Apple Arcade, the 10 best games of 2020
From the atmosphere of The Last Campfire and Beyond to Steel Sky to the humor of Next Stop Nowhere and Unleash the Light, passing through the extraordinary originality of products such as Creaks and The Collage Atlas, here is our list with ten titles not to be missed if you have a subscription to Apple Arcade.
A Monster's Expedition
Set within a splendid archipelago of colors pastel, A Monster's Expedition puts us in command of a monster different from the usual, passionate about archeology, which goes around observing artifacts dating back to ancient human civilization, now disappeared. The core of the gameplay is represented by the protagonist's ability to move, using the trunks as bridges from one island to another.Accompanied by catchy and suggestive music, our task will therefore be to cut down the trees that we need, to roll the logs and create passages from one piece of land to another, while we gradually discover ruins and testimonies full of a very pleasant purely British humor.
Beyond a Steel Sky
Sequel to the great 1994 classic, Beyond a Steel Sky sees Dave Gibbons and Charles Cecil together again to tell the latest adventure of Robert Foster, who returns to the streets of Union City to find a kidnapped girl and discovers that the futuristic city is much changed since the last time he visited it.The events force the protagonist to carry out a series of investigations in the field of mechanics perfectly in line with the adventure genre, despite the new view and a revolutionized interface, which nevertheless proves effective and functional from the very beginning jokes. The final result, in short, succeeds in the arduous task of not disappointing fans of the original Beneath a Steel Sky, and sorry if it's not enough.
Creaks
Characterized by the peculiar graphic style designed handmade typical of Amanita Design projects, Creaks throws us into a puzzle-based adventure with mysterious and disturbing tones. The starting idea is in fact that of visually representing the shadows that can be glimpsed in the darkness, fruit of our imagination or not?The protagonist of the game is therefore constantly surrounded by menacing figures, from which he hears the need to escape: he will be able to do so through the exploration of increasingly decadent scenarios and the solving of environmental puzzles, accompanied by a narrative that proceeds exclusively in images but manages to be quite eloquent.
LEGO Builder's Journey
The puzzle game genre is very well represented in the Apple Arcade catalog, but LEGO Builder's Journey can certainly boast an edge. In fact, we are talking about a game that uses the famous plastic bricks to involve us in a delicate relationship between a father and a son, grappling with increasingly complex construction projects.Our task will be precisely to use LEGO to create figures and environments that correspond to the indications of the moment, trying to make the building experience at the base of the famous brand as convincing as possible rather than the humor of the TT Games productions, assisted by a graphic style that in more than one occasion brings to mind the atmosphere of Monument Valley.
Next Stop Nowhere
The new adventure of Night School Studio, the authors of Oxenfree and Afterparty, involves us in a fun sci-fi epic with a different protagonist: Beckett, a burly space courier who decides to help a woman he has just met to find her son, without knowing however that it is an ex bounty hunter hunted by galactic rangers.Packed with entertaining dialogues, Next Stop Nowhere alternates exploration phases, character interaction, puzzle solving and even action ship driving sections to tell us a story right from the start engaging, strongly characterized by a low poly graphic style that makes the appearance of the protagonists and of the settings close to that of cartoons.
No Way Home
Original and interesting mix between a adventure and a twin stick shooter, No Way Home puts us in the shoes of Cho, a brave space pilot who awakens after nine million years of cryogenic sleep, determined to return to planet Earth. An undertaking that is far from simple, in a universe very different from the one the protagonist knew, and in which there is no lack of pitfalls.Thanks to the help of the robot Matey, the girl will therefore have to move from a planet to planet, from one system to another, and to carry out exploration missions gradually more complex within scenarios generated through a procedural system. The action phases are interspersed with adventure sections with an original and funny 2D style, which keeps the involvement high.
Unleash the Light
The famous animated series Steven Universe made its debut on Apple Arcade with a decidedly surprising tie-in, Unleash the Light. It is in fact an RPG with turn-based combat and random encounters: a very classic setting, which takes advantage of the rich lore of the show to allow us to explore different worlds and get in touch with a large number of characters.The goal will naturally be to lead the party through the various levels of the campaign and take advantage of the skills of each component in order to win fights with a degree of challenge that is anything but trivial, which we can only conclude victoriously by learning to make the most of the various moves, special and not, at our disposal.
Secret Oops!
Latest creation of the talented Italian team MixedBag, the authors of titles such as Futuridium EP and forma.8, Secret Oops! brings an original and interesting puzzle experience to Apple Arcade, based on the use of augmented reality and designed especially for local multiplayer.As a clumsy spy, Charles, our mission will be to recover from time to time of secret documents: in each level we will have to disable a series of traps while our character moves independently, thus using the right timing and a certain degree of precision. By framing any room with the camera of the device we will be able to place the map there and observe it from any angle, involving friends in the experience to multiply the fun.
The Collage Atlas
Without a doubt a of the most fascinating and original productions available on Apple Arcade, The Collage Atlas takes us by the hand and accompanies us in a very different experience than usual, characterized by a monochromatic graphic style that seems straight out of an illustration book and that generates truly suggestive views while we explore the game's settings.From a purely playful point of view we are talking about a title that is nothing short of essential, which only asks you to collect objects and solve simple puzzles in order to move forward, but as we sometimes say it is the path is what matters; and in the case of The Collage Atlas we are talking about an exciting journey, strongly characterized by a mix of images and music that accompany us at every step.
The Last Campfire
Between an update of No Man's Sky and the other, the guys at Hello Games have also found time to try their hand at something different, and it's lucky. In fact, The Last Campfire presents itself from the outset as an intriguing and pleasant adventure, which tells the story of a little creature, Ember, who has lost his way home and finds himself crossing a dark and dangerous place.Using the tones of a fairy tale but without missing disturbing atmospheres, the game proposes a series of puzzles that we will have to solve in order to proceed in the exploration of the scenarios and approach the objective of the protagonist from time to time. To accompany us on this evocative journey we will find very pleasant graphics and an engaging narration.
