Neon Village

Тренд на проекты по набору очков набирает ход, и вот к гонке присоединились"три в ряд". Яркая неоновая обертка, достаточно динамичный геймплей, приличный саундтрек; плюс подбор колоды под задачу, использование предметов. Задач две: скопить денег к определенной отметке ходов и насобирать определенное количество жителей для нашей деревни. Также присутствуют три биома с постепенно усложняющимися уровнями. Из минусов можно отметить слишком высокую сложность со временем, и вследствие слишком долгие сессии. Так как ранний доступ, время для отшлифовки есть. Игра для широкой игровой и возрастной аудитории с понятным геймплеем.

ждала игру с момента выпуска демо версии и в целом не разочаровалась. интересный вариант 3 в ряд с прокачками внутри уровня и бустерами из плюсов: правда засасывает. не заметила как потратила кучу часов на игру, пытаясь пройти уровни. вроде бы не то чтобы какое-то новшество среди игр, но в итоге оказалось очень интересно. видела, что писали про баги, но на протяжении всей игры не столкнулась ни с одним из из минусов: уровни после 6 просто непроходимые. тебе постоянно не хватает денег или населения для прохождения уровня. как будто стоит добавить ещё какие-то бустеры для упрощения средних и сложных уровней или добавить функцию продолжения уровня с какими-то условиями визуал также пока немного сыроват и выглядит чуть-чуть безвкусно местами, но всё равно прикольно штука на 6/10, но всё равно стоит попробовать поиграть как минимум в демку + баг всё же поймала, из-за чего пришлось перепроходить уровень

Neon Village quickly became one of my favorite puzzle games. It combines the fun of match-3 puzzle games with roguelike mechanics. In this game your goal is to reach a target population for your village, you do this by matching tiles of the same color. Every turn you make will passively give you some population based on your village level, some tiles you match also give extra population. But more often, you simply get coins from matching which are needed for two things, leveling up your village which gives you a one time population boost and increases the passive generation, and paying of the taxes. After 12 turns (or one year in game time) you have to pay your taxes and these increase each year. Therefor your goal is to make sure you can reach your target population before the tax requirements become too much to handle. Your tiles have various effects, some just give flat coin income, some give you extra income if matched next to other tiles and some clear tiles for you which speeds up your overall income. Some tiles might also transform over time into new tiles like seeds that grow into crops or grapes that can be transformed into wine. There are a lot of combinations that players can discover. After each ingame year you also are allowed to slect one of three buildings. Buildings provide passive bonuses, they generate extra coins if you clear specfic tiles, provide extra utility and are helpful in the long run. You also get power ups, usually by hitting a population target. These items can be used to clear entire rows of tiles, delete a tile from your deck or give bonus coins to your tiles. The game features three different "biomes" which each have 20 different levels. Levels increase in difficulty, adding more tiles to the game as well as increasing tax, adding problematic tiles to your deck and increasing the population requirement to win. Each biome uses their own colelction of tiles you can use, although there are some overlapping tiles that all biomes use. Temperate is mainly centered around agriculture, gambling and fishing. Frigid uses vehicles that have a risk vs reward mechanic, tourism and aquatic life that has limited lifespan. Tropic makes use of badges which can be equipped to your tiles to give them extra effects. Besides the gameplay I also love the artstyle of the game. True to its name, all tiles look like colorful, glowing neon signs. Symbols are simplistic but easily identifiable, which makes it easier to distinguish different tiles and buildings on a glance. The sound design is good as well, clearing tiles is satisfying to listen too, especially if you reach a long combo. The difficulty however can feel somewhat oppressive on higher stages. The tax requirements ramp up quite fast and depending on your luck you won't get enough population or coins to win on time. That being said, on Discord I saw people win with the simplest builds with only a few selected pieces, so in the end it all comes down to how good you are at the game.