Mac Medley – CrossWorlds: The Flying City, The Island: Castaway

It’s the first Saturday of the month and in order to make the month to come a little bit easier, as well as hopefully highlighting some games that you may have otherwise not played, GodisaGeek.com is here to show off some games from the Mac App Store.

This time on Mac Medley, we’re taking a look at CrossWorlds: The Flying City from G5 Entertainment and The Island: Castaway also from G5 Entertainment.

Keep reading for a full review of each game, and even a handy little button to allow you to download them for yourselves. Don’t forget to check back to GodisaGeek.com for more Mac Medleys in the future.

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Titles are available from the Mac App Store unless specifically stated otherwise. If you like what you read, click the small black “App Store” button to load iTunes up and purchase the title!

CROSSWORLDS: THE FLYING CITY:

There’s no doubt in my mind that an adventure game will always look and play better when the player is using a mouse and keyboard. The touch screen devices are all well and good, and the input mechanic is nice and intuitive, but there’s nothing quite like the precision of a mouse pointer. G5 Games know this and strive to release all their iOS games on the Mac App Store as well as the iOS App Store. Today’s game, CrossWorlds: The Flying City (developed by G5 Entertainment), is yet another game to add to their extensive adventure game library – but is it something you’re going to want to add to yours?

The story starts as Professor Dumbdore (yes, I know) has finished developing a piece of equipment that is capable of moving between alternate universes – although the machine isn’t quite stable yet. Despite the dangers, and the pleas of his daughter, the Professor uses the inter-dimensional device and disappears from the face of this Earth. It’s now your job to figure out exactly what happened and how to rectify the mistake. Cue adventure game. The story leaves a lot to be desired – it’s not terrible, but it’s not something that will keep you playing long into the night either. It’s just about enough to keep you interested for a moderate play session (about an hour at a time).

If you’ve played an adventure game from G5 Games before, then you already know what you’re in for. A lot of the puzzle games that you come across will show the player a scene and a list of objects within that scene, and ask you to find everything in the hopes that one of the items is important enough to progress the story a little bit further. There are other puzzles in the title, a lot of which are extremely entertaining to play, but most of your time will be taken up by the collection puzzles that we’ve seen so many times before.

Thanks to the fact that you’re using a keyboard and mouse to play CrossWorlds: The Flying City, the controls are extremely easy to use and you never come across the recurring issue with G5 games on iOS devices, whereby the object hit boxes are so tiny that it becomes frustrating to try and click them. Clicking isn’t a problem at all here. Thanks to a ‘Hint’ button in the bottom right hand corner, even players who don’t frequent adventure games can have a go and, if they get stuck, click the ‘Hint’ button and get a little helping hand (not literally) without any worry about a penalty. CrossWorlds: The Flying City really is a game that’s easy to pick up and play by people of all gaming backgrounds.

If you’re a fan of adventure games in general, especially those of the G5 Games variety, then CrossWorlds: The Flying City is right up your alley. However, if you’re accustomed to the more in-depth adventure games that you’d find on Steam or any other digital distribution platform (such as Deponia or Edna & Harvey), then you’re going to find The Flying City a little bit drab and unfulfilling. At the end of the day, while the puzzles are fine, the story is what’s going to keep people playing and the story here isn’t all the special.

THE ISLAND: CASTAWAY:

Most of us will have seen Castaway, the Tom Hanks film where he spends two hours trying to survive and shouting at volley balls, but not many will have played a game which centred around the same concept of survival (sans the volley ball screaming). The Island: Castaway, from G5 Entertainment, is an action-RPG which does just that: throws you into a desert island and tasks you, overall, with one simple objective – survive. But while this quest may sound easy in concept, you’ll soon find out that there’s something about the island that you’re stranded on that makes things a little harder than they seem at first. Does that mean it’s any good though? Let’s find out.

As the story starts you’ll discover the reason for being shipwrecked on such a deserted island. Various characters were on a ship for many different reasons, some working, some on holiday, others just to get away, but they all suffered the same fate when the ship they were travelling on was hit by a tsunami and sunk. You play as Tom, one of the survivors – and the only one who doesn’t seem to be having a mental breakdown right at the start of the game – and it’s your job to travel around the island collecting food, completing quests and generally being the string that’s keeping this ragtag group from falling apart at the seams.

Most of the quests you play will consist of collecting specific items from around the island, or doing other mundane tasks, although occasionally you’re asked to do something slightly more interesting such as fishing or cooking. Cooking is a big part of The Island: Castaway, as is eating in general. The player’s energy bar will constantly decrease as they’re playing and food is the only thing that can keep it topped up. The fruit you’ll find around the island will only keep your energy up so much, and you’ll need to cook things in order to the maximum benefit out of the things you’ll find. Despite the lack of much “action” in this action-RPG, it is still rather fun to play.

Thanks to the use of a mouse and keyboard, the controls are easy to get used to – even more so if you’ve played an action-RPG before. Clicking on the ground will make Tom move, and clicking on the various items in the world will make him pick them up and add then to his inventory for use later on (almost everything that can be picked up has a use at some point). Most of your time will be spent walking around the island, cooking, fishing, digging and performing all manner of basic survival tasks – all of which are easily doable with the mouse controls. All of this ensures that The Island: Castaway is an easy game to access and get into almost immediately.

The Island: Castaway is a nice change of pace from the games that G5 tend to put out and one that almost hits all of the marks it’s attempting to. The game can get a little repetitive at times, and it’s not something you’ll play for hours on end, but as something to spend half an hour to an hour in, it’s not bad at all. If you’re looking for something to play from the Mac App Store, and you like action-RPGs, then you should give The Island: Castaway at least a look.