About Build A Boat For Treasure:
A definite improvement over the simple concept 10000000 gave us. Rather than set a goal over the whole experience, the game makes it a bit more about the journey. Pros:
- Shows some real evolution of the original concept with more tiles and new special attacks + New zones keep the enviornment interesting and the journey long + Heavy upgrade to the presentation of the game as everything feels nicer to execute + Better soundtrack than 10000000, even if it also gets a little repetitive. Has much more fitting music for the art style. + Earning your keep very much pushed in this game as you must do well to progress and unlock new crew members + Keeps an adventure feel to it rather than dangling a goal over you like in 10000000 + Only tweaking the formula to avoid any unneccessary confusion, adding more, but not too much, for veterans. + Much more varied color pallet. + Enemies now have weaknesses and immunities. Cons: – Some goals still seem arbitrary. – While nice, the new library for looking at item effects, enemy types, and weaknesses is, in the end, pointless considering you’re at the mercy of the tiles. – Still a bit more luck based than skill based. – Not too much has changed visually. – The way upgrading is handled stinks of a game that had microtransactions but were seemingly removed for the Steam version. – Upgrading still feels way too slow considering the cost, now adding a minigame as if still meant for a touch device. 7/10. READ MORE If you enjoyed 10000000, you will enjoy You Must Build a Boat. It is essentially more of the same, with some additional layers of complexity which help the experience feel more rounded. You will probably not be surprised that your primary goal is to build a boat. You do this mostly by clearing dungeons, which is generally accomplished by executing a variety of match-3’s in an experience that mirrors an endless runner. You’ll have a variety of ways to attack your enemies, you’ll gather loot, and you’ll use that loot to upgrade your ship. The dungeon goals feel a little tougher this time around. While this adds a welcome level of complexity (and hoarding spells to hurl at fireball at a frozen enemy does feel mighty fine), these more complicated goals can sometimes stall your experience. There was one dungeon objective which was so poorly explained that I was stuck for at least an hour before I finally Googled to find out what I was supposed to be doing. When a similarly difficult objective came again a little later, I didn’t waste as much time before looking up the answer. Still, plenty of run goals are accomplished simply by entering the dungeon and matching away. As you upgrade your weapons, spells, and shield, you’ll find allies to aid your journey and your runs will become longer as you master the matching mechanics. You Must Build a Boat suffers from being extremely repetitive. You are going to be doing the same matches again and again. You will go through dungeons that all look fairly similar and face lots of similar enemies that want to kill you. It is a grind, and while it is well-executed, you will probably not be able to play the game in one sitting. My mouse hand grew numb during more than one play session, and the visual strain of staring at the screen to discern matches can be tiring. Still, I absolutely recommend the experience for its high level of creativity and clever execution. I have always enjoyed endless runners, and this is among the best of them.
