My Child Lebensborn
Ok, I love story-driven games. I love historical games. I love resource/time management games. I love gritty, realistic games. But WHAT was is the point of this? Most of the time, there was nothing I could do for Klaus. It was incredibly frustrating to just listen about teachers and other kids bullying him, and all I could do was tell Klaus to shut up and take it. I couldn’t confront any of the perpetrators or do anything to change the events.
Halfway through, I thought, “ok, so maybe it’s not about confronting issues, but rather it’s about how he responds to things he can’t change…and the point is to develop his character traits so that he’ll eventually turn out as a resilient adult.”
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric Emotional Games.
Ich liebe dich, mein Kleiner
This game…tugged at my heartstrings. Before playing it, I was watching Michaela Laws play it up to a certain point. Even then…my heart hurt and I kept crying when Karin was sad or upset and putting herself down. I purchased this game yesterday and could not help but play it for at least 3 hours as I did not want to spoil anything for myself; I wanted to experience in my own time. I took in Klaus and he was an absolutely wonderful child. As before…my heart near broke everytime he was distraught or sad. There were moments where I have gotten angry, worried sick…at one point I think I even felt depersonalization despite it being a game. It just felt that powerful. I wanted to do more. Despite all the horrible things that have happened, seeing Klaus smile and be happy made it all worth it. I wanted to hug him so badly as I sympathize with what he went through…being bullied…feeling alone.
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
Martial Law
Martial Law is a game about difficulties that came with Communism in Poland. Game is meant to visualize the realities of Polish families back then, their ways of thinking and understanding the world. The story is shown from the perspective of a man who is abandoned because of his low social status. He tries his best to be there for his daughter despite the difficulties. Game is also meant to be educational. There are many places you can stop to learn more about Polish culture from the communist era.
Martial Law features!
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Many endings!
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Visual Novel
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Learn more about polish culture from the communist era
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Solve family issue
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Get beat up by a “comrade for debating”
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Talk to a grumpy old man!
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Make your kid happy. :)
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Make right choices, or don’t. It’s up to you.
Game originally developed during GameJam Pokamedulski.PL 2021
Read More: Best Atmospheric Visual Novel Games.
Oxenfree
Oxenfree is another unique experience that I search Steam for, it’s odd how often I find what can be discussed into “what is a game?”
But like many of these games that I have played, such as Edith Finch, Her Story, and Orwell, there’s so much more to the story that simply dismissing it as “not a game” ignores the important question. “Is it worth the money for the experience, whether it’s a game or not?”
Oxenfree gets me to answer the question with an “Oh god, yes”. It’s non-traditional in how it does it, but it brought me in with a great story and then made it better for a second playthrough.
– Real player with 26.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Atmospheric Supernatural Games.
Information
Title: Oxenfree
Developer(s): Night School Studio
Publisher(s): Night School Studio
Genre(s): Graphic adventure
Release Date: 15 Jan, 2016
Mode(s): Single-player
Review
It’s unusual to see an indie game that perfectly manages to balance both character-driven and plot-driven qualities of a story; consequently, this equipoise creates a spiffing interconnectedness between the two driving forces of the tale, which skyrockets the overall momentum of the experience. Oxenfree—the first game of Night School Studio—revolves around a bunch of teenagers who decide to travel to a remote, mystifying island to have some fun. While doing so, they recklessly try to put the sinister urban legends of the island to the test by perturbing the supernatural lifeform within it; well, in brief, the urban legends pass the test with grade A+.
– Real player with 21.7 hrs in game
Pathologic 2
I had a very hard time thinking of what I’d write for Pathologic 2. Despite the fact that there are so many reviews, this one got some attention, and I really appreciate that. I feel compelled to write something because it’s deep into my bones and it’s not showing any sign of leaving. It just feels like it deserves a review. Having gone through it now multiple times, I can honestly say it’s become one of my favorite games and that’s against a lifetime wasting time on them.
First and foremost, is this a horror game and if you don’t like horror games will this be too intense? The first answer is “kinda” and the second answer is “no”. It’s a horror game in that the tone and mood are quite dark and the general feeling of the game is eerie. There are certainly spooky things you’re going to experience here and there. Is there lots of gore, jumpscares or terribly intense horror movie moments? No, not really, and if you can get through the average episode of the original Twilight Zone then you’re brave enough for Pathologic 2. Tension is there, fear is often present, but it’s the kind of fear and tension that is trying to teach you something, not just give you nightmares. I recommend wearing headphones when you play to get the full experience of the atmosphere, or taking them off if you are feeling yourself getting too creeped out.
– Real player with 241.5 hrs in game
I would rate this game 9/10, but it may not be a 9 for everyone. Let me over-explain.
Pathologic 2 is a bit of a mash up of a survival game and plague doctor simulator. The game is both a remake and a sequel of the original Pathologic that was released in 2005. You don’t need to play the original game as it references the original as having happened, but retells the story with big alterations and new plot points. The original game had three characters you could play with different views of the story, but this one only has the Haruspex at the moment. However, even just this one route will give you a full, complete game with an average of 30+ hours of gameplay. The developers are planning to eventually release the other two routes in the future, budget willing. This game was made with the idea that a game doesn’t always have to be fun, sometimes a game can stretch you out and make you question what it’s asking you to do. You will get stressed, you will get frustrated, and you will start to doubt whether you can even do everything the game is asking you to do, but that’s the point. It will take well known tropes and rules of gaming and break them in an attempt to break you. It tries to make you feel as if you’ve actually gone through the experience of trying to save a town from a disease and how crushing, frustrating, and heartbreaking it can be to try to do that. This in turn makes the joy from the moments when things go right that much sweeter.
– Real player with 213.4 hrs in game
Tezz
This game is very cool. The graphics are minimalist and the music is relaxing.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Great game. It has interesting mechanics and good progression of levels. Congrats to the devs!
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
Linda & Joan
Linda & Joan is a forthcoming narrative game about a British family. You play as Russell, Linda, and Joan — son, mother, and grandmother — switching between them to help the family cope with a series of traumatic events. Based on a true story.
The main game is scheduled for release in 2022. It will be part two of the Linda & Joan story. Part one is Prologue: “Four Months Earlier” which is available now.
Players experience the events from the perspectives of Russell, Linda, and Joan through exploration, conversation, and tasks designed to give emotional insight into the themes of caregiving, dying, bereavement, and homeland.
What sets Linda & Joan apart from other branching-narrative experiences is that while the player has many choices to make, nothing can change the core events that follow — there is only one ending.
However, actions, dialogue choices, and task completion, do affect the characters’ perception of events. By spending time with happier memories, taking care of themselves, and choosing the right things to say to each other, the characters — and therefore the player — will find themselves able to deal with the impossible.
The characters’ emotional states will be graphically represented in the game. The player will have to carefully balance the needs of the characters to progress, sometimes requiring difficult zero-sum tradeoffs.
These mechanisms attempt to mirror the real-life feeling of being powerless in the face of looming trauma, when you realize that no decision can affect the outcome, but you can affect how you and others feel about it.
Even when life’s story feels like it’s on rails, we still have some power over our own realities. There is still room for dignity, compassion, honesty. For fear and for love. There is a time for self-care. There is a time for duty. The choices we make will define the memories we hold for the rest of our lives.
Affectus
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1478710
Affectus is a cyberpunk stealth-action RPG set in a decadent and sick megalopolis after a pandemic has deprived humans of the ability to feel positive emotions. In this world, the only way to feel good is a drug called Affectus.
You are waking up with no memory in a dark alley at the bottom of a multi-layered mega-city called Tribus. You can customize your gender, cyberware, skillset and explore a city where the choices you make will shape the story and the world around you.
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Exploration & quests: Choose to follow the main story or do side quests to learn more about the world. Explore freely, loot some goods, and find secrets.
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Multiple choice dialogues: Choose your personality. Some choices you make will impact the story. Will you be kind?
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Fights and Stealth: Choose to engage in gun-fights with enemies or avoid them to achieve your goal. Will you spare them?
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Hack: Open locked doors, disable security measures or hack into computers.
Enjoy an immersive exclusive soundtrack by Kevin “Kounine” Colombin inspired by the best cyberpunk and sci-fi movies. Dynamic Sync switches the music smoothly to match the action and help you focus on your objectives.
Discover how you lost your memory through a world where happiness, hope, and love have vanished. What kind of person were you before?
Will you stand out?
Black Book
the only guide in English on here (at time of writing) suggests paring down your deck to as few cards as you can manage, which is genuinely helpful especially if you’re getting frustrated with the game mechanics or want to speed things along. however, there’s too many cool spells for me to consider that, and there’s something to be said for equipping the max allowable and getting a rogue-like experience of figuring out how different spells play off each other. getting a page of random spells and figuring out how they best work together is definitely part of the fun for me.
– Real player with 53.7 hrs in game
RECOMMENDED.
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Long, fun, you learn a thing or two.
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Searching for synergies is needed and pays off when you find one or two that works
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Item managment is important!
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You need to balance your activities progress but have a lot of room to experiment and change skill points.
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The exploration in 3d its kinda yanky, but doesnt affect the main gameplay and you wont even care.
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Your choices do come back to haunt you, and the choices you take do actually have consecuences inside the gameplay too (but thankfully you can always course correct)
– Real player with 48.8 hrs in game
Legends of Eisenwald
It pains me to see that such a great game only has ‘mostly positive’ reviews, whereas, in my opinion, it should have actually been ‘very/overwhelmingly’ instead of ‘mostly’. It is definitely one of my favorite games; in fact, it made my summer last year. I’ve played through it three times (including all the DLCs), twice here on Steam and once elsewhere, and I’m sure I’ll replay it at least for the fourth time.
This game is by the way the first modern RPG I’ve played, and it has also – apart from being a gorgeous experience itself – managed to draw me to the genre (I’ve always preferred playing pure adventure games and eventually strategies) and discover several other awesome games. But this one is going to remain my incomparable first love forever. :) At first I was a bit hesitant about playing it, as some reviews claimed it be too hard/confusing etc., but I cannot agree here. Once I got used to the mechanics, it was a sheer joy to play. At times, ‘Legends of Eisenwald’ can indeed be hard, especially considering your finances at the very beginning and certain fights, but I – almost utterly inexperienced in playing RPGs as I was back then – didn’t find it frustratingly tough. I think it was hard to a very reasonable degree, and I kept on feeling rewarded by the narrative through the whole game.
– Real player with 131.7 hrs in game
Okay.. phwoa!!… long game. Just finished it - in at around 100 hours - Final Fantasy eat your heart out. A few late nights let me tell you. I feel that this game deserves the time and effort for me to write at least something about it and how I felt about it even if to just say it was a good game. But I will do more because I felt this game really was something special and I have derived so much enjoyment from it that it is the least I could do.
I bought this game on sale for a few pennies (I can’t remember now but I think it was for under $5) and didn’t really have too high hopes for it considering its price and look but was then completely overturned in my opinion by what is essentially a really great game that in no wise is properly represented by its appearance. DON’T judge a book by its cover! Boy, don’t judge this book by its cover, it is a great game for what its worth. I think this game goes for around $20 more or less on steam and that is about the right price for this game. You won’t regret parting with that hard earned cash. If you see this game for anything less than $10 buy it straight away, don’t hesitate, you won’t regret it. You might ask if it is such a great game why is it only worth $20 dollars? Well that is what I will attempt to explain.
– Real player with 115.8 hrs in game
Life is Strange: Before the Storm
DISCLAIMER
The review you are about to read is based on my own experience with the game and my own personal judgment and rating system! No third party has impacted anything said in this review. This review is also 100% spoiler free, so you don’t need to worry about that either.
Gameplay and Movement Controls (17 out of 20)
Everyone pretty sure expected the classic gameplay from the first game. ‘Before the Storm’ is based on the Unity Engine. Deck Nine had to re-do the gameplay aspect for this game. I must admit that I was very used gameplay feeling from the start, not that it’s that much different but still it is. Overal mouse control is pretty weird I have to admit. It feels like the mouse is working flawlessly sometimes and sometimes it just doesn’t register the movement right away. Which is later followed by half a second delay to anything you do with your mouse in terms of camera movement. I’m pretty sure it has to do with the engine itself or the developer set it that way on purpose, but since almost all games that are based on the Unity engine have had the same input delay issue of some sort for me in the past, I doubt it. It is not a game-breaking thing, but sometimes it can just be frustrating while moving the camera around.
– Real player with 57.1 hrs in game
More reviews on our Curator Page
Before the Storm is the prequel to the award-winning and highly claimed Life is Strange , one of the best Point & Clicks ever made. Is this complementary release as fulfilling and ground-breaker as the original? For fans, absolutely!
I find it hard to believe someone would be picking up Life is Strange: Before the Storm without first going through the original game. With that said, Before the Storm pretty much follows the steps of Chloe’s friendship with Rachel and their mischievous adventures.
– Real player with 43.4 hrs in game