Recent reviews by Narkulus

Synopsis

Choose room.
Roll dice.
Distribute dice.
Take damage.
Choose reward.
Level up.
Rinse.
Repeat.
Face boss.
Lose.

Fun RNG punisher that only suffers from some early access lack of polish. 7/10

I'm very confused about this. I'm sure they use computers to make these phone games. I assume they use a keyboard and mouse/touchpad to navigate the programming interface, be it C++, Unity, or whatever. Yet the game is released on PC with a phone/tablet interface that is just so awkward to use. It seems like adapting the games interface to mouse and keyboard should be the simplest part of porting to PC.

I wish some developers could be forced to use Unity on a touchscreen only with an onscreen keyboard and get a taste of how important the interface of software should match the hardware it's used on.

Ranting aside..

I recommend the game on its mechanics alone, plus I just don't care much about playing games on phones and tablets or I'd go that route.

Edit: Multiplayer is borked. Nobody ever seems to finish a game meaning the Karma system is ineffective. They should take a look at games like Ticket to Ride that has a good Karma system. I still recommend the game for the single player experience.

Edit 2: Multiplayer has improved a little. I've completed many MP games. Still needs a lot of work though with the random kicktimers going off.

B̶e̶s̶t̶ Only implementation for PC.

If you buy the games on Steam from within the game, they also unlock on mobile so you don't have to repurchase them which is an excellent value and I wish more publishers did this.

I'll address a few concerns that other reviews touch on.

1. Game crashes a lot: I have not had a single game crash yet, so your mileage may vary.
Edit: I did have some brown screen issues, but I think they're resolved.

2. Dice rolls favor AI: Uggh! It drives me crazy when people make that claim. It's the nature of a dice game that results more often than not don't go in your favor. At the end of a game you can look at the dice roll statistics and see they are well distributed within their odds of rolling (6,7,8 most frequent, 11 and 12 rare).

3. Pay to win: No it's not pay to win. You do have to purchase the in-game currency to buy the rest of the game, but that's pay to own, not pay to win, plus the games unlock on mobile platforms making the purchase a bargain. I'm not a fan of in-game currency, but that doesn't automatically make it pay to win. There are cosmetic items you can buy and scrolls that allow you to play versions of the game you do not own.

4. Multiplayer buggy: I've not played much mulitplayer, but when I did it worked fine for me. It's natural that players that are losing will want to bail, fortunately the game has a Karma system to help filter out those players in future games.

5/10

Got to be honest, I initially played the Android version and just could not get into it. It looked cluttered and all the symbols and graphical representations were just confusing. So I decided to try the Steam version so I could give it another shot on a large monitor rather than a tiny phone/tablet screen. Very glad I did as it's a really relaxing game with some nice light strategy. It's a set collecting game with the decision making revolving around balancing where to make stops on the path. You get to take your turn when you are the last person on the path, so you have to be careful other players don't fill the spots ahead of you that you may need as you'll have no choice but to pass them up. There are lots of different ways to score victory points, so each game kind of plays out differently to keep it fresh. A wonderful break from some of the Euro brain burner board games I usually play.

A great addition to my digital board game collection

9/10

Zachtronics making me feel stupid again.

Gameflow in a nutshell
Step one: Find solution.
Step two: Spend hours/days looking for a more efficient solution.
Step three: Look at other players solutions compared to yours.
Step four: Move on to next puzzle in disgust.

10/10.

Edit: Cublo seems to be out of business and online multiplayer is not working, so you can only play against AI as of now.



Brass is a decent enough digital implementation of the board game. The game has a good AI for single player and multiplayer is cross platform and it has local multiplayer too. A must-have for board game enthusiasts. Brass has a tutorial, but with all board games this complex, I'd recommend reading the rules.

7/10

[edit] Back to negative. Devs had a big update lined up with single player and new combat, then abandoned the update to go work on Baldurs Gate 3. That's just disrespectful.

[edit] Back to positive with the beacon reclaim system being implemented. Not a very big player base though, so keep that in mind, also updates are slow and not always meaningful for a game that could be so much more.

[edit] Have to change to negative due to inventory loss from beacon system. To make a long story short, got sick, didn't have the desire to get on a computer during sickness, felt a little better and decided to play, 100's of hours worth of inventory gathering lost due to not logging in. If you leave the game and your beacon doesn't get fueled long enough to cover your absence, you lose just about everything. A deal breaker as I have no desire to grind out all that mining, gathering again. Could be an easy fix by devs to put your stuff in a vault if your beacon expires, you'd still lose your plots but at least you'd have enough inventory to build again elsewhere.

[edit] WOOHOO! It's released. I think I'll leave my review intact though as it still seems relevant, except for: instead of being awarded plots for leveling, your'e awarded skill points and cubits for the in-game store, so you can still get plots, or a different perk. You can also travel to other planets using warp augments rather than just portals.

I'll start out by addressing a few of the numerous negative reviews floating around.

Some of the negative reviews I've read seem to want to compare the game to Minecraft and other blocky games and talk about what they have that Boundless doesn't. Boundless is its own game and in my opinion is a much more enjoyable game with far better structural building options than Minecraft. If you want to build blocky Gameboys, play Minecraft. If you want to build detailed structures, play Boundless. The game is a lot different from Minecraft and its blocky cousins and has a completely different focus. I find exploring player creations much more enjoyable and I don't have keep track of dozens of save files. If you think Minecraft is the blocky game to judge all blocky games by, you probably won't like Boundless.

Some other negative reviews complain about slow updates. While this has been true for a few years, updates have really started to pick up lately. I think the biggest reason for slow updates earlier on was an engine change which is of course, is a very time consuming process.

Other negative reviews seem to be from players that want instant gratification and don't want to go through a leveling process to play the game. I think the leveling and progression system fits the game perfect and I'm sure will be tweaked as the game develops.

Now for my own take on the game :)

Originally I was a little skeptical about buying this game due to slow updates but finally took the plunge as the new updates sounded promising. The game falls into the blocky voxel category, but I think it might be the best looking one out there atm.

As soon as I started a game the first thing I noticed were the player creations, they are breathtaking and I spent a lot of time just running around taking in the view. There are many large settlements where you can buy items from player owned shops or you can set up a shop yourself once you have obtained the skills necessary. Money is earned through achievments, selling, and taxes collected when other players enter you territory although the money is not taken from those players, the game awards it to you, so the more impressive your constructions are, the more money your'e likely to collect. After running around and taking it all in, you can start with the in-game tutorial and begin the path to leveling up your creature. Your creature starts out very weak so you have do a little work to earn the skill points needed to level up. You can earn skill points many ways including, but not limited to fighting, mining, building, and completing the many in-game achievements. There are numerous attributes you can level.

You begin your journey on a starter world with just a few low level enemies, later in the game you will attain the skills to build portals and travel to the more dangerous worlds with higher level creatures and more valuable ores to mine. You can also travel through another players portal at no cost if you don't want to build your own as most of the large settlements have an abundance of them. Portals require fuel to stay operational and are rather expensive to maintain at the moment, although that could change in the future. There are also a few other ways to warp around your current world besides portals but I think portals are the only way to travel to the other planets.

The game worlds are permanent and any changes you make such as building, mining, chiseling, carving etc. are reset every day, however, you can place a beacon in an area where you want to keep your creations and add plots to enlarge the area to preserve it from the reset. Other players won't be able to build or mine your beaconed areas unless you friend them and give them permissions. Also areas don't seem to reset if there is a lot of activity in the area at the reset time. Beacons require fuel to stay active and when the fuel runs out the area will be prone to reset or other players making changes. Fuel for beacons is plentiful and can last for weeks. As you gain skill levels, you are awarded more plots to use around your beacons.

I think the games most attractive feature may end up being the building aspect. You have the ability to chisel and shape individual blocks many different ways allowing for some impressive structures. It reminds me a little of the defunct Landmark game which had the most comprehensive building tools I've ever seen in a game.

Boundless is a game with some fantastic potential, I can't wait to see where it goes in the future.

Best blocky building game I've played to date. An easy 8/10 for me.

Like the title says, the game plays quick and as such, makes it fairly simple to learn. Perfect for when you just want to play a full game of something and not have to save and later try to figure out what direction your strategy was going.

Plays a little like Risk in that there are countries and continents to control, but it doesn't utilize dice for battles, instead you have a row of 6 face up cards with actions on them some of which allow you to defeat enemy units. The leftmost card is free and the cost of cards increases as you move to the right. Since you only get 11 coins to start the game, you have to spend those coins wisely as you'll get no more. As a card is bought, the cards shift left to fill the hole and a new card is placed at the end to become the new most expensive card, so the best cards are usually purchased before they can reach the free space. If you spend all your money early in the game, you'll be stuck with selecting the usually less desirable free card for the remainder of the game. Cards are for moving units on land, moving units across water to conquer new continents, building cities which can produce units, and combat. Points are awarded at the end of the game for resources aquired and lands controlled.

A very easy game to learn, but with great strategic choices to make each turn. UI is clean and easy to use.
Great little game. 8/10

Great worker placement game about gathering resources to complete quest cards for points. I love games that have those tense little moments when you're hoping against hope that your opponents not going to grab that resource you need, but they usually do, of course. AI is really good for single player games. My only gripe is the small text on the quest cards is not readable unless you click on them to zoom, even on a large display. Overall a great board game though.

A solid 8/10.

An original worker placement digital card game. Discover worlds, upgrade worlds, move colonists around to gain resources and colonize planets. Win games to unlock new races.

Pros:
Lots of strategic choices each turn
Many different paths to a win (or a loss if you suck)
Win games to unlock stuff
Decent tutorial
Volume slider on game board (nice touch)
Priced nicely
Potato friendly

If you like worker placement board games, there's no reason for you to pass on this one.

9/10