Destination Anywhere! || Burly Men at Sea (PC)

"A ship is safe in the harbor, but that's not what ships are built for." --Gael Attal

Source: Screen Capture in Game

Burly Men at Sea is an interesting, branching story line tale created by Brain&Brain. You play as the Beard brothers, Steady Beard, Hasty Beard and Brave Beard. The Beard brothers find a map, but the map is almost completely empty. They decide to go in search of adventure… but what will adventure bring to them? 

There are so many different ways to play out the adventure that it hasn’t gotten dull yet, and I’ve played through about 5 times so far. Although, I do wish there was a skip or fast forward button like in some visual novels so that the repetitive parts could go by just a little faster. The walking speed seems slow after playing through some parts over again, but that may be for pacing’s sake since the game is rather short for each play through. 

My favorite character <3

Source: Screen capture in Game

The art is particularly captivating to me. It was a simplistic, but cute quality to it. Even the burly men themselves look adorable. I fell in love with the sea creatures, such as the seals and the narwhals. The colors are light and airy almost, which I feel adds to the fairy tale like charm of the game. 

One of the most unique and enjoyable features of Burly Men is the music and sound effects. All of the sound effects sound like they are done by a human, but very well done. The music also has some of the same quality. This made it really enjoyable for me, and I enjoyed hearing the different sound effects, and the music all around was acoustically pleasing. 

 Lead me to safety, mermaids!

Source: Screen Capture in Game

The variety of characters and creatures is also nice in this game. My favorite being a large rock golem you meet who has a love of flowers, and who just wants to be your friend. I wish I could have spent more time of his island with him. 

Overall, I think Burly Men has enough to offer to give it some replayability, even one play through was nice. I bought this game during a Steam sale (surprise!) for 4.99. At full price, the game retails for 9.99. As much as I enjoyed the game I can’t recommend paying 9.99 for it. If you can get it on sale, and you enjoy this type of game(games that are really more of an art piece than a game), then I would recommend it. Otherwise, I might say to pass. You can get the game on Steam *here*.

Thanks for sharing some of your time with me today! I really appreciate it. Be sure to let me know what you thought of the game. Happy gaming!

Bell

Don't Mean to Bug You || Morphopolis (PC)

 "Everyone is like a butterfly. They start out ugly and awkward, and then morph into beautiful, graceful butterflies that everyone loves." --Drew Barrymore

Morphopolis

 Opening Screen.

Source: Screen Capture in Game

Morphopolis is a point and click hidden items game created by Dan Walters and Cheri Williams. You play as a variety of bugs and you search through beautiful hand drawn environments for items you need to advance through the 5 levels. Now, as a warning, this game is about bug. So, if you take issue with bugs of any kind, you might want to skip this one. 

The pace of the game is very slow, and can become a bit monotonous, as I’m sure the life of a bug is. Once you collect all of the needed items across each area, you advance to the next level by taking control of another type of bug… by burrowing into it and living in it… or something? It made me think of Edgar the Bug from Men in Black… (a giant cockroach in a human disguise for those who haven’t seen it).

A portal to where?

Source: Screen Capture in Game

What I enjoyed most about this game was simply admiring the environments. The hand drawn quality of the plants and the colors create a beautiful scene to behold. The insects too are amazingly detailed. The music is calm, but becomes repetitive over time and wasn’t as memorable.

I feel like the puzzles are decent. There were times when it honestly took me some time to find all of the hidden items, and there were other times where it was clear where to get the items. I felt that this created a nice balance of not being too difficult to complete, and giving a break in between some of the harder items to find. 

 The details! @_@

Source: Screen Capture in Game

There was an issue with one of the puzzles with was like a solitaire puzzle where you jump seeds over each other to make other seeds disappear (Chinese checkers rules), but when I first attempted the puzzle it wouldn’t work. Clicking, dragging, all had no effect. I had to restart my computer and reopen the game, after which it worked fine. It was irritating none-the-less. This is also a common problem with the game, according to the community forums. 

Overall, I felt that Morphopolis is an interesting hour and a half venture. I bought this game during a steam sale for $0.49 so I felt that it was worth my 49 cents. It’s 1.99 at full price, I believe, so I don’t know if I would pay that, but if you can get it on sale, then I would recommend it. You can purchase the game on steam *here*.

Thank you for sharing some of your time with me today. Let me know what you thought of the game, if you’ve played it, and happy gaming!

Bell