The Last Campfire
The Last Campfire is an adventure game created by three people at Hello Games, primarily developed for mobile devices and later ported to PC and consoles. Compared to their first ambitious game (No Man’s Sky), The Last Campfire has a smaller scope, being more like a bedtime fairy tale filled with short puzzles. The story is told through a brilliant narrator who describes in a fable-like manner actions, thoughts and emotions of all characters, reminding me of Bastion’s marvelous storytelling. We play as a cute little Ember who is suddenly separated by his companions during a boat ride. Lost and confused, we must find our way back, while also trying to help those we encounter.
– Real player with 17.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Adventure Singleplayer Games.
“How can you be a lighthouse for others, when your own light has gone out?”
This is such a beautiful game that I’m at a loss for words to describe it.
It’s a children’s game. Puzzles, beautiful graphics, and a lot of thought & care went into the diverse design of the characters, environments, and puzzles & themes of scale both great and small. It’s also possessive of a level of emotional depth and innocence that is simply totally absent in many childrens' titles today. Contrast this with, say, any of the Lego Star Wars or Lords of the Rings or The Hobbit game (the latter of which I own) which rely on special effects and violence to tell a story. Its refreshing to find a game that doesn’t find lazy ways to tell a story, but gently tugs you along as you yearn to see more. A guiding light for you to follow, if you will.
– Real player with 13.5 hrs in game
The Room 4: Old Sins
You like puzzle games ? you like dark atmosphere in Lovecraft style (but you are not looking for jumpscares) ? Then this is a no brainer.
I played and loved all “The Room” series, this one is not an exception. Usually, when a movie has a number after its title, it means “crappy thing in order to milk the franchise to the end”. For The Room serie, it’s the opposite: more ideas, more eye candy, more of these puzzles we love.
By the way, puzzles are original, almost never stupid things in the rubik’s cube spirit. It almost always about observing and associating things.
– Real player with 11.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Adventure Mystery Games.
I’ve been playing the Room games since they were mobile games.
I’ve bought and each and every game on android and now on steam and finished them all twice to completion on each platform.
That’s how good their games are. Room 4 is just a culmination of their experience over the years. Fireproof are at the top of their craft in the genre, Da Vinci games are close but still lack a bit of the spart.
I would recommend this to anyone remotely interested in puzzle box type of games.
Nul out of Nul
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
TOEM
I was very charmed by the demo of this game on one of Steam’s special events, so I purchased it at launch. I was not disappointed with the final product. The game is equal parts charming and relaxing with an adorable, hand drawn art style and calm, lovable music.
This is a point and click adventure game. It controls exclusively with the mouse (though developers claim they’re working on adding keyboard support as well). The gist, like in most of these games, is to travel to different places, meet lots of people and solve puzzles for their benefit in order to reach a personal goal. There’s no combat here, of course. Your only tool is a camera, which you can use to take pictures, zoom in to see things far away and even interact with certain characters and objects in more than one way.
– Real player with 10.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Adventure Exploration Games.
There’s so much I want to say about this lovely game, so I’ll break it into sections.
Gameplay: The main mechanic of the game is taking photos. But don’t be fooled by this seemingly simple premise, there is so much to do! In each area of TOEM, I had tons of things that I could complete, or I could just sit back and take in my surroundings. You will need to fulfill a certain number of requests to move onto the next area, but after that it’s up to you how you want to spend your time. I’m already 5 hours in but I’m not even halfway through the game yet! Pro tip: wearing the clogs helps you play at a more relaxed pace.
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
Slice of Sea
UPDATE: Mateusz read this review and has updated the game to correct for the accessibility issue we reported here. That is an extraordinary gesture of good will and responsiveness from an established artist who could just as easily have insisted his work was to be accepted as it was. Accordingly, we have changed the status of our review from thumbs-down to thumbs-up.
Original review follows:
Well, this is a hard one to give a thumbs-down to, as we love most of Mateusz Skutnik’s games. What we love about them is their whimsy, surreal style, sound effects, and general ease of play. This one has all of those things, so no complaints there. What this one doesn’t have, however, is a clear presentation of the cause-and-effect relationship between what the player does, and how that unlocks doors/machines/whatever in the game. The game world is enormous. As far as we were able to tell, you can flip a switch or turn a knob and, with no indication to the player that this has happened, doing so fulfills one of the conditions to unlocking a door in a distant place. We “solved” a number of puzzles without ever having any idea of how we did so.
– Real player with 93.5 hrs in game
TL;DR: If you like point and click games, go buy this one. It’s worth every penny.
If you are familiar with other games/comics from the same author, such as Submachine, Daymare Town, Rewolucje, etc. you will like this game even more, as there are a lot of references scattered everywhere (and when I say references I mean even entire locations inspired by them, but I don’t want to spoil).
This is primarily a PnC game; the platforming elements are not very important, but they make for interesting puzzles. The hand-drawn graphics look amazing, and together with the atmospheric soundtrack by Thumpmonks and the great main song by Cat Jahnke, do a very good job of immersing you into the game. There are many little details that show the author cares about his work, such as Seaweed’s animations during cutscenes and when entering doors. The story is quite simple, as usual in a game that is set in the Daymare Town universe, and as seen too in Amanita Design’s games such as Samorost or Machinarium: there are no dialogues and the written elements are minimal. What this game excels in is creating an mesmerizing immersive experience for you to get lost in.
– Real player with 27.5 hrs in game
The Room VR: A Dark Matter
The only games I have ever purchased on an app store was the Lego Star Wars game (it’s an drm free version of the entire saga, that was a no brainer) and The Room 2 and 3. I got the first one for free somehow and I played it like I played the 100 other escape room app games I had. Hints on, casually. But it only took me half of my first play through to realize that this was not another escape room/puzzle game. The detail, the story, the simultaneous intuitiveness and complexity of the puzzles… it’s on a whole different level. Games 2 and 3 I payed full price and played with the hints off. Sometimes there were sections I just couldn’t figure out, so I’d put the game down and come back another day. This game is finite. The solution to the puzzles, once solved, will always be a shadow at the back of your mind making subsequent playthroughs that much easier. The real magic is in the first playthrough, so I make it an event now. I turn off the lights, I wear headphones, I immerse myself. The Room VR does that for you. By the nature of the platform you are immersed in the world that the devs have created. The controls and gameplay mechanics are just as intuitive and complex as the tablet and PC versions of the game, but being able to walk around this world… to manipulate puzzles with your hands… to shrink down small enough to walk into a padlock and solve its riddle so seamlessly that you don’t even question it… this is how the game was meant to be played.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
If you like puzzle games then you will almost certainly enjoy this one! I’ve been a fan of “The Room” series since the first one came out on mobile platforms many moons ago. Playing the same styled puzzle game in VR was just a plain joy. Being able to manipulate all of the various contraptions just has a great feel that you can’t get outside of VR. The only major negative I can think of that might concern someone about to take the plunge is that the game is short. Please take into account I play many puzzle games and am very familiar with this series. I finished the entire thing in about 4 hours, but I could see it going up to 6 if your new to puzzle games.
– Real player with 4.2 hrs in game
My Brother Rabbit
Not the usual Artifex Mundi game. More like Tiny Bang Story and Hare in the Hat.
Well made, with care and attention to detail. Rather nice graphics for the most part (personally, I don’t like the kids' looks).
You click on things until you get an icon at the top right telling you to collect N of item X, which you then have to find in all available locations, unlocking more locations with found items and puzzles.
I really like the puzzles. Except the one with the paper plane. Don’t like timed stuff at all.
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
Right in the feels
TL;DR This the best hidden object game hands down.
HOG games usually are fun and relaxing if you love genre but a lot of puzzles or item placement doesn’t make any sense and i’m not even going to talk about stories in those, they’re ridiculous.
So how My Brother Rabbit is different to those? Well, it tells a touching story of a seriously ill girl and her brother. I think because the game is kids friendly the story is told through symbolism in a surreal world so that children wouldn’t understand and get upset about seeing terrible things the little girl goes through. Instead there are cut-scenes which happen in real time, it shows the illness but in kind of a cute way. But all is revealed through gameplay where you can find plenty of stuff indicating the girl is going through
! chemo and surgery, brother drowning in depression and other stuff. This really hit me hard in the feelings when I realized that. Never thought a game so colorful could be so sad. Nevertheless it;s a heartwarming game, after all children should enjoy it too so you get a happy ending.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
INSIDE
Amazing game! Even on 2021 you can see an active community making more theories and discovering new aspects and secrets of the game.
Definitely a game that you must experience.
I’m waiting for the third Playdead game to experience the new proposals that this talented studio has prepared for us.
– Real player with 8.0 hrs in game
Outstanding atmospheric platformer from the creators of Limbo. I highly recommend this game, despite its short playtime.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Supraland
Supraland is a spectacular and highly polished blend of exploration and puzzles, with a plethora of external references/”easter eggs”, and a (big) splash of humour. One of the most surprising things I’ve learnt is that Supraland was mostly created by a single developer, David Münnich, making it even more impressive! On Steam, it’s described as a “mix between Portal, Zelda and Metroid”, and I can certainly see where that description is coming from. There’s also a pie chart highlighting Supraland as roughly 45% exploration, 45% puzzles, and 10% fighting, and again, I’d say this aligns with my experiences! Not only that, but they even share the estimated playtime on the Steam page, which isn’t something I see very often. They put Supraland between 12-25 hours, the lower end obviously being focussed on the main story rather than exploring and finding the insane amount of secrets and hidden chests. It took me around 26 hours to complete the game with all the base game achievements.
– Real player with 39.4 hrs in game
Supraland is a first person metroidvania-style puzzle game in the style of Portal and The Talos Principle developed by Supra Games using Unreal Engine. Now when I say Supra Games, I mean that this was mainly designed by one dude. Who did programming, art, level design and so on. And you can find him being quite active on the forums, answering questions and addressing bugs, and even writing a guide with spoiler-free hints to help those stuck on certain major puzzles.
The playtime is estimated by the dev as 12-25h but I should note that this depends on how much of the game you explore and what you decide to do. There’s about 10-15h of main content, some 4-6h of side content, and a few hours of pain and suffering collecting every last collectible if you want to 100% it.
– Real player with 37.3 hrs in game
Agent A: A puzzle in disguise
Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise is a “puzzle adventure” game which means that it combines a typical puzzle game with a stronger focus on the story. The player takes on the role of the silent “Agent A”, a secret agent on the trail of a nefarious villain, Ruby La Rouge.
Agent A: A Puzzle in Disguise is split up into five chapters, each focused on a different section of the story, but the entire game revolves around infiltrating and capturing Ruby La Rouge. To do this, players will have to solve a variety of puzzles and find several secrets in La Rouge’s private getaway.
– Real player with 21.6 hrs in game
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Imagine, if you will that you owned a house, sitting on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean. Filled with sliding windows to allow the ocean breeze to enter, many levels (including an internal elevator) and even a boat jettied below in case you want to go for a ride. Now imagine that the entire house is filled with hidden secrets that a stealthy agent will admire. Well, this house has a tenant named Ruby La Rouge and she is simply an agent disposer. You play as Agent A and your task is to stop Ruby knocking off another agent named “B”, and of course you as well.
– Real player with 11.2 hrs in game
The Escaper
This was my first Escape Room game, and honestly I only played it because I got it through my curator. It was surprisingly fun, though, at least with the timer turned off. I would have failed badly and gotten very stressed if I’d only had one hour per room…
I found the puzzles overall cool and very satisfying to solve. Most of them seemed fair and pretty logical to me even when they took me a while to figure out. They demand a wide variety of problem-solving and sometimes knowledge, so most likely you’ll find at least some of them really challenging. Thankfully the first video walkthrough has already popped up and got me out of the last part of room 3 that I probably wouldn’t have figured out in a million years… Apart from that, I only looked up one thing after getting extremely irritated (see below) and trained my frustration tolerance a few other times.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
edit: added link to my walkthrough.
the escaper is a short escape room puzzler with an optional time limit, meaning it’s already better than most other games in the genre, not stressing players out with a ticking clock if they don’t want it to.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game