A Hand With Many Fingers

A Hand With Many Fingers

So I was given a key for this game, to create some content. The result of which you can see here: Before you watch, to clarify the video contains SPOILERS however this text review does not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaO7fwtkQUQ

Firstly the concept of the game is great, I would love to see this adapted to a more conventional case-based system for murders, true crimes, etc. Maybe split into an episodic story etc.

The searching, retrieving boxes, reviewing evidence is interesting although a slightly tiresome mechanic. Thankfully the game isn’t too long, much longer and I would have resented the walking up and downstairs.

Real player with 4.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best Conspiracy Indie Games.


I absolutely loved A Hand with Many Fingers.

In my college studies I work under a history professor as a research assistant, focusing on digging through FBI files from the mid 60’s / 70’s (specifically COINTELPRO related documents). Given this context, A Hand with Many Fingers scratches an itch I have only ever really been able to experience while doing actual archival research work. The game is a like a direct injection of the dopamine rush experienced when something finally clicks in your investigation. Leaving out the hours of scanning useless or redacted pages of documentation, this game plays like a highlight reel of those “Ah ha!” moments of coming across something juicy or finally making an important connection that can move your research forward. The use of a conspiracy cork board that you put together over time only goes to make the experience even more satisfying as things fall into place.

Real player with 3.5 hrs in game

A Hand With Many Fingers on Steam

Lost Cosmonauts ARG

Lost Cosmonauts ARG

A short game that involves very basic web searches (most of the time I didn’t even need to read any info on the pages ) in order to answer what amounts to quiz questions. Interesting content but not really much of a game.

Real player with 23.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Conspiracy Indie Games.


I’ll keep the review as short as the game:

There’s not much to this game. It’s a trivia game of sorts, with only 10 questions that don’t change. You’re presented with one riddle-like question at a time (which you must answer in order) where a lot of the challenge is to figure out what the authors are getting at in the first place. All of the questions focus on the Lost Cosmonauts conspiracy (if you’re not familiar with it, look it up). What’s unique is that it’s asking you to leave the game, do research online, and provide the answer based upon your findings. This might be interesting if the answers that the game seeks weren’t so rare, obtuse or redundant (e.g., looking for the name of a lake near some Gagarin tribute site? Well, this could be one of several lakes, depending upon the site…you’ll just have to type in each one until you get the right one).

Real player with 1.3 hrs in game

Lost Cosmonauts ARG on Steam

Secret Government

Secret Government

I really want to like this game, and in a lot of respects I do. I actually wish Steam had a middle option between the binary of recommend: yes/no, and the last thing I want to see is the devs give up on this due to negative feedback. However, I’m sure most people would be disappointed by the game in its current state, so “no” it is.

It’s a great concept and it has a lot of promise, but the game is incredibly game breakingly buggy and there are some very obvious gaps where development just never caught up to what was planned. The developers have stated their intentions to keep working on the game, and I really hope I can rewrite this review into a recommendation at some point. Outside of the issues, what the devs were going for is very apparent, and I would love to see it more fleshed out. There is one circumstance in which I would recommend this game that I will include at the bottom of the review.

Real player with 90.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best Conspiracy Illuminati Games.


Let me level with you: this is a thinking person’s game. Though its aesthetics reminds one of the Europa Universalis games, if you lack the patience to tackle your goals in a subtle, clandestine way, you will suffer. Unlike the EU games, you cannot simply go up to a ruler and order them to go to war with another country, nor can you simply go to the citizens and order them to support your newly created political party. In fact, it is best if neither are aware of your existence at all as they will crush you if their Awareness of your Brotherhood is high enough and it doesn’t necessarily have to reach 100 first for them to start weakening your Brotherhood.

Real player with 54.4 hrs in game

Secret Government on Steam

Assassin’s Creed™: Director’s Cut Edition

Assassin’s Creed™: Director’s Cut Edition

This is the first video game that I have ever played. Although there are no subtitles and it sometimes can be really hard to understand the conversations with accent, I persisted through the end, and I’m really glad that I did persist. This game brought me right into the world of the Middle East in the 11th-12th century and the hidden world of assassins by creating such a powerful and detailed construct of background story, character portraying, and environment rebuild etc. The feeling of immersion is hard to compare when so much details and information regarding one culture are well-compressed and distributed in the game. Although one may argue that the gameplay design is not very optimal (I admit that, the quests sometimes can be too repetitive), I personally still consider this game as one of the best since it is such a great introduction to the Assassin’s Creed series (probably the one with purest assassin element?).

Real player with 76.6 hrs in game

TL;DR: Not without a couple rough corners of course, but the story overall is pretty nice, you can even see how they managed to set it up for a conveyor series from game 1!

Pacing

At times the game seems to tease the player with how much artificial slowdown there is. Occasional tip would say “Take your time”, “Moving slower will attract less suspicion”. An annoyance for some players, understandably so. Viewing the game as a sight seeing simulator with occasional fights, stealth and story it’s not that bad for couple weeks worth of chill evenings about 2-4 hours each. Climbing towers makes sense here, same as walking around a city trying to spot the collectables.

Real player with 39.9 hrs in game

Assassin's Creed™: Director's Cut Edition on Steam

Trouble Hunter Chronicles: The Stolen Creed

Trouble Hunter Chronicles: The Stolen Creed

Iskonsko Studio has put a lot of hard work into this indie gem and it really shows!

From the starting scene I was instantly hooked and wanted to keep playing to find out how the story unfolded. There’s a lot of puzzles to solve and most of the characters in the game are voiced which I think adds a lot to the immersion.

Don’t be fooled by the demo. The full version is so much better, smooth and fun to play than that early build of the game.

I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys Point & Click- adventures

Real player with 15.9 hrs in game

It’s a long path to the truth; good luck getting there.

Full review: https://www.keengamer.com/articles/reviews/pc-reviews/trouble-hunter-chronicles-the-stolen-creed-review-let-us-search-the-bushes/

Though my recommendation is somewhat low, those particularly fond of Point & Click will find more to digest here, if not a sufficient challenge. Trouble Hunter Chronicles: The Stolen Creed is a pretty packed adventure with a lot of dialogue and puzzle-based trials. If one can get past some rather apparent technical visual and auditory mishaps, it’s a perfectly satisfactory mystery title geared towards retro veterans. But I really must stress: good luck.

Real player with 8.2 hrs in game

Trouble Hunter Chronicles: The Stolen Creed on Steam

Intelligence Trader

Intelligence Trader

I’ve been playing this for about 4 hours and I like it so far. It definitely feels like the game is unfinished and there’s more to come, but the basic premise of the game is clear.

Pros:

Fun concept

Interesting story lines and missions

Nice graphics (I like the look of the agent photos)

Clear interface/map

Lots of potential for expansion by tying in the missions completed with the news headlines

Cons:

A little unorganized. You can’t click on an agent placed in country and get information about them. When intel comes in to sell, you have to scroll around to figure out the highest bidder. (easily remedied with an icon indicating high and low price, or maybe highlighting with certain colors to shoe high or low)

Real player with 6.7 hrs in game

Bought it hoping find something similar to Kremlingames products. Unfortunately realised that it’s too early to buy it. Started the game and understand nothing. Russian translation is not finished, in some places in place of words I saw just black strips… Surprise… Cannot return an agent back from a country to base. News are very interesting, but I’d like to see it in a new window. Time moves too slow. There is no explanation what is specialization of agents.

Perhaps it’s only in Russian version, didn’t play English one. Hope to see something remarkable and interesting in future)

Real player with 5.9 hrs in game

Intelligence Trader on Steam

Blackhaven

Blackhaven

its ok.

I’m not saying its unplayable!

The story isn’t bad, and i did enjoy it a few times, but its mostly just walk around, press this, read that, listen to this audio. you don’t actually get to make decisions or explore properly, visually its nice, but there is so little of actual interest to look at, the house itself was disapointingly small, with only two chairs, a small table, a bed, a weird thing on a wall, and a few stone pillars. it doesn’t feel like a proper museum or historical exhibit.

Real player with 5.4 hrs in game

I really liked this game. For me it was pretty much Job Simulator because:

  • I work in history, preservation & archives (the game even mentioned one of my old jobs, Library of Congress)

  • I’m Black

  • I live in Maryland, visited Virginia lots (obv. not now, not trying to die of modern plague)

Hence why this game was basically Job Simulator for me. From the decor to the scanner/computer set-up to the gift shop to the micro-aggressive White employees (I couldn’t help but to go, “wow, did they just pull these emails direct from the jobs I have been on?") to the douchebaggery of the estate when there are Black American patrons trying to simply trace their family trees, not write exposes, because the estate goes “Oh noes! Our reputation!” - everything is pretty dead on accurate for me. It’s also wild hearing places in Maryland & Virginia and going, “I know where that is and, wow, these documents look just like the ones I scan and transcribe daily.”

Real player with 5.3 hrs in game

Blackhaven on Steam

Cassius

Cassius

Cassius is a first-person story-driven puzzle game exploring the mysteries of Blackhaven Hall, a sprawling historically accurate colonial estate evacuated at the height of the American Revolution. Journey back to the 1781 and decode the dark secrets lurking behind America’s founding.

A Secret Mission and A Hidden Mystery

  • Explore a massive historically accurate 18th century estate including an opulent mansion, manicured garden, and the sprawling surrounding farms.

  • Solve puzzles involving period correct scientific instruments, furnishing, art, sculpture, tools, toys, and rare books.

  • Uncover the most closely held secrets of Blackhaven Hall, and confront the lives touched by a tragic history.

  • Take part in a forbidden conspiracy that will decide your fate.

About Cassius

Cassius is a continuation of the story from Historiated’s first title, Blackhaven It was developed in cooperation with a diverse set of scholars and experts.

Cassius on Steam

Retro Golden Age - The Abbey of Crime

Retro Golden Age - The Abbey of Crime

Get ordained in The Abbey of Crime, THE most awarded Spanish graphic adventure game of the 80’s and solve the dangerous mystery that has been hidden among the dusty pages of history for more than five centuries.

Become the friar Guillermo de Mosce and return to your order to discover the reasons why you were imprisoned by the Holy Inquisition.

“_After being accused, deemed guilty and imprisoned by the very Pope John XXIII during the fourteenth century, Guillermo de Mosce flees from the jail in Avignon to seek asylum in the court of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria. But after his death, Guillermo decides to come back to his order, accompanied by a young novice with the intention of meeting Bernardo Moi, head of the inquisition led by the pope.

Nobody never knew what really happened. There is only a disciple’s account left, which would shed light several years after upon those horrible and astonishing events, which remained secret ever since…_”

Features

  • Original studio game

  • Rewind option

  • Original instruction manual

  • Original material

  • Development notes

  • Trophies

  • Steam/Nintendo Switch/PS4

Retro Golden Age - The Abbey of Crime on Steam

Assassin’s Creed 2

Assassin’s Creed 2

Going through all the Assassin’s Creed games & have been loving this one!

Real player with 63.8 hrs in game

A bloody trip to 14th century Renaissance Italy.

A hugely improved sequel compared to the series first entry. Fantastic character introduction paired with interesting story development and a charismatic protagonist makes this game an instant classic.

If you’re looking for an interesting action-adventure game and don’t mind it’s age and clunky controls, this is the game for you.

Real player with 53.4 hrs in game

Assassin's Creed 2 on Steam