Kalaban

Kalaban

In A Nutshell

🔵 Pros

  • Decent free-roaming, survival horror gameplay.

  • No hand holding: players need to figure out everything on their own.

  • Quests also being “mini-puzzles” based on how to use found items in solving problems.

  • Sufficient variety of equipment and enemies.

đź”´ Cons

  • A few but significant bugs that can lead to major gameplay disruption / force a reload.

  • Autosave-only saving system at each area transition, no manual saves whatsoever, not even at fixed points.

  • Sometimes certain quests can glitch, preventing progression.

– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game


Read More: Best Adventure Hand-drawn Games.


This is a 2D top down horror themed survival/twin stick brawler hybrid game with a rich story and handmade artwork. Explore an alternative universe Finland and fight off creepy monsters, keep yourself alive long enough with the tools in your inventory and you may unravel the choices-matter interactive story.

There’s a few good points here, the atmosphere is good and the game launches under Windows 10, which puts the game above so many other indie titles. As far as handmade art goes, it’s perfectly acceptable and fits well with the theme. Unfortunately there’s some deficiencies, too. Resolution and controls are both fixed and can’t be changed, which makes the game fall below minimum standards for PC. Also, the game lacks polish and suffers from many gamebreaking bugs and crashes. Finally, twin stick top-down genre died a long time ago shortly after 3D accelerators became available back in 1995 with the S3 Virge.

– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game

Kalaban on Steam

A Chamber of Stars

A Chamber of Stars

Each person has a universe inside of them.

A personal universe with characters influenced by the observable reality around them. Your friends, the fans, the local shop clerk, each person you pass without giving pause is another universe. You make up a story about them, they form a story about you. The universes expand.

I always wonder how similar our universes can be. You and I. Will I ever be able to pierce through and present myself, my real self, or will the information be lost in translation? The thing rattling around in our heads can’t be all that different. We both still get choked up over the same melodies, it’s only human to do so, right?

Maybe, if you would like it, I could play something for you. Lord knows your songs are still rattling around in my head.

The singularly named Starr, an enigmatic performer, guitarist and songwriter, has somehow survived the constant shifting tide of the musical landscape. Decade after decade, this artist has remained relevant in culture’s eye. After multiple personas, genre manipulations and controversies, the public is still buzzing. “What will Starr do next?” The rumors say their upcoming album will be the fated magnum opus…

A Chamber of Stars is the sequel to 2018’s The Endless Empty. Through six unique worlds the life of the rock n’ roll hero, Starr, will be pieced together. Exploration, choices and performances will change the course of a life and will alter the songs that are produced. A Chamber of Stars will feature a mix of classic adventure games, puzzle solving and unique rhythm game performances all within a fully realized surrealist universe.

Nothing heavenly or divine; just filthy mortal music here.


Read More: Best Adventure Surreal Games.


A Chamber of Stars on Steam

The Last Day of Adolf

The Last Day of Adolf

Shot my dog, found some poison and some wine but can’t seem to use/drink either. Not sure what I’m supposed to do at this point.

– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game

I would give this game a positive review, but it seems unfinished to me, like a late beta in need of final content and copyediting passes.

I really like the pixel art, and the music loop has a simple “Wolfenstein 3D” sound to it that evokes memories of the early 1990’s era. As a student of WW2 history, I like the concept; to be sure, making the game at all skirts the limits of taste, and it would take a skilled writer to make the game humorous without being offensive – though the many parody videos of Hitler’s ranting in the movie “Downfall” show this is possible.

– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game

The Last Day of Adolf on Steam

City Quest

City Quest

Okay, so far I’m only two hours (on record) in playing this game, on my first play through and have no idea how far into the game I am and just how much there is left to go. I saw this pop up on Steam, thought it looked quirky and interesting and decided to wait for a sale and when it happened I snapped it up. The only regret I have is in waiting so long, this game is worth it at full price.

This game may not be for everyone as it makes you think out of the box, I understand that the box these days is “Here is a gun, go shoot things” but I’m talking about in adventure game terms.

– Real player with 18.0 hrs in game

It feels odd to be proud of licking everything in a section of the game (or nearly everything) but it is this kind of bizarre behavior that is rewarded in City Quest. The storylines (there are four) are amusing and the music is a true tribute to nostalgia. My hands-down favorite part of the game is the ENDLESS amount of amusing text the developers must have written to cover every conceivable object looked at, licked or fondled.

– Real player with 14.5 hrs in game

City Quest on Steam

Cyanide & Happiness - Freakpocalypse (Episode 1)

Cyanide & Happiness - Freakpocalypse (Episode 1)

The game gives a few laughs and so far the story seems to be intriguing, so I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes next. And it’s nice to see some familiar characters from the animated shorts in it.

Some problem I have with this game is how much of it is exploration and how little is a part of the story itself. The game can be completed really quickly if you only focus on the tasks they give you. But there’s a bunch of locations and countless of objects you can interact with in each of them. So vast majority of the game is just clicking everything and listening to your character saying something funny about it, coming up with another pun (I swear this game contains every single pun you could ever come up with), sometimes unlocking a costume piece or giving you some easter egg. I don’t think the balance is right if I have to spend hours examining all the new locations open to me, but when I move on to actually do the tasks to carry on in the game, it turns out it only takes a few minutes and suddenly I’m back to having to explore more locations.

– Real player with 19.3 hrs in game

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Review by Gaming Masterpieces - The greatest games of all time on Steam.

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You go to the school doctor because you feel ill - and she welcomes you by telling you that they don’t do plastic surgery here. Or whether you’ve come because of your malnutrition or your terrible body odour … well, that’s how you constantly get treated in Cyanide & Happiness - Freakpocalypse. Funded on Kickstarter, it is based on the dark yet humorous Explosm comics. To ensure that the humour and character design of the comics is also reflected in the game, publisher Serenity Forge and developer Skeleton Crew Studios have worked closely with Explosm and I-Mockery. With Cyanide & Happiness - Freakpocalypse, subtitled Hall Pass To Hell, the first of three planned parts has now been released.

– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game

Cyanide & Happiness - Freakpocalypse (Episode 1) on Steam

DEKONSTRUKT

DEKONSTRUKT

DEKONSTRUKT is an interactive movie, with elements of first-person gameplay. You will be immersed in the inglorious story of a game developer with plenty of destructive black humor. The game responds to never-before-seen creative challenges. Help the protagonist deal with his inner demons. Or not really.

As you can see, the game tries with all its might to seem like it’s not just another triviality. In other words, my mother grew a vegetable, even though she is not a gardener.

âś” A story that will stay in your memory for a long time.

DEKONSTRUKT on Steam

The Procession to Calvary

The Procession to Calvary

(No spoilers.)

An absolutely fantastic game that’s just dripping with style. It’s borrowed style, but in this case that’s even better! Watch classic paintings come to life to tell an absolutely ridiculous story. Perfect for Easter (in a deeply-irreverent sort of way)!

Put more directly, the art is top-notch, the animation is hilarious, and the (also-borrowed) musical pairings are perfect.

The puzzles are all fair, ranging from several strictly-logical affairs to a handful of clever head scratchers. Nothing is so difficult or random that it should drive you to a walkthrough, and I suggest you avoid looking up the solutions to any puzzles lest you shorten your total gameplay. (If you ever get stuck, just revisit areas you haven’t been to recently and look at things fresh. That should generally do the trick.)

– Real player with 41.8 hrs in game

If you liked Four Last Things then you are a shoe in for this game. If you haven’t played Four Last Things then GO AND PLAY FOUR LAST THINGS!

Seriously. Play Four Last Things first and then if you like that come back to this after that.


PROS

  • amazing visuals. The entire game is renaissance art from start to finish and is amazingly mashed up together.

  • hyperbole….“You wasted amazing on a basket of chicken wings!?” This game is hilarious. Some of the dialogue is so funny I made a noise out loud. There are some strange references. The descriptions of the paintings in the gallery were fantastic. The game’s humour is on point for the kind of folks that have an interest in British humour or enjoy intelligent sarcasm.

– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game

The Procession to Calvary on Steam

Helheim Hassle

Helheim Hassle

Hello, new hyperfixation! You are just what I needed to get through everything else, my ray of light in this time of darkness!

That might sound overdramatic, but in all seriousness this game is excellent. To be honest I was a bit worried that the world of Manual Samuel might have been ditched, so finding out that this takes place in the same universe was a relief! I’d been pretty attached to MS’s characters back when I was into it, and it would seem that Helheim Hassle is continuing Perfectly Paranormal’s trend of introducing characters you can really feel for!

– Real player with 338.5 hrs in game

Honestly, I too would want to escape Valhalla if I was forced to be on an Esports team.

The creators of Manuel Samuel is back with another game! And just with how Manuel Samuel was a unique adventure will humor surrounding Samuel’s unfortunate situation, so is Helheim Hassle. And fun fact, Helheim Hassle and Manuel Samuel takes place in the same universe and even on the same day.

Helheim Hassle brings us to a young teenage Viking named Bjorn Hammerparty who isn’t like his Viking brethren. Unlike everyone else, he is a pacifist. He doesn’t want to go out fighting so he makes sure he doesn’t get into a situation where he has to and he sure doesn’t want to go to Valhalla. However, during a battle that is sure to wipe out his whole village, Bjorn gets into a fatal accident while he was running to his hideout. The sketchy bridge he was crossing may have made him fall straight onto a bear. Once Bjorn comes to, he’s a ghost and his body is limbless. Before moving on, Bjorn attaches his limbs back on his body and talks to Modgunn to be granted passage into Helheim. However, his cowardly fall to his death was counted as him heroically killing a bear without a weapon and is brought into Valhalla by the Allfather.

– Real player with 36.2 hrs in game

Helheim Hassle on Steam

Startup Valley Adventure

Startup Valley Adventure

A very cool game! Allows you to plunge into the atmosphere of business and companies. Well-thought-out dialogues like the open world. Recommend!

P.S. Hopefully the design will improve the graphics a bit.

– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game

A very unique project. A kind of visual novel, but with a gameplay with humor, references, parody, with excellent dialogues, variability and vitality. “Your decisions are your consequences!” this is really about this game, I liked that you can learn from a homeless person in the game, humor is certainly not for everyone, but I went. The gameplay is certainly dry, and sometimes there are softlocks, but in General, the game is worth it so that you can close your eyes to it.

– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game

Startup Valley Adventure on Steam

The Quivering

The Quivering

My game crashed on start up and now I magically have 40 hours on it. Never touched this game once.

– Real player with 40.4 hrs in game

Franken-Elvis at a Netherworld Funpark: Brilliant Game a true Oldschool Masterpiece. Love the Dark Humour and the UK voice acting. The save system involving Imps that are also needed object puzzles gives the first chapter a survival horror feel that does not exist in most point and click adventure games. Very much reminiscent of the original Discworld, Discworld: Noir and Zack McKracken, and yet a style unto itself. This game is wholey underated on Steam and steal for $4. As one of the most challenging and enjoyable games Ive played recently, I heartily recomend this game to any serious fans of the genre.

– Real player with 16.4 hrs in game

The Quivering on Steam