I don’t know how I missed Roam the first time around. Every so often Ryan Laukat releases something like this, a twenty-minute title that stands in contrast to his sprawling adventures like Sleeping Gods, its sequel Distant Skies, or even time-conscious fare like Creature Caravan. Minor artifacts, in other words, but artifacts that shoulder more weight than their diminutive frames would otherwise indicate. Like ants. Or dung beetles.

Roam is no exception to the dung beetle rule. I’m pretty sure I played it way back when, only to slip from my memory like so much sand. It isn’t that the game isn’t pleasant, or even quietly clever. It simply lacks the pizzazz that might have otherwise marked it as a staple filler.

Read the rest of this entry →