Loretta
Loretta is a psychological thriller that would make the player an accessory to the heroine’s crimes and would lead her through a self-crafted nightmare. This story is about a woman, dealing with betrayal, her husband’s infidelity, relationships problems and difficult social situation of the 1940s.
Conceptually and aesthetically, the game is inspired by the American art of the twentieth century, the works of Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, film noir of the 40s-50s, thrillers by Alfred Hitchcock, the Philip Ridley movie “The Reflecting Skin”, the books “1922” by Stephen King and “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov.
Story
The year is 1947. Lora and Walter Harris move to a farm, which used to belong to his parents. Walter is a writer and Lora is a housewife. Both are quite unsuccessful.
The family is going through financial difficulties. The situation is also complicated by the fact that Walter owes money to people from New York. And although the husband keeps it a secret from his wife, Lora has a suspicion. Moreover, she suspects him of cheating.
Lora understands that she gave up her job, her dreams and other opportunities for her failure of a husband she doesn’t even love. Now she is stuck in a cold empty house barely making ends meet.
As she struggles to make loan payments, she finds out that Walter’s publishing house has insured his life. In the event of his death, the insurance sum would be 30.000$. A plan is born in Lora’s mind.
Loretta is a story-driven adventure game in which gameplay focuses on choosing phrases in dialogue, interacting with objects, and making decisions: planning the murder and getting rid of the evidence. Killing a husband, trying to cover a crime, Loretta makes a player an accomplice.
Features:
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The plot can either turn into a web of dodgy lies, or into a crescendo of bloody murders.
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Player is free to decide the fate of the character.
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Freedom of choice.
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Many endings.
Read More: Best America Drama Games.
Interrogation Files: Port Landsend
I for sure would recommend this game to you if:
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You have already played Her Story, liked it, and would enjoy playing a similar game
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You wouldn’t be put off by lower production values (the acting, in particular, can be distracting)
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You can look past and put up with some minor but irritating design flaws
If the above describes you then I feel pretty confident that you would enjoy Interrogation Files: Port Landsend. It is clearly a small indie game, but it has an interesting story and I was definitely invested in the investigation to figure out what had happened. For me the good very much outweighed the bad, and I personally wouldn’t hesitate to play future games from the same developer.
– Real player with 15.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best America Indie Games.
I randomly came across this little gem while browsing through FMV games and jumped all over it. I like FMV and I like crime, mystery, and detective games so naturally it was right up my alley. It follows the same format as Her Story by watching clips and searching for keywords, but this game manages to take things a step beyond by introducing multiple suspects.
The case that unfolds is interesting and keeps you invested. The acting ranges from pretty good to some characters who talk while constantly staring off camera to read their lines. I think my favorite part might have been the built-in ‘hint system’ for lack of a better term, where you can click a button to get a undiscovered clip unlocked for you. It’s a big help if you get stuck and it makes going for the 100% achievement much easier than similar games.
– Real player with 11.3 hrs in game
Pumpkin Eater
Pumpkin Eater provides an engaging and genuinely unnerving story that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. Well written with great art.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best America Visual Novel Games.
I could really go for some pumpkin pie right about now.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Sleep
So first and foremost before I even say anything developer. You need to immediately remove all the recorded voicework in the game. American English speakers appreciate your effort, but the bottom line is the inexperience of the voice actors makes it impossible for you to portray the characters you’re trying to portray. Instead of doing it this way, I suggest you record the voicelines in your native language and then have English subtitles translated by a professional. The way the voicework is now is totally immersion breaking and hilarious, but that’s totally okay because it’s something that can be fixed.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
A hellish mess which is as fun as buying a fake turd on ebay. Horrendous voice acting.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
The Terrible Old Man
I never write bad reviews for games, because, if I don’t like one, I usually just put it aside and move along, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand how this game is so highly rated. Am I missing something??
The dialogue was bland and I noticed some very obvious mistakes, which just resonates on the fact that they didn’t put much effort into it.
The portraits were terrifying in an absolutely hilarious way, but it feels unintentional. It gave me serious Legend of Zelda: Wand of Gamelon vibes. The movement was awkward and sticky and there was no. goddamn. plot.
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
This isn’t so much of a “reinterpretation” or “retelling” as it is a straight up clone of Lovecraft’s 1921 short story of the same name with a few unimportant details omitted. It says that it’s “based off” the 1921 story in its credits, but this game easily only uses 2% originality (if that) while the rest of the plot comes directly from Howard Phillips' own typewriter. I thought that this was going to more or less be a point-and-click adventure game with puzzles and various threads you can follow. However, there’s only one path to go down and only one ending that you can get. Sure, you can try all the bits of dialogue with each character (of which there are a few), but there’s only one selection per character that’s actually correct. You can easily find the correct answer by process of elimination. While you are supposed to go back and talk to people you’ve already annoyed or conversed with, this isn’t so much a “puzzle” as it’s something that players assume that they already need to do from the get-go (especially with point-and-click interactive fiction adventure games). Just so you know: I don’t care that this isn’t a puzzle game. What I care about is getting invested in a game whose plot from its original source material can’t just be looked up on Google in 10 seconds. If everything that’s going to happen can be revealed with a couple mouse clicks, I feel like something is definitely wrong with the game in question. I genuinely was looking for my expectations to be subverted, and they were not. Although I rather enjoyed the art design (the people’s faces were brilliantly scary and had a unique clay-like quality to them), it still wasn’t enough to keep me interested for longer than its expected 25 minute length. Maybe a longer game with more paths to go down could be worthwhile.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Blair Witch VR
My who family use the VR set but its easy for me, my brother and dad to find games, whoever, that’s not the case for my mum who prefers mystery and puzzle games but she liked the look of this and wanted to leave her comfort zone and to say the least we were all pleasantly surprised, the story is good and there’s plenty of times were were laughing at whoever was playing as they froze in place from being too scared.
You can for sure zoom past through the game but we take turn and take time to uncover everything we can, 13/17 chapters done with nearly 10 hours which was a nice surprise lengthwise.
– Real player with 14.6 hrs in game
Do you like taking long walks in the woods with your dog and occasionally wetting your pants in sheer terror? Well then, have I got the game for you! Ok, so this is kind of a mixed bag but it’s a pretty good horror game for VR. Let’s talk pros and cons:
The Good:
It’s a pretty well-made game with great atmosphere. The first ~4 hours, in the woods, are about a 4/10 on the spookiness scale, atmospheric but nothing really scary, but the last ~2 hours, in the house, the spookiness gets cranked up to about 8/10 with bursts of 11/10. It was pretty intense in VR and I had to change my pants a few times… I also liked how the documents had a pop-out window for text that made them very easy to read. Reading text in VR is not always fun but this was a good and intuitive solution.
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
Mothmen 1966
Mothmen 1966 is set during the Leonid meteor shower of ‘66.
You are Lee, a college student obsessed with the American Civil War. Someone at school told you about Holt’s gas station outside town, just the spot to watch the upcoming meteor shower for a perfect date with your girlfriend. But at Holt’s you’ll meet Lou Hill, a writer investigating the link between these meteor storms and sightings of human-size winged creatures with red, glowing eyes. It seems to Lou that whenever these ‘mothmen’ are spotted, bad things happen…
Created by novelist Nico Saraintaris and artist Fernando Martinez Ruppel, ‘Pixel Pulps’ are a fusion of exceptional writing and stunning illustration, inspired by mid-20th century pulp fiction and 80s home computer graphics. Mothmen 1966 is the first of three Pixel Pulps coming in 2022.
Mothmen 1966, like all the Pixel Pulps, is made to be played by anyone who enjoys fine storytelling:
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Rich, branching narrative
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Evocative illustrations fuel your immersion in the story
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Accessible, ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ style gameplay, with life and death consequences and many mysteries to unravel
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Multiple endings, and many paths to reach them - repeat playthroughs will continue to surprise
XIBALBA
Worth playing, if you’re ok with some jank…
Xibalba is a Mayan themed retro FPS made by a the small indie dev team Reef Software. This theme is really cool and unique, and gives the game an aesthetic that is different from most indie or retro FPS games.
Shooting and movement feel really smooth, and it’s generally a lot of fun. Level design is old school in nature, with claustrophobic corridor-esque levels and the occasional more open arena combat areas. Think Wolfenstein 3D with a splash of Quake. I also really like the graphical aesthetic of the game - 2D sprite enemies superimposed over 3D levels just gives off an interesting look for the game.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
I like it, reminds me a lot to Serious Sam but that’s a good thing, have an interesting looking using 2D and 3D with the enemies and the levels , I enjoyed very much and for sure the game can improve with the time.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
Cassius
Cassius is a first-person story-driven puzzle game exploring the mysteries of Blackhaven Hall, a sprawling historically accurate colonial estate evacuated at the height of the American Revolution. Journey back to the 1781 and decode the dark secrets lurking behind America’s founding.
A Secret Mission and A Hidden Mystery
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Explore a massive historically accurate 18th century estate including an opulent mansion, manicured garden, and the sprawling surrounding farms.
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Solve puzzles involving period correct scientific instruments, furnishing, art, sculpture, tools, toys, and rare books.
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Uncover the most closely held secrets of Blackhaven Hall, and confront the lives touched by a tragic history.
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Take part in a forbidden conspiracy that will decide your fate.
About Cassius
Cassius is a continuation of the story from Historiated’s first title, Blackhaven It was developed in cooperation with a diverse set of scholars and experts.
Mrs Jenkins Estate
The game has scenes with flashing lights that can cause epileptic seizures.
MRS JENKINS ESTATE - This is a first-person psychological horror game.
An old mansion has some blood-curdling secrets, which have been kept for too long…Bursting out, the secrets plunge you into the whirlpool of chilling horror: a constant sense of another presence, dark and scary atmosphere and living nightmares…
THE STORY
It’s a late autumn of 2002. You are a young ambitious realtor has come to an old mansion to value the house. This late job is attractive for its commissions so it’s worth working all night. However your plan stops working as soon as you step into the mansion. You vainly try to get rid of the thought that something is wrong there. The mysterious gloomy house seems to have come to life and welcomes you, leading you deep into the dark corridors.
KEY FEATURES
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Explore an old house, where danger lurks everywhere;
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Photo-realistic graphics;
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High sound quality makes you entirely plunge into the game;
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Breathtaking plot twists;
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Haunting atmosphere;
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The scariest story that will stick in your mind for a long time.
“I’ve made the story exciting and mind blowing so that once you start playing you won’t be able to stop!"
