way from its humble beginnings and there is really very little to fault on it. It’s great as both a casual game or something you spend hours on, trying to gather the right resources. There are some very minor gatcha elements like a log in reward, reward chests and you can watch videos to help boost XP or buy premium currency (which allows you to fast travel or respec), but for the most part these are completely unneeded and not intrusive at all.

Overall it’s a great little game and has all the key elements to keep you engaged for longer periods of time – things to build and upgrade, plenty to explore, some tricky resource management at times, quests, achievements, levels and even things like daily login rewards. It can be great for either a short play where you just go and explore a few locations or for extended sessions where venture much further from your home base or work towards building that van and upgrading your camp as much as possible. Definitely worth checking out as it is still being updated and actively improved,

Tips

  • If you are over exposed to radiation you will mutate – this will prevent you from getting radiation or illness from eating bad food, but you will lose health every hour. This can be easier to manage than constantly buying radiation masks
  • Revisit places near to your base – these reset every time you go back to your home base.
  • Focus on upgrading your backpack and base storage
    Recruiting the dog companion can be very useful as it can do really good damage at a higher level, however you will need to give it food and water
  • Don’t bother healing the dog as it will restore health provided it’s got food and water
  • Invest some points in Agility and Strength in order to increase the size of the hitbox in combat, as sometimes combat is pretty unavoidable
  • Ammo sells for quite a few caps
  • Karma will affect the sort of things that you find when scavenging – better karma, better loot

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