Bleeding Moons
A unique and entertaining point and click adventure game in the vein of Space Pilgrim about war, politics, love and everything in between. The game is more of an interactive novel, the puzzle part is very easy, too easy I would say, so if you are expecting to get creative about picking things and combining them in the inventory, this is not the game for you.
The game tackles adult issues such as rape and abuse, but very tastefully, which is testament to the overall excellent writing. The world is rich with characters and they all have a story, even the many NPCs will tell you their tale. The creators really took their time with every detail, including some humorous: in a city with many stray dogs, of course you will find poop on the street :) … which should have been an achievement itself.
– Real player with 35.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Drama Games.
First of all, I’m writing this review as a huge THANK YOU to the creator. I just finished the game and I’m absolutely in love with it! I spent about a good 10 hours playing through the story and because I’m that kind of guy that wants to know everything, I logged over 200 saves. I’ll be going back to my final save later this week to try something a little different. After that I’m likely to try again from the beginning to see what I might be able to change.
! I was surprised to find out I was locked out of Luna’s ending but the rest were available to me
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
The Hunter’s Journals - Tattered Sails
The interactive mechanics are not like other interactive fiction I’ve played. It is much more like a table top game. Combat is actually handled in rounds with randomly generated dice rolls. You can speed this up to just show the final result but it’s still a table top way of handling things and I didn’t like it.
In table top games you can build your character to weight the dice rolls through backgrounds, stats, gear, race, etc. This game’s character creation was so minimal that I felt that the outcome of combat was very random. This was a huge interruption to the story because poor results weren’t injuries or delays. Poor results (at least early on for me) meant death.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
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Death Realm
Game looks beautiful as hell, and combat is silky smooth too.
The TAB menu and some audio stuff are a bit clunky but overall i’d say its really worth a try
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Fantasy Hack and Slash Games.
Pretty good game and graphics, needs more time to develop to make something out of it
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
The Vampire Regent
You know when you’re looking for that perfect Choice of Games story that really sucks you in with the story, the romance, suspense, and action but you just can’t seem to find it while sifting through the low tier stories?
Well this is one of the masterpieces! You are the regent of the vampires in a city and you feel it! Your choices matter immensely and the romance is top tier! There is also a ton of replayability. I HIGHLY recommend this to any Choice fan! I hope to see more stories in this universe!
– Real player with 41.3 hrs in game
I wasn’t expecting much from this one, but I was pleasantly surprised. I actually liked this book more than the official CoG WoD games: Night Road and Out for Blood. Granted, this is a stand alone IP and not constrained by the official licence and everything that comes with it, but not every author can utilize the creative freedom to its full potential. Morton Newberry & Lucas Zaper did a good job in this aspect.
Vampire Regent will feel familiar to fans of WoD as it’s very WoD-like world at it’s core, yet it’s not constrained by WoD lore, so the authors were able to take a few “creative freedoms” here and there. On one hand it made the novel accessible to new fans who are unfamiliar with WoD lore, on the other - some moments and confrontations were made more “spectacular” than it was possible in constraints of WoD system.
– Real player with 19.1 hrs in game
A Lose Hero in the Castle of the Succubi
I wish I were the hero.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
Ultimate Game of All Time
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Chronicles of Tal’Dun: The Remainder - Act 2
If you’ve read my review on Act 1 of this game you know I not only recommend it but love it. It is a truly unique work of art from my perspective. I adore the artwork in this game, the story and the music.
I am only an hour in but like to take my time going slowly through this game.
The character of Ilar is mysterious and compelling as always throughout the game. I enjoy that the game allows the player to choose their own gender and Ilar is also not defined as a gender so it is up to you to determine that for yourself. The game also uses gender-neutral pronouns implemented in a very natural way. Using they/them or xe/xer. I usually don’t mind if a game does determine genders for the player but this was a refreshing take that really, in my opinion, makes the characters more mysterious and wonderful.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Chronicles of Tal’Dun: The Remainder
A stone tower
You’re woken up with no memory of your past by an elegant, enigmatic stranger called Ilar who tells you that a door to the abyss has opened up and threatens to consume you, unless you do exactly as Ilar says.
A magickal mystery
You’re sucked into a vortex of forces beyond your reckoning - dark magick, bizarre artifacts, shadowy stalkers, and a past life you’ve shared with the stranger that they do everything to hide. Armed with the knowledge that you were a High Magus, and that a botched ritual of yours caused the disaster and your amnesia, you must summon your wits, courage, and force of will to rediscover the spell and undo your mistakes.
A treacherous path
Finding the tower’s secrets, however, will not be easy, for they’re locked tight within your research journal, written on scattered letters, and lying between the lines of Ilar’s words.
On top of that, danger waits around every corner - spells that warp your mind and body, sinister creatures who lurk in the dark recesses, and a relationship with Ilar that borders on explosive at times - everything seems to conspire against you.
But all is not lost, for there are fleeting moments of reprieve - an achingly comforting, recovered memory, an unexpected visit from a loyal companion, a touching moment of connection with Ilar - lifelines and breadcrumbs pulling you inexorably toward an unsettling conclusion.
Can you piece together the scattered puzzle of your life? Can you save yourself and Ilar? Can you keep your mind in one piece until the end?
Features
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A Visual Novel with almost 200k words that explores a world of ritual magick, pre-industrial technology, and a culture that marries ancient religions of the orient and occident.
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Be lured into an occult world by artwork made to resemble alchemical manuscripts - intricately hand-drawn with pen and ink, then edited and animated digitally to bring to life.
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Immerse yourself in the haunting soundtrack weaved from organic sounds, ceremonial instruments, ritual chanting, and glitch effects.
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Choose who becomes your friend, enemy, or romantic interest.
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Chronicles of Tal’Dun: The Remainder contains Act 1 to 3!
Faerie’s Bargain: The Price of Business
Where to begin.
Ultimately, I wish I could give them a meh review, rather then a straight thumbs up or down. I really wanted to love and enjoy this title, being a fan of magic, folklore, fantasy, etc. But in the end, I’ve had more bad then good.
To begin with, the story at times is very dense with unfamiliar terms and strange convoluted choices. Halfway through the first chapter, it was so hard to really understand exactly what was going on and what my choice options would do that I resorted to reading the coding just to get a better idea. But even that became a convoluted mess, as the labeling for choice stats and their effects is so odd that even with the code guiding me, I never really knew what outcome I would get. A seemingly obvious devious decision (even using the term devious in its text) would fail despite my devious stat being higher then my forthright! And a choice you think would obviously boost a stat (like being compassionate), at times instead boosted ambition. Making it really hard to know what the heck result you could expect to get. Couple that with very convoluted writing at times, and by the end of the faerie merchant council, I was so tired of the story that I had to quit just to give my brain a break after realizing the story was STILL going.
– Real player with 13.0 hrs in game
Steam forces us to select a positive recommendation or a negative judgement : there is no option to be neutral, hesitant. Consequently, I do not wish to be a nuisance to a developer’s sales by selecting a thumb-down option. This game is an example of a product I am hesitant to recommend, but also, hesitant to reject. I may only give my very personal, subjective feedback – opinions not applicable to all types of players.
I am mostly an emotional role-player, so, to enjoy a game, I must feel immersed into my game persona – as soon as possible.
– Real player with 12.4 hrs in game
Twisted: A Dark Fairytale
A fascinating, unusual visual novel (VN). Dark - even gruesome, in parts - but compelling. The shape of the story emerges relatively quickly, but leaves questions that make the reader want to unlock more information and more endings. There is always fear and running at the forefront of everything, but the protagonist (Sage) is more resilient and determined than it might seem at first. Eventually, one can feel her** compassion overriding her well-founded anxiety.
**The game allows the player to select pronouns for the protagonist: “he/him” “she/her” and “they/them”. I chose “she/her”.
– Real player with 17.4 hrs in game
This game has an excellent story line and beautiful art. I would recommend this game to my friends, as the characters were so unique and there plot is different then most others I read.
Only thing I wish was that all the achievements worked for the game and some of the bugs were fixed with the cg library
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
A Curse From Beyond
Really fun for a text-based game which is not my normal game. I felt freaked out in my gut about certain moment. Really impressive work from a solo-developer. Worth it.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Full play through w/ all achievements and time stamps here (once it uploads):
Overall it’s a pretty interesting story about some cave folk doing cave folk things WHEN BOOM A FLYING HUNK OF SPACE S*** changes their mundane lives FOREVER. I dug the story and it does a pretty good job of grabbing your interest it’s a bit short and the plot seems pretty familiar, but it’s not frustrating to play through as a text based game(which is nice) and there’s multiple endings. You can see the effort the creator put into the game and it’s definitely a good solid first game.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game