In the second half of last year, Canadian independent capybara game company released more than five years, and after several painful public delays, released its incomprehensible dungeon crawler "below". As a result, the studio chose to wait for the release of its next game, a smartphone fan called Grindstone, until Apple's new game subscription service, Arcade, became available. No hype, no mystery, no waiting: instant gratification.
Millstone review
- Developers and publishers: Capybara games
- Platform: Reviews on iPhone
- Availability: Now available through Apple Arcade on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV
It's fascinating to put these two games in the context of each other, because they form such an amazing contrast. They have the same plot: the soldier enters the cave, fights the monster, and goes deeper. In almost every other aspect, they are the opposite. The hero below came deep; Greenstone's struggle went up. Below are the slow, dark, cold and hidden places. It has mysterious self-worth. The whetstone is immediately visible, colorful, and exudes excess and coldness. Its monsters are called creeps, crickets, and jerks, and our savage hero Jorj cuts them into small pieces as they cut through their paths.
However, there is another game from Capy's past that makes more sense here. There are actually two. The studio was named after a sophisticated puzzle game called Criter Crunch in 2008. Criter Crunch was very popular on the iPhone, so joining Arcade's release lineup was a home. Then, there was Might and Magic: Battle for Heroes, an excellent mix-and-match game of match-three puzzle games and tactical role-playing games.
Whetstone is a game in the Hero Clash tradition. Happily, Discovery Capy has rediscovered its talent for combat puzzle game design in another amazingly economical and lasting work.
A brief comic introduction silently tells the whole story of the game: Jorj is a bounty hunter who brings the family to Greenstone Mountain with a false promise of a good life for the family. Now, he mercilessly kills the soldier in exchange for cash by smoking a cigar in a portakabin for an armless man. Hi, here we go to the slaughter mines. (The former owner of Capy Nathan Villa told me that he would take the twists and turns of Underworld as a metaphor of his own production. Is Millstone a satire on Underworld?)
Jorge embarrassedly smashed into each new room, facing a pile of creeping grids, which was Grindelstone's (mostly) passive monster feed. By linking little monsters of the same color together, he can pave the way for them. Link more than 10 together and a stone will fall on the board. It can then be used to switch colors in subsequent chains, further extending the color. Every mob he kills in the chain will increase his attack power, which is necessary to clear certain obstacles or attack more aggressive monsters, called "men". Once a certain number of monsters are killed, the exit to the next level is opened, but there are still reasons for lingering: treasure chests and notes that can create blueprints for equipment, and the creep king whose valuable crown is precious money can be tapped. Of course, there is also a temptation to simply pile more millstones (main currencies) by stringing more chains together. However, the longer you stay at a certain level, the more aggressive the minions are and the more dangerous the path to the exit, so there is a strong tension between risk and reward.
The longer you play the game, the more details you can discover, from allowing devices that violate the rules, to equipment that can take advantage, to cunning new enemy designs with attack modes. When things get tough, you may need to go back and fight for an earlier level of cash and supplies, but cleverly designed meta-challenge, delicate risk / reward balance, and longer and longer bait, which makes us happy . .
However, this is a simple game loop for Grindstone, so it's hard to resist. Carefully find out the longest possible path for Jorj, start experimenting, and observe his brilliant return, as he will grow exponentially due to splashing sound effects and crisp hitting pauses. The longer the chain, the faster he walks, the louder the sound, the better he feels.
The animation, audio, and artwork are superb: pungent, juicy and extremely stupid. The smartest smartphone puzzle games seem to have been built on a unified, non-threatening, smart casual aesthetic-faint minimalism like Threes and Twofold Inc. (personal preference, definitely the inspiration here). I didn't knock on the door, but I love Capy's pursuit of something more delicious and easier. It makes the game more fun.
In terms of quality and diversity, Apple Arcade's game release lineup has been impeccable, and Grindstone is the crown jewel. To me, this is a game that justifies a one-month subscription, which is the definition of a killer app. This is a talented studio, and its work is better than anyone else. This is an instant classic.