Kongregate gems

All active members here know what Kongregate is. I have talked all of you into joining it! Hell, some have even joined it twice, and I still have both in my friends list! But that's not the point here. The point is the games. And fun. Quite a while ago, Vader and I were hooked on a free-to-play CCG called Elements, and due to some hosting/server issues it crashed for a couple weeks. One night while having withdrawals, I found an older version number of it on Kongregate. There were achievements if you signed up. There was a "if you like this, you might like..." I signed up immediately. Since then it's been real simple. I go to Kongregate for badges and achievements, play the games, and stick around cuz the games are damn fun! This thread can be all about sharing your favorites, but I'm going to start by dropping 2 gems.

Both Collectible card games, Tyrant and Card Monsters. Tyrant is a futuristic thing with factions based on different species from different galaxies (dimensions?). Not only does deck building have a crucial role in your tactics, but card placement is a big thing too!

Card Monsters. I fired this up a few days ago to get some badges. Cheesy, cartoony, with silly monsters and REAL simple mechanics. Damn near stupid. Tonight I went back to try for the badges again, and I lost a match. Lost another. Bought some boosters and edited my deck. Won a match, won another... next thing you know I lost about an hour of my life. What I discovered tonight that made the difference? FUN! The cheese and simplicity mask a bit of strategic thinking and true depth to deck building.

That's what I have to say about these two games. They may be easy, or hard, or cheesy, or intense... but underneath it all, I have found a layer of FUN that keeps me coming back without regard for the badges or achievements. If you like CCGs, I highly recommend trying these out! If you don't like CCGs, I still recommend trying these, as they are just different enough to make them stand apart from the norm.

to Kongregate!!!

Wait... a thread for Kongregate? A place where we can recommend those little games to fellow members, or perhaps complain on such?

Brilliant!

GALAXY LIFE

What the hell was that game we were playing on Google+? Oh, just remembered...

Galaxy Life is just like Edge World, but better. At least so far. Better menus, better layout, and a storyline!

Here's the link to go directly to the game...

http://www.kongregate.com/games/DigitalChocolate/galaxy-life

Almost sounds like sarcasm... was there already a kongregate thread I forgot about?

And speaking of complaining about kongregate games, I do have a bone to pick with the game I mentioned before, Card Monsters. Like so many card games out there, flying creatures cannot be hit unless by ranged or magic attacks. So when I was running a few rounds of fighting fliers, imagine my joy and surprise that every creature in my deck was capable of hitting said flier more than 50% of the time! Bug? Bad design? Something about "only ranged or magic attacks" I'm missing?

BUT...today I bought another booster with my hard-earned in-game currency, and got my very own flier! No special gimmicks or equipments, the damn thing can just fly on its own! And wouldn't you know, the first two times out, it gets clobber-blasted by melee attacks... Bug? Bad design? ARRGH!!!

AND... the damn...um... The rabbit thing with glasses that does damage using an attack called "chance" whereby it rolls dice to determine how much damage is done up to it's max chance score. SOMEBODY who spent more time in player-vs-player than I told me those were useless, so I sold both of mine, because they did seem rather silly, and I didn't fully understand how they worked. Then, one of my missions involved taking out a multi-round swarm of the damn things... and I had to replay like 6 times because they just wiped me out!!! Useless, indeed!

The Not Rats are useless. When I had them, they never hit, but for some reason when the AI uses them, boom boom boom, especially at the higher levels.

Anyway, found a really good "game". It tracks ALL the badges, and ranks them from easy to hard, so you can get badges right away. It's called Badge Master, and it can be found by following this link.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Senekis93/badge-master

Maybe you have to have a full spread of three Not-rats for the full effect. One or two weren't too bad to go up against, but when the AI had three in a row, some with equipment, that's when I was really hard pressed. But thinking about it, some of my PVP duels involved my opponent tossing some of those chancey bastards out there, and it was not a good thing.

Just noticed today that Card Monsters has an in-game message service. That's a rather nice feature... probably needed for alliances, but nice nonetheless.

Speaking of alliances in Card Monsters, I am formally announcing that Sooth (going by Soothslayer on Kongregate) fired up an alliance, which I quickly joined since I was thinking of starting one myself anyway. Almost immediately (like maybe it happened automatically?) our alliance was attacked by another several steps down the rank ladder, and I am proud to say we fought well and kept them down at that level! Oops... just noticed that I missed the last assault, though Sooth kept up strong... and sadly, I now see we are under attack as we speak, with only 26 minutes left to save ourselves. I better get to fighting!

Unfortunately, my time in game is a lot less than Sooth's, so my cards aren't as buffed, but maybe I can save us!!! Imagine, a free card game with multiplayer tournament standings! FUN!

This just in... I wasted quite a bit of time last night. I noticed in the new games section a new game (keanu reeves just said "whoa!") called "Submachine 8: the Plan" with tags of 'puzzle, point and click, mouse only'. Lately I've been trying new stuff, whether there are badges or not, and decided what the hell. What follows will be of great import for anyone who enjoyed the old Sierra-styled adventure games, and/or anyone who enjoys beating your head against a wall in frustration figuring out a game.

I won't spoil it, but I will say there's a plot. A WEIRD plot... well thought out and executed, and apparently spread over "episodes," which I will explain in a minute. Oh, and the plot... sci-fi, fantasy, mystical, maybe even a bit of Twilight Zone style horror (as opposed to Psycho styled horror). It's a flash point and click, so you have rooms, or scenes. Go near the edge of the scene, your pointer turns to a hand, click and you go to the next scene in that direction. Click the door, get the response "It's locked," open your inventory, drag the key you found three rooms ago from your inventory to the door to unlock it. Use the fork you found in the basement to make an electrical connection. Things like that. How well thought out are these puzzles? I say up front, there are numerous walkthroughs available online!

Now, episodes. After completing Submachine 8, I noticed in the comments that many people have been waiting for this, and have enjoyed the series from all the way back in Submachine 1!!! Wait... there's 8 of this awesomeness?! I fired up number one, assuming it would be a good place to start learning the whole plot. Graphics not as good... interface a little trickier... but that's because the designer was new back then!!! Despite the obvious age of it, and comparative shortness, I loved it. Again, there's walkthroughs available.

SO... to ensure you don't have to go through the same disappointing frustration I did... here's the link to the Submachine 1: http://www.kongregate.com/games/MateuszSkutnik/submachine-1-the-basement If you like it, you can then easily search for number 2, 3, 4, ETC... BUT keep in mind to check the dates, as I've just discovered, Submachine 1 is from 5-26-07, Submachine 0 is from 6-3-07, Submachine: FLF is from 6-6-07, THEN Submachine 2 comes in on 7-8-07. If you want to follow along, watch the dates!!! Or if requested, I will post direct links in order, since Kongregate is sometimes difficult to navigate.

Happy adventuring!!!! - - - - - - - -

More about the above-mentioned Submachine series. I know there's some 'retro' gamers here, and I ask you, can you remember the last time you played a game in which you had to physically write down codes, or scribble little maps so you wouldn't get lost? Yes, it has been THAT long, hasn't it? I believe it started with Submachine 2, but it might have been earlier. I got stuck using the walkthrough, and it said to use the code I found on the door computer. But I didn't find a code! Why can't the walkthrough just say "type in 4317 on the keypad"?! Scroll down to comments... oh... the game randomizes the numbers at startup. So back through the walkthrough, and then through the levels, so I could find my code fragments. SHIT!!! Several numbers, AND an equation, the final piece of which is back at the door computer! How the hell am I supposed to remember all those numbers when I have to use numbers on the portal machines?! I took the piece of paper toweling draped over my coffee cup (to keep out fruit flies), and began to write down numbers, and equation fragments. Since then, I have been making notes and maps for every Submachine game, and it's insane, but it feels awesome! It's like an extra layer of interactivity that I didn't realize was so important until I found it again.

I'm on Submachine 5 now. It's kind of upsetting that they are JUST short little flash games. If someone used the walkthrough step-by-step, they could probably beat most of them in about 10 minutes. Not like my whole day trying to do episode 4 without the walkthrough! But I'm playing these, and the amount of takes me back to the good old days of the Sierra advanture games, and I wonder just how hard it would be for the Submachine designer to make a full length, "pay me and download" retail-style game. Would I buy it? HELL YEAH! In each of these little submachine episodes, I am finding more thought provocation, more interactivity, more depth and story than most real retail games on the market today!

Last game to do that with me was Front Missions 3. We had passcodes to figure out, BBS servers to hack, telephone numbers to write down, in-game internet sites to check for information (would make the game easier or harder if you did / didn't do it), graphics we had to run through filters and scanners to unlock hidden images (which we then had to translate / solve)... all of this on a Playstation One disk.

You couldn't just click away and 'bypass' the information, oh no. You actually had to read the script, because if you didn't and you missed something, you could then face off against a highly experimental mech instead of grunts. You could take one route and face off against three battles versus the detour and only fight one. You could...

Well, there was a lot. AND, unlike most game sof that generation which spoke of different stories, this one actually does, without sacrificing game length! And how does one pick the main storylines? Depends on when you check your email! There are also a couple of branching chapters... depends on if a character's mech gets blown up or not, which travel route you take, and so on!

*sigh* Good game, good game. If anyone ever wants to borrow it, let me know.

I'm back at the shack on Saturday, I may have to try out this here Submachine game of yours.

The submachine has me...

Multi-pronged message here. For starters, SCREW YOU Kongregate! Making sure I accidentally find your little crack rocks hidden deep in the system... bastards!

For example, my latest 2 gems I want to report on. Wonderputt and King's Guard.

Wonderputt. Mini golf is awesome, but kind of overdone in the virtual world. You reach a point where it's just the same mouse-driven smacking-the-ball-over-n-over. And then you accidentally find Wonderputt. Yeah, it's mini golf. So what? Hole 1 is a flat rectangle, so what? Why are there meteors shooting down at the ground?! HEY!!! There's craters all over hole 1!! You bastards! Hole 2 is a grassy field, fine. HEY! Cows are eating the grass! HEY! Cows are getting sucked up into a UFO, leaving the grass in a mini-golf pattern! The graphic art in this game is phenomenal, and the music is top notch. There's badges. It's mini golf, with enough little twists to make it refreshing, and it doesn't take long at all!

King's Guard. I was going for the badge of the day, and got it, but didn't get it. In the comments I found out the achievements have been broken for over a week! Thanks, Kongregate! On the right, you might also like King's Guard. Okay, matching tile games are also WAY overdone. This is the kind where you have a big block of tiles, and you click two tiles to switch their places, making a line of 3 or more. YAY, seriously? Wait, why do I have three soldiers on three roads leading to my tiles? AHHH! Why are monsters attacking on those roads? Wait, what? I have to match tiles to heal my soldiers? The longer they last, they can level up? If I match yellow tiles, I get gold to buy them weapons and armor? Um... tile matching, AND tower defense, AND RPG elements. WOWEE!!! I like it! Oh, and badges!

WonderPutt was very entertaining! Some of the holes were hard to figure out, but overall it was decent!!

I just finished Submachine 8 again. Wanted to share some of the intrigue... Here's the intro 'note':
Liz: You can create dimensional portals while being inside such a portal?

Murtaugh: Yes, I can.

Liz: And when you do, what happens then?

Murtaugh: ...you change direction.

Liz: Direction of what?

Murtaugh: Of everything.

And another note further on...:
Liz: So... Did you ever catch me after all?...

Murtaugh: You know there are seven answers to that question, my dear Liz.

And a note of a conversation between two unknowns...:
- But why the boundaries. Why this particular shape?

- The idea is to give you the glimpse of the plan. Just a glimpse. Seeing it in all it's glory would blind your mind.

I know these have no bearing and/or meaning out of context, but you receive them out of context anyway. Starting from Submachine 2 (not so much 3 or 4) and continuing up from 5, these little notes start piecing together a story, together with the strange locations and atmospheric music, and you just can't help wondering where all this is going... what the ultimate plot of this story will be. Quite a ride...

For anyone keeping track (me), Kingdoms CCG, of which I rave and kudo, has introduced a crafting system AND a new set of 144 cards! The cards are the cards, so okay. The crafting system? They let you 'destroy' extra cards you have, and you have a chance of getting 'essence' or 'stones' which are then combined to make cards! Pretty handy if you have a bunch of shite in your collection and have a better chance at making missing cards than you do getting them randomly!

Creeper World: Evermore

All I can say is damn. A game that starts off by telling you that you're screwed, and your only chance of survival is to escape?

An RTS / tower defense game unlike anything else I've played. You have to build up your base QUICK in order to survive the immediate rush of the creeper, a blue blob like entity that consumes the world. Build collectors in order to harvest construction material, blasters to keep the creep at bay, SAMs to shoot down spores, generators to (duh) generate the energy required to operate your weapons, relays to expand your network, warehouses to increase collector output... and on and on and on.

You have to expand your network enough to connect with and power up three towers. When all three are powered, they will create a portal which your base must go through in order for you to escape the creep. This isn't easy: you have an hour to do this before the creep launches a mass assault (aka, survival mode). Believe you me, you do not want to be caught in the mass rush: you might as well restart. Don't believe me? Try it!

The creep is hindered by elevation. Yes, by gad, a game that utilizes elevation! The higher it must go, the slower the creep expands... but on the reverse, the lower it goes, the quicker it expands.

Thing of note: there is an upgrade button on the center of the bottom bar: you are given only so many upgrade points, so spend wisely.

The tutorial is good, but not really helpful, so let me try to explain.

...

You have your main base. You can move your main base to an other area of the map, but this stops energy and construction pods from being produced; they will not power back up until your base lands. You don't have to move your base!

Infrastructure

Collectors. These will aid in your network. The more collectors you have, the larger your controlled area will be (appears green). Also dictates how much of the gray construction pods you can generate. More collectors means more gray pods, which means quicker construction times!

Relays. Almost like collectors, but they don't generate anything. They can create network points further than collectors; good for grabbing a tower sooner.

Speed points. Look like red diamonds. These are good as they increase the speed of which your power and construction pods travel. The more you have, the quicker the pods will travel on the network. May not seem important, but they are!

Storage. Appear as green hexagons. The more of these you have, the more construction pods you will be able to store. Remember the collectors? You are ALWAYS collecting! But, if you don't have a place to store those pods, you lose them! If you try to build too much at the same time with no to little pods, your construction times will drop, and you'll be screwed.

Reactors. These produce power pods, which then travel your network to power up your weapons. Your main base does produce some power, but it isn't enough to have a fast firing line. You need generators so your weapons will always be fully charged (shots lower the charge).

Weapons
NOTE: Weapons do not add to your network! They can be placed at a distance from collectors or relays, but they cannot be placed in line of other weapons!

Blaster. Your basic laser cannon. They have a good rate of fire, depending you have enough power going to them. If you have a couple of these in one area, they will keep the creep at bay, but you'll need more in order to push the creep away so you can expand. Blasters CANNOT fire on higher elevations (but they can fire on lower).

Mortars. Excellent secondary weapon. Slow fire rate, but large damage radius. Place one of these behind your blasters, and you are good to go! Can fire on both higher and lower elevations (and same, I suppose).

SAM. Surface to Air Missile. There will be missions where the creep will launch spores at you; these spores will destroy everything they hit on. You need to shoot these down if you want your network functioning (weapons, too). Takes a while to build and power up, but are essential! With the missions I have played, I've had no more than six spores launched at the same time.

Drones. Haven't really used these, but I did build some to see what they do: once built and powered, they create a drone bomber which you use to bomb a specified area (you click where you want it to go). They'll carpet bomb that area. Good for taking out a massed creeper infestation, but honestly, they really son't seem all that worthwhile.

*The makers of this game release a new mission every day. That's rather cool, I think.
**Think of your network as a transportation system. The more routes you have, the more paths the pods can travel. More direct routes may allow for your pods to arrive quicker, but more routes means your pods have different routes to travel should the network be destroyed.
***This game is frustrating, but in a good way. I am damned impressed by it, and see myself playing this repeatedly. My only complaint? No save feature (although there is a pause).

You can find Creeper by clicking this link.

          

BattleCry

This is an army builder / strategy game which allows you to create and build your own army; you don't just get to pick infantry or archers, oh no no no... you get to pick the race, the weapons / shield / armor / special (magical items or war beasts). You get to FULLY build your army.

Each aspect of your army has a point value, and as such, a finished character type will have a cost. Example: an orc with spiked armor, a mace, and a large kite shield riding a horse will cost more than a human wearing leather armor and who is using a buckler and an iron sword. You have 1000 points to play with, so you are free to experiment away.

Oh, weapons also have range. A sword (range one) can only attack those in the first rank. A pole arm has range 2, and can attack the first two ranks... and so on. Arrange your troops to take advantage of this!

Let's see, what else is there. Ahh yes, gold. You naturally gain gold when you win (you can repeat the same battles to win more gold). But what can you do with this gold? BUY CARDS!

This isn't just an army builder / strategy game... this is also a card game. Cards do not give you new characters or anything like that, they give you new equipment or troops choices. Depending on how much you buy a pack for will determine what type of cards you'll gain. Because you win gold during battles, there is none of the "pay to win" that you see in other games. You can buy more gold, but why would you want to?

Lastly, this is also a multi-player game, where you can pit your army against others based on rank. I have not played this feature yet, but plan to. You can find the game by clicking this link.