Scratching an itch.
and some scratchcards.
I try my best to find a fitting theme and write a compelling introduction to the five games I share with you, but I’m struggling this week. They’re just five great games I have been playing and want to share with you. And that’s okay.
Dopamine, good loops, gorgeous graphics, building, farming, roguelike elements, a good gamble and some… fan art? These five games scratched all of my itches in the past couple of weeks. I hope they can do the same for you!
Fields of Mistria
Fields of Mistria hits the sweet spot between farming sim and RPG.
It has all the elements of getting a farm, till soil, plant seeds, water them, harvest them, sell them, throw a few of them in the museum, rinse, repeat - but it also tackles the entire quest mechanic really, really well. Armour means something, too. There are various skills to unlock both for the more domestic activities like farming, crafting and fishing, as well as mining and combat in the dungeon-like mines.
Compared to other farming sims, this game feels so well-paced. There is something to do every day, there are weekly events, daily quests, monthly collections, but there is also... NO RUSH. You don’t have to complete the quest today, within three years is fine, too. That alone makes it a very chill, very cosy experience. Throughout the story line, you get to gradually upgrade the town, making it prettier, adding new functionalities, and getting to know the characters along the way. It never feels rushed, it never feels overwhelming, all of it feels just right.
Add to that the frequent dopamine hits - my god. Everything gets a reward. Things level up nicely, giving you a reward practically daily. Cosmetics aren’t uncommon, you don’t have to jump through hoops to get them, so you get to customise your character whichever way and however often you want to. Treasure chests, both as rewards and randomly finding htem in the dungeon or through fishing. Such a rush! They *could* have just thrown items at you, but they didn’t. They chose treasure chests with dopamine and items in them, and that makes all the difference.
And last but not least: you can swim and jump! It sounds so simple, and not at all impressive, but as far as I’m concerned, there hasn’t been a farming sim that has done this before. You can jump over enemies (and even do jumping attacks), jump off cliffs, into the water, you can swim across rivers and ponds, you can dive for fish or treasure.
I played this game two years ago, and back then I would’ve said it wasn’t a finished game yet - there were definitely parts that needed some work, like cntrols being wonky. Since then, they’ve fixed and added a lot of things, and now I would say the game is just fantastic.
I definitely, wholeheartedly recommend getting Fields of Mistria, it might very well be the best farming sim of this decade.
Lay of the Land
Lay of the Land is the voxel game I have been waiting for.
The world is gorgeous. It’s made out of voxels, trees are voxels, stone is voxels, enemies are voxels, everything is voxels. You chop a tree and collect the individual pieces. Dig up some sand, and it slides down so satisfyingly you wish you lived in an hourglass. The rivers are a collection of babbling voxels. Voxels is starting to no longer sound like a word. Voxels.
I have to be honest, I haven’t yet figured out what the goal of the game is. There is apparently a story to follow, or at least that’s what I guess from the runes I collected and the pillar I found to put them in. There are also tons of biomes I haven’t reached yet. Not due to lack of playing, but rather: I got quite fixated on the building part.
Building in this game is just… wow.
I’ve always said that Enshrouded holds the title of most interesting build mode because it utilises the individual voxel-like subblocks of its objects very well and allows you to manipulate things on voxel level, followed by Vintage Story doing the same in a Minecraft-like voxel world. Now Lay of the Land completes that trifecta.
You can build in blocks, in voxels, in premade structures, craft furniture or build it from scratch, combine everything exactly the way you want it!
BALL x PIT
BALL x PIT was recommended to me by my husband, and when he is adamant about a game, I know it’s really good. So I dove into the pit and discovered a glorious dopamine machine.
The tags “roguelike” and “bullet hell” don’t really do it justice, but I also don’t know how to better explain it. It’s sort of like… if squash was a Space Invaders-like video game? You shoot balls at enemies, each ball having a different effect, and your goal is to survive the entire thing, kill the bosses, and then go home to your base. In that base, you get to build fields, forests and buildings that give you resources and buffs. Different characters have a different build with a different starter ball.
This game ticks off all the things I love in the genre and does it so innovatively, it’s almost like it created a whole new ball park. Get it?
Scritchy Scratchy
Scritchy Scratchy is another dopamine hitter.
You scratch scratch cards. That’s it. That’s the game.
You make money off them, buy higher tier scratch cards, make more money, buy powerups, buy a robot that scratches for you, and after you feel you’ve maxed out the potential, you prestige the run and start over with even more options and bonuses.
Watch the numbers go up up up (or down down down, it is gambling after all) and be the little gambling goblin your heart of hearts wants you to be.
I.T. Never Ends
I.T. Never Ends is… special.
In a very, very good and weird way.
The premise of the game is: you work the I.T. Support for a company. You don’t really know anything about it, so through your job, you start learning things and discovering more about… things.
Yes, I’m being vague on purpose.
You are presented with questions and have two options: swipe left or swipe right. Reminiscent of Reigns, but in a corp(s)orate setting. Your goal is to balance productivity, morale, budget and entropy - I’m sure that’s a meaningless metric that doesn’t have any importance at all. Through mini games, you empty your inbox, protect your firewall, fix your package distributions etc. Your goal? To survive your work day.
Okay, I might be a little biased here because the dev put me in the game. :3
I.T. Never Ends is set to be released in August. Until then, probably the most polished demo I have ever seen is available for you to try it out! Unlike most demos I play, they aren’t just a short bit of the game, they’ve actually put in a lot of effort to condense the whole experience and have voice lines addressing the differences between the demo and the full game, making the demo a very immersive meta experience showing you exactly what to expect.
