Somewhere in a Clay Nowhere
I played this game while it was being developed and have beaten it a few times now,
It’s about exploring an alien world and you can expect the gameplay experience to stay very dedicated to that idea. You won’t have a map, you won’t be able to read any signs, you won’t know who the person you’re talking to is or what they’re saying, you won’t know what the item you just picked up is, you won’t know why you died when you ate it, etc.
There is a lot of thought put into the design of this game and what it does or doesn’t tell you. I have played through a few times now and can highly recommend this game after not running into any bugs whatsoever (glitches, expect insect bugs). My advice is just know that this game doesn’t directly tell you very much information, so make sure to pay attention when it does!
– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Conversation Atmospheric Games.
The main focus of this game is gaining an understanding of an alien world. The more you interact with the game, the more your understanding grows. Curiosity is rewarded, and required in order to advance. The best way to know if something is possible is by simply giving it a try!
The game also offers excellent visuals and music. The black and white color palette mixed with the creative use of clay give this game a feel unlike any other I’ve played. Every zone of the map has a unique feeling to it, which really adds to the atmosphere. A fitting soundtrack also helps immerse you into this strange new world.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between
What do you see up there, when you consider the infinity around us? And as you wander on your own journey, who are the strange, unworldly others who probe those questions as they pass like ghosts through your travels? Were they ever really real?
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is about the thoughts that exist between destinations, the parts of journeys that dominate our time but not our attention, when our minds wander to parts of ourselves and our world normally left unexamined. On a late night highway drive, a quiet train car in the early hours, a walk through a moonlight park, or the endless wait in a deserted airport, we listen to weird music amid the ambient announcements of delays, and question our place in the universe.
Inspired by long travel and the stream of consciousness it fosters, Glitchhikers asks you to look inward. Find the answers to your questions, and question the answers you receive. Ruminate on life, the universe, our place and purpose in it. Voyage through a freeform narrative experience, converse with the endless inevitability, and explore the cosmic, hopeful world you find yourself in.
A follow up to the critically praised short game released in 2014, Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is an expanded experience, reborn and reimagined.
No pressure, no failure, no optimal path, no journey exactly the same. Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is an introspective freeform game where the player picks a journey, slips into that liminal space and has a unique experience travelling into their own thoughts, guided by the characters they meet along the way.
A late night drive, a deserted airport lounge, a moonlit walk through an empty park, a quiet carriage on an overnight train, a 24-hour convenience store. Never the ultimate destination, spending time in the inbetween creates a setting for contemplation and reflection, a mood that exists in these liminal spaces.
The hikers you meet on each journey will travel with you for a time, offering thought-provoking conversations, and questioning your place in the universe. Who will you meet? What will you talk about? Were they real or just a figment of your imagination?
An extensive original soundtrack full of chill grooves, upbeat wonder, dreamy synths controlled by your movement through space, and that one busker who makes you feel right at home: each journey has its own feel.
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between both expands and dives deeper into the ideas behind the original Glitchhikers (released as a short conceptual game in 2014), to fully realise the concepts and present a polished and fleshed out experience to a new generation of players.
Silverstring Media are a vital and vibrant voice within narrative indie games, creating a string of short experimental titles and working as narrative guns for hire on indie darlings including Celeste, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Manifold Garden and Wandersong.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449230/
Read More: Best Conversation Philosophical Games.
Grayscale Memories
Aesthetically, this game is gorgeous. The soundtrack flows well with the ethereal artwork. The dialogue is where it falls short as it can be pretty juvenile in a way that feels heavy-handed despite the game’s attempt to be seemingly abstract and thought-provoking otherwise, although if you have played JRPGs, then this is par for the course and can even be endearing to a degree as you progress.
Despite the ostensibly heavy subject matter, this game is far too short to convey any real depth on the topic of death and the afterlife. I had hoped to glean something about who the characters were in life, but of course that was expecting too much given the brevity of the story. The remaining problem is the conclusion is abrupt and nonsensical after the buildup throughout the game, leaving a rather anticlimactic sense of frustration on my part. As this is Early Access, it’s possible the “ending” will be expanded according to the informational post. If that occurs, I will update my review accordingly.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Conversation Atmospheric Games.
Snowdome
Note: I received a Steam key to help with alpha testing although I had no involvement with the development.
Snowdome is a kinetic visual novel developed by Lunatic Works and published by Lunatic Works and Kikai Digital. You take on the role of Tan Yan, a young adult who works as a convenience store clerk in the city. He lives his life day-to-day, feeling unappreciated and that life will never change. He moved away from the country, as he didn’t want to become a farmer like his parents before him. One day, when Tan Yan decides to take a walk on the beach (because his TV is broken, so he can’t watch his favorite show), he encounters a teenage girl. She makes him an intriguing offer. Help me save the world. This piques Tan Yan’s interest and thus, his adventure begins. As this is a kinetic novel, I’ll stop my story synopsis here to avoid spoilers. ^^
– Real player with 9.4 hrs in game
This was my first kinetic novel, no choices to make, just read and think about some of the subjects that are thrown up in the story. The reader can make their own mind about how deep or how seriously they want to take this. I found it easy to get involved with the characters, to understand the frustrations of trying to earn a living in a city where everyone lives the same boring life-style and where young people and their parents do not understand one another. The protagonist, a reluctant hero, goes for a walk and meets a young girl one summer’s night when his tv breaks down, and thats when it all starts as he has to grow up and make life decisions that have consequences not just for himself, but other people. I can’t say more without giving away the plot.
– Real player with 8.1 hrs in game
The Abnormal Place
Abigail has awoken in a strange world, and otherworldly resort and hotel that’s made for monsters, and she’s also lost her voice?! That’s a lot for a young woman with no special abilities.
The Abnormal Place is a spooky 3D platformer with a deadly environment, light puzzles, collectibles and an interconnecting world which has weird irritable looking monsters that will send you on ridiculous quests.
In The Abnormal Place you’ll have to find your way through an environment that is purposely designed to be lethal.
Don’t Kill the King!
Someone tried to kill the king, but fortunately they failed! However, the would-be assassin will return to try again, and it’s your job to catch them.
As a medieval gate guard:
- Interrogate visitors and try to uncover any lies or inconsistencies in their stories.
-
Search any visitors that seem suspicious. After all, they could be smuggling contraband or worse…
-
If any hidden item is found, choose to confiscate it as illegal contraband, or discreetly take it for yourself.
- After deeming visitors as innocent or guilty, choose to allow them into the city, deny them entry, or even throw them in the dungeon.
Do all the above while:
-
Trying to maintain the happiness of the visitors.
-
Earning gold to pay your bills.
-
Gaining reputation amongst the city guards in order to climb your way up to top.
Sometimes being a gate guard can be exhausting work, and quite frankly low-paying work at that. So a little bit of dishonest work to make some quick coin here and there wouldn’t hurt, right?
- Gamble and play some relaxing Contraband Bingo with the contraband you confiscated from the visitors (or bought from the black market).
- Invest in contraband stocks at the black market and check everyday to see if your stocks are climbing or dipping.
Features:
-
Each visitor will have their own set of occupations and personality types that will be randomly chosen each day which will affect their dialogue and how they interact with you. For example, one visitor may be an honest blacksmith one day and the next day you see them they might be a lying carpenter.
-
Special items can be bought at the black market which affect the number of visitors who are carrying items, decrease the likelihood of guilty visitors appearing, double the amount of reputation earned from your work, and more!
-
Achievements to be unlocked through special interactions and your hard work!
rodina.doc
Rodina.doc tells the history of modern Russia in catastrophes, protests, and criminal cases.
The gameplay is inspired by classic adventure games. It shows everyday life and tells the stories of ordinary people against a backdrop of historical catastrophes. Many artefacts from the epoch, research texts, and historical eyewitness accounts can be discovered over the course of the game. The documentary is combined with elements of fantastical realism, quotes with fantasy, adventure with classic arcades.
Rodina.doc is a documentary game from the Department of Pain, a group of critically minded documentary artists. This is a journey through the history of modern Russia, from 1991 to the present. Each episode is a catastrophe – the coup, the shelling of the Russian White House, the First Chechen War, terrorist attacks, politically-motivated trials, protests – everything that makes up our contemporary reality, the place we all came from. Our uncomfortable past, our invisible Russia. History is us, and “coming to terms with the truth is a recipe for civic solidarity”.
Game features:
-
Point-and-click quests with historical backdrops. Try to live in 1991, stand up against the totalitarian coup, and shop for wallpaper.
-
Varieties of mini-games, inspired by classics from the ’80s and ’90s.
-
Historic documentary evidence: books, video, radio.
-
Music from 1991.
-
Invented characters and real historical figures.
-
Authentic Soviet newspapers.
-
Deficits of toilet paper.
Episode 1. “The Start: 1991-93”.
Late-USSR, 19 August 1991. Typist and translator Nina Alesina wakes up at 7 a.m. in her Moscow apartment. Today Nina is only interested in her renovation work. For some time now, she has dreamed of new wallpaper. At the same time, a fraction of the Soviet government has for a while dreamed of stopping perestroika and returning to late Stalinism. Throughout the country, there are deficits, unemployment, strikes, and glasnost. Starting with the attempted coup in 1991, our story will continue with the constitutional crisis of 1993.
Through The Fragmentation
Short but sweet. Charming, but at the same time, low-key depressing. The setting, the themes, the visuals, and the music all come together very nicely. The multiple endings and achievements add replayability, and coming back for more was well worth it. There’s some pretty deep and metaphorical stuff going on, which might hit home for many of you, I found it really touching too. Had a very pleasant experience. I don’t think the charm of this game is going to wear off of me for a long time, very memorable stuff.
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game
Defragging For More
I love it to pieces. Or should that be ‘I love it to fragments?'
If like me you’re a fan of Thirty Flights of Loving and Gravity Bones, you might be in the right place. One aspect I really loved about those was the light inventory management combined with something like a spy premise. There’s something so effective about an ‘augmented walking sim.’ Throw in as many varied and single-usage mechanics as you can and you birth something constantly engaging. Not the norm given how expensive a disposable approach to gameplay would make most games.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Black Dog Bar
Black Dog Bar is a bartender simulator built on a dialogue system with consequences. Each client has its own dark story. But the darkest one is yours! Communicate, mix cocktails and… make others’ fates. It depends only on you where the difficult story of each hero will turn and what will happen to them when they leave the bar.
Key Features:
-
Interactive conversations
-
Difficult moral choices
-
Mysterious protagonist
-
Over 30 types of cocktails
Listen, ask and mix cocktails! Baring their souls, your guests do not even imagine that the darkest person in this bar is you… Get to the bottom of their complicated stories and push to risky decisions. It is in your power to avert trouble from them! If you want it yourself, knowing them better …
The story of each client balancing on the verge of good and evil. Helping or punishing is your choice. The consequences of each story depend on which decisions you push clients into when talking to them.
There are 30 types of cocktails at Black Dog Bar waiting for you. Take orders and mix the right drinks. The more satisfied the client, the faster their tongue will unfold. All recipes are real. You can easily repeat them at home.
Sarawak
-
-
- The Introduction - - -
-
Dou you like a good Book?
A Book, where you can dive into an exciting World and Story?
A good Book where YOU can influence by your answering in Dialogs?
A good Book with some interesting Puzzles to solve?
So welcome to SARAWAK.
-
-
- The Story so far - - -
-
A university Professor was found dead in Front of your Hotel.
The Police already arrested someone in Suspicion tob e the Murder, but you can feel there is more then it seems at first Look. So you begin your Investigations to find the truth, only to find out you stumble into something bigger then a murder Case that goes from England to Borneo.
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
Murder Mystery
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
The visual novel genre falls into some sort of limbo between a video game and a book. Many visual novels borrow interactivity from games that using the term “play” is a must for them, while some are heavily text-based to be regarded as books. Sarawak aligns more closely with books as it is self-described as interactive fiction. A narrative adventure made by a husband-wife duo team that tells the interesting journey of a young woman named Mia Green.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game