Use your drone to lead tactical combat against elemental beasts infesting your faction. Assess the risks, coordinate attacks, optimize your equipment and become the agent who will put an end to the infestation!
Mixed
17 Steam reviews
| LANGUAGE | AUDIO | SUBTITLES | INTERFACE |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | — | Y | Y |
| French | — | Y | Y |
블럭을 배치해 공격한다
우주선 내부에 필드가 존재하며 이 필드 내에 보유한 블럭들을 배치합니다.
블럭은 속성을 보유하고 있으며 해당 속성에 따라서 특정 속성에 대한 대미지가 존재하기에
적들의 속성을 파악한 뒤 이에 맞춰서 블럭들을 전략적으로 배치해야 합니다.
적을 공격할때 공격하는 방향에 맞춰서 적들이 밀려나며
이때 밀려나는 방향에 적이 있으면 충돌대미지를 주고
만약 적의 체력이 0이 되면 사망하면서 폭발하여 인접한 범위 내 적들에게 대미지를 줍니다.
적들도 일정한 턴에 공격을 실행하며 이때 공격을 받은 필드는 배치 불가 필드가 됩니다.
공격한 적의 속성 마크가 해당 필드에 새겨지며,
블럭을 분해하여 획득하는 자원을 소모하여 이를 수리할 수 있죠.
블럭은 새로운 맵에 진입하면 일정한 수를 획득할 수 있는대
배치된 블럭과 서브 블럭 6개를 제외하고는 가져갈 수 없기에
불필요해보이는 블럭을 분해하여 자원으로 가져가는것이 좋습니다.
게임을 진행하면서 경험치를 얻을 수 있으며 이 경험치가 일정 수치에 도달하면
특수 스킬들을 언락해 사용할 수 있습니다.
스킬들은 매턴마다 1씩 회복하는 에너지를 소모하여 발동하며
동일한 스킬 슬롯을 활성화함에따라서 필요한 코스트가 줄어들게 되죠.
스킬은 스턴, 능력 강화 등 다양하게 존재하며 자신의 플레이에 도움이 되는 종류로
맞춰서 중복 활성화하는 것이 좋습니다.
아쉬운 점
-배치된 블럭에 대한 정보확인이 조금 어려움
Тетрис с выбором цели. Собираешь из имеющихся деталек (которые нелзя крутить) пазл с целью выкрутить урон по стихии и выбраешь по какому из "зверей" бить. Стихий 5 каждая бьет сильнее по следующей: холод-землю, земля-электричество, электричество-воду и тд. Мощность уменьшается если бить через стихию: бешь землей по воде с уроном 2, вмето землей по электричеству с уроном 4. Сюжет плохой, плохо прописан. Вся прелесть в простой головоломке и режиме аркада. Язык знать не обязательно. Похоже что вдохновлялась браузерками.
There is definitely an interesting set of ideas here, but sadly this game suffers from the same problem a lot of procedural puzzle games do and that's the whole 'unsolvable puzzle' problem.
But more importantly, this game suffers from bad design and programming.
Now what do I mean by that?
Well when you load up an encounter against enemies you can actually quit to the title screen and then hit continue and then reload it and you will get a different encounter.
That alone makes the game a gigantic let down.
Also if you pick a power slot and then hit continue too quickly, you won't get the abilities you're supposed to get.
So yeah...4 dollars is asking too much for a game that's poorly programmed, has a handful of middle tier bugs and also suffers from a fatal flaw in game design. There simply wasn't enough thought and effort put into this game to merit the 4 dollar asking price.
Ultimately Pharmakon is a repetitive abstract tactical game. It would be nice if you could know the beasts coming up so that you could choose your powers and elements with some thought beforehand, this would enable a strategic component. But there isn't. Each level is pretty similar and I disagree with the "puzzle" tag, which suggests that there is something to figure out. There isn't. Story is text-based and slow.
Sorry Pharmakon, I wanted to like you, but you're not my style.
3/10
Cool Tetris companion FTL version .
The phrase "I really wanted to like this game" is getting way too bloody common in these reviews. Especially mine. I don't generally buy games I don't think I will like. Pharmakon included.
It has all sorts of elements that sound really good.
-> Tetris piece power ups! More components than power ups really. I remember these from one of the Kingdom Hearts games. It worked really well there. Here... not so much. There are statistical differences between the different elements but otherwise all the pieces are the same other than their shapes. In the first hour of play I have seen zero difference.
-> Damage to your drone is represented by unusable squares! Seems like as good idea. Damage slowly makes it harder to use the Tetris components. Sounds good on paper but ends up being more frustrating than challenging. Given it is nearly impossible to avoid taking some damage you are constantly repairing your drone. The damage is specific to elements. So, fire damage must be repaired by fire elements. Ice damage by ice elements etc. You get 0-3 repair parts per element when you destroy a component. With the storage slots (6) and the slots in the drone (6 if perfectly packed and undamaged) you can carry at most 12 components. While you can carry as many repair parts as you can harvest. The components are a bit scarce so running out is far too easy. All this makes the damage system more of a chore than a challenge.
-> Tactical turn-based combat! ...except your only option on any given turn is to attack. Repairing and reconfiguring components is free and can be done at any time during combat. But your only option is to shoot. You can shoot any enemy from any of 4 directions. You always knock them one square in the opposite direction. If they collide with another enemy they both take a little extra damage. If you shoot an enemy they will attack back. If you don't they won't. Even if you have already shot them. UNLESS they have been hit more than once or twice by other enemies bumping into them. Then they get mad and start attacking. Until you shoot them. (At which point they attack once then stop. I do not know why.) Honesty it's boring in action. And it's the vast majority of the game.
So. You work for a company that represents an elemental faction. (Because... reasons.) You go on a mission to clear out an island of baddies of a certain type. It, of course, goes terribly wrong. All this is expositioned in text blurbs between battles. The game has many decent components working for it. And the plot is secondary so it's sort of pointless to pick at it. (But it is VERY pick-at-able.) But the play loop is boring. It all comes together and is almost immediately monotonous. I wish it had not been that way. Like I said, I really wanted to like Pharmakon. (Which is both surprisingly boring and surprisingly not about the pharmaceutical industry.) If you must go here, and I recommend you don't, wait for a really good sale. My apologies to the devs. This just didn't work for me. Better luck next time.
Esssentially a turn based puzzle game, Pharmakon asks you to maneuver enemy beasts around by attacking them which can cause them to damage each other in collisions or due to the area effect of each beasts death explosion. This is complicated by the rage mechanic which means you can only indirectly damage each beast twice before it attacks you anyway.
The complexity is added to by the use of elemental damage, so each piece you can equip for a given shot will do more or less (or no) damage against a given target, and the positioning of the pieces you have within the shape of your drone - minus any spots damaged by beast attacks you haven't yet repaired, using points gained by scrapping pieces you have "spare". You also have a limited supply of calibration points to spend on special attacks, and there is a screen where you can experiment with which attacks are available, and their cost.
It certainly is interesting (and innovative as far as I know), and can take a while to optimize your strategy, however while what element you start with and the pieces and enemies you meet are largely randomized (after the beginning), there probably isn't a huge amount of replayability as once you get the hang of things it becomes fairly easy.
Another area that can be an issue is rearming - if you need to shoot a fire beast then an ice one, then another fire, you will be switching all the pieces out and in for each shot. This is fine when you are actively trying to puzzle out a way to fit together enough useful pieces to do the amount of damage you need, but often it will just be a lot of swapping back and forth of a basically fixed sets of pieces you are using for each damage type.
Overall this was an interesting game that I would recommend if you don't mind the relatively slow pace of play and the probably limited playtime you are likely to put into it.
Un petit jeu qui a beaucoup de potentiel.
Peut plaire à ceux qui aiment n'avoir pas le droit à l'erreur, penser plusieurs coups à l'avance et défier l'aléatoire.
Quite a fun game, only played 1hour so far but quite a nice time filler.
The battles are fun, quite a bit of stratergy in how the tiles are placed all in all a good purchase.
I've spent ten bucks on worse things. Still, the game doesn't really seem to evolve much through its playtime and involves some (to me) counter-intuitive practices to do well in the game.
The english is a bit spotty for most of the dialogue, but not as painful as some other games. The puzzle aspects are enjoyable once you get used to them and otherwise learn what the game wants you to do. All in all, I'd reccomend it on a good sale if you enjoy unusual puzzles, but not under normal circumstances for normal tastes.
ポリオミノが強調されたバナーにJRPGの戦闘画面みたいなスクリーンショット。いったいどんなゲームなんじゃろ？と思ったら完全に戦闘メインの作品だった。
ポリオミノ状のパーツはいわば装備品に相当し、これを自機にはめ込むことで与ダメージと攻撃属性が決まる（被弾時はパーツ単位ではがれる）。後はひたすら雑魚敵相手のターン制戦闘が続く。40ステージ弱でエンディング。
属性ごとの相性がかなりシビアに設定されているほか、穴が空いた装備欄を修復するためにもパーツを消費しなければいけないので、そのあたりのマネジメントがゲームの核ということになる。
といってもテトリスのようにしょっちゅう新規パーツが降ってくるわけではなく、今あるパーツの範囲でやりくりするしかない場面がほとんどなので、ポリオミノパズル要素はあまり生きていない。突き詰めれば「最大装備数とその増減に±1個程度のゆらぎがあるだけじゃないか」とも言えてしまう。
結局ゲーム時間の大半はありきたりなコマンド式RPG戦闘をやらされているだけという印象に加え、難易度がランダム入手パーツの属性に依存しすぎている欠点もあって、プレイしていて楽しさよりもストレスを感じやすい。
斬新なゲームを作りたいという意欲は感じられるが、せっかくのアイデアを広げることができておらず、すごく凡庸な遊び心地のゲームになってしまった感がある。残念ながらおすすめできるクオリティに達しているとはいえない。
ちなみにスクリーンショットの中には「ブラックボックス」（アナログパズルゲーム）みたいなのが映った画面もあるが、これもただのボーナス選択の演出であって特にパズルというわけではない。
Very limited mechanics, battles are random which can result in you getting dealt with an impossible to win situations. Luckily no penalty in death. Returning to the main menu does not save everything, so you get penalized if you leave a game. It does not save calibration nor any parts you collected at the end of a battle, thus creating artificial difficulty.
The idea of the game is original and intriguing.
Unfortunately its execution is terrible.
The game punishes players that are doing well and aids the struggling ones. This isn't sound.
Furthermore the player needs to tend to a lot of repetitive mechanical tedium (repairing and putting pieces back) which gets old fast.
After progressing into the higher levels I suddenly longed to solve a sudoku.
Solving them at least makes me feel like I accomplished something.
I expected so much more from this title... There was often updates, some developer streams, nice trailer + Tetris styled gameplay. But in the end its just an arcade game with very VERY basic inner parts. First of all, you dont have any real progression, you do have some skills to obtain, yet there are like 5 of them. Second, all levels are randomly generated and even if you lose, you just start from the point you died. No punishment at all. Third, the core gameplay consist from putting Tetris tiles inside a 'cube' as much as you can fit, then picking enemies for attacks while considering their elements. You know what? That system presents in EVERY rpg, strategy and most other big genres i know. Take Heroes of Might and Magic as example: you take care of units positioning, elemental stuff, turns / initiative etc. But, in Heroes this is just something you do BESIDES real gameplay. And in Pharkamon this is main core. Nothing else out there, just this.
Itself game just cannot give you any fun, thats why there is no reviews and thats why noone even cracking it for piracy purpose. It takes about 15 minutes to get bored, maybe even less. And the price of $6? Ha! You getting games like this from 20-in-1 bundles which cost you a single dollar. I personally didnt liked story and graphics as well, they look cheap. Gosh, even tutorial levels of NetStorm giving you more varietty and fun both in Tetris-wide dimension and from gameplay perspective.
Refunded.
I didn't much like this game, almost refunded, but then read the developers plea about the price.
I'll pick it up again later when I have more time.
I'm giving it a positive review only because I think there is more to it that I have discovered and the time I did put in was very distracted time, where I really didn't give the game a full chance.
Ca devrais pas etre a plus de 2€ vue les fonctionnalités et la répétitivité. j'adore les mini jeux, mais celui ci est juste NUL !
Entertaining enough, but less strategy more puzzle style imo. Short, took 6 hours to beat and 1 was spent out to lunch. Once you realize you'll just respawn at the same point with a new fully geared drone, the game becomes nearly trivial.
Still I can see this being an entertaining time killer, and I liked how the ending choice was structured.. caught me a hair off gaurd.
Price is a bit on the higher side comparative to content amount, but if you tried the demo and liked it, it's not a big investment so why not get it?
There is a thread in the steam forum that has a link to the demo.
