The Top 24 Steam Games - The Reviews (Part 3)

Here are another six reviews, which make up Part 3, of my Top 24 Steam Games:

Obulis Delicate, soft sounds and swinging balls dangling from chains with inviting receptacles such as vases and cups for the steel balls to fall into - are the simple ingredients that make up Obulis. All the player has to do is snip a few chains at the right time to manipulate the movement and trajectory of the balls so that the right colour balls fall into the correct cup or vase. There are 3 chapters with about 60 or so puzzles in each (each square on the map represents a puzzle). The first chapter is a fine experience but they get so fiendishly difficult it can be enough to have you tearing your hair out. (SPOILER to one of the trickier ones.)

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Abe's Oddysee It may be showing it's age, for sure, but when it comes to a puzzle platformer with a twist, the creepy and macabre oddworld of Abe's Oddysee should give plenty to those who demand something a little different from their games. It's a platform scroller which has the player controlling and issuing commands to Abe who uses these orders to navigate himself around the world  and to rescue his fellow slave workers from the mine while avoid a disturbing set of enemies at the same time. The whole game is just a bit kooky and weird and it comes also with one of the most bizarre and confusing save system in the world as well. (The first 10 minutes)

Osmos You start each map in the middle of the screen as just a small blob floating in the middle of outer space among hundreds of other small blobs. By placing the cursor behind your blob and pressing the left mouse button you jet propel your globule through space with the intention of merging with smaller ones in order to make yourself grow bigger and bigger. Each thrust though, needs power from your own organism and that takes mass off you and makes you smaller! The map ends when you have achieved your objective and you move onto progressively more difficult maps. It's very satisfying and quite relaxing. (Kick-ass music but not part of the actual game)

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Portal Ok, so as I mentioned in an earlier post, the makers of Portal are not exactly a small indie company and this IS quite a large game. However, this has to be one of the best designed and thoroughly absorbing first-person games to hit the PC. There is no combat, no killing (apart from your own), no real violence, no shootings (in the conventional sense) and the rewarding feeling you get when completing the brilliantly designed levels just gives such a great buzz. The game is all about spacial awareness and anticipating movements and where you'll end up after entering portals. For a relatively short game the "wow" moments come thick and fast. (Gameplay moments)

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Professor Fizzlewizzle As a one-of-a-kind game to get the grey matter pumping, this superb little platform puzzler supplies just the right quantity of "tease-factor" to really get the player heartily involved and grappling with the problems. You teleport onto the one screen and then, with all sorts of objects around you like barrels, crates, magnets, buttons, gates, robots, ice and sand etc etc... you have to figure out how to reach the other teleport to get you out. The game gets progressively harder and, at present, I have just reached 55% along the red path and I am just starting to struggle. But it's a GOOD struggle. The yellow path is super-hard by the way, while the blue and purple paths are more for young children. Each screen is a platform landscape and every screen has a hint button if you get frustrated to the point of madness. For £8 it's a no-brainer to purchase. (One of the puzzles being solved) 

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Puzzle Bots Unfortunately, like Drawn: The Painted Tower, this review comes with a confession - I've hardly played it. However, from the little I have played so far and from what I've seen on youtube, it really reminds me of Professor Fizzlewizzle - so I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it. The game is not exactly heavy on the graphics, with its simple cartoon-like environments and low pixel count, but it's the type of game that doesn't need to be. You take control of five robots where each have different roles. You make them scurry around performing their alloted tasks to complete the levels. All good. (A word from the designers.)

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This completes Part 3. Part 4 to follow either today or tomorrow.