It sets an uncomfortable tone when a game’s first screen is dedicated to trophy unlock FAQ because the developers wish to address community feedback. But hey, that’s indie development; not every team is going to have the same resources, and communicating with the audience is appreciated, so you click X to continue anyway.

Only the game doesn’t proceed.

So you hit it again. Same result. You press again, and again, and again. No luck. Fiddling with the sticks? No dice. Other buttons. Nope. Waiting a bit longer? Nothing. All the while there’s an animated loading icon in the bottom right corner, but the game never deigns to let you enter.

Given your limited options, you decide to close the game. Enter again, and you’re met with the same issue. You press buttons, wiggle sticks, but once again, you can’t actually play.

At this point, you’re mildly amused, so you pull out the stopwatch on your phone, wondering if you just have to wait it out. It might be loading? Maybe? A hidden install perhaps?

You stop it after ten minutes. There are limits to your morbid curiosity.

Exit again. Enter again. Voilà! The main menu pops up. Now you can play.

Not the most auspicious of starts for God of Weapons, developed by Archmage, a small outfit from Vietnam. Once inside, you’ll be met with a familiar roguelike gameplay loop; choose from a variety of playable heroes (each with their own stat discrepancies) and ascend the tower of Zhor, massacring enemies on each level.

The titular weapons prove to be the most interesting part of the experience. After clearing a floor of the tower, you’ll be able to spend any money earned on swords, crossbows, magic staffs, and more, adding to your arsenal. The amount you’re able to carry is limited by your inventory space though, forcing you to rearrange items or potentially leave them behind. 

Thankfully, you’re granted additional carrying capacity each time you level up, allowing you more flexibility within your character build. You can also fuse multiple of the same weapon into one stronger version, and the placement of items within your inventory may activate bonus effects. This micromanagement scratches the same itch as Resident Evil 4’s iconic briefcase, taking a beloved mechanic and attaching it with meaningful gameplay effects so as to encourage experimentation. It’s great fun, and I found myself spending way too much time fiddling with the inventory in the hopes of squeezing just a few more items in.

Outside of arsenal tetris, God of Weapons stumbles quite a bit. Much like Achilles: Survivor, your character autoattacks, meaning actual minute-to-minute gameplay involves simply moving around the arena and executing a dodge if need be. It’s not very engaging, and it feels like the developers could have found more ways for players to influence the actual dungeon-crawling. Each tower floor is completed after surviving for a minute or so, meaning you’ll quickly be thrown back into the significantly more stimulating inventory management, though it’s disappointing that I’m so eager to escape direct control of my character.

Resources acquired from runs can be used to buy access to more weapons, adding them to the pool you can purchase during your runs. These enhanced items will allow you to conquer harder difficulties, which come replete with fiercer enemies and bosses. Completing objectives grants you new characters to choose from, which can help tailor your run strategy to a certain playstyle. Archmage should be commended for having such a wealth of unlockables, and it certainly kept me coming back despite my other misgivings.

God of Weapons is a bipolar experience. On one end, you have a fantastic inventory management system that asks you to make tough decisions while building out your character’s kit. On the other, you have lackluster gameplay that’s only exciting if you enjoy watching damage numbers grow larger. These ideas fail to coalesce into a singular vision, ultimately making the project feel like a missed opportunity.

Based on R.L. Stine’s book series, Goosebumps: Terror in Little Creek is a puzzle-horror game where you must find out the mysteries pertaining to the small town of Little Creek. You take the role of Sloane, a curious teenager who goes out her way to solve the town’s mystery with her friends. A perfect setup for a spooky adventure that involves the mischief of monsters and magic.

Premise

As previously mentioned, you investigate the town of Little Creek as Sloane with her friends Harvey, Lydia, and Lizzy. Upon investigating the town, the gang sneaks into their local library. There they learn a group called the Monster Society are involved with the strange occurrences in the town. After Sloane goes to the basement of the library, she finds an ancient spellbook. This spellbook is one of your primary tools for puzzle-solving. As Sloane figures out the spellbook, her friends split up to the museum and theater. These two locations are the one of the most important in the game as they house two of this game’s major monsters. Those being the Masked Phantom from the theater and an ancient Mummy from the museum. As you progress through the game, you’ll find different spell patterns to unlock more areas of the town and defeat the major monsters.

Gameplay

With an introduction to the game out of the way, let’s talk about the gameplay. The gameplay is mostly puzzle-solving and stealth. Early on, you have access to a slingshot with different ammo types. It’s mainly used in puzzle-solving scenarios and dealing with enemies. My problem with the slingshot coincides with the game’s implemented stealth sections. If I had to sneak around an enemy in order to obtain an item, I could simply run past it and easily shoot it down with the slingshot. It felt like there was no threat at all from any of the basic enemies. The only ones that actually provided any semblance of challenge were the major monsters (Note: They are also unkillable, so your only choice is to avoid them). And of the various ammo types, some of them felt like they didn’t work half the time. For example, the noisemaker ammo is meant to draw a monster’s attention to where it was shot at. From the many attempts I’ve made using this ammo, the monsters would usually run towards my character instead of the spot I shot at.

I am aware that some of my criticisms of the game stem from it being too simple, but I am also aware that this game is targeted towards a younger audience. The puzzles weren’t complex, but I can see a kid stopping to think about what they need to do for them. I reached the end of the game at about 4 and half hours and was neither satisfied nor disappointed with my experience. It was exactly what  I expected it to be, so I had no expectations of this game really engaging me. Of the few things I found nice about this game is that it did capture the experience of going through a Goosebumps story. The protagonists are kids to young teens who get caught up in the supernatural occurrences in their hometown. Not to mention that the unsettling nature of these stories is that monsters are in fact real and can be dangers to these kids.

Conclusion

Overall, Goosebumps Terror in Little Creek was pretty lackluster. Looking at the devs and publishers of the game, it kind of checks out that this game turned out this way. The developers PHL Collective and the publisher GameMill Entertainment are known for putting out low quality licensed kids games. Not to mention the pricing for Goosebumps, in my opinion, is not worth $40 USD for how short and barebones the experience was. On top of that, the game also has a $15 USD DLC pack that seems to only provide cosmetics, a 3D model viewer, and a concept art viewer. I can only recommend getting this game on a heavily discounted sale if you’re interested. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend this game, even if you wanted to buy it for your kids.