Demo Impressions Part 28

Featuring: Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3, Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, Kabuto Park, Overencumbered in Another World, and Shrink Rooms

I love writing demo impressions, but the downside is the games coming out before I get out my demo impression. But hey, that doesn’t mean I still can’t post them. If any of these still have demos when I post this, they’ll have a (*) as always.

Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3

Out Now

To be honest, I put this on my “Demos To Play” list mainly because I thought the title was funny and it just seemed like a basic match-3 game. Like probably everyone, when I’m browsing the Steam Next Fest event page I just hover over the games and determine whether I want to try them based on the trailer and screenshot preview (and only going to the steam page for the rare times I need more info). There’s just way too many demos during Next Fest now. Anyway, yeah, the title was funny and it seemed like a simple match-3 game. Little did I know that this was going to surprise me. You play as J.J. Hardwell who was sent out by the ATS to investigate a mysterious mansion home to a superscientist named Huncan. J.J. is actually a new transfer to the ATS department and one that probably shouldn’t have been sent considering he was in postal inspection. Either way, J.J. is hoping that there are no dinosaurs in the mansion (in-universe there were two other games where you had to fight dinosaurs made by superscientists as Jack Briar). However, the mansion is home to dinosaurs. And even worse yet, he learns that he’s in a video game and he teams up with Huncan (or a clone of him) to get to the bottom of things. It’s hard to really tell what is the main game’s storyline and what’s the demo storyline once the meta storyline comes into play, but in the demo you’re given the ability to loop (retaining items and information J.J. gathered) and tasked with hunting bugs.

Gameplay here is actually pretty interesting. First of all, there is a storyline here and a lot of dialogue. Every so often, you’ll get a option between what to say or what you want to do (or both, it just depends on the situation). It can progress the conversation or scene, give you an item, increase a trait, grant you an item, put you down another path, and/or send you into an encounter. And a lot of options won’t tell you the outcome of a choice. Luckily, you can just loop back to the safe room (a bar) and redo that path to pick the other choice if you want to. Okay, before I go into encounters, I’ll explain some of the things I just mentioned. As you play and pick options, you’ll notice J.J. getting a point in a trait. Some traits will only require one point while some require like five, but these do play a part in the gameplay. Some options require you to have a specific trait to select them and it does look like a trait can give you an action for encounters. Of course, this is only just a demo so there’s no telling what other outcomes getting a trait will cause (especially since there are some outliers that imply it will possibly act as a handicap). There are also safe rooms, or safe bar, which acts as a checkpoint. The bar is manned by a clone of Huncan and you regain all of your health, reduce all of your stress, and you’re able to buy some items to help you along and upgrade your inventory so you’re able to hold more items. Items are consumable, with some having pips to indicate them being able to be used more than once, and have a specific size. You have a limited amount of inventory space too so be careful with that. I’m the type of player who holds onto items, but I did find that I had more than enough money so if you need to use items do. Especially since you can get items through option outcomes and items can really help you in combat. The safe bar also acts as checkpoints for when you’re looping when you die or hit the end of a path.

Now onto encounters! Encounters, whether it’s with an inanimate object, an enemy, or an enemy that you don’t want to attack, are framed as match-3 puzzle minigame. However, it has an interesting twist. You are of course matching the various symbols, but they go into your symbol bank where you can then use to active one of your actions once you have the required amount. If you have items, you can just use those straight up since they are consumed once used (or consume a pip). Every turn you can only do one move. That can be either matching a symbol (and hoping it ends up comboing) or using up an action/item. There are some actions that don’t take up a move, so make sure you use those before doing anything else. Once you do your move, your turn ends and, here’s the kicker, whatever you’re encountering also plays by the same rules and the same board. Your opponent has their own set of actions, which you can hover over to see their effect. Both of you have health and usually you’re trying to deplete your opponent’s health until they kill you (other encounters can also ask you to fill up a progress bar). J.J. also has the addition of Stress, which will make you spin the wheel of negative effects when it hits a milestone (no idea what happens if it maxes out). Don’t worry, J.J. does have actions to heal and decrease stress (as well as being able to get items to do that too). This makes encounters interesting as well as unique. You not only have to worry about what you want to match, but what your opponent wants to match. Will you match that symbol you need to be able to use an attack action or should you match this symbol that will allow your opponent to do their hard hitting attack action? Should you heal this turn or match symbols? Does your opponent have actions they can activate (as activating actions are prioritized) and what do they do? Is it worth matching this symbol you have no use for to bring down the ones you do and hope the opponent doesn’t mess your plan up? Encounters are also made unique thanks to the different actions your opponents have, different symbols will be added to the board (like knives for combat, which are required for attack actions and act as another way to hurt the opponent, or bones) and how not every encounter will have you killing your enemy but getting an item or acts as a representation of J.J. doing something.

I’m someone that don’t like meta storylines or humor, due to it being overused, but I ended up like Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3. It was pretty cool that it has its own storyline for the demo, I did like the looping and going down different paths, I liked the writing style, there were some funny lines here, I liked J.J. as a character and how he’s responding to being in a video game, liked how traits play into things, and I liked the match-3 gameplay. The addition of actions adds a nice spin, it has good difficulty, and each of the encounters felt unique (with the help of the actions and items, different win requirements, different icons, and the various “enemies”). Looks like I’ll be looking forward to this one.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping

Out Now

You have no idea how excited I was when I got the email saying that the Duck Detective sequel got a demo! I was really hoping it would too back when it was announced. Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping brings in more Duck Detective fun for those that loved the first game. Taking place at least a couple months after the events of The Secret Salami, our favorite Duck Detective isn’t doing too well. He wasn’t able to make rent so he was kicked out of his apartment. Good news, though, he was able to move in with none other than Freddy! Good ‘ole Freddy. Too bad Duck Detective doesn’t like him. Even though Freddy is letting him be months late on rent. Anyway, just like the first game, the demo here is in his room where this time he has to figure out why his ex wife, Ana, isn’t returning his calls. We actually get some more information on Ana, see pictures of her, and even hear her voice! Though, he doesn’t have much time to contiplate before Freddy comes in. You learn that you’re going on a spoooooooky trip with Freddy and his girlfriend. A glamping trip to be exact, though Duck Detective isn’t too jazzed about it. Luckily, it seems that there are going to be cases for Duck Detective to solve while there. Like, who Freddy’s girlfriend is, who the “celebrity” staying here alongside everyone, who’s been stealing chairs, and if ghosts really are real.

The mechanics here are the same from the first game. You’ll be examining the environment for clues, with some having you look closer with your magnifying glass, talking to and inspecting the suspects (or the characters you’ll be interacting with for the whole game), and making Deducktions by filling out the key details in the sentence(s). You’ll also have to put together who’s who yourself, putting names to the portraits. Don’t worry, you’re told whether you got things right or not. And of course, the hint system returned.

The demo ends once you complete the third Deducktion when you figure out who Freddy’s girlfriend is. This sequel as all that I loved from the first game. The smooth voice that Duck Detective has, Freddy’s VA returning to reprise his role, everyone being fully voiced, the same mechanics (which yeah, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it), good detective puzzles, and having the same level of good writing. I especially loved the new dynamic that I’m assuming will be present the whole game between Freddy (the overly enthusiastic one) and Duck Detective (who hates and sounds so done). They both have some funny lines and line deliveries just in this demo alone. I can’t wait to play the full game!

Kabuto Park*

Out Now

This one is a cute one, but personally not my kinda thing. In this game, you play as a young girl who is visiting Kabuto park for the summer. I’m sure I’m not the only one that drew a comparison to Boku no Natsuyasumi, but instead here the protagonist put all of her focus into the Summer Beetle Battles Championship. Thus, this whole game is about collecting the various bugs that populate Kabuto Park and training them up. This demo only includes the first two areas, but basically you’ll choose where you want to try catching bugs (mainly beetles, but there are exceptions like bees and dragonflies). You can only do this a limited amount of times (starting with two), but each area will have spots that you can check for bugs. Once you pick a spot, you’ll then be taken to a bug catching minigame. This is basically where you have to click when the indicator is in the green area of the bar. If you click in the red, you’ll completely miss and the bug will fly away, but if you click in the blue it’ll give you a second chance as well as a bigger green area since it’s framed as you getting slightly closer. Once you use up all of your chances, you’ll then be able to see the details of the bugs you caught before you’re sent back to the hub. You can go back out to catch some more bugs, but there are some other things you can do.

You can check your bug collection, which is where you’re able to check out the cards the bugs have (yeah, it’s a card game), see their stats, and level them up with candy to increase their stats. You can try your hand at the battles where you’ll build your own team of bugs to go up against another kid’s team. Luckily, you can see what bugs and cards the other kids are going in with so you can build your team around it. Battles will place your bug team and your opponents against one another with the goal of pushing the other off the tambourine. The bugs do push automatically, but you can give them commands using cards. Each bug adds three cards to your deck and each require a certain amount of energy to play them, which builds up over time. Cards vary, but they can boost or decrease defense, kick the other team to knock them back, use energy to gain energy, and so on. You really have to be careful with your team setup here least you get a deck that’s mostly cards that require a lot of energy. Anyway, if you win you get money and some candy. As well as your next opponent being slightly stronger (with a slightly higher reward).

There’s also a shop, which will let you buy upgrades for yourself and for your bugs. Using the money you get through winning battles, you can buy boots so you can go into the different areas, a new net to make catching bugs easier, and items that will raise the possibility of coming across a rare bug and increase the amount of times you can search for bugs (and thus increase how many you can catch each visit). It does look like you can buy candy (used to upgrade the bugs) and honey, but with them not being available int he demo the use of honey is a mystery. Don’t spend it all in one place though, as every area except one requires bus money to go there.

So yeah, it’s a cute game. It’s just not my thing since I’m terrible at card games let alone deckbuilders. Nonetheless, I can still see that this is shaping up to be a good game for those that this game will be fore.

Overencumbered in Another World*

Out Now

Another puzzle game is here for when you get that Resident Evil 4 inventory organization. In this game, you’re just going about your day until van-kun comes and isekai’s you into another world. One where you’re…in the middle of a desert with someone annoyingly talking on the radio telling you to organize the items beside you into your inventory. You get various items, a grid with a limited amount of open blocks to represent your inventory, and it’s up to you to figure it out. Sadly, no hints and let me tell you there are some tricky puzzles here. Each item has their own description that cracks a joke, you’ll notice that items are also game references, and eventually you do have to use the items to be able to fit everything. You’ll have to load the guns/magazines and use the consumables (most times cleverly so you can damage yourself or gain radiation to then heal or lower your radiation). A level isn’t completed unless everything is in your inventory, you have max health, and have no radiation.

This demo had 37 levels which is a lot especially considering the full game is supposed to have 50+. Anyway, it’s a good puzzle game. It’s basically like Save Room if you played that before.

Shrink Rooms*

Out Now

This one was an interesting puzzle game! This one has a simple task of trying to get out of a room, however the room shrinks after taking so many steps. Luckily, it’s only one side of the room and you know which wall it will be. Seems easy enough, but the room starts to shrink before you can make it to the exit. That’s where the boxes come in. There are wooden boxes you can move and iron boxes you can’t and you can use these to push yourself an extra grid block or use to weigh down buttons to open the exit. Of course, if you end up being completely blocked in by boxes, crushed by the walls, or the exit covered by the wall, the level will need to be restarted. This one was a pretty interesting and unique puzzle game.