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Jillian will play any game with cute characters or an isometric perspective, but her favorites are Fallout 3, Secret of Mana, and Harvest Moon. Her PC suffers from permanent cat-on-keyboard syndrome, which she blames for most deaths in Don’t Starve. She occasionally stops gaming long enough to eat waffles and rewatch Battlestar Galactica.
  • JtR125 Preview
    Upcoming
    • PC
    JtR125 Preview

    By

    November 2013 marked the 125th anniversary of the last known murder by notorious and still-strangely-fascinating serial killer, Jack the Ripper.  Despite being linked to five—and possibly more—grisly homicides in London in the late 19th century, the Ripper was never caught and his crimes never solved.  This has led to innumerable and varied depictions of the Whitechapel events in popular media, from films to video games.  The latest exploration of the Ripper mystery combines these two forms and comes to us from Auroch Digital, the creators of many current events-inspired games, such as Endgame: Syria and NarcoGuerra. The game, JtR125, is in development as part of the REACT Future Documentary Sandbox, a project intended to explore the theme of the "future documentary" through collaborative works that break the current mold of documentary storytelling.  Thus, JtR125 will be both a video game and a documentary, blurring the lines between media forms, examining the Jack the Ripper legend from a new angle, and hopefully—like many of Auroch's "GameTheNews" projects—presenting gaming in a more earnest light.  "If we can achieve even some of what we're trying to do, then I hope this game will be another title that forces critics to take gaming seriously," Tomas Rawlings, of Auroch Digital and lead developer on JtR125, told Gamezebo.  "There is no reason why gaming can't talk about serious issues, communicate important political points or anything for that matter. Gaming has always been a fun format; we're showing how it can do much more than just that." "As part of their inclusion in the REACT Sandbox, Auroch Digital and Rawlings have been paired up with games and digital media expert Patrick Crogan of the University of the West of England, and Professor of Media and Journalism at Middlesex, Janet Jones.  This collaboration between experts in multiple media focuses will allow JtR125 to extend its reach across disciplines and players.  "The best documentaries and journalism of the future will not be simply read or watched, but played," Professor Jones told us.  "Games are superior in their ability to handle data effectively and deal with the systemic issues behind a story, and we want to show how powerful this hybrid form can be. There are many important social themes that come from the exploration of Victorian culture and certain parallels with today, and what better way to draw attention to these than by gaming the documentary."
  • Hatch Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Hatch Review

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    Hatch is a wholly charming, visually polished virtual pet simulator that will quickly take over your phone and heart.  Its Disney-quality opening film sets the standard for the colorful, crisp, and youthful aura the rest of the app successfully maintains.  The adoptable creature of Hatch, the Fugu, is a low maintenance, easy-to-please sphere of joy who exists solely to love and be loved by its owner—you.  It's easy to be swept up in Fugu euphoria, enchanted by the adorable face that erupts from an egg and the gorgeous, interactive world that surrounds it.  But this delight withers as the few ways to interact with your Fugu and its world become repetitive, its lack of growth becomes dull, and your time with it becomes more memorized patterns than playful discoveries.The beginning of your Fugu-owning journey, though, is engaging and whimsical.  We learn from the app's opening film that "long before dogs or cats were domesticated, man had another best friend."  That friend was the Fugu.  Although they are somewhat doglike in appearance, Fugus were born from eggs that would appear almost magically in a nearby river.  Upon hatching, the Fugu became completely loyal to the person that fed and loved it, remaining their companion for life.  As Fugu eggs became precious, fought-over commodities, fewer and fewer floated downstream until the Fugu simply ceased to exist. "That is, until today—for some unknown reason.  A young Fugu-fan named Max has stumbled upon a rare Fugu egg in the forest and wants to share it with you.  Although he's too young to care for a Fugu alone, he knows all about their history and care and will gladly share this knowledge if you allow him to play with your new pet when you're away.  Max acts as Hatch's mini-guide to the world of Fugus, announcing things like birthdays and providing items via his shop.
  • Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas Review

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    Let's get this out of the way: Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas is the Zelda-like to end all Zelda-likes.  Its similarities to and inspirations from The Legend of Zelda—especially Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass—are numerous, pervasive, and obvious.  From its silent, sword-wielding, pot-smashing protagonist to its Zora-like Gillmen to its secondary B-equipment—bombs, bow, and boots—Oceanhorn wears its muse on its sleeve.  Despite its substantial list of intentional similarities, though, Oceanhorn manages to come across as a self-assured action-adventure as well as a respectful homage to one of Nintendo's finest.The story begins shortly after our unnamed hero's father sets out to find and destroy the great monster, Oceanhorn.  The hero—a young boy who's already lost his mother—goes to stay with a hermitic friend of his father's on a small island.  This friend soon recognizes that the boy shares the same fate as his father, and must also seek out Oceanhorn before it tears their world apart.  What follows is a lengthy adventure across the sprawling, aquatic map of Oceanhorn as the hero seeks out items of power that will help him defeat the beast.  While Oceanhorn's story is not its strongest point, it provides reason enough to make this journey and fills in more interesting gaps via logbook entries your father left around the world."The real star is that world, and the islands, dungeons, and challenges that populate it.  Uncharted Seas is exactly that: a world built on ocean, pockmarked by separate islands that are only accessible by boat.  Even without the added traveling between islands—which is much faster than in Wind Waker—the world still feels vast and open, with each island featuring its own characteristics and secrets.  The Withered Lands is a desolate, sparse desert with striking rock formations; Graveyard Island is foggy and silent, with notably flat terrain; and Gillfolk's Drop—the fishlike Gillmen's home island—is a sandy paradise surrounding their shimmering hideaway.  Despite these distinctions, every island shares certain structural elements that tie it to the others to create a cohesive universe: items and enemies, puzzles and logic, and a verticality that gives each area a 3D depth.
  • Dyscourse Preview
    Upcoming
    • PC
    Dyscourse Preview

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    A plane crash, a deserted island, and a crew of "mouth-breathing tourists" as your only companions: although it's a pitch we've heard before, developer Owlchemy Labs' take on the Lost-famous formula promises to be new, improved, and worth sticking with from beginning to its numerous, varied ends.  As a survival game, Dyscourse is full of tangible dangers that can bring about those ends abruptly—such as poisonous snakes and wild boars—but one of its greatest challenges is the human psyche.  Dropped into the shoes of Rita, an art graduate-turned barista-turned makeshift island leader, players will get to know their fellow castaways and make critical, interpersonal decisions that will affect the group's chances for survival. One such choice is shown off in Dyscourse's Kickstarter video: Rita sends the mustachioed tourist with a fear of snakes to subdue a venomous enemy, with less-than-desirable results.  She could also opt to dispatch the snake herself, which keeps everyone alive and well.  Alex Schwartz, Founder, CEO, and Janitor of Owlchemy Labs, told Gamezebo: "With a Kickstarter video, it's tough to build characters and show consequence over time, so George getting smacked down by the snake could have looked arbitrary in the setting of a two minute video.  With an actual playthrough, though, you come to love (or hate) the cast of wacky characters on the island, and uncover important bits of info and background on the characters, their skills, and their motives through dialog and various moments.""Those moments determine the direction of each playthrough, which vary greatly thanks to Dyscourse's emergent gameplay.  Even seemingly minor choices can create diverging paths that change one player's experience when compared to another's.  "Those choices you make at any time are also not 'pre-set' in that you will always see those same options," Schwartz said.  "For example, if you learned a specific bit of information about a character, or saw them do something sneaky, the option to bring that up, or use that information against them will be 'unlocked,' whereas players who didn't come across that info due to going down a different branch would not be able to see that option, but instead have a whole different parallel experience happening."
  • Miner Problem Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    Miner Problem Review

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    Players don't have to settle when it comes to endless runners.  With the App Store already overflowing with options in this part-platformer, part-coffee break genre, new additions that lack substance will be washed out with the next inevitable rising tide of releases.  One of those new hopefuls, Miner Problem, is a playable runner with responsive controls and a charming, pixelated art style.  Unfortunately, it doesn't offer much beyond that.  Although it can be played without spending a dime, there are too many other, better options available to warrant investing time in this one.Our protagonist in Miner Problem is a lone, bomber-jacketed pickaxe jockey who has the misfortune of working in a vast mine prone to cave-ins.  Each run begins with his work being interrupted by the shudder of a soon-to-be-deadly rockslide, sending him sprinting for his life and any pieces of gold and diamonds he can snag along the way.  In standard endless runner fashion, the nameless blonde miner runs ever-onward automatically, leaving players with the task of jumping over obstacles by tapping the left side of the screen and tapping the right to utilize special abilities."Those abilities come from special pick-ups that our miner will randomly encounter during his sprint, deemed "events" in Miner Problem.  Each event is a suit or power that transforms our gold-digger into a teched-out version of himself.  For instance, the Skate event equips him with a Back to the Future-esque hoverboard that makes covering large chasms easier, Power puts him in a football player helmet that can ram through enemies and blockages, while Laser provides a jump-boosting laser gun and pair of sleek shades.  If these sound like the vehicle upgrades in Jetpack Joyride, it's because they are.  Miner Problem makes little secret of this, borrowing three events directly from Halfbrick's title—Jetpack, Gravity, and Robot—and even referencing its inspiration in multiple areas, from the game's icon to coins spelling out developer Cookiebit's initials à la the "HB" often encountered by Barry Steakfries.
  • Lilly Looking Through Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    Lilly Looking Through Review

    By

    The world of Lilly Looking Through is a gorgeous, hand-painted landscape that is more Don Bluth than Disney, a place where fantasy is only the dressing of a personal, human story.  Its backdrop is a mechanical, gritty reality juxtaposed with the colorful, fairy tale impression of childhood.  In the shoes of young Lilly, players will explore both sides of this setting, using a magical pair of goggles that allow Lilly to see and interact with the alternate version of her current environment.Lilly's journey through this world begins as a search for her younger brother, Row, who has been wrapped up and swept away by a piece of red cloth caught in an invisible breeze.  The chase takes the form of a minimalistic point-and-click adventure, with no dialogue—save a few shouts from the siblings—or inventory system to manage.  Each scene is a self-contained challenge as in Machinariumor The Tiny Bang Story, with Lilly moving ever-onward once she has traversed the current screen."This means that puzzles in Lilly Looking Through are generally more decipherable than those found in sprawling, multi-location adventures like those by Daedalic.  Until the very end of the game, the goal is always to get from one side of the screen to the other, with all the objects and tools required to do so located within the same scene.  When a loose on-screen item is needed, it will be picked up by the player and moved to its destination directly without Lilly ever intervening.  These interactions save players the frustration of watching Lilly wander around, picking up and attempting to use items futilely, and provide their own satisfying moments of physical interaction, like burning rope or popping bubbles.
  • BIT.TRIP RUN! Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    BIT.TRIP RUN! Review

    By

    BIT.TRIP RUN! is a shining example of how to port a game to mobile.  The tightly responsive, elegantly fluid experience of BIT.TRIP Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien on PC and consoles has been translated to iOS with nearly identical content, quality, and fun intact.  Despite being best experienced with a controller/gamepad, the transition to touchscreen controls has been superbly executed, presenting mobile players with gameplay perfectly adapted to the platform without feeling watered down. That gameplay pits players against the same finite running levels found in Runner2 as they control the always-ambulatory CommanderVideo.  The dangerous, robotic minions of Mingrawn Timbletot are spread across three worlds—the Welkin Wonderland, Emerald Brine, and Supernature—in an attempt to stop our hero from escaping his current imprisonment in an unknown dimension.  Players of BIT.TRIP RUN! will be treated to the same story, Charles Martinet-narrated cutscenes, and even wacky commercials available in Runner2, although the final two worlds—the Mounting Sadds and Bit.Trip—will be released in a future, free update."Each level requires transporting CommanderVideo or one of his seven unlockable friends—like CommandGirlVideo and Reverse Merman—from start to finish while dodging everything from bottomless pits to boxing robots, spiked balls to wooden bot blockades.  Our always-in-motion characters can perform most of the same actions they utilized in Runner2, with a few changes made specifically for the touchscreen format.  Players will tap to jump, hold to glide, swipe down to slide, swipe right to kick or block, and swipe left to dance—a stylish move used only to rack up points, but one that BIT.TRIP RUN! would feel incomplete without.  Because tapping is inevitably slower than button-mashing, many of the stairway sections of levels have been fitted with automatic trampolines that propel CommanderVideo up and over without requiring the player to tap themselves to death.  Other springboards have also been automated, activating when run over instead of via player input.
  • Master Reboot Review
    Reviews
    • PC
    Master Reboot Review

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    In the not-too-distant future of Master Reboot, death is no longer an end, merely a transition.  Thanks to the Soul Cloud, a spiritual software storehouse, owners of Soul Cloud real estate can upload their very being to the database and then spend the rest of eternity re-experiencing memories from the time they were alive.  Still-breathing friends and family can visit these memories as well, even sending messages to the deceased-but-not-gone inhabitant of the Cloud via luminous blue rubber ducks.Your experience in the Soul Cloud begins amidst disaster; you awaken unaware of who you are or why you're there, stumbling toward your personal memorial hub as bits of corrupt data flash within the scenery.  A mangled voice taunt-whispers from nowhere, "Remember..." while a glowing glyph threatens you with a Hieronymus Bosch-style demonic calling card.  What should be an idyllic induction to your eternal rest home has become a haunted, confusing space devoid of answers to the endless questions circling your mind.Master Reboot places you in the shoes and emotions of this unknown soul directly; there's no tutorial, introduction, or hint of what is going on to either player or protagonist.  Until you pass through the empty Soul Cloud induction office, you may not even realize where you are.  Because of this, from minute one, you're incentivized toward all aspects of this psychological horror puzzle adventure: perturbed by the not-quite-rightness of your surroundings, encouraged to figure out who and why you are, and motivated to explore further to do so.