TerinHD's 05/29/17 Update!

To be honest I had a really hard time getting into this game, but I really thought I would like it. It is a simple pipe puzzle game where you rotate the pipes to let the virus spread to different computer system. It had a normal progression of puzzle games, it slowly adds different features to the game as you play each level. I really enjoyed the pipe part of the puzzles trying to figure out how get the pipes to function properly but this was only about 50% of the game. I started off getting "gold" status in all the levels and that quickly fell away as things got harder and harder.

So the other 50% of the game is more of the pipe stuff but it is stuck by timing elements. I have never been great at timing games and at times it just seems to frustrate me. This because it almost feels like the game is being repetitive just for the sake of being repetitive. Some of the levels just were maddening... taking probably 100 tries to complete it, let alone get a gold rating on the level. The other issue is a bunch of the achievements are based on multiplayer aspects to the game, which means you need to find a friend to play though it with you. This is a bit unappealing in a puzzle game in my opinion.

Overall the theme and character of the game is a bit quirky which is pretty nice. It does have a bit of a dark vibe to it all, but it is a humor based, quirky dark vibe. I would only recommend this to someone who loves puzzle games and twitch/timing based games. I didn't find any bugs or anything, I just couldn't get into it. It is still highly possible my state of mind played into it, but I can't recommend this in general so I would give it a 2/5.

This has to be one of my more recent obsessions... I really love this game. It is a mixture of tower defense and a hex based placement puzzle. The tower defense is based on the hex tiles so there are 6 different lanes to defend your ship against as you transport cargo from one planet to another. I am almost done with making this a perfect game (completing all of the achievements) and I still find it highly enjoyable. This is a more flushed out game then the first one, it seems to fill all the issues I had with the first one.

From the quirky characters that are back from the first game Space Run to the new characters, the voice acting and atmosphere of the game is quite enjoyable. I really enjoy the simple story here as it adds a bit of flavor and humor to the game, but don't be expecting Star Wars level story here it is a bit lack luster. The controls are fine, do I think they could use some improvements, yes. First off the hotkeys work fine, but "releasing" the selection is a bit of an issue. I really want to just hit esc (which brings up the in game menu... if I had a penny...) or something similar but I haven't found that through my gameplay to be there. I also got to the point where some of the gameplay got too repetitive, the balance wasn't quite there. I did find a bug in the quests however, I don't think I should have been given this quest as I didn't have the planet unlocked yet:

To continue on, I think they added wonderful multiplayer features that really add to the game in my opinion. Some feel as though it was simply an add on, but I think it was a deliberate design decision. It allows asynchronous and hands free multiplayer play which I think is ideal for a puzzle/tower defense type of game through a contract based system in which you contracts are posted publicly to everyone on the server. It also allows for built in longevity in the way it was designed as new players play through they can always find others contracts out. Essentially eliminating the need for someone else to be on at the same exact time to play together.

The progression system is fair but it essentially ends at 75% of the game. This means you aren't unlocking any new components for your ship for the last 25% of the game. I think this is why I felt it started to get grindy and repetitive. I do have to point out one more thing, I did have some performance issues at times. The framerate would drop sometimes and just make the game feel sluggish. Overall, like I said I love this game, but I think I love it because it's core concept is sooo good even though the implementation is not quite there yet. Don't get me wrong it is still better than it's successor, but there is still more work to be done before I say it is flawless. I give it a 4/5 because I do really enjoy the concept and the core gameplay is really entertaining!