Settlemoon

Really cute and cozy game that I enjoyed checking in on a few times a day. I got emotionally invested in the little scraps of story about [ENDING SPOILERS][spoiler]helping a sad moth who lost their partner, but after all that work and heavy implication that we're getting their partner back, all we're rewarded with is the town being deleted and a cutscene where someone logs off their computer and goes outside[/spoiler]. I guess the message is [spoiler]"it's all a game and none of it mattered, now go touch grass" but that feels like a really undeserved slap in the face as a "reward" for getting invested enough in the setting to keep playing. I already touch grass daily, I just wanted a little closure for the town and characters.[/spoiler] This message does nothing for me but recontextualize my enjoyment of the game into something I should feel bad about, which is enough for me to feel down on the experience overall.

Genuinely interesting and fairly unique game that encourages you to engage with its systems and mechanics blindly to discover just what they are and how they function. At its roughest, it can be hard to decipher exactly what's going on, but eventually, everything sort of settles into place. Settlemoon doesn't demand a lot of your time, and even encourages you to hop off the game rather than leave it open. It becomes an interesting mix of resource management, strategy, and planning to overcome obstacles and discover secrets without, in my opinion, forcing you into any one corner or specifically stating what it is you need to do. I really like that, as it feels like digging into a strange world. It's honestly worth the pricetag.

I love my little guys.

Looked interesting, but then I tried to play it. Absolutely not new player friendly. And it's not EA. I think it had a tutorial somewhere. No mouse over info. You're just supposed to know what everything is and what to do. Had a hell of a time getting into the settings that stretched off my screen to the right. Had to resize initial window so I could set it to full screen. Couldn't even chose a name for myself, had to take what weird one they gave me in whatever language that was that I kept running into in the game. Extremely frustrating game. Just click everywhere until something happens if anything does. All my play time is trying to figure out how to actually build my first building. And then what? I simply don't understand what I need to do next. Some character with a letter symbol above their head. Too bad, no new player assist. Click on them as much as you want, but nothing happens. Gave up. Still no clue what to do. More random clicking, then some window opened up, can't re...