Fortix

My Rating: 8.5/10
Desura Community Rating: 8.2/10

I would like to start off by saying this game is highly underappreciated. For $0.99 you get MORE than what you pay for.

Fortix is a very simple arcade type game, your little knight dude starts on the outside of the map which is tinted...your goal is to capture the tinted areas for points. To finish the level you must capture the fortresses which is easier said than done.

When you travel into the tinted area, you are succeptable to attack by dragons and cannons. It is simple in concept to get rid of your enemies, capture a dragon inside a tinted area and he's gone, capture a trigger to set off a catapult to destroy the towers. But these things are easier said than done.

This game lets you control it via the mouse or keyboard and let me tell you right now, play with the keyboard or you are shooting yourself in the foot, it's so much easier to control with the keyboard. 

If dragons and catapults were not enough to contend with, don't worry, each level has a time limit urging you to work fast, but fear not as you have powerups on your side (what's an arcade game without power ups, eh?) Stop the dragons, point boosts, stop the cannons.

Honestly it's a simple game, there's not a lot to say, it does not feature multiplayer, but the most fun I had in the game was doing a hotseat multiplayer with my friend, we'd just take turns. A great, fun game and everyone should have it on either Desura or Steam.

Faerie Solitare

My Rating: 8.5/10
Desura User Rating: 9.3/10

First thing I'd like to say about this game is it is NOTHING like your standard Klondike solitare that comes with Windows. To anyone who doesn't know Solitare card games there are plenty of variations, Microsoft just chose a really popular one. Pretty much any card game that is played by one player is a Solitare game, so honestly there is a lot of room for variation.

The first thing I noticed about Faerie Solitare is that it is a forgiving game, not really in a way that makes it less fun, in more of a way that gives it a casual or family feel, there is nothing hardcore about this game other than the hours someone might spend on it.  

Each game you play through 9 hands of Solitare. You have a goal for each game consisting of 1-3 objectives that have to be completed within those 9 hands. It starts off very easy 1 simple objective and starts getting harder at a pace you don't even really notice until all of a sudden you're on a level with three objectives and you just can't seem to do it.

The basic game goes as follows:  You have your foundation stack to draw from, you must match cards to the card on the foundation stack. Cards can be either one higher or one lower than the foundation card in order to match. When matched, the matching card becomes the new foundation card. Ace is considered both high and low in this game, so for example if you draw a king from your foundation pile you can play an ace on that then play a two on the ace.

There is no joker or wild card in the game, but you do get cards from time to time that you save and play when you need them. In later levels these cards can become essential to make those 15 card combos as they do not break your combo streak.

Through playing the game you get money, which you spend in Faerie Land. What this does is it gives you various power ups and extras in the game, such as extra undos (yes your undos are limited in this game, so you must use them wisely), a power up that turns some face down cards face up at the beginning of the hand, a power up that if you go through too many cards without being able to make a match, it will let you zap away a card of your choice. If I remember right that power up also does not end a combo streak, and can be saved for later use. After you've bought everything extra money doesn't seem to have a use that I've found other than perhaps a total score number you can compare to your buddies and see who's the best Faerie Solitare player.

When you get through a stack of cards you have a chance of finding an egg or some resources. When you find an egg you can hatch it and make it your active pet, you can only have one active pet at a time. When you've played long enough with an active pet it will give you an option to evolve it (the game will let you know the second it's ready to evolve). Evolving a pet uses resources, and honestly I have never been short of resources, to the point of where I've never really worried about them.

To add to the fun, sometimes cards will be blocked by vines or an ice wall. In the case of vines, getting to the bottom of a certain stack (indicated with vines at the bottom) will unlock the vine stack(s). In the case of ice wall, you will see a special fire card somewhere in the playing field. Getting to and activating that fire card will melt open the ice wall for you. Getting through the ice walls and vines are critical if you want to achieve perfection on a level.

There are quite a few levels in the adventure, more than enough to provide a little bit of story. The story is pretty basic, but I think that's the best way they could have presented it. Whether you care about the story or not you end up following it, and because it's basic and each part is short it sticks in your memory and eventually you find yourself anticipating what will happen next. Enough so that when it ends it makes me want to play the second one so I can find out what happens. And I didn't even really care about the story at first.

All in all this game is honestly fun. I enjoyed playing it and somehow it managed to keep me up some nights later than if I was playing any game other than a turn based strategy (nothing can keep the midnight oil burning like Civilization...until noonish). And to be quite honest 4.99 on Steam is a very reasonable price. Anyone who likes card games should pick this one up.

Now, screenshots!

 

That last screenshot was mainly to show how many levels there are in the game, and each level consists of 9 hands, so it is honestly not that short of a game.