Searching high and low for vampire hysteria in Kisilova

I don’t have an Android phone. Loyal Grinding Down readers will know that I have continued to tread water in an ocean of hungry sharks with my fancy-shmancy Windows phone, though I do expect my next upgrade to be something different. Yes, yes, I’m highly tempted by the potential of a new Animal Crossing game on phones in the future. So, no Android-based mobile device currently, but thankfully I have a laptop with Steam installed on it, which allowed me to partake in the Humble Mobile Bundle from Artifex Mundi, as they all came with bonus Steam keys. At this point, there’s not much that can stand in my way of a bundle that can help my digital library expand.

Okay. Let’s do this. Are you ready for the list of games from this bundle that I never heard of beforehand and chances are neither did you? Good, good. Because here they are, in no particular order, but in all their generic name glory nonetheless:

• Dark Heritage: Guardians of Hope
• Vampire Legends: True Story of Kisilova
• The Secret Order 2: Masked Intent
• The Secret Order 3: Ancient Times
• Crime Secrets: Crimson Lily
• Eventide: Slavic Fable
• Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride
• Grim Legends 2: Song of the Dark Swan
• Grim Legends 3: The Dark City
• Mythic Wonders: The Philosopher’s Stone

Mmm-hmm. Also: yowza. It’s like the creators picked a bunch of videogame title mainstay words, threw them in a hat, mixed it up wildly, and created games based around whatever was pulled at random. Personally, I’m pretty tickled by Crime Secrets though. Crime…secrets. However, because I’m broken inside, I started with Vampire Legends: The True Story of Kisilova. Not because I love vampires–though I did end up re-watching Twilight recently to see if I’d recognized any locations after visiting Seattle, La Push, and Forks in Washington with my father last summer. No, I picked it first for two simple reasons:

1. It appeared to be a standalone game.
2. It appeared to be, somewhat, rooted in history.

What do I mean by that second point? Well, Vampire Legends: The True Story of Kisilova is based on the first documented case of vampirism. Allow me to set the stage: it’s 18th century Europe. Fifty years after a great plague swept the land of the Habsburg dynasty, the subjects of the Emperor are in danger once more. A series of horrifying, mysterious deaths occur in the remote Serbian town of Kisilova. Residents, fearing that the plague is back, begin fleeing their homes. Summoned by the Prince of Württemberg himself, Imperial emissaries journey to Kisilova to investigate these events and prevent further deaths from happening. You play as one of these investigators, and I’m sure you have a name, but I can no longer remember it.

Have I yet said what kind of game Vampire Legends: The True Story of Kisilova is? No? It’s got puzzles and hidden objects to unearth and exploration, moving from one location to another to find clues and items to progress the narrative. Steam uses the tag “casual” on its store page, and I am in full agreement of that. It’s casual, and I played it casually. Like, I played a few hours of it when I got the bundle back in September 2016, and then I came back recently to finish the thing off in a few more sittings.

Vampire Legends: The True Story of Kisilova is a strange mix, both in terms of what you do, but also what you hear and see. There’s voice acting, and it’s a little rough to endure, especially the voice of the investigator you control. I understand this isn’t modern times, but everyone speaks so stiffly and uncomfortably that dialogue is a struggle to listen to. As it turns out, the puzzles are the meat and most enjoyable aspect of the game, and the narrative exists only to serve you more puzzles in the frame of roadblocks, and so the voices and dialogue can be completely ignored. I ended up playing the latter half of the game with Netflix on in the background. Many of the puzzles are of the “use the right item here” mindset, and sometimes you have to travel through several locations to find the key gizmo. Not hard, but satisfying. I personally found the hidden objects sections more enjoyable, remembering how much my mother liked this type of gameplay on her Nintendo DS. The hand-painted scenery, which is really jarring against the animated avatars whenever they take center-stage, is nice to look at and highly detailed, though that does mean some pixel hunting has to happen.

I have to imagine that I’ll be trying Crime Secrets: Crimson Lily next. Again…crime secrets. Makes me laugh. My best guess is that it’ll be pretty similar to this experience, but that’s okay. Like I said above, the puzzles are fun to figure out, and a good hidden objects checklist scene is something I simply can’t ignore. It also doesn’t punish you for clicking like a madman when you only have one item left to find and cannot see where it is. More is fine. There will be plenty more for the rest of 2017 too thanks to this Humble Mobile Bundle from Artifex Mundi.

Another flipping day at the Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory

I fell down another bundle hole some days back, buying in to the Evolved Bundle from Indie Royale–which is no longer available, replaced by the current Valentines Bundle, a collection of games that really don’t interest me at all. The Evolved Bundle consisted of six games. Here, let me list them for you:

• Unmechanical
• The Path
• Krater
• Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory
• OIO
• St. Chicken

Right. Some puzzle platformers, a puzzle-swimmer-platformer, an RPG, and whatever The Path cares to call itself. An experience? Anyways, I remember watching a Quick Look over at Giant Bomb for Krater and thinking it looked pretty neat (and Swedish), and that was enough to get me in for this bundle, with the other games considered as mere tag-alongs. Though Krater looks like it needs some time to get into and see how its systems work, which is not something I have oodles of these days. Instead, I was just randomly clicking around on Steam over the weekend for something quick to play, and I decided to see what Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory was all about besides looking adorable.

Believe it or not, there’s a story. Granted, it can be told in a single sentence, but it’s more than other 2D indie platformers give off sometimes. Yeah, I’m looking at you. In short, a cube of sugar escapes from a bunch of themed factories to avoid the fate of becoming a cookie. You play as that cube. Safe travels, sugary soldier. May you never turn into a cookie and crumble. Okay, I need to move on, because, if you truly know me, I could play with food-based puns all day long. And besides, I can do much batter than that.

Basically, you are trying to get your little sugar cube from point A to the closed door somewhere else on the map, which will take you to the next level. There are five worlds with…um, well, a bunch of levels in there; I didn’t count ’em. But it’s not a simple walk over from the starting point to the portal-like doorway. See, the background tiles of the game have two sides: a front and a back. These tiles can be flipped. Sometimes they turn into ledges and sometimes ledges with spikes or icy floors. It’s up to you, little sugar cube guider, to figure out what tiles to flip and then how to get to the door. You can also hold down a button to prevent tiles from flipping. And thus, you now know everything there is to know about both elements to this puzzle platformer.

So far, I’ve gotten through all of the first factory and about halfway through the second one, which is based around…chocolate. I’ve found that the difficulty in Sugar Cube: Bittersweet Factory varies greatly, with me breezing through two to three levels with ease and then coming to a complete halt with the next level. That’s actually okay as it gives reason to pause and evaluate your skills, as well as the level’s design itself. Still, it does everything an indie puzzle platformer should. And the game keeps hinting that if I pick up all the collectibles, the true ending will be revealed. Ooooh. Will our adorable little sugar cube escape the nefarious factories, but later return with a pitchfork-wielding mob to burn it all down and then erect a recreational park? Maybe. Who knows what sugar cubes think. I don’t, but now I must.

Nintendo announces two new DSi colored bundles

That’s right. More colors for the Nintendo DSi. And it only took the world a hundred years to give us a Mario pipe-green one. I mean, I thought that was a no-brainer, but maybe that’s just me. Green’s also the best color ever to be a color, and everything should be green, Nintendo DS consoles especially. People, too. Insert your own Soylent Green is people joke!

Well, now we have one. A green Nintendo DSi, that is. It’s debuting this Black Friday, but it’s probably only available in limited numbers. First come, first gobble up. Also, the bundle comes packaged with a free game (Mario Party DS) for the price of just a standalone DSi–about $149.99. Cool, cool. If Tara and I didn’t already own fine and dandy DS Lites (mine’s black, hers is black and blue), I’d totally spring for this. But, alas, currently, there is no need in my life for a third DS system, even if it is an upgrade so-to-speak with its nifty camera and slightly bigger bod. Might just wait this whole crazy ride out until the 3DS drops and see how that floats or flops. I totally didn’t mean to rhyme there.

Anyways, check out Nintendo’s newest baby in all its beautiful, green glory below:

Mmm hmm.

Oh, and there’s also an orange one available…but who cares about that color.