The Little Acre
The Little Acre is one of those games you don’t really want to give a negative review, mainly because of it’s beautifully hand-drawn animations. If there was a ‘mixed’ choice I would have chosen that one.
First of all, the game is really short. I left the game running while doing something else so I can’t say how long it really is but I’m pretty sure it’s less than 2 hours and I did not rush through the game.
A short game does not have to be bad but in this case it does hurt the story. Personally to me it felt like the game was rushed, especially at the end. There are still several things unexplained at the end of the game as well. Voice acting was good enough, not amazing but it didn’t really have to be. I did notice the voice actors got less lines as the story progresses.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colorful Fantasy Games.
Let me preface this review by saying The Little Acre has tons of charm and care put into it. The animation is all frame by frame and it looks so beautiful, the voice acting is great and the characters are all really likeable. It’s a very lovely game.
Unfortunately it is just too short - your first playthough will probably not last more than one hour and a few minutes. Usually I wouldn’t say a game being short is necessarily a negative aspect, but for an adventure game, and one with big potential such as this, that’s nowhere near enough time for anything to be well developed, as it’s over before you know it. Worse, the gameplay is split between two characters in different situations, so you get even less time and development with each of them.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Broken Thorns: West Gate
Shadowgate style game mixed with self-reflective, thoughtful dialogue and options.
Lots of surprises and humor, too.
Some of the artwork is incredible.
Can’t recommend this enough, it’s definitely on my all-time favorites list!
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Colorful Mystery Games.
Such a nice game, I played this for a while, I love how you reflect in mirror’s, and the story is taking me closer to myself. When you consider all these questions on your own life, not just game progress, it can show you who you really are. How others see you. How weak you are. Worth the price.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Pale Night
Explore the world of Vector with Pal, the last of the Square People, on a quest to break the mysterious curse preventing Pal from staying under the light.
Pale Night is a styled minimalist 2D adventure with a twist on the classic platformer genre, where your character must avoid light at all cost. During your journey through the Vector world you’ll explore sleeping forests, moody caverns, and reveal the tainted truth behind the past of the Square Peoples.
Key Features
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Modern 2D platformer feelings with tight controls.
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Minimalist and polished art-style.
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Explore the game areas as you gain new movement abilities.
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Easy to learn, hard to master, rewarding gameplay.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1490870
Read More: Best Colorful Difficult Games.
After You
I enjoy a challenge so I jumped into this game. You play (from a 1st person perspective) a guy who has just woken up and found that everything around him has changed. There are police cars, crime tape, and evidence of bloodshed. You decide to hit the road but have to jump through a series of puzzles before the car keys become available.
The first chapter puzzles were fairly straightforward, once I found my entry point (which was obvious, with 20/20 hindsight). I then drove out to Chapter 2 which went well until I ended up totally stuck with one item in inventory and nowhere to go. It is a very dark landscape and, after hours of stumbling around with a flashlight, I needed a hint to proceed. Turns out the clue was right in front of me and I had not recognized it in the dark.
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game
Intro
After you is a puzzle base game that requires a person to be HIGHLY attentive, and seeking challenge. If you think you are up for it… well…. AFTER YOU ^^ (Pun intended)
Pro
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It is highly challenging
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The Developers themselves said so
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Some Logic based thinking involve
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High sense of satisfaction whenever something is being discovered
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Time spent for the cost is worth it
Cons
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Slow moving
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Searching for clues can be frustrating
Others
– Real player with 12.2 hrs in game
Gloomy Eyes
Played with Oculus Quest 2 and Virtual Desktop streaming.
This was incredibly pleasant. Totally worth it on sale for a half hour experience. Worth it regardless if you don’t need to be as concerned over finances. But I would like to see more of these at $5. Girlfriend watched it first and then I did. Was a nice activity for the weekend.
You don’t need controllers once it starts up simply looking at the 3 chapters will start them.
You will want a decent guardian area set up as you’ll want to get in close at times or change your viewing perspective. It’s 360 degrees although things aren’t happening everywhere all the time. It’ll be clear where you should be looking. Sometimes it’s lower to the ground or higher up. Similar to Allumette: The Little Match Girl in style. I do wish it was a little brighter even if it’s supposed to be dark.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Stars received: 7.5/10 _ Note: v.5 [0.0 to 1] = personal impressions
[0.7] Controls & Training & Help
[0.3] Menu & Settings
[0.8] Sound & Music
[0.7] Graphics
[0.6] Game Design
[1] Game Story
[0.7] Game Content
[0.8] Completion time (level/game)?
[0.7] is it Enjoyable & Fun?
[0.2] Could it hold a spot in Favorites? (& if the Game can be repeatedly played again)
[0] BONUS point: Multi-Player related
[1] BONUS point: Review for VR
[N] - if Registration is required with providing PII
Game description key-points: a 30 minutes long story in 3 episodes
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Long Ago: A Puzzle Tale
july 2021 edit: 16 new levels and some more quality of life.
long ago: a puzzle tale is an excellent ball-rolling/sliding game. technically the former, but since it’s wall-to-wall movement, the latter also applies. you’ll find signs that change the ball’s direction, pressure plates, portals, and various things to activate or deactivate to reveal more things to collect. no timing elements, it’s completely turn-based.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
A nice and relaxing casual puzzle game, with beautiful art and music, based on the classic roll the ball until it stops mechanic. Many elements come into play with each level, creating ingenious and challenging puzzles. The twist on top of the addiction of finishing levels with all 3 stars, is the narrated and voiced story behind the game. With each level you unlock more of it, revealing more of the adventure of our princess.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Fruit for the Village
I’d be more lenient if it were an early access title still in development, but the dev seems to have abandoned it regardless. It clearly was not fully tested before submission - both (relatively) minor (text running off the edges of the surface it’s supposed to be printed on) and severe (totally game-breaking inability to save) bugs become apparent after only a short time of play. The supposed ‘narrative’ is delivered exclusively through a series of sterile radio reports from a very bored sounding narrator, and is told at a geologic pace. Even after my full hour+ of play there was no clear plot, just the barest hints of potential conflict brewing.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Was it worth $10? Absolutely not.
Is it worth $1.80? Maybe, depending on who you are.
If you are expecting a true garden simulator or a game with an interesting story, then you will be quite disappointed on both counts I’m afraid. However, if you are one of those people who likes to take the barest hints of story and setting and weave your own tale from them then there’s hope. I don’t know if there’s a way to win this game or not yet, though I am attempting to find out. There’s a story mode and an endless mode which implies that the story mode does reach a conclusion at some point. For me, the true entertainment in this game came from figuring out how to cheat the system in humorous ways. For example, in order to progress in the game you have to continue to buy and send bowls of fruit to the village. In order to do that you must make money. In order to do that you must grow fruit. In order to do that you must either continuously hit a wooden platform with a pair of mallets (I’m telling you this because the game doesn’t, so you’re welcome one person who’s ever going to read this review), or buy an auto clicker to click the platform for you (at a much slower rate than you can do it yourself). It’s simple enough until you realize that inflation is no joke in this village’s economy. That’s when you either fail repeatedly, wave your arms until they fall off and still fail repeatedly, or start discovering the way to cheat the system. Turns out, you can attach as many planters as you want to one auto-clicker as long as the planters aren’t touching one another. This makes it unnecessary to grow any fruit yourself and you can pretty much just sit at the bottom of your cave doing nothing but occasionally buying absurdly overpriced fruit bowls until you feel like you’ve got your money’s worth of this game.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
The Loneliest Artist
Inspired by mental health and education, The Loneliest Artist hopes to provide a fun learning experience on combating loneliness, stress, and coping with change.
Guide Charlie on an emotional journey through interactive puzzles, as she deals with the stubborn embodiment of her anxiety.
Explore multiple locations and scenes while details of her relationship with her brother emerge as he prepares to leave for the Army. Discover the true source of her worry as she learns to cope with sudden new changes.
Mystery Tales: Master of Puppets Collector’s Edition
I spent a little over 3 hours going through the main and bonus content, So, based on how much these sell for on Steam as opposed to Google Play, it’s way over-priced for the amount of content.
This one was also very simple and repetitive with the “puzzles”.
That being said, it was still fun and overall enjoyable to play, but it’s not worth more than a few bucks, IMO, based on other games of this type.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
Game is buggy. I got to the point in the doll house to replace the gauges and scene went back to the start when Miranda was sent to the doll house. I then was unable to proceed. Also the game’s rendering went all crazy. Only the hot spots for actions were visible, the rest of each scene was whited out. Anyway getting a refund, this game is trash. Bugs like this shouldn’t happen with proper testing. I ran into similar bugs with other Domini games. So, I’m of the opinion that the Domini developers are incompetent.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Who’s in the Box?
Costing a whopping 3,29€, this small game has lots of tags - black humour, casual, puzzle, 2D.. yet, it has only negative reviews.
They are actually right - the game is a fully guided hidden object one, that can easily be finished within twenty minutes. Five minutes if you follow a Steam guide.
You will play in literally A SINGLE screen, i.e.: a single MS Paint wallpaper throughout the whole game - there’s a big wooden box and lots of items around it. Nothing else, the game hasn’t even got a menu.
– Real player with 156.7 hrs in game
Despite the store tags, Who’s in the Box is not really a hidden object game, but more of a single hidden object scene. The whole gameplay happens inside one location - a room with a box in the middle, surrounded by shelves full of various objects. There is a character hidden inside the box, and he will successively ask you to find certain items, without specifically naming them. Instead, he will attempt to describe them via a funny text, outlining their purposes which ultimately are supposed to lead towards his escape from the box.
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game