Jenny LeClue - Detectivu
Note: When I wrote this review, Jenny LeClue had no voice acting, which is why the review doesn’t mention it. The game recently updated with the voice acting. It is extremely good, and on this replay, I can’t imagine going back to no voices. It turned a great game into an exceptional one.
Jenny LeClue is positively adorable. The eponymous hero, yes- exceedingly so- but also the game itself is just overall incredibly charming.
As far as gameplay goes, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before. There’s a lot of conversations between Jenny and the various residents of Arthurton, as she walks about a 2d world, flicking switches and pushing boxes. There’s some neat investigation sections that will feel very familiar to fans of Danganronpa or Phoenix Wright.
– Real player with 22.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colorful Puzzle Games.
I first learned about Jenny LeClue a few years ago through Adventuregamers, after it had already been funded on Kickstarter. I followed the progression of the game through the developer’s page and eagerly awaited the arrival of this beautifully animated detective game, led by a young girl no less!
I regret to say that even though the developers obviously put a lot of effort in this game, it’s poorly constructed in terms of gameplay, plot and pace. After spending 21 hours of my life on it, which I’m never getting back, I feel a bit outraged – so forgive my long review and negative rant. I really regret being a completionist since I otherwise would have deserted the game maybe an hour after trying it.
– Real player with 21.7 hrs in game
Space Hole 2020
Thank god I am not epileptic
– Real player with 6.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colorful Surreal Games.
I’m trying to determine the best way to describe Space Hole 2020. Not necessarily a game, exactly. At least not in the way the equally amazing Space Hole 2016 and Space Hole 2018 were (in one opinion.) More the culmination of the reversal of everything the YEAR 2020 has turned out to be. It’s as if all the misery, pain and loss of Year 2020 was thrown into the air, but instead of falling, everything that made Year 2020 so awful converted into the various objects of their opposing beauty and wonder, music, color and art for gamers to explore and enjoy as Space Hole 2020. What you’ll quickly discover is that Space Hole 2020 is almost equally game and art installation (though not in a pretentious, scary or off-putting way,) And the music is a world of its own, and you likely find yourself as much experiencing the music as listening to it. Simply beyond description (which, I suppose, is a reasonably good description for the game in general, if “indescribable” can technically be used as a description.)
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
DREAMO - Puzzle Adventure
Fun game with engaging puzzles, right up until the end.
The end of the game is broken, when the player makes the final decision the game cuts right to the credits and does not give the final achievements or show the end of the story. No payoff to the story whatsoever.
After checking the discussion page for the game this seems to be a bug they’re aware of, they just don’t care. Too busy working on the VR version of the game to fix this one, seems like.
– Real player with 20.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colorful Casual Games.
I see the reviews by people with 2 hours or less of playtime and I think WOW… I must be really slow!
I’ve played through DREAMO and it is a good puzzle game with a beautiful environment to explore (but not interact with). The artwork is very surreal as you traverse a landscape of memories. The dialog is well written and the voice acting is pleasing to listen to.
The puzzles are all the same… connecting gears on a box with the complexity increasing throughout the game. The last puzzle took me hours!
– Real player with 12.9 hrs in game
Victoria Clair and the Mystery Express
A short but charming Professor Layton-esque murder mystery/puzzle game. There is roughly two or three hours of gameplay depending on how long the puzzles take you.
The puzzles are clever and there is a good mix of challenging/simple puzzles.
The dialogue is enjoyable if not a little cheesy at times!
I thoroughly enjoyed the clever deduction system at the end.
I highly recommend giving this game a go, especially as it’s free!
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
A really nice little puzzler.
While the presentation is functional rather than stunning, this doesn’t matter in the slightest. I actually found it quite charming. The focus is on the puzzles. Having said that, the music is great and the story/dialog are both well written and at times quite funny too.
The puzzles come from a wide variety of types, and are all individually implemented very well. Considering that separate code has been written for each, the interface is nicely polished.
Being generally interested in puzzles, I’d come across many of these classics before. But it was still fun to work them out again. And there were still a few which made me think quite a bit to be confident of solving them all first go.
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
Delusion
Delusion is an unusual puzzle game that tells a story about a beautiful world, full of life and colors, which changed beyond recognition after a series of unexplainable events had taken place.
Uncover the truth, help restore the world and save its inhabitants in a journey across five chapters with a total of one hundred fresh and carefully crafted puzzles waiting to be solved. Its turn-based gameplay is simple yet challenging, with satisfying level progression and no timers, allowing you to relax and find your own pace.
Amaze yourself with the unique, mostly hand-drawn art-style, atmosphere, and depth of the living and breathing world of Delusion and its attention to detail.
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A unique and mostly hand-drawn art-style that brings the world and its unmistakable atmosphere to life
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Simple yet challenging turn-based gameplay with satisfying level progression and no timers, allowing you to relax and find your own pace
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A total of 100 carefully crafted puzzles, each featuring an optional challenge with a unique collectible offered as the reward for its completion
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An intriguing story told in 5 chapters, with support for non-linear game progression
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Original Soundtrack composed by award-winning composer Tomáš Vrána
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Colorblind friendly
Lucid Cycle
As of finishing this game, I have played all of Tonguc Bodur’s games. I love these games and this one just may be my favorite. There is just the right amount of relaxation, using your noodle, and strategy in this one. I can’t wait for the next game. Would love to be a beta tester for future games.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
I’ve been a fan of Tonguç Bodur now for quite a while. I find his slow-paced games relaxing and visually stimulating. His creations are often of an introspective nature, exploring life and the inner self. He is the meditating person’s game developer.
“Lucid Cycle” is described as a series of short dream-like experiences. Exploration with minor puzzle elements. It takes around two hours to play through the game, which saves after every dream scene. Apart from a cat, you share your small apartment with an AI that comments on your dream sessions every morning after you wake up.
– Real player with 5.4 hrs in game
NORCO
NORCO is a sci-fi Southern Gothic Adventure that immerses the player in the sinking suburbs and verdant industrial swamps of Louisiana’s petrochemical hinterlands. Your brother Blake has gone missing in the aftermath of your mother’s death. In the hopes of finding him, you must follow a fugitive security cyborg through the refineries, strip malls, and drainage ditches of suburban New Orleans.
Immerse yourself in an uncanny and surreal South Louisiana
NORCO features detail-rich and atmospheric pixel art born from the natural and industrial landscapes of South Louisiana, accompanied by the eclectic soundscapes of composer Gewgawly I.
Meet strange, unforgettable, and dangerous characters
Navigate your way through a world of uncertainty and moral ambiguity as you venture deeper into the swamp to unravel the threads left by your brother. Fight, sneak, or fast-talk your way past any hometown bullies, security contractors, or death cults that stand in your way.
Explore vast scenic landscapes of pulsing nightlife and eerie solitude
Skulk through the crowds of downtown New Orleans, recruit a wild-eyed river dog, break into a refinery, boat through cypress swamps, and explore the desolate batture woods of the Mississippi River.
Discover a world haunted by both past and future
From Southern Gothic literature to adventure game classics to experimental indies, NORCO fuses its wide sources of inspiration into something new and unseen.
NVC: That’s when your dreams began?
Catherine: Yes. Towers falling from the sky. I’d stay awake just to avoid them.
NVC: You say here that they lasted for years.
Catherine: I worry that I somehow passed them onto Kay. She’d have nightmares of cell tower lights. She said they grew closer every night.
NVC: Have you told anyone about these dreams?
Catherine: No.
NVC: And tell me about the robot.
Catherine: Million?
NVC: That’s right.
Catherine: She came to me in the parking lot when Kay was twelve or so. She knew Blue from his days at the refinery. I stared for a long time into her constellation of eyes. They swirled in a kind of desperation. I took her home, knowing it was a mistake.
Chicken Holmes - The Mystery of Bartolomeu
I liked the idea of the little chicken, with a humor, just stay tuned to the details and look for clues, in the classic point-click style.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
WHAT A STUPID GAME…. CLICKING CLICKING AND BUGS EVERYWHERE!!!! …. ONE LETTER COMES OUT ON THE NARRATIVES WHEN YOU CLICK ITEMS !!!!! lost 4$ for nothing !!!!!!
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Dream Catcher: Prologue
[Free-to-Play] Note: this is a Prologue
I enjoy this game very much! The gameplay consist of rotating around to make the pieces fit in at a certain angle, and the background music is really soothing, I enjoy reading the short stories
This game is recommended if you like puzzle-theme games, this game focuses on spatial thinking
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
Cute game. Only 30 minutes. It was just a peaceful little puzzle game.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
NUTS
Nuts is a fantastic little game with fantastic art and sound design. I played the demo when it was released and immediately fell in love with the look and feel of the game. The best way I can think to explain the extreme appeal of this game to ME is that it feels like you are occupying a liminal space. Like you are on the threshold of two planes of existence. From the desolate bus stop that you initially arrive at to the wide empty forests with these strange little squirrels being the only living things besides yourself… it’s strange, perhaps even a bit eerie in later chapters, but overall peaceful.
– Real player with 4.2 hrs in game
I feel like I am the perfect audience for this game—I love Firewatch, Gone Home and almost all first-person adventures / walking simulators. Recently I’ve enjoyed Call of the Sea and Old Gods Rising, despite their flaws. But Nuts left me very unsatisfied.
The success of a game like this rests on three things: The game world, the puzzle mechanic, and the story. Ideally, all three would be great, but usually one of them is weaker. So, Firewatch has an incredible game world and characters, but weak puzzles. The Witness has an incredible game world and puzzles, but no real story. Sadly, Nuts has an incredible game world, but the puzzle mechanic and plot just did not work for me.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game