We Are The Caretakers

Really loved the idea of this, so pre-ordered it ages ago and just given it a try now it's out of Early Access. Unfortunately, it feels more like a student project - lots of interesting ideas, poorly executed. Combat's an example of this. Instead of shooting foes to death, you wear down their stamina or their will to fight, until you can take them out - do you arrest them, knowing they might not face justice? Injure them so they don't come back, at the cost of your reputation? Aggressive actions also increase a persistent 'threat' meter, increasing the risk for both sides. If your rangers are aggressive, combats are more dangerous and escalate faster. Do you go for slow de-escalation, at the risk of attrition? The actual implementation is a JRPG line-up where you fire red or blue orbs at whichever of your opponent's health bars is lowest. It's made less impactful by the way most of the art and UI feels like a Programmer Art placeholder. The afrofuturist designs are neat, but every character is a lithe person in a bodysuit with a geometric hat who fires the same low-detail orbs, with no clear way to convey their class or abilities. It all feels vague and soupy. The same carries o…

I wanted to like it. I liked the aesthetic. Ultimately, though, it just wasn't that interesting. Although it's pitched as strategic, it didn't feel strategic to me at all. It's not clear that my choices in combat really mattered—I could have made completely different ones, and it would have turned out the same way.

[table] [tr] [th]Category[/th] [th]Rating[/th] [th]Description[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]🎮 Gameplay[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]On the surface, it appears interesting. In practice, it’s shallow[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]📷 Graphics[/td] [td]3[/td] [td]Animations, art styles, and designs weren’t to my tastes and felt duplicated throughout[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]💲 Value[/td] [td]2[/td] [td]For the price of the game, I expected more polish. Nothing new to experience after the first 20 minutes, offering zero replay value[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]😡 Overall[/td] [td]2.5[/td] [td]I kept playing to see if anything would change, but it didn’t. Ultimately, I didn’t enjoy it one bit and cannot recommend it[/td] [/tr] [/table] [i]I love the focus on conservation, unfortunately all other elements left me wanting more. While I wish I could recommend the game based on the beliefs it stands for, I cannot look past what played like a hollow shell of a game.[/i] [h1]📝 Main Pros and Cons:[/h1] 🟩 Pros: + Strong focus on conservation 🟥 Cons: - Poor story and character delivery - Repetitive, unenjoyable gameplay loop - Simplistic combat and skills - Resource hog [h2]I love conservation, but I don’t love…

I've been following WATC for a while. The studio is passionate about what they've made and that shows in the story and mechanics. There's really no game like WATC, I recommend you check it out and expose yourself to something unique and special.

I was really excited about this one based upon the fact that its squad layouts made it look like Ogre Battle. It's not. It's actually almost exactly like Northgard but with minimal building, bad graphics, slow movement, and somehow an even slower turn based combat system. I'd call it half baked, but that's probably giving it too much credit. Quarter baked? You can tell when a game is terrible by the fact that achievements that take only 15 minutes to reach aren't granted to over half of the players. They are charging a lot of money for this one at $20. Why? Just donate directly if you want to support a good cause and leave these guys out of it.

I love this game. It has jrpg style gameplay but the story is very unique, basically you lead a group of park rangers equipped with Warframes (I think?) to protect wildlife and deal with poachers however you see fit (you can recruit them, accept bribes, etc which all affect your reputation either + or - depending what you choose.) Also has nice quality of life stuff, like full automation of battles for the less exciting fights as you explore the map, 2x speed both in battle and moving around on the map, etc. Please support unique indie titles like this, if you like this style of gameplay it's really interesting!