AR-K
I received this game as a part of some bundle I bought way back.
I want to like this game. I wish the development team the best. But unfortunately I cannot recommend it, not even for $8 USD.
There are good, or at least decent, things here. There is some humor, including physical humor, that works. The actual voice lines are mostly fine, and what faults there are there in this audio itself are much more likely on the VA director and/or scriptwriters. Barring one jarring segment of lines I noticed in the 2nd episode where something obviously went wrong in recording or compression or something, but the team decided to use it anyway, which… fits with some of my suspicions about how out-of-time/energy/money they were feeling at the time.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Humor Difficult Games.
AR-K may be a study in how to have an okay story, okay graphics and good voice-acting and still come out with a bad game - soo manyy problems.
This title consists of the first two episodes of the game, “Gone with the Sphere” and “The Girl Who Wasn’t There”, and the second feels way better than the first. Still, we see a lot of beginner’s mistakes in the handiwork. Basically every aspect of the game is flawed in some way or another.
Note: Review was rewritten to fit Steam’s transparent character limit.
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
Howdy, Jacob!
This was a visual trip, it’s kinda like Where’s Waldo but with psychedelics. It has a very interesting approach to storytelling which I like and the music is fun and upbeat. It gave me some nostalgic vibes. I was reminded of the video overlays in one of the Police Quest games for the storytelling and the levels have a sort of wondrous mystique to them that you don’t experience much in games these days. There’s a totally dark vibe to the story without being too scary.
If I had to list one criticism it would be that I struggled to find the exit button during a level, but it all worked out of course. Overall it was worth the $10 for sure.
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Humor Hidden Object Games.
Disclosure: I was on the video capture and performance team for the game, but did not have anything to do with gameplay, art, or design.
Howdy, Jacob! shines brightest in its rich world and great writing. The characters are interesting and diverse, and curious players are always rewarded with a little bit of content wherever they look. It is a world that feels much, much bigger than the game, and fascinating!
The other high point is the art! The images are very vivid and unique, and the style sticks with you!
– Real player with 3.1 hrs in game
假如我是人工智能 Big Brother Is Shaping You
I bought this game by searching for the publisher of excellent expectations. Excellent expectations is so great and special and big brother is also as awesome as it! It’s more fun when I found if you select several options in a different order, you’ll get a different feedback. So special, I love this
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
Big Brother Is Shaping You is a game about the facts of AI, free speech and algorithms about showing interst to different people.
To be honest, this is not really a game. This is a chill program about telling facts and showing how a fictonal AI works and operates. Long story short, it’s an intersting game and some of the facts could be true, too. However, this game shows both side of the AI works. Music and graphics is really good looking, but if you looking for something action fueled, this is not your game, but if you want to know about this topic, get the game. It was all right, pretty short too, so get it when it’s on sale.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Zephyr
In the 24th century, Earth is overpopulated and humanity is forced to spread out to other plants to secure more resources. Extremely powerful corporations vie for control of new planets, hungry to exploit their resources and secure more power over other corporations.
The battle for corporate rights to planets has been organized into a fast-paced, violent battle sport where hovering combat vehicles called Zephyrs race their way to victory in the Interplanetary Battle Circuit. You are a Zephyr pilot, racing under the banner of your corporate sponsor. Now you must race, dodge and fight your way across the finish line in a battle for glory and for your life.
In Zephyr you can:
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Choose a corporation and pilot their Zephyr, each with unique stats
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Pilot your Zephyr in a first-person view
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Bring down your opponents with your turret-mounted cannon
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Collect power-ups to improve your Zephyr’s offensive and defensive capabilities
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Race through beautiful, maze-like cyberpunk arenas
Note: Multiplayer is not supported for this release due to the age of the game, though all original multiplayer content is included.
Beholder
16.4.2018. Game #33
If this game was a woman, my wife would have left me
I didn’t just enjoy Beholder, I was obsessed with this game, in fact, obsessed is putting it mildly. As soon as I learned how to play the game I was infected. I couldn’t stop playing it. I played it till 4 am (I know that’s probably not so hardcore, but for me it’s quite late) for 3 days and whenever I wasn’t playing it I thought of playing it. I even dreamt of this game. I beat the game about 10 times, played it for 30 hours and got all the achievements and EVEN THAT WASN’T ENOUGH FOR ME, so I bought the DLC played it for another 10 hours (all achievements too) and only now am I finally satisfied.
– Real player with 41.0 hrs in game
Beholder is all about trying to be a decent person when the rules require foul play. You are Carl, a new government employee charged with running an apartment building. Of course this job is handed to you with strings attached. While you may occupy the landlord’s office, your primary occupation is collecting intelligence on your tenants. Hide cameras in all the apartments, search people’s belongings and eavesdrop on their conversations; just don’t get caught. When I was given this warning I assumed the consequences would be severe. I could only imagine the outrage I would feel if I came home to find my landlord rifling through my personal possessions. However, the residents didn’t seem all that upset by it. Sure they would tell you to leave immediately but there were no fisticuffs, fines, or complaints lodged with the ministry.
– Real player with 20.9 hrs in game
Gold Rush In The Oort Cloud
a strange game i’m not sure i’ve ever played something similar to it.
on one hand - a typical platformer, where you jump and shoot; but on the other hand - its space with asteroids, and their gravity where you can jump from one asteroid to another, and this gravity influences how fly your bullets - and it really makes the game special, not similar to others.
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Gods of the Twilight
Gods of the Twilight is a multi-season episodic visual novel that places you in a dystopian near-future where old magic is reemerging in a world on the brink of Norse mythology’s apocalypse. Play as two protagonists—one male, one female. Explore government conspiracies and attempt to navigate your social and romantic lives while a decaying future world faces Ragnarök, and ancient truths about you and your companions start to resurface.
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Your choices determine the protagonists' relationships with their companions, and with each other.
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A range of possible endings, for your characters and for the world.
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Choose which romance(s) each protagonist will pursue, or choose none at all!
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An episodic story released over time, where choices carry over between volumes.
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At least 3 volumes, with over 95,000 words (10-15 hours of gameplay) currently planned for the first volume alone.
Both player characters have romance options of multiple genders, including each other! But the romance arcs are completely optional, and you can enjoy the game’s core story and all endings even if you opt to romance no one.
Althea Mishra - A scholarly but sheltered daughter of two high-achieving parents, she’s an intellectual who nonetheless loves dirty jokes.
Farkas Heklason - Under the hardened exterior of a guy who survived rough streets growing up, he’s a scarred introvert whose emotions run very deep.
Sara Grímsdóttir - Sensitivity and strength combined, this mostly soft-spoken girl is just as full of bravery as she is compassion for anyone she encounters.
Hector Koskinen - A shameless dork, he’s involuntarily wealthy thanks to his CEO father, but nonetheless straightforward and honest to a fault.
Lieutenant Cebisa Komani - A duty-driven Icelandic special forces police officer, she’s now an operative for the highly classified international operation dealing with recent supernatural occurrences.
Mikael Pulkkinen - Hector’s valet, who has become more like an older brother to him through the years they’ve spent together. Easily sees through bullshit and has zero tolerance for it.
And more as the story unfolds!
Happy’s Humble Burger Farm
If you are just playing through the in-game story and nothing else, then you’re doing it wrong. Read this review.
Most players will play through the story and call it a day, so I will let those players review that Story Mode aspect of the game in their own reviews. Though the story is fun, it’s not what makes this game special. For me, the appeal of the game is allowing yourself to sink into and be immersed in the living and breathing game world and not fight to escape it. I had an absolute blast waking up, exploring, unlocking locations, making money by working shifts at the restaurant, upgrading and decorating my apartment, sitting on the couch watching awesome shows on my flatscreen TV, hanging out at the Jazzy Java Joint for a cup of coffee, and just living it out in the city. Once you understand this and immerse yourself, you’ll realize that the main storyline was just an extra side mission and the real game is everything besides it, not the other way around.
– Real player with 28.7 hrs in game
There is a review for this game that seems to be a negative one and also happens to have a lot of upvotes. This review complains that this game is not how its demo was. That this game went from a horror diner dash game, to a horror diner dash game with story and added mechanics. Because of this, it wasn’t a game they expected to play at release and it sucks.
The only thing they got right in their review is that this game does not have a “slow burn” horror approach, which I agree it doesn’t and that kind of sucks. Other than that though… This review is wrong. This review is a hot take. This reviewer has terrible opinions. Everyone that upvoted that particular review also have terrible opinions. Below are reasons why…
– Real player with 13.5 hrs in game
PrisonShow
The story is set in a dystopic world. Our main character is a journalist that, hate the “President” when he gives a controversial speech. She calls him an idiot and gets arrested. She is then given a chance for a better place if she can complete the contest alive. The contest is made through several stages, each stage has traps and challenges similar to ones in old platformer games. The player must memorize the patterns to complete levels. The game is hard according to testers thus we didn’t add any difficulty settings for now. In the game, some levels have timers and extra challenges. For example, if the player misses all shots, they need to restart the level.
XO
(I backed this game on Kickstarter, and helped out with alpha and beta testing…)
XO has a lovely mix of tactics and strategy within a relatively short three to five hour game run. But learning XO well enough to survive that final run will take you much longer. It’s a game to be played many times as you learn more about the ships, the factions, the enemies, weapons and circumstances. Each time you’ll learn how to survive longer, how to make better use of the ships, systems and resources you encountered, and how to better choose through the event paths in order to win faction allies as you go.
– Real player with 89.9 hrs in game
I’ll split this review to what I enjoyed and what I did not.
What I enjoyed
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You really get the feeling of trying to build together a rag-tag fleet of military and civilian ships, fleeing away from a seemingly unstoppable enemy while building up your arsenal, firepower and the capacity to support your fleet. Awesome feeling. :)
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Lots of interesting concepts, boarding, resource harvesting, different kinds of weapons to counter different enemies. Really enjoyed different weapons, upgrades, ship types, keeping civilians in cargo holds (then performing a crew transfer to abandoned/disabled ships) and the ability build up my fleet. :D
– Real player with 51.9 hrs in game