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A-Z Backlog challenge: Tales from the Borderland review

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This is the best Telltale game I have played and I'm not the only one who think so . It's an enthralling adventure filled with beautiful scenery, interesting characters and moving moments. People are probably more familiar with A Wolf among us , Game of Thrones and Walking Dead but I think their writers excel when doing comedic tales such as this one and Back to the Future . Set in the Borderlands universe, the player controls two very different characters on their journey across Pandora and the Hyperion space station orbiting it.  Reese is a corporate flunky who, after being screwed over by a rival for a promotion, sets off to Pandora to buy one of the fabled Vault keys. He is the quintessential fish out of water in a world filled with unimaginable dangers. Fiona is a street-smart con-woman who,along with her sister Sasha, is involved in trying to sell the fake vault key to Reese.  There's a huge cast of characters to meet, brought to life by, for the m...

A-Z backlog challenge: System Crash Review

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System Crash is another single player Collectible Card game. However this one is a lot less rushed and more polished than Northmark: Hour of the wolf. Instead of using the tired fantasy theme which dominates CCGs, Rogue Moon studios is set in a cyber-punk future. You start the game as a hacker trying to make enough money to pay off an outstanding debt. As the game continues, you are drawn into a conspiracy involving corporations, crooked law enforcement and other criminal elements. There's quite a bit of text between missions but the writing is good enough and there's some decent artwork which keeps you feeling invested in the story. There are some interesting mechanics in the game which separate it from the norm. You have 4 columns to play your units. These will attack the enemy unit opposite them taking into account attack, defense and life points. If there is no enemy unit opposite, instead of decreasing the enemy life points you gain points yourself- as if your u...

A-Z Backlog Challenge- Rebel Galaxy Review

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A-Z Backlog challenge: Quell

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I must confess that I actually bought this game as I had no unfinished games starting with a Q so it hasn't helped clear the backlog at all. That being said, it's a fun little puzzle game from Fallen tree games . The design is very simple. You control a drop of water and direct it to move left, right, up or down. It will only stop when it hits a wall or other surface. The first added challenge is spikes which can be safely hit from the side but the front. Later in the game green dots are added. As soon as these have been passed over once a block forms there so you need to ensure you pass over it at the correct time so you do not stop yourself from reaching an area you need to get to. The next addition is a sets of rings. When you pass through one ring you will be teleported to the other continuing in the direction you entered the first. Finally you will come across switches which change the direction of the spikes mentioned earlier. There are a fair number of s...

A-Z backlog challenge: Papers, Please

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Ever wanted to have the power as well as the awesome responsibility of an immigration officer, deciding the fate of the unfortunate souls who have spent hours queuing to get into a fictional country. No? That might change after reading this review. The nuts and bolts of the game are you scrutinizing the documents and stories of those appearing in front of you and stamping approved and denied. You need to check for details such as correct sex, passports numbers, cities where documents were issued and correct ministry stamps. You get paid per person you correctly deal with so it's a race against the clock as your salary aint great and you have bills to pay- food, rent, heat and sometimes medicine. The game makes the mundane interesting by including people offering you different bribes, telling you sob stories and later making you side either with the government or a group which is looking to bring them down. This is a game that was hugely praised by critics when i...

A-Z Backlog challenge: Offworld trading company

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Offworld Trading Company was one of my recommendations in my post on Steam deals in February. Having now completed a campaign I am going to go into more depth into my thoughts on it. In this game you play the CEO of a company that has been given right to set up on an area of Mars. You will mine minerals, produce food, energy and water for your HQ and the human settlement nearby and basically look to dominate your competitors through fair or foul means. At the start of the scenario you will scan the area to see what resources are plentiful and scarce and decide where to place your HQ. You need to decide whether to take the first plot that looks decent, or whether to keep looking for something better. Knowledge is power but if you leave it too late the best spots could all be taken. Your HQ starts at level 1 with only a few land claims which you use to claim a tile to place a building on. You generally want to start by bringing in minerals which allow you to upgrade your HQ as qui...

A-Z Backlog challenge: Northmark: Hour of the wolf

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I am a big fan of Collectible card games and think more should be made which are single-player focused rather than the online multiplayer ones which always seem to get their pricing structures wrong and become pay-to-win. Unfortunately this one has a few too many ideas that have been abandoned or just don't work. The story is a pretty overused one. After the Duke is poisoned you uncover a plot to weaken the alliance between man, Elves and Dwarves. You are tasked with travelling across the land to piece the alliance back together and discovering who is behind the treachery. Although the plot is pretty boring, I enjoyed the writing which was quite amusing. There is a world map with various locations where you meet different characters, fight battles and find shops to buy new cards from. Inside those locations there are also some hidden treasures and some lootboxes with riddles which need to be answered (much like in Betrayal at Krondor). You can choose to be e...