Early Access Article #1: FaeVerse Alchemy

You may have noticed the growing trend to back what Steam has dubbed the Early Access genre. Remember when beta testers got paid to test games? Well, now you're the beta tester, and you're the one who pays.

People are putting down huge chunks of cash on Kickstarter, backing these promises of games. This new trend is obviously very controversial. Many refuse to support it, many are angered by the clutter of the store page, feeling it is overrun by these partial games. Other people think it's great. Users like having a say over what goes in their game, they like offering suggestions and seeing the game develop before them. Let us know what you think in the comment section below.

So, to kick (GET IT, LIKE KICKSTARTER, GET IT? GET IT?) us off, we have FaeVerse Alchemy.

Remember Faerie Solitaire? Fastforward almost 5 years, and Subsoap have thrown us back into the FaeVerse world.

So far, the game has one useful mode.

Chaos Mode. If you've played Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, you will no doubt remember the falling beans, and the top of the screen being the point where you cannot stack beans past or you will fail. This game is very similar, except you're not competing against the guy who says he has more sizzle than a Rasher of Bacon. Good game, you should play it if you haven't. And even if you already have.

But, alas, I am getting sidetracked. In this mode, "runes" are falling, and it's up to you to match them. But instead of them disappearing, when you match 3 (or more, if you're good at this) you will be left with a new rune.

Chaos Mode gameplay.

For example, 3 Green Leaves turn into 1 Blue Triangle with Eye rune. At first, you should be able to clear the gameboard easily. However, as more and more runes are crafted in game, you will be dealt so many runes, it's easy to be overwhelmed and it becomes difficult to create matches. Runes can be dropped in 2's or even 4's.

Creating a match of 3.

Any points you get in game counts towards EXP. When the bar is full and you level up, you are given a treasure. There is also the option to tweet your high score. Only who here cares about Twitter?

There is a crafting mode, as well. Though it seems pointless thus far. You can equip runes, again, seems pointless. A pet mode is ungreyed, yet it says "coming soon".

Early Access at it's finest.

WHAT THE HELL, MAN?

So how much would you expect to pay for this game?
WRONG. It's $30USD. I only purchased it because I got a coupon for crafting a badge (for 90% off).