Category: Game Releases

I must admit that a game based on the stock market doesn’t really float my shares. In fact, it sounds drier than a scrunched-up ball of The Financial Times tumbling through Death Valley. However, the original board game was very well received, so a digital version by those experienced guys at Digidiced is certainly something worth further investigation.

In Stockpile players are striving to become the richest stockbroker by dealing shares and manipulating the market to their advantage. Each round players will bid for stocks and action cards, sell shares and adjust the markets. In a standard game, players begin with a starting capital of $20,000 and a single share in one of the six different companies that make up the stock exchange. At the beginning of every round, some public information about one of the six companies will be revealed. In addition, each player receives some secret insider information. Both sets of information will show which of the companies will increase or decrease in stock value and announce any dividend payments.

Next up, each player is dealt two market cards. There are various card types that offer additional shares, trading fees or adjustments to stock value. Players take it in turns to place these cards into piles on the board, preparing them for auction. The only restrictions are that there can only be as many piles as there are players and that one action card must be placed face up and the other face down. Each stack has a bidding ladder that is marked out with values from 0 to 25 and players take it in turns to place or increase their bids. The auction finishes as soon as all players have bid on different stacks. They now claim the stack that they have bid on; paying the cost that may include additional trading fee cards that are often hidden in the stack by your crafty opponents. In the final stage of the round, players have the option to sell any of their shares for the current market value. The insider information that players received at the start of the round is now revealed and the markets are adjusted accordingly.

In the basic game, each of the six companies has the same standard track to record their value. Hit the bottom of the track and the company goes bankrupt, rendering all shares worthless. Reach the top of the track and the shares split, adding even more to their value. The advanced game introduces a more volatile trading environment by having tracks of different lengths. This means that some companies will have longer tracks leading to more stable values, whilst others have short tracks with the potential for wild swings from big profits to bankruptcy. There are also four different expansion modules that can be added to the game. The forecast dice make the market more unpredictable, whilst bonds offer a safe investment but tie up your money until the end of the game. Adding commodity trading and taxes to the stockpiles brings even more tension, whilst the investor cards give each player extra cash or a unique ability which they can use throughout the game.

At the time of writing there does appear to be a nasty intermittent bug that makes selecting and selling shares unresponsive. It’s a pretty major fault that should have been spotted before release, but I’m sure that we can rely on Digidiced to resolve this issue quickly. Other than that, the developers have done a decent job, but, as you can no doubt tell from the screenshots, the game does look rather boring. To be fair, there is little room for graphical flair when the whole game is basically just a spreadsheet. The music is also instantly forgettable and destined to be turned off at the first opportunity. Stockpile isn’t that difficult to grasp, and the tutorials teach the game in a clear humorous way. The screen layout is generally clear and comprehensive. However, it is a bit annoying that in the auction phase the stockpiles of cards are superimposed over the market table. This means that you have to keep switching screens. At the highest difficulty level the AI opponents provide a decent challenge but the game cries out for human interaction.  That leaves us with pass and play or online matches, both work well, although the secret information does mean that extra care needs to be taken when your opponents are sitting next to you.

Despite my reservations, I found Stockpile to be an interesting and cleverly designed game. The auction works really well; adding cards to the various stacks makes for some interesting choices and leads to a range of sneaky manoeuvrings. Since players only have one active bid at any one time, the auction can end abruptly, which leads to some delightfully tension filled wrangling. The cunning mix of public and private information promotes player interaction, with bluff and double bluff being essential tools of the trade. Things can get very ruthless, as players gang up to bring down successful companies, wiping out the value of their shares and leaving you cursing and regretting that you didn’t sell when you had the chance. At the end of the game you will earn a bonus for each company that you are the majority shareholder in, so sometimes it can be prudent to hang on to those shares rather than cashing them in. There is some nice variety with standard and advanced games and the expansion modules, all being provided in the package at no extra cost.

Unfortunately, Stockpile does such a great job of promoting player interaction that the digital version ends up falling somewhat short. The bluffing needs that eye to eye contact, the insider information demands smug and knowing smiles. What you are left with is a rather dry and mathematical game that although initially interesting, ends up feeling like it is missing an essential element.

Time is precious, but hardly more so than in One Hour One Life. The mobile multiplayer survival game features an intriguing concept at its core. Your in-game lifespan is exactly as the title implies: one hour long. With each minute that ticks away representing an hour of time that’s passed in the game world,

As you struggle to make sense of your existence in this austere, hand-drawn world, you’ll try your best to leave some sort of memory behind, whether it’s in the form of your old children who follow you or the eventual technical advancements that will eventually come to the game. It’s all about relying on your fellow man to carry you – and carrying you in turn, which really results in something special.

The game can only be played online, meaning that all interactions that you have with other players will echo throughout the game for the foreseeable future. Yes, there’s permadeath, and yes, you’re going to die over and over. That’s a fact – best to get used to it early on. Following the game’s lengthy tutorial, you’re born into the world with one important goal: Survive, as long as you possibly can. Of course, this all greatly depends on what kind of mother you’re born to, oddly enough. This is a game that, like life itself, calculates success largely based on the hand you’re dealt at birth.

It’s possible the mother you’re born to is a robust fighter looking for another strong child to add to her brood, or you could even find that your new mom doesn’t care about you at all, can’t get you food, or even protect you from predators. Luckily, you can grow quickly to sustain yourself, but without your mother’s help early on death is almost certainly assured. This kind of game mechanic makes for some extremely interesting beginnings, especially as it means you must rely heavily on other, real people to make any progress through the game.

You’re not a helpless baby for long, though. Given that you age a year a minute, if you can survive long enough you’ll grow to an age where you’re no longer a burden on your mother and family and learn to help around the village gathering food supplies or at the very least not acting as a burden on other players. Until you’re past your early childhood years, you can’t even communicate properly with others – you’re relegated to basic words and phrases until you’ve survived long enough to receive that “privilege,” which may end up being for the best.

That’s the beauty of the game. You can act as you wish, whether it’s as a tyrant who destroys resources and steals food from other players, or you can play the role that was intended for you as you grow into an “elder” and find a place somewhere in the game where you can survive peacefully and act as a sort of beacon for others who make it as long as you do.

There’s a wide variety of crafting materials, and you’ll spend a lot of time tapping around to see exactly what you can create. The game’s environments are practically teeming with different things for you to use to make your own little life, including plants, animals, and organic materials practically begging you to create the basis for society with.

Ultimately, you’ll run into some difficult decisions during the game, and those are what make One Hour One Life such a harrowing title. It’s not dying of starvation in the middle of the woods or never surviving past your childhood. It’s having to decide, if you make it that far, whether your child should be wolf food or if you have enough resources to feed them and let them live to see old age (keeping in mind it’s another player). It’s having to figure out if you’re going to be patient enough to respect a village’s rules that were established long before you came around, or if you’re going to grief others and cause havoc during your entire time in-game.

The game itself is absolutely genius, with intriguing mechanics and survival elements that work together to make a functioning “society” full of real-life players, with those who are content to cause problems and others who just want to make it past their teens. Unfortunately, there are some particularly frustrating control elements when it comes to the touch controls, many of which have revolved around off-target taps and inaccurate swipes. Combining items with the crafting system can be a turnoff at first, because it simply feels like, at times, it isn’t working with you. Luckily, as you make additional attempts, it begins to feel a bit easier.

The game is actually based on a PC title by Jason Rohrer of the same name, and its mobile adaptation plays beautifully, just as mercilessly as the original, despite some touchy controls that could be worked out in a future update. Overall, however, it’s an intriguing social experiment disguised as a survival game that’ll really bring out some folks’ true colors.

If you’ve ever found yourself ruminating on the futility of life, this is certainly a game that’ll drive that point home even further. Prepare to have your spirits lifted in one minute, and then utterly destroyed in the next. Such is the nature of life.

Reviewer’s Note:  Following a lengthy amount of time spent playing OHOL for the review, I randomly became unable to access the game via servers on my iPhone X. The game was tested across multiple iOS devices, but I have since been unable to log into One Hour One Life, nor am I able to press the greyed-out “Start” button. I am continuing to pursue a way into the game and will likely be testing the game out on an Android device to discern what the problem could be. Since this doesn’t seem to be a widespread issue, we decided that it shouldn’t affect the review or the score for now.

Welcome to the Weekender, your weekly look at the best new games, sales, and updates. We’ll lead off with not one, not two, not even three, but four updates to great games. We’ve also got the western release of a monster hunting game and a whole slew of sales. Read on.

Out Now & Updates

Meteorfall—The Demon update (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Let’s start with a free update to one of the best games of 2018: Meteorfall. The “Demon Update” is out now and is aimed at players who have bested the game with one or more classes. The update adds Demon mode, which confronts the player with a series of five increasingly difficult levels to tackle. Each level layers on additional challenges and culminates in a boss battle with a different demonic foe. The update also adds 20 new cards and two new events to the game. Two content updates since Meteorfall released early this year is great, but the developer isn’t done yet. There’s at least one more coming. The game is absolutely worth checking out if you’ve not done so yet.

[embedded content]

Iron Marines—The Borealis Update (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Another update…this time for space-based RTS Iron Marines. The Borealis update adds a new planet to discover and of course fight over. Borealis is a world of ice with ten new missions against a new alien foe and a powerful boss to take on. The update also introduces three new premium heroes: Blue Dragon, a starfighter pilot, Roy the alien gunslinger, and Sparas a seasoned pathfinder.

[embedded content]

Antihero —Dueling Docks update (iOS Universal and Android) (Review)

Yet another free update to a great game? Sounds good. Competitive turn-based board game Antihero has added a new area of the world to fight over, the dueling docks. This map takes place on the water and features a fight for the control of a pair of steamships.

[embedded content]

Vampire’s Fall Origins update (iOS Universal and Android)

The last update to mention this week is to a very recent game. Vampire’s Fall: Origins just came out a couple weeks ago and has already become one of my favorite mobile RPGs. Recent updates have added some nice features into a potion that’ll increase the frequency of random encounters for those looking to grind out gold and XP. There’s also a new respec option where you can completely reapply your skill points, which is great. For the PvP crowd hit points now scale to three times the amount when battling another player, which extends fights and allows for new tactics. Finally, the devs have included opt-in ads for those who want to show some support for the free game.

Monster Hunter Stories (iOS Universal and Android)

If you’re interested in the Monster Hunter games but would rather befriend the beasties you find CAPCOM has a game for you as well. Monster Hunter Stories flips the franchises usual script and has you looking to befriend the monsters you find and ride them across the world on an adventure or take them into battle against other players online. This is the apparently full-featured port of the Nintendo 3DS game. It’s been out for some time in Japan and is now being released in other markets.   

[embedded content]

Sales

Mini Metro (Review) (iOS Universal and Android): $1.99 on iOS

One of the better builders and puzzle-game options on mobile, Mini Metro, is on sale in the App Store for the cheapest it’s been in 9 months. I gave it four stars when the game came out and the developers have since added a bunch more cities and game modes.

Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal (Review) (iOS Universal): $5.99

Hex-and-counter naval wargame Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal focuses on WWII air battles in the South Pacific in 1942 and 1943. It gets frequent updates and is rarely on sale (it’s been over two years). If you’re into military simulation games and want to save a buck give it a glance.

Siege of Dragonspear (Review) (iOS Universal and Android): $3.99

The missing link Baldur’s Gate game, Siege of Dragonspear, takes place between Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate II. It features a 30-hour campaign that explores new regions of the Sword Coast, within the long running Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaign setting. It’s normally $10 and is on sale for its lowest price yet.

Seen anything else you like? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!