Game Review: DayD: Through Time (Xbox One)

I found I quite enjoyed the Gnomes Garden series of games. Something about the resource management gameplay was quite addictive even if it was very repetitive. Each new one offered almost nothing new but they were easy to defend as they always proved to be fun to play.

You can read our reviews of each one below.

Gnomes Garden
Gnomes Garden 2
Gnomes Garden 3: The Thief of Castles
Gnomes Garden: New Home

Well, DayD: Through Time takes the tried and tested formula of those games and copies it completely. Yet somehow makes it less fun.

Gone are the princesses, witches and goblins. In their place is a more futuristic story told through stills. Brian Sunshine has completed work on his new time machine and plans to go back to the Jurassic period for a look around. However, his rival and one-time friend, Dr Awful has also built a time machine and is planning the same trip but for nefarious reasons.

It’s up to Sunshine to go back and stop him.

Not exactly compelling stuff but if you’re playing these kinds of games for their stories, you’re making a mistake.

There are 50 levels to complete with a range of tasks given at the start. These can be from simply rebuilding some bridges, to fighting off dinosaurs to lighting signal fires. To complete these tasks you’ll have to clear pathways by utilising Sunshine’s robot helpers. However, they require resources to work so you’ll also have to build and repair buildings to keep your supplies coming in. It’s a very simple idea and to DayD’s credit, it does it well.

However so did Gnomes Garden and DayD has nothing new to offer. This means the small details of DayD are under much more scrutiny and even the most minor thing makes it a lesser game by comparison.

It’s still fun, just not that much fun and it is at times much more challenging but not in a good way. This mainly relates to the gaining of all three stars.

To get the best ranking, you’ll have to complete levels as fast as possible. There is little room for error and it’s often just one set way of doing things to beat it in time. 50 levels of that? It quickly gets old.

DayD: Through Time is better enjoyed in spurts. It’s inferior to the games it copies, blatantly copies but not by much.