The fate of the world is at stake shouts the genius scientist and inventor, Doctor Altus, to our titular hero. Well, not so much ‘shouts’ as conveys through comics-style chat bubbles at the introduction of Bret Airborne. It’s a promising start to this steampunkish tale, as the hero must quickly chase and thwart the nefarious villain. Over the course of the journey, our hero boards a hot air balloon, combats a series of minions, and then takes on the big, bad boss himself. My first impression was that this was going to be an entertaining homage to the comic strips or cinema matinees of the 1930s and 40s (think The Rocketeer). Unfortunately that’s about as far as the story goes until the quick wrap-up at the end. This was the sole failing of Bret Airborne. It had a promising opening, clichéd though it might be, but did nothing to further develop the characters or drive the plot onward. Who is Bret? Who are these nameless, faceless enemies helping out the villain? Why is everyone in tricked-out hot air balloons? There’s no point in putting window dressing on this type of game if it’s not going to be fleshed out a bit more.

With the negatives out of the way early, I can talk about the great gameplay. Yes, it’s essentially a match-3 game but with some interesting twists on the rules. Each battle is a turn-based duel between the player and the opponent, both of whom share the same board. Each combatant can make their 3-in-a-row matches of symbols on their own half of the board, though the matches can be sitting partly on the other player’s side. In fact, doing so increases a particular stat used by some acquired powers, but more on that later. The point of each battle is to knock the enemy’s armor down to zero before they can do the same to the player. In between battles, the player directs their balloon from waypoint to waypoint encountering more enemies, entering stores, and heading further and further east towards the game’s end.

Steampunk air balloon fights are played out via turn-based match-3 combat.

During combat, the symbols found on the board can be combined to net three different kinds of collectible resources, cannonballs for immediately attacking the other player, tools for repairing the ship’s armor, harmful lightning (avoid!), and so on. Succeeding at making a row or column of four or more of the same symbol will not only earn the player another turn, but it also moves the central bar one column further into opponent territory. Moving that divider has the potential to open up enough additional territory for the player to either gain some previously inaccessible resource or to thwart whatever work the opponent might’ve been in the process of. For instance, the player can hit a four-symbol match to move the bar and use a set of cannonballs on the enemy’s side before they can. The bar resets to the standard position when the player’s turn is finally over. It might not sound like much, but this one rule alone shakes up the match-3 formula in a really fun and strategical way.

Much like Puzzle Quest, there are passive abilities and powers available to the player. In Bret Airborne, these can be purchased using gold earned through battle and exploration. The main campaign is divided into ten zones, and most of the zones have a location where purchases can be made. The passive abilities include stat boosts like increased armor, a chance to deflect enemy shots, and extra gains when matching resources. The powers are even more varied and generally include different types of direct attacks, the ability to screw over the opponent’s side of the board, or affecting the opponent’s ability to use their powers. All powers use the core resources collected by the player, so it’s important to play a well-rounded game.

Augmentations (passive abilities) and powers can be purchased to upgrade your ship between battles.

The final twist is that every power has a boost if the player has reached requirements in two other statistical categories: movement and piracy. Maneuver points are earned when the player can combine four or more symbols. Piracy points are earned when making a match that uses at least one symbol on the opponent’s side. The boost might make the attack more potent, cause timed powers to occur more quickly, or make debuffs last longer. There’s a strategy involved in deciding whether to burn powers early to get a jump on the opponent, or whether to focus on gaining maneuver and piracy points and going on the offensive later.

Bret Airborne is more than just about the main campaign, as a few additional modes have found their way into the game. The most interesting of these is the Gauntlet. It’s a series of 12 matches against increasingly difficult opponents. Before the round begins, the player gets a look at the opponent’s set of abilities and powers in order to gauge what he or she will be going up against. The player starts out the mode with basically nothing, but earns an additional power after defeating each opponent. It’s a solid challenge and easily makes this the pick of the litter in terms of bonus modes. The other modes include setting up a customized duel, 2-player local multiplayer, and a tower challenge. The tower challenge is based off of a mini-game found throughout the main campaign where the player races against the clock to collect a requisite amount of different materials for constructing a defensive tower. In this particular mode, the clock is removed and the player is granted 200 moves to complete as many towers as possible. Most of the modes probably won’t get more than a couple of plays, but they do add some incentive to stick with the game once the campaign is completed within a few hours.That time

It’s frustrating to play a game like Bret Airborne, but not because it’s bad. On the contrary, it’s quite good. The gameplay is familiar, but it has some unique rules that will make it appealing to both casual players and strategy masters. The problem is that I can easily see what it would take to give it that extra coat of polish to make it shine. While this is just the first entry in Bret Airborne’s adventures, it’s my hope that we’ll see the balloon-riding hero in a sequel that rises to even greater heights.

Overall Rating: ★★★★☆ 

What does this score mean?

Bret Airborne is available for PC and Mac from the Machine 22 website along with demos for each platform.

This review was conducted using a copy of the PC version provided by the developer for that purpose.

© 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

When imagining traveling through time, it’s not just about ending up in a different era, it’s often about experiencing a different place and way of life. Untimed takes the reader from modern day Philadelphia to early 18th-century London, 19th-century France, and 20th-century China. The bulk of the story takes place in that London setting and presents the city from the view of young street thieves. Although the characters Charlie meets veer a bit on the outlandish side, the setting itself is vividly painted as dirty and seedy. War-torn Europe in the early 1800′s is brought to life through Gavin’s depiction of the anticipation of battle and the carnage inflicted upon its participants. Without giving too much away, our hero even gets a look at a skewed version of the present when a few historical choices go awry. Gavin certainly paints a picture of the past that makes the reader share Charlie’s desire to get back home.

As a science fiction fan, one of the best parts about time travel is seeing how each storyteller presents his or her incarnation. In other words, finding out what the rules are and what the consequences are of bending or breaking those rules. Untimed immediately draws readers in with how the protagonist details his bizarre non-existence in the eyes of everyone around him. Going unnoticed is something a lot of teenagers can probably identify with, but it goes a step further in that not even his own mother can remember his name. In fact, everyone who possesses the time travel ability experiences this with the “normals”, and the characters often either suffer because of it or use it to their advantage. Another unique twist is that males can only travel backward in time and females forward, though a pair can travel together in the direction of choice. This presents some interesting dilemmas for the characters in terms of how they’re going to travel in the direction they want or need to be going. Charlie is determined not to lose his time-traveling love interest Yvaine by jumping without her. A necessary “cooldown” period between jumps infuses plenty of tension in the more dramatic, frenzied moments of the story. Untimed deals with the consequences of characters running into other versions of themselves, and it also covers cause-effect relationships in terms of the historical timeline. While some of these concepts draw from Untimed‘s sci-fi predecessors, there’s definitely enough of a unique spin to keep this story feeling new.

Author Gavin doesn’t ignore that sci-fi history. Untimed does pay homage to time traveling adventures that have become iconic in the entertainment industry. The story includes numerous references, both direct and indirect, to pop culture series like Back to the Future and Sliders. I also got a strong Dr. Who feel thanks to the existence of seasoned time travelers and the steampunk, robotic villains that repeatedly show up to thwart them. I think Time Lord fans will enjoy Untimed, though Charlie plays more the role of the companion rather than possessing the charm and wisdom of the good Doctor.

Because the story is surprisingly adult in its content for a young adult novel, I think it broadens the range of readers the story will appeal to. The recent success of the Twilight and Hunger Games series have proven that the true audience for a young adult adventure can extend much wider than perhaps it was originally intended. While I did grow tired of Charlie’s lusting after Yvaine in the midst of the far more important time traveling and near-death experiences, it’s hard to argue that it doesn’t capture some of the essence of a 16-year-old boy’s mind.

Untimed is a quick read with action consistently moving the story forward, and the separation of scenes within each chapter keeps the story from ever getting bogged down. While our hero is regrettably the least interesting character in the story, he serves his purpose as the vehicle for the events that play out and the other characters involved. Untimed is a fun read for all of the young science fiction fans out there, and may even appeal to older readers. As the start of a new series, it’ll be interesting to see how young Charlie grows and the fantastical people and places he’ll encounter in his future (and past) travels.

A sample of Untimed can be found on Andy Gavin’s official website, and the complete book can be purchased through any of the links below:

Amazon E-Book ASIN: B006PIMYLY
Amazon Paperback ASIN: 1937945014
Amazon Hardcover ASIN: 1937945006
Barnes & Noble: 1108093415  (on hold for Kindle Select)
Google: 7o8wLIfFUcwC  (on hold for Kindle Select)
Apple iBooks: 494719226 (on hold for Kindle Select)
CreateSpace: 3751712

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.