Barry's Time Adventures review

This isn't what I expected from an incremental game. In fact, you'd think this game was boring if you only came here for the numbers. This game combines story with slowly building your stuff.. it'll make sense. That said, I'll need to warn you much because most if not all of this review should be regarded as spoilers.

The gameplay is stale in the beginning. You don't know anything except to make some money off trash. Then, you collect water and food. Suddenly, your income has been cut in half, you can't get water from 2 of your sources, and your food gain has been cut. Most players would have said "what the hell?" and left because nothing is happening and they thought that was the whole game. Only if they stuck it out for a little longer..

Then, you suddenly warped many many years later. As you explore, you're realizing that "this is a time hole" and you can help your past self, aka "prestige upgrades". These are pretty well balanced and doesn't break the progression. You explore deeper, you find more upgrades for your past self, more time holes, then.. you ran out of food or water. You're forced to reset, but now you know what's going to happen. Sure, you can reset to any time you want in the timeline, but.. why would you put upgrades that boosts your gain anywhere but the beginning? Might just be me playing it wrong. You can also loop (if you explore far enough) back to the starting point of this phase, but it takes a toll on you. You get more levels so doing things are quicker though. Can't say you should do this more than 2-3 times.. just a hunch.

You go back, repeat, but now you can get more stuff and you know the future. You progress further, and now you can explore even further. You explored so far that you found out what happened to you and.. all other yous. You try to fix the problem. You screwed it up. All the yous are now jumping into your timeline and it's bad. Now all of you want to reproduce and fill this world. I.. don't know anymore man, just go along with me.

This is the last phase, and probably the most boring. You fill up the world with more of you. There's so many of you that you're now fighting each other just to stay alive. All of you keep dying and now there's only you left. You now contemplate life and say "maybe next time". The end.

Clearly, you can fit a story into an incremental game, and weed out half of the people who can't be bothered to read. The game isn't bad, but the lack of events late-game on the first phase might throw people off that the game ended, especially with the first run and reduced resource gain events. The UI is simplistic, and it just gets straight to the point without stuffy effects. There's also little features like your grammar gradually getting worse every loop. I do agree that there's too much text for an average incremental game, but if you're looking for a story, you'll get hooked. This is more of a story game than an incremental game to me though.