My Time with Utomik: A Console Fanboy Story

Christmas may be a distant memory for most of us, with the thought of another gruelling year ahead before we can use the festive period as a valid excuse to stay at home and play some cosy games. For Christmas 2023, I spent a considerable amount of my gaming time using the subscription-based service Utomik, and I thought I’d write down my thoughts on some of my unexpectedly late-night gaming sessions!

As someone who isn’t much of a PC gamer, I had little to no clue what Utomik was. Sure, I’d heard the name, but when I do play on PC, I tend to always stick to whatever’s in my Steam library. As mentioned above, this is a subscription-based platform with well over a thousand games to try. But would my lacklustre internet be able to handle it? Would there even be any titles worth playing? Well, I couldn’t pass over the chance to give the service a try, and when the lovely folks over at Utomik and Heaven Media offered me a six-month trial code, I was more than eager to give it a try!

After a quick set-up, I was presented with a clean-looking user interface with a bunch of games recommended for me that I already liked the look of. Off to a good start! As someone who is not a fan of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4/5 layouts, this simple design does the job. No filler, adverts, or forced recommendations from whichever publisher has paid money to have the latest AAA “army man shoot” game front and centre. There’s also the Channels tab, which lets you browse all available games sorted by things like genre, style, and publisher.

With so much to choose from, I decided that Turnip Boy Robs a Bank would be my first game. It’s a relatively new release, and our review tempted me to try it out! There was a partial download before I could jump in and play, but thankfully, this didn’t take too long (even games that are labelled as “large file installation” are usually around the 3 GB mark) and just like that, I was in! I won’t go into detail about the game, but you should absolutely give it a go; it’s fantastic!

Now, this is not Cloud gaming (we’ll get to that later), as the PC client will download the rest of the game as you play. It’s a smart way of letting players boot up a game quicker than having to wait for the full install, and it works surprisingly well! I then tried out a few other games, such as Born of Bread (another game put on my radar thanks to our review!) and the brilliant The Last Worker. Sure, there are a lot of games that won’t appeal to many (match-three and hidden object titles are abundant in Utomik!), but there is definitely something for everyone here.

With a positive experience when using Utomik on PC, it was time to try the Cloud gaming on my phone! This is where I expected to meet some issues, as my internet isn’t great, and I’ve had trouble streaming games on PlayStation many times over. Although you can connect a wireless controller via Bluetooth, the on-screen touch controls work in practically every game — although perhaps not best suited for first-person shooters — which made journeys to and from work much less tedious. Most of the 1,000+ games aren’t yet supported on the mobile app, though, with just over 300 currently available. This is still in early access, with more games being added all the time, so at least the support is there to bring new and already released games on Utomik to your handheld devices (and Smart TV if you have a compatible Samsung or LG one!).

The moment of truth was here: would my internet and the Utomik app be able to provide a steady gameplay experience? Or would it be a choppy mess that made the games impossible to play? Well, good news, everyone: despite a few hiccups here and there, the mobile app was a great way to play! As it turns out, any progress made when playing on PC transfers seamlessly onto mobile, and vice versa. Meaning my Trails in the Sky save data from my laptop was right there and waiting when I decided it was time for bed before forgetting my need for rest and booting the game up on my phone. The aforementioned hiccups were mainly the occasional audio stutter or crackle, and even this wasn’t frequent enough to cause me to stop playing.

Additionally, just like the PC client, the mobile app is easy to navigate, with a similar layout that’s been adapted for smartphone use. With so many apps and other UIs that are bogged down in needless detritus, it was nice to be able to easily browse through the selection of games and read up on information about them without ever having to leave the app.

With two months’ worth of time spent with Utomik, would I continue playing games through this simple-to-use and cleanly presented application? Well, if you’ve stuck around until the end, then I’m sure you’re aware of the huge amount of praise I’ve heaped upon it. So, yes, absolutely, I’ll keep using Utomik! Although my love for PlayStation and console gaming in general will never be trumped, it really is an easy and stress-free way for people to experience PC gaming and, better yet, gaming on the go! Gold star for you, Utomik, well done!