Orion Trail
I have left the original review below. As the game has now been released, this is what I now think of it:
It’s really good!
All the extra content added since I last played it (life has been busy, so over a month ago!) really shows. The game is far better balanced, more polished, and it feels complete. The devs are still on top of things, making changes based on feedback, which is an extra point in my book. I am especially loving the added random encounters, which really add flavour to the game.
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choose Your Own Adventure Indie Games.
This game is a riot. I was unsure about it at first due to the early negative reviews, but some of the more recent positive ones indicate that the developers are taking public criticism and suggestions to heart and improving the game. So, I decided to buy it and I’m sure glad I did.
The game is very Oregon Trail meets Star Trek, minus the educational aspects OT and with lots of humor that (at times) pokes fun at ST. Basically, you fly through space as the captain of a ship, exploring the galaxy and encountering lots of interesting challenges. Unlike some space games that are mostly combat, Orion Trail is more of an adventure game and the challenges you face can be anything from problems with your ship and crew to encounters with other ships and space born life to planets that need exploring. The randomness and variety of encounters and ways you can try to deal with them add to the fun and replay value. The writing is very clever and funny and is full of hilarious Sci Fi inspired things. There are a few typos, but nothing too bad.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
The Dreamwalkers
The Dreamwalkers is a 2D Visual Novel/Point-and-Click Adventure Game in which you can project yourself into the world of Dreams.
You play Morgan, a student in History of the Arts in Paris, who’s life is about to be turned upside down. Along his journey he will meet new friends, whose fate will be into your hands.
Features
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5 acts of an hour each. Perfect for lunch break diversions!
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Highly replayable: the story is divided into 3 mutually exclusive branches, each focused on the relationship between Morgan and one of the Dreamwalkers.
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Romance: will Morgan fall in love with this Dreamwalker or just be friend? Your decision!
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8 different endings depending on choices you’ll have to own up (and no Mass Effect-style: some endings will depend on choices made earlier in the game)
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Explore Dreams: scenes in the world of dreams can be explored in point & click phases to discover more about the universe.
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Original Universe: inspired by Neil Gaiman and Inception, we created a world where myths and reality intertwine.
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Backgrounds and characters drawn by talented artists.
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The original music is a symphony in 5 movements created by a composer and played by an orchestra!
Read More: Best Choose Your Own Adventure Visual Novel Games.
Deadlands Noir - That Old Time Religion
Sam Spade [Humphrey Bogart ~ Maltese Falcon (1941)] has nothing on Harvey Jenkins when it comes to being a hard boiled private detective. This is ‘Film Noir’ without the film.
Stories are set in 1935 New Orleans, Harvey Jenkins is a man about town who has unlikely friends and makes powerful enemies. But that is what happens when one is a private detective that takes on unusual cases, those of the supernatural kind. He and John Constantine (Vertigo comics Hellblazer/2005 movie) are much alike, one foot in Hell and the other in Heaven.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choose Your Own Adventure Indie Games.
While I briefly played the Deadlands tabletop RPG back in the 90s - yup, I’m THAT old! - I’ll confess to having never so much as HEARD of this Deadlands Noir phenomenon. Now, considering that Deadlands was more-or-less a transposing of Call of Cthulhu-style antics into a Western (read: cowboy) setting, I’m not quite sure what the purpose of transposing Call of Cthulhu-style antics into a 1930s setting is, considering that that’s precisely when the original Call of Cthulhu RPG was set anyway! BUT…I’m not here to query the existence of a tabletop RPG, I’m here to review a video game/“visual novel” set in that universe. So get awn wit' it, already!
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Across the Grooves
This game has a really interesting and suspenseful story, and very beautiful art. Very similar mechanics to Along the Edge, but the game was more polished. I have a few things negative things to say about the game play, but found the game to be highly enjoyable regardless, so overall the pros overshadow the cons.
Cons - I played through several times. You can hold down the space bar to fast forward, but I’m not sure if there was a skip option? Maybe there was and maybe not. Choices do matter some, but I wish it mattered more, like it did in Along the Edge. Mild spoiler,
! the general ending is somewhat similar no matter what you choose. The person you end up with is different, your job is different depending on your choices, and there’s two special scenes that can be unlocked, but otherwise the endings felt very similar . Some of the gameplay was good concept, but not the best execution (but not poor execution either, just meh). Your choices influence your wardrobe and hair style.
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
This visual novel is certainly an interesting ‘slice of life’, but it is quite different from Along the Edge. I have only done one completion so far, though I intend to revisit it soon, probably better to make another run shortly after a first. Because to be fair, unlike ‘Along the Edge’, where it is a little more clear which answers will be for which type of answering rationale, there is perhaps a little more guess work with this VN, though that is totally fine, if anything it more reinforces a more ‘answer how you feel’, though the downside is you might not fully remember which choice you made on a next run (I guess if you have a great memory you probably could), so you might end up choosing the same choice again. But, that’s sort of small thing.
– Real player with 9.8 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
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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
The Yawhg
Initially, when I first heard of this game, I just figured, “hey, this looks kinda neat but I’m not paying $10 for it becuase I’m a lousy cheap-ass.” It looked like a cool concept to me and if it looks like a cool concept to you, then you’re perhaps in for something of a treat.
Now, when I first played it on my own, I wasn’t particularly entertained. I mean, yes, the different story paths were somewhat interesting and the various different endings were kinda cool but I wasn’t really absorbed into it. It was just something I used to make a good 45 minutes pass by one day when I was feeling bored. Then, while with some friends the other night, I decided to pull it out because we all needed a game to play and this just so happened to be multiplayer and seemed like a nice change of pace from the usual stuff we always tend to play (e.g. Genital Jousting, Jackbox Party Pack, etc.) What I didn’t expect was for us to keep playing over and over again for several more hours, as we found ourselves unusually entertained by this strange little game.
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
The Yawhg
The Yawhg is a quaint little game. The premise is simple, you control up to four characters in the weeks leading up to a great disaster known as The Yawhg. Nobody knows the Yawhg is coming, and you can only command your characters so far in that you pick an activity for them to complete each week.
Your characters will gain stat points for the activity you choose. For example, chopping wood increases strength. But random events will also happen, so while chopping wood you might meet a dryad, and they’ll ask you to dance. If your character has a high finesse score, you can impress the dryad with your dancing and receive a reward.
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Life is Strange 2
Life is Strange 2
Life is Strange 2 is an episodic, story driven, supernatural-ish game in which your decisions will change the outcome of the story between the two brothers as well as their friends they made on the way.
Story
The main protagonist of Life is Strange 2 is Sean Diaz who tries to get to Mexico with his little brother Daniel Diaz after a tragic event at their home, in which Sean discovered that his little brother has some sort of supernatural abillity. Wanted by the police, the two brothers try their best to strengthen their bond on the way to their father’s hometown Puerto Lobos.
– Real player with 52.4 hrs in game
If you’re craving anything even remotely similar to the storytelling in Life is Strange 1 or Before the Storm, you should may as well look elsewhere. If you don’t like social themes in you games – regardless of subtlety or lack thereof – you’re probably wasting your time, too.
Minor plot spoilers for Life is Strange 1 and 2.
On a technical level, LiS 2 far surpasses LiS 1 and even BTS. Environments feel much less static. Dialogue is more fluid. You’ll find yourself wandering around, only to discover little quips and comments from Sean, Daniel, or the other characters minutes later. The animations are spectacular. Lip-syncing is no longer puppet-quality, although that issue was mostly resolved in BTS. You’ve got your standard Dontnod/Deck Nine beautiful environmental shots. While on the topic of visuals, LiS 2 is undoubtedly the most visually diverse Life of Strange game to date. You get to see sleepy small towns blanketed in snow, redwood forests in California, scorched deserts. You even get a small taste of that original LIfe is Strange vibe (you know what I mean if you play it) in Episode 1 that sort of lulls you into a false sense of security. You think for a second that this game will be kind of like the other Life is Strange games. Boy, are you going to be in for a shock.
– Real player with 51.3 hrs in game
Over the Alps
Over the Alps is a spy story that takes place as tensions escalate into World War II as told through a choose-your-adventure featuring choices that feature personality and character traits of your protagonist. The scenery is designed after postcards of the Swiss Alps and are remarkable. As any choose-your-adventure story goes, the writing is the most important, and playing through, you can tell that the story is crafted in detail and is quite funny to read through.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Pitch perfect: the writing reads like the best old adventure classic you’ve never read and manages to pack punch, warmth, humor, and pathos in short paragraphs and postcard-length mini-episodes. You’re never too long before you’re making a new choice or zipping to a new location. I haven’t enjoyed a game’s writing this much since 80 Days. Oh look! This came from some Inkle veterans. Makes sense.
The writing isn’t the only thing that’s pitch perfect. This game has a simple, great visual design that doesn’t hold your hand. Navigation is subtle and never distracts from the vintage poster style art: flocks of birds are used to indicate buildings you haven’t explored yet, a spinning compass tells you when it’s time to choose the next path on the map, etcetera.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
Edge of Reality
A game in which there are several options for the development of the plot. You can choose any language that suits you. Nice picture and good music.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
This is a review when I wish Steam had a ‘maybe’ option. Overall, this is a solid game and only the minor grammar errors let the side down.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Golden Treasure: The Great Green
I want to preface this review by saying: This is not merely a game, and in my opinion calling it such cheapens what it is. It is an experience, and I will refer to it as such.
This review is actually quite difficult for me to make, as from the moment I began it affected me very deeply. Never before have I seen the combination of gorgeous visuals, beautiful music, and masterful writing come together in such a way. Extricating myself from the material to be objective is impossible, but I will do my best.
– Real player with 119.4 hrs in game
The game is quite a bit better than I was expecting, starting with a rather simple story of a newly hatched dragon struggling to survive and grow, and then delving into more philosophical questions as to your dragon’s nature, the search for a great truth or greatest treasure. And for the journey and many possibilities, its great. A few times your decisions in earlier chapters influence or allow for additional findings, whether its from combining or trading an artifact found, even finding what could be described as your dragon’s first friend as an old man, while you have barely reached adulthood. So every aspect of the journey is fantastic.
– Real player with 74.1 hrs in game