Guard of Wonderland
I used to play in the VR version of Guard and now I am impressed with the progress that guys have made. The combat system has been changed - now we are going to receive items and choose the right one for an enemy type attack. In addition, we can now use the allies and weapons of each hero. In addition - I like the main menu of the game (now it is iteractive and has a storm (you will find out why there are no spoilers), corrected errors of the VR version - Great job, WG team! Will be waiting for the next part of this game!
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Based On A Novel Surreal Games.
First of I love Alice in Wonderland universe. No matter original, McGee interpretation or this one. There is something in between McGee’s variant and original, mature dialogues with fairy tale flair. I have a dissonance between hand-painted characters and background, but it’s okay, I guess. The main purpose, tell a story, this game performs one hundred percent.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
The 39 Steps
This is a Visual Novel. That means there are no real puzzles, no real gameplay, and it is just the story. If you like point and click adventure games, a visual novel isn’t a big step backwards from that sort of thing. You just don’t get the puzzles that come along with the adventure genre. So when you want a totally relaxing time of just visualizing a story a graphic novel will succeed in doing that without making you have to think much about solving any puzzles. The 39 Steps is probably one of, if not the best visual novels I have ever played. It adds a lot of extra background and lore to explore within this as well that most visual novels don’t contain.
– Real player with 14.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Based On A Novel Point & Click Games.
Disclaimer/TLDR: The game is a Visual Novel based on a novel from 1915, featuring harder-than-everyday’s English, strong Scottish accent, and is about as interesting as it would be to read the book - keep these things in mind when purchasing. The story itself is really nice, but it’s not presented in a way that it’s easy to digest.
39 Steps is one of the worst good-games I played. The story is great, but because how the story, the era, the book is, the story is not the most pleasant to be experienced as a game. The story rather features classes, than real personalities, and focuses on the present - not even a hint what will happen, barely any reflection to the past than remembering the chasers makes the game enjoyable only if you’re actively progressing in it - either the story lost parts when it got implemented as a game, or it’s not exactly a type of story that works greatly as a game.
– Real player with 14.7 hrs in game
The Lost Legends of Redwall™: Escape the Gloomer
This game is fun and imaginative. I love how it perfectly fits into one of the Redwall books. I was even having flashbacks to the daydream like state of reading the book when it reached those parts. Even though, I had read it so long ago.
However, you will likely get stuck in at least 2 particular parts of the story and need to look on forums for help. Also, about half of the achievements are near impossible to achieve without the inside knowledge of the game developers or years of text adventuring experience.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Based On A Novel Singleplayer Games.
Another fantastic installment in the Lost Legends of Redwall series. If you ever read the Redwall books, you will love the way this game captures the very essence of Redwall’s atmosphere. The story is great, and the way it weaves in and out of the story in Mossflower, interacting with main characters without changing the storyline is nothing short of genius.
The puzzles are hard enough to make you think, but easy enough that you won’t give up. I was really disappointed when I finished the game because I wanted the experience to last forever.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Kolkhoz: The Red Wedge
Nice little indie game, if you like constructivism, puzzles and Soviet history then you’ll like this.
– Real player with 4.6 hrs in game
A good debut for a solo game developer. Lovely graphics and succesful storytelling, average but acceptable gameplay features for a interactive novel kind game. With in game info about era and fine atmosphere, I especially recommend to people who interested in Bolshevik Revolution, 1930’s collectivization process, CCCP or enjoyed novels such as “And Quiet Flows the Don " or Gladkov’s “Cement”.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Guard of Wonderland VR
Before I started playing, I had some doubts about the VR and how it’s gonna looks like here. Honestly, I have never encountered such games, because I don’t really understand, how’s possible make strong hard-oriented story games for VR.
Nevertheless, the game just dragged on and made me went through and through - yes, it certainly is not an “experience”, not a shooter or a shooting range.. This is more of a brave experiment, which, as for me - success.
There is still something to strive for and seek for other decisions (may be new ideas, how to optimize interface?), but the work which’s done is impressive!
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
After 9+ hours spent in Guard - what can i say.. It’s for sure dark story, based on Wonderland lore. If you’ve read zenescope comics, played AMR or watched 1st Burton movie, prefer such kind of twisted surrealism - you’ll enjoy this game. All story is made in a verse, what is very seldom in games even now - I can remember only Child of Light from Ubisoft, also fairytale, but about Aurora (- Sleeping Beauty), but not so dark and twisted. Guard offers to find out, how the things are going on it’s real way, behind the adventure, that you see in front of you. All is much more complicated - but I passed thruogh the whole story and beat up true ending. Guys, i’m impressed, don’t regret your time - it’s worth it.
– Real player with 12.6 hrs in game
Nordlicht
More reviews on our Curator Page
Nordlicht is a project from a small team in Germany, and the result of their final thesis. The game, however, is a full commitment, adventure, portraying incredible hand-made art, with an emotional story.
Players take the role of Aurora and her father Rupert, on an emotional journey across nostalgia under the Nordic bright sky. Aurora packs everything she needs to see her mother, while her father prepares the boat for the journey ahead. Together, they sail over large waves and thunderstorms, but nothing can stop them from reaching their goal.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Short and sweet point&click adventure with a heartwarming ending. You can finish the story in about 2 hours, assuming you don’t get stuck on a few tricky puzzles. There are 3 different locations to explore, a couple of nice cutscenes, and one timing mini-game. The artwork is really good considering the price, the stylized aesthetic gives it a unique look, not to mention its enjoyable soundtrack. I should note that the narrative is kid-friendly, you not going to find any hidden jokes in this one, even though the story has a sad undertone. The puzzles were reasonable for the most part, just keep in mind that you can occasionally solve the riddle by interacting with another character. As expected with a cheaper game, it’s not as responsive as it could be, but it still has a decent interface that allows you to highlight items using ‘tab’ or magnifying glass in the corner. However, you could potentially run into saving issues; I did not lose any progress, but the game required some fiddling with input to remove the black screen upon loading (only one save slot).
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
The Fog
Before you read: Keep in mind I’m still playing, and I’ve only played about 25 minutes so far, and died once.
So, I think my experience with this game is… odd, so far.
You’re dropped into nowhere, with very little explanation of what’s going on. You have no tutorial, no helpboxes short of just the occasional “E to interact” “Space to pick up”, etc. You’re not actually taught how to use the items, you need to kinda figure it out.
The graphics are a bit weird, they kinda remind me of DayZ’s early days and I think it’s a little bit rough. The lighting is very peculiar, and the flashlight doesn’t really help all that much - especially after you’ve taken damage.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
it doen’t make any sense at first but I go the hands of it.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
The Forest of Doom (Standalone)
Probably the best video-gamebook available on Steam.
A review for newbies and veterans alike
PROs ( / Features)
- The Story is simple yet effective. Classic fantasy, nothing too original in that regard, although the gust of nostalgia can be felt even by those who never played it as children (including me). You can’t help but feel deeply immersed in the engrossing world of Titan, where orcs, elves, fiends will roam in the most beautiful of sceneries. But what about Forest of Doom? Well, in this one, your job is to stop a war between two factions… Or die before that. Or get completely side-tracked by an optional dungeon. The thing I like the most however, is that the punishment of failing is restricted to starting over with your inventory intact, so you can tackle routes you didn’t explore before and, hopefully, gather all the stuff you need.
– Real player with 5.7 hrs in game
69 / 100
Much to my parents' dismay, reading books never did interest me greatly growing up. That was until I came across the Fighting Fantasy Choose-Your-Own Adventure books. Although more a paperback ‘game’ than a ‘novel’, at least I was off the computer :). I would sit & decode them until I knew all the paths, killed every monster & fully explored the world.
Forest of Doom was one of the first in the series, yet, to be honest not one of the best. It is certainly one of the more well know titles, but the series did get better & more complex as it went on. The game system was very RPG-lite, granting you some primary stats in Stamina, Skill & Luck plus offering some items to find/use, with combat mechanics coming down to a series of dice rolls used to calculate your attacks. Your stats will also add weight to your rolls. Nothing has greatly changed in the move to a digital format. Like many early text based adventure games, your movement is limited to up to 3 directions/options (sometimes less) .. and you generally can’t turn back!
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
The Lords of the Earth Flame
This game is an interactive fiction if you love reading you’ll enjoy it. The story will be decided by your choices which will lead you to multiple endings, your choices do have consequences either good or bad ones. It was easy to follow the story and unlock many achievements but a couple of them I had to look for a guide in order to know how to unlock it. (the joker one)
I liked the fact that the interface is a book which you can flip through the pages and choose the extra pages (your choices) from the bottom of the book to resume reading, I do love books so excuse me for fangirling about books and papers lol.
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game
The game is an interactive fantasy fiction made to look like a real old book with classic art and meaningful choices that lead to quite different and sometimes abrupt endings (permadeath). There are no dice throws like in Livingstone’s games (i.e. The Forest of Doom), no RPG-like stats, just behavior variants to pick. The text is well written, the choices seem logical, so you can more or less predict the outcome, but the story itself is very short, it seems that you can open all the endings through several tries in less than an hour, so it feels like a free demo to something much more serious. Despite its size it is not free of bugs - sometimes you get thrown to the beginning or game just hangs.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Discouraged Workers TEEN
A quite weird visual novel, actually.. in some senses.
First point - there is no interaction, there are no choices until the end of the game, which is fortunately quite long for its genre, even if you have constantly the feeling of being unable to have an impact on the game itself.
Towards the end, you are asked to save some times (only twice actually but anyways XD) and you can make your first and only choices.. but nothing really breathtaking, although they’re of course fundamental for the (few) endings.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
This game is pretty short, but the storyline drew my attention. Discouraged Workers is a visual novel game that includes a depressed 28 year old woman struggling to find a job (discouraged). There’s three routes in this game I believe, however there’s a lack of interactivity till the end of the storylines.
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game