Yogscast Jingle Jam 2017 (Days 17 to 19) : Guns of Icarus Alliance, Mirage: Arcane Warfare, Cosmonautica, Bezier & 3 more

Games for the days 17 to 19 have been unlocked and I tested them all as always, I actually couldn't test one of them because it simply crashed all the time. Those three days made us discover some interesting games as well as the worst one we've got so far (yes, once again !). This calendar can't stop impressing me, whether it's positively or not. Anyway, it's time to take a look at what Yogscast prepared for us !

I will be honest, I didn't know what to expect before launching this game. It looked like a bad game but at the same time seemed enjoyable. I absolutely hated my first tries but the more I played, the more I liked playing. Bezier is a twin stick shoot'em up which kind of looks like Beat Hazard (Beat Hazard 2 is being developed by the way if you didn't know). Here, no custom music but a series of levels quickly coming your way. I haven't been able to understand a single word of the story so I couldn't say what I feel about it but the game's Steam description should help you with that if you want to know more about the context. Your goal is to destroy all the shields of the level before time runs out. Obviously, it isn't that simple since they all defend themselves differently, forcing you to change your plan of attack. A bunch of enemies will attack you on your way to the shields, slowing you down for your rush against the clock. Your health bar can reload by taking some health bonus while killing enemies quickly will reload your combo bar which influences your score. Each destroyed shield will give you a special attack, there are quite a lot of them which helps to make that part of the game not boring. The only problem I can see is that the time must run out for the level to be over. However, it sometimes happens that you destroy all the shields at half the time which forces you to fight waves of enemies until time runs out. Also, at the end of each level an invincible boss will fight you which is a good thing until you actually understand you can't kill him, it's basically a fake enemy thrown at you so you wait a bit more. Finally, it can sometimes be hard to understand what's happening. It is indeed hard to know if some particles are actual particles or enemy bullets, which results in losing health points most of the time. To conclude, Bezier is a good game that suffers from some little problems but still manages to be enjoyable.

I couldn't stay on this game more than 5 minutes and it's quite simple why, it is awful. Firstly, it looks bad, really bad. I'm not the kind of guy who judges a game by how it looks, I actually have bought many games which looked awful but had some innovative gameplay mechanics. That's why I still gave a chance to Bomb Defense, it was hard though ! I understand that not everybody can make good graphics, I can't either, but in that case it would be better to team up with someone who is actually good at this. Graphics apart, the tutorial is boring and can't seem to be avoided. The tutorial in a game should be polished because it is one of the first things a player will experience when playing your game, this one is the exact opposite of what a game maker should do for a tutorial. Each possibility is explained and put in practice, which makes me not want to play more since it already takes probably more than 10 minutes to complete the tutorial. These days, tutorials are usually not even noticed just like in Super Meat Boy where you don't even realize the first levels are actually tutorial parts before thinking about it. Here, each trap must be tested, which makes for a long and frustrating experience. The idea behind the game is also completely unoriginal, you have to defend a kitten from trolls trying to attack it. It also seems like there is now way to know where those trolls will go exactly, which is really dumb for a tower defense in my opinion. Some posts ago, I said that Chainsaw Warrior was the worst game we would get from this bundle, I shouldn't have.

Yay, a game about the FreeCell card game, what I always dreamed of ! That's what I said to myself ironically when I saw this game in the ones unlocked. But FreeCell Quest isn't a simple FreeCell game as what I thought it would be, it's actually more than that. This game tries to be a mix of the FreeCell card game and RPG mechanics, yes you read it right. In this game, you will have to conquer more than 500 cities, each city being a new FreeCell game. The difficulty changes depending on the size and the nation a city belongs to. Cards aren't placed randomly but some games seem impossible, that's when the RPG aspect of the game kicks in. You can use powers to shuffle cards, to move them or even to switch two of them. Those powers use your mana bar so you won't be able to use them anytime. You also have a health bar that will drain for every attack not countered. An enemy attack can be seen by blinking cards that you will have to move if you don't want to lose some health. At the end of each game, you will win some experience points, some gold and some objects. A part of them is wearable, the other part is composed of powers and cards with which you will be able to create decks of cards (I didn't understand what to do with those decks though). It is also possible to sell these objects in some cities so you can buy some other objects, for example a health potion which is quite necessary later in the game. I liked this game a lot, it doesn't look bad, you should give it a try if you've bought this calendar !

I've tried many times playing Guns of Icarus Alliance but it doesn't seem to work. The game launches and then crashes in a matter of seconds. Therefore I have decided to look at some gameplay videos and tell you what I think of it. It looks a lot like Guns of Icarus Online which I played a while ago, this game is also given for free when you activate the key from Humble Bundle by the way. Guns of Icarus Alliance is an airship battle game set in a Steam Punk universe and, more importantly, in which teamwork is the key to success. People not playing like a team will get absolutely murdered by their enemies. You will therefore have to respect your captain and do everything he tells you to do. As the captain, you will be able to choose which airship to use as well as which weapons to equip the airship with. As a crew member, you will be able to choose how you look and what you want to take with you. The game looks fun and what they did on the sounds is amazing, I feel like this game is way more enjoyable with a full team of friends but it could also be fun alone. I would have loved to describe it a bit more but I can't really due to the crashes I always get.

I was shocked to see that Mirage: Arcane Warfare was in this calendar even though it got released not so long ago. Well, it seems like this game didn't get the player base it deserved, there were about 10 players online when I tested it. If you see similarities between this game and Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, it's totally normal because those two games are from Torn Banner Studios. Even the titles are similarly structured ! If you are used to their famous medieval game, this game won't be hard to get used to, the mechanics look so alike that it almost feels like a reskin. However, Mirage: Arcane Warfare is more than that. In this game, you have more ways to attack your enemies than just a close quarter attack. In fact, you have three more, even though some of these abilities aren't actual attacks. Just like with Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, you can attack in a lot of directions. However, parring seems to just be in all directions at one, which is maybe why this game wasn't a success. Plus, those mechanics work well for a medieval game, but they aren't as enjoyable in a game about magic. I'm sad to see that it wasn't successful because I feel like it deserved it way more than some YouTube games we keep seeing on Steam.

The eighteenth day was amazing, the nineteenth one begins badly though... Battle Riders is the slowest racing game I've ever played. It first got released on mobile, which at least explains why the graphics are that bad. But even on mobile a lot of games look better than that, it's still ugly no matter what. The gameplay is awful because it was simply not made with keyboards in mind, and you can feel it. Even though there is a way to change that, the cars drive automatically and at full speed. All the maps look the same, it got to the point that I had to film my games to be sure that these maps weren't actually the same. Three power-ups exist on the "different" maps. The yellow one gives you a speed boost, the green one gives you some health back and the blue one reloads your guns. Indeed, you can shoot on your enemies in hope of making them explode but it is pretty boring. Each won race gives you credits, those credits can be used in a shop to customize your car. You can give it new guns or make it faster or stronger for example. I must admit that this idea is quite nice but it doesn't make up for all the shit around it. This game is a mess and can't achieve to make us feel like we are actually racing. The fastest speed feels like driving at 20 mph. Please, don't ever touch this game, it isn't worth your time. Its tutorial is nearly as frustrating as the one from Bomb Defense !

Cosmonautica is the kind of game that is difficult to judge in just one hour of gaming, even more for me since this is not what I like to play at all. I'm more into platformers than simulation games. I had to watch some videos to understand how to play because the tutorial just assumed I was used to these kinds of games and left me quickly. Under the guidance of this video, I chose to pick the sandbox mode instead of the story mode. I must admit that I don't understand why this game has mixed reviews on Steam because it was pretty good in my opinion. It is a space trading simulation in which you have to take care of a team that moves goods between planets. This team's members can be fired, hired or promoted anytime depending on the situation. It is also possible to organize their plannings so they work at specific times, a lot of abilities exist for the members (cleaning, cooking, shooting, researching...). Your spaceship is obviously customizable and a big part of the game is centered around that. Each spaceship has a different room capacity, these rooms slots can be filled with such things as toilets, beds, sport rooms, weapons... A fighting aspect also exists but I didn't get far enough to know how it works. The game is looking good except for the members pictures which seem to be in a wrong resolution. I liked Cosmonautica but I am not used to simulation games so it may not be that good, you will have to judge by yourself for this one !

So, what did you think of these games ? Personally, I am a bit disappointed by some of them, whether it's their fault or because of nearly empty servers. The first day was chaotic to say the least, luckily the two next days saved us ! I will try to write all the posts left in time (before the calendar ends) but I might not achieve that. The biggest reason why is that I'm currently studying for my exams and I obviously give more importance to them than these posts. So if you see that one post comes after the calendar ended, you know why. I will still put it online anyway for those of you who bought the calendar and just want to know which games are actually worth trying. It's a bit late for that but I wish you a Merry Christmas, see you later !