Wake Explorer

Review at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhiQgBVlDJ4 Well after twenty minutes I was finally able to make some headway. It is an interesting game. I find it slightly slow. I wonder how much of the water must I explore? It keeps track of scores if you like such a thing. Besides its only a few bucks, so why not? I am curious to see how far I can go in the next few hours.

In and out, 20 min adventure. It does start to get a little repetitive after awhile though, so that would be my only constructive feedback :). Also try to avoid using AI music. The real thing sounds much better.

Edit: The Dev did patch the zoom task, which I am appreciative for. Over all I'd give this game a 2.5/5. The progression needs work, you are world locked instead of currency locked, which is frustrating if you have the currency and upgrades but not the sections. I'd almost prefer a higher cost, so that when you hit them it feels like a reward, rather than something you won but couldn't access for an hour. There is a lot of grinding, especially at the end. I'm on world 4 and the tiles aren't generating to unlock the next section. This could be by design or a flaw, but because there is no direction it feels endless and not in a good way. With some tweaking it could be a great game, more unlocks, powerful upgrades, better progression. It's on the way.

Simple surface exploration with upgradeable vehicles on different worlds. Navigate via right-click waypoints. Explore grid by grid to discover land types (colours), bonus buoys and lots of fluid to sail upon. - Skip scanning everything, especially blank ocean grids (OK, maybe in early game) - Keep on the move to constantly collect coupons and coin - Use mouse drag to look around for decent sized islands with the colours you want. - More stations and harbors will spawn (at least so far), sail where you please. - Once you discover enough of the colours for the next world, off you go. My main worry is that by the third world, I have pretty much seen the entire gameplay loop (with ever fancier boats per world). For the dollar and change it cost me, this has been an excellent light diversion.

Hard not to recommend a game that's almost free. There's a lot to say for this game. I love exploring and it is addictive. It's a little rough around the edges. Tiny fonts here and there and a small amount of assets. All perfectly fine in a game for £1 really. What is a bit more of an issue is the progression system. The game really isn't clear about what you need to do or gather in order to progress to the next planet. The goals also feel sort of basic. "You've discovered 500 square km's, here's a few coins, now discover a 1000 square km's!". You also can't upgrade your boat until you've done that. They could have made it a little more interesting. Also the landscape is procedural with islands whose purpose is more (it seems to me) to prevent you from just sailing in a straight line more than anything else. The camera is weird as well. It's a north/south top view until you mouse-wheel zoom in at which point it pans up to reveal the horizon BUT only looking north. You can't look behind you or rotate the view. (Please tell me I'm wrong and that it's some key I've missed). They've also made the strange design choice no to include an overview map. I resorted to paper and pen but that quickly got boring. I sort of gave up after at the second planet. The sense of suddenly ramped up grind was not really satisfying.