Cthulhu Saves Christmas
At first I was really into it. It was funny, combat was fun and showed promise, music was great, the writing and scenes kept me interested. But it quickly died down. This is not a bad game. But not only does it not improve from previous games, which would’ve been important, it’s even a step down from previous games overall, especially coming from Cosmic Star Heroine.
First, minor tech issues: the game has an overlay glitch at 1440p, possibly appears at other resolutions too, that doesn’t happen at 1080p. It’s not major, but it’s a blemish. There is also an issue with characters following you going out of-sync above 60FPS. Doesn’t pose any problem otherwise though.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Comedy Turn-Based Combat Games.
I picked this up back around Christmas, and took only a little over 12 hours to finish it. Its only now I am getting around to reviewing it, so lets begin. I do recommend this game, but barely. It didn’t click with me totally like some of Zeboyds previous titles.
The concept is simple. Cthulu wakes up and is told Santa has been kidnapped. Why should he care? Because Santa helps everyone get what they want for Christmas, even dark gods. If Santa isn’t rescued, Cthulu can never conquer the world. Oh no! And so you set off to battle the League of Christmas Evil and save the holidays.
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game
Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3
This quickly became one of my favorite RPG’s as well as my personal favorite game in the PAA series, and with good reason. There’s quite a lot I’d like to say, so let’s get to it.
The game takes place 2 weeks after the events of Episode 2, but what’s neat is that you don’t need to have played it to understand the story going into Episode 3, as they immediately give you a summary of prior events upon talking to one of the statues in the Detective Agency. That alone makes Episode 3 easy to pick up and play, and the gameplay will keep you around for the long haul.
– Real player with 105.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Comedy Detective Games.
This game was an enjoyable throwback to 16bit turn based RPGs, but with a twist. They improved the combat system by adding some complexity without making it overly complicated. Since the core of all these turned based RPGs is mostly how well and fulfilling the combat is, the majority of this review will go over that section in detail to give you a greater understanding of how the game plays. I broke down the review in bold sections so you can read what is most important or what is most interesting to you in order of importance.
– Real player with 16.2 hrs in game
Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 4
7/10: The fourth and final part of Penny Arcade’s quadrilogy involving elder gods and silly puns. Zeboyd Games has a classic turn-based approach to RPG’s that I always enjoy, though it’s a bit closer to Pokemon with the whole trainers and monsters dynamic.
Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series began back in 2008, and took about 5 years to reach it’s conclusion. The first two parts, developed and published by Hothead, were both released that year and were close to the style of the webcomic and had timing mechanics mixed into their turn based combat. Then things went mysteriously quiet, leaving the series potentially unfinished until 2011 when Zeboyd announced they’d be developing episode 3 (and later 4), at which point the series combat mechanics switched to Zeboyd’s style, with turn bars and interrupts and 16-bit graphics.
– Real player with 29.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Comedy RPG Games.
Rain-Slick 4 is an improvement on Rain-Slick 3 in almost every way. Once again, I played through the game on Insane difficulty. Due to the new monster ally mechanic, party member roles are not as rigid, and many battles require a different approach than using the same team composition over and over. While the overall challenge is slightly less than 3, it felt more rewarding to clear a hard encounter through modifying my strategy rather than just retrying and hoping my tank takes more hits; not to mention, there are still plenty of formidable opponents in the optional content.
– Real player with 22.3 hrs in game
Blackbay Asylum
Note: Blackbay Asylum was broken by Windows 10 update back on August 26, 2016, and fixed on June 3, 2019. It was noted: DX9 games were heavily affected by the update at the time.
A Blood-Filled Nightmare
- The story is a bit nonsensical, gets right into the thick of it, and tells it at the beginning of each chapter, while experiencing the details throughout the in-game. On the plus-side: it’s using fate—one of Lovecraft’s themes very well (a character not in control of their actions, and impossible to change course).
– Real player with 31.6 hrs in game
Blackbay Asylum is listed as horror adventure, but I would define it more as a horror-comedy adventure. Actually even a b-horror comedy in many ways due to the main character being full of one liners, puns, and juvenile humor at times. The game also reminds me a bit of the POSTAL series in the way it looks as well as the over the top gore in certain situations, not to mention the vulgarity in humor. SOLD.
Blackbay Asylum is a point and click adventure game at its heart, but most of my enjoyment came from the absurd humor. You are a psychopath and a serial killer that has been incarcerated in an asylum for the criminally insane. At the outset of the game you awaken in your cell with your only true friend, Teddy. He is your stuffed teddy bear and you think he is alive. You talk to him as if he were once in a while and care for him. He doesn’t play much of a role past this other than some odd hallucinations you have later, but it gives you some insight into your childlike mind right from the start. You soon realize that your cell door is open and as you leave you find that there are no other inhabitants in the asylum besides you. Well…alive anywyas, or human. Your quest to escape the asylum is now underway.
– Real player with 10.6 hrs in game
Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure
FINAL REVIEW: Well, I finally finished the game. And I must say that unfortunately neither the long post-Kickstarter development nor the playtime was worth the wait. Simply put, the story boils down to not much (HUGE SPOILER:
! a vague plot of aliens/gods messing with humans to create stories for their amusement), and the ending doesn’t give really satisfying answers, doesn’t use its source material particularly well, to the point of goofiness: (HUGE SPOILER:
! real Cthulu awakening just to rip apart a cheap imitation of himself, and going right back to sleep), and is mostly a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger without any particularly interesting thread to follow for a sequel.
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure is a linear point & click game that takes you on a mostly-not-so-dark Lovecraftian adventure with what I would consider easy to moderate puzzles throughout. Where this game truly shines is the writing, the voice acting, the art, and the animation. It’s amazing that this is developed primarily by a small team of three people. Here, you are looking at a really high quality indie project that has been put together with the touches of love and passion on the part of the developers.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
The Miskatonic
Make multiple save files! Mine corrupted somehow, no idea how, and it was right before the end and I had to reclick through about 45 mins of reading. Annoying.
Game was longer than expected, which was good. A good deal on sale. Had been looking at this game for a while, but I heard it was short….and 5 bucks for short wasn’t really buyable imo. So I waited for sale, and it finally did and I’m glad I bought it.
Game is very incomplete though. Art is great, story is great and rich and lorie. Only has 3-4 music tracks. Is linear phonetic visual novel with a weird pseudo exploration kinda mode? but actually not explorable its deciding whether to talk to people along the way or not and the talks have no bearing on the story, its just lore. I mean you’ll be doing the talks tho cause its fun so that’s fine. The world is very interesting.
– Real player with 17.2 hrs in game
So, I’ve completed the game in 4-5 hours, and given the fact that it’s a linear story, with only window for replayability being the fact that you might missed some of the dialogues (yes, that can happen).
The game is as described: Point and click based visual novel, set in a post-apocalyptic(?) lovecraftian world, which is fine, the fans wil like it, especially the goofy take, and the matching art-style, and the story is also acceptable, though it wasn’t enough.
My problems with this “game” are the following:
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
The Call of Karen
I hate leaving a not so positive review for games, I truly do, but The Call of Karen was just a bit of ….a let down.
As someone who LOVES silly, goofy, mindless games like this The Call of Karen did not deliver. The game play was instantly repeating, but not in a fun or funny way. The crazy mechanics (not sure if this is buggy or the “entity” at work) are the closest things that will get you to laugh but after the first 5 minutes even that wears off. There is minimal game play, a repetitive story and just …nothing to do. The game could be finished in 20 minutes or less but I managed to get an hour out of it since I streamed while playing this the first time. I was hoping for something silly and fun to laugh at while on stream but this quickly became so boring to play I know it may have been a bore to watch with no commentary. I felt like there could have been something fun here but it was squandered. Free game though so …there’s that.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
amzing gme vryn good When the imposter is sus! 😳
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– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
The Innsmouth Case
This game has rather much text to read. It’s OK the first time … but the second, and especially the third time you play a scene it’s annoying. Because you will probably play the scenes several times.
I find the idea of the game nice. The cartoonish style is fun. But it’s too difficult to survive, and you get stuck in loops trying the same scene several times selecting different options. Or you take a decision, and after 10 min reading text it’s obvious that you can’t survive regardless.
I have played the game about six times - four times ended up dead and two times I returned home on the edge of insanity. It’s just after 13-14 hour I managed to gain 2 achievements. The game is too slow, and how to reach progress isn’t that clear.
– Real player with 14.8 hrs in game
The Innsmouth Case
The Innsmouth case is a brilliant new visual novel with a strong taste of Lovecraftian mixed into it. Built as a simple visual novel with multiple endings and a ton of options, the game did it’s part just right.
Right from the get-go, it’s pretty obvious what to expect from a game like this. A strong well-scripted storyline with fantastic visuals and artistry. But the choices you have to make throughout the game and how that impacts your overall outcomes of the game threw me off guard, which I absolutely loved as it gives the game a stronger sense of mystery and unpredictability.
*– [Real player with 9.8 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198329404521)*
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## The Season of the Warlock
Lord Alistair Ainsworth is at the University of Edgestow giving a lecture on the enigmatic figure of Waldemar the Warlock, who is said to have reigned with an iron fist and through the use of dark magics in the distant region of Groldavia. But his investigations are little more than absurd in the eyes of the scholars, for there is no proof of the existence of the warlock at all. Lord Alistair, frustrated, decides he should look for it in Groldavia.
There, he will find an imposing portrait of the warlock, which appears to be the depositary of Waldemar´s errant soul ‒ a soul that is still yearning to carry out its grisly vengeance and presents Lord Alistair with an offer he will not be able to resist…
Or will he?
Are you looking for a place to hide dark secrets? Are you a fugitive who wants to remain comfortably anonymous? Are you tired of your mundane worries and need a sinister place where superstition is held with intensity? Groldavia is your promised land!
Far from any hint of civilization and lost among the deepest mountains of Eastern Europe, the Barony of Groldavia offers its visitors the most authentic obscurantism, based on a rancid tradition of illiteracy, fear and sheer ignorance.
Discover Groldavia! Savour the true flavour of the fateful Europe!
* Two storylines to choose from: same overarching plot, one choice that changes everything you play.
* Grand adventure design: experience a complex series of intertwined organic puzzles at the heart of the game.
* Captures ‒ with a twist of humour ‒ the charm of the horror films from the 60s and 70s based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft; and the charisma of actors such as Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee and Barbara Steele.
* Two playable characters, two world visions: step in the shoes of both Lord Alistair Ainsworth and his butler, Nigel.
* Both point & click and direct control options: you are at the helm.
* Atmosphere reigns supreme: rich artistic imagery, lively and colourful 2D backgrounds, and wholly blended 3D characters.
* Original soundtrack with live instruments, full voiceovers in English.
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## Soul Catcher
It’s nice to play a game that doesn’t hand everything to you on a plate. In an age of ultra-high budget productions I’m reminded that sometimes simplicity can produce a compelling game. Some talented individuals with a story to tell, maybe a few puzzles and jump scares along the way make a surprisingly compelling game. Because of the whole horror retro vibe of the game this is definitely one to play with headphones. I have to admit that I took a while to complete this, probably because I’m not that great at puzzle games. I have to admit there were periods of frustration when I was stuck on a few puzzles but to me that makes it all the sweeter when you finally figure it out. Don’t get me wrong, the game isn’t without its flaws. The low-res aesthetic certainly won’t appeal to everyone. Sometimes it feels like the difficulty of the puzzles can suddenly jump without much of a ramp up to them. I think an optional hint mode as an option within each puzzle could help. Checkpoints need to be more evenly spaced as I had to play for a good 30 minutes before I hit my first one. For what the game is, when it was floated on the steam store I thought it was a little expensive. But hey what are Steam sales for! All in all this game is a great reminder that you don’t necessarily need a multi-million pound budget and photo realistic graphics to make a compelling story that’s enjoyable (if a little scary) to play through. Now I just need to complete play throughs with all the other characters XD.
*– [Real player with 13.6 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198053407012)*
Yes, I'm aware of the ALL CAPS game this title is similar to.
Are there games out there like Rogue?
Yes, a lot. That is why "Rogue-like" is now a genre.
Am I going to make a federal case out of inspiration?
No, no I am not.
What I will do is say that this game is awesome. It sets up its own unsettling folklore-themed flavor, presented in classic retro-PC style, with some pretty clever puzzles. There are multiple characters, and multiple endings depending on what you do and/or the order you do things in.
*– [Real player with 5.4 hrs in game](http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198056907421)*
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