VideoHole: Episode I
It’s a fun lil romp with cute characters to talk to, although it’s kinda buggy at the end of the game (Just talk to the ‘Constable’ and book it where you need to go… trust me on this, you don’t want to be frozen). The story was so interesting, I was determined to see the ending, so going through all the bugs end-game was so worth it; unless they weren’t bugs… and actually…–nevermind, spoilerz!~ Also, a strange thing to note, but it recognizes the gamepad for most of the game, ‘cept the ..last telephone that require you hitting the ‘E’ key, though it’s only a minor thing.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Humor Interactive Fiction Games.
great stuff, deep stuff, beautiful stuff.
Aesthetics, transitions and presentation are on-point, with a fantastic script as well.
Video hole starts off very quirky and light-weight, before sneakily turning into a poignant, melancholic piece of art (as all great art does). The ending is a punch in the gut, the characters remind me of my own friends (if they didn’t all end up crazy :P ), and you can see the developer baring their soul through this.
I was very moved, without really expecting it.
Strongly recommended.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
The Zodiac Trial
If you like murder mystery or death game visual novels, this is absolutely worth your time. I would go as far as to say it is deceptively good, I tried the demo and had mixed feelings but figured “hey, I love death games, I want to see this one through”. And you know what? Basically as soon as I left the demo content and got to the real game, the game made me very glad I did purchase it.
Quite a few characters during the intro feel… annoying. Kidnapped and in a terrifying situation, nearly half of the group seem to be way too optimistic in various ways. Having an optimistic character is one thing, but half the cast felt like idiots, basically. Then leaving the demo and getting to the routes, you see how these characters act when the stakes are there, and as you start learning more about these characters past their initial impressions, and realize the intro is pretty seriously flanderizing them, probably partly so you instantly get each character’s gimmicks. Eventually you get to the point where you start realizing that some of these optimists are really already scheming through how they present themselves to the others at the start, and most characters come off as far more interesting and unique once you get to see more depth to them.
– Real player with 43.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dark Humor Experimental Games.
10/10. Lane Hawkins, the writer/director/producer of this game (saw it in the end credits), is all kinds of clever and passionate, and has blessed us with this gem of a game. The rest of his team have done great work as well, obviously, as aspects of this game aside from the writing also elevate it to a level of greatness it otherwise would not achieve. I do not personally deem many games to be a 10/10 lightly, either, being a pretty darn snooty elitist of a gamer who only holds games in such high regard that delight me virtually the entire time I’m playing them and leave me brimming with joy for hours afterward. It just makes me sad that Steam only allows for “Recommended” and “Not Recommended” ratings, because merely giving The Zodiac Trial a thumbs up is a travesty.
– Real player with 28.5 hrs in game
Florida Man: Hurricane Hijinks
Six hours until the hurricane hits. Six hours alone on a Florida island with no one to stop you. Six hours of free booze and stale burgers. Six hours to reach fame!
Slip into Florida Man’s favorite incarnation - Dale - for one hour game play sessions full of laughs and eyerolls, ending with sharable headlines summarizing your exploits! Roam the island to find books, keys, weapons, and many many hidden items! Hunt a little, explore the swamp, or see what the inhabitants of the Vampire Hotel were up to! Oh, and always try beating your friend’s score (you do have a friend, right?) by coming up with crazier hijinks!
Explore
Discover this scenic Florida island. Roam the beautiful hills, smell the flowers. Pet a pretty duckling and somewhere along the way, don’t forget to break into the diner to fill your empty stomach. That place had it coming!
Craft
It was a chore in your second year arts class with Ms. Guttentag that old hag, but things have changed! Who could turn down a pirate hat made of leather and two rolls of duct tape? Or an apron to finally cover up after that unfortunate bathroom incident…
Survive
Don’t fall to your death. Don’t overdose. And for god’s sake, don’t get caught breaking into the Vampire Hotel! You remember the stories about that place. Ever since that shipwreck, strange things have been happening there!
What Will Your Headline Be?
Florida Man Goes Home Early With Illegal Drugs!
Florida Man Can Not Stand The Heat! White House Set To Issue Statement Monday At 11am. Tacos May Be At Fault!
Naked Florida Man Wields Speed Limit!
After eating pork rinds and grits, Florida Man went crazy. Sources say, Sheriff may have known. Nobody hurt.
Reporters out of Business! Florida Man on Vacation!
Faced with lack of news, Tribune continues to report on pancakes! Florida Man’s grandmother concerned, police remain optimistic.
Tired Florida Man brings home Chicken Hat!
Reading 13 books was not enough for naked Florida Man. Breaks into Cafe and steals Nixon’s prized personal photo. Police still searching for witnesses.
How To Make Scrambled Eggs
Add some butter to pan on medium-low heat. While it melts, combine eggs with some milk, add salt and pepper. Add into the pan once hot. Stir occasionally until the eggs have firmed up to your taste. For cheesier eggs, add cheese. For bacon flavor, add bacon. Do not add pets or spouses.
Fine Print
No developers were harmed during the writing of this description. We treated them well, fed them Dr Pepper and chocolate. We promise. Don’t listen to the badgers. They weren’t even there. They have no witnesses. Dale said it was alright!
Read More: Best Dark Humor Funny Games.
Harthorn
Yes! Another solid example of what I love about indie horror! So Harthorn is a solid game about a security guard that’s sent to investigate a break in at the high school. What was a run of the mill break in turned out to be a disturbance in the force. This game has you solving some super simple puzzles as well as some mild stealth sections. Neither are too aggressive to be frustrating and not simple enough to be pointless. Overall, this game is a solid spoop with a decent enough story.
Pros:
- Graphically, the lighting looks great! Textures are pretty solid minus some trees, but I think I might be the only person who gets nit picky about it. I like my textures okay? The darkness is balanced well to the point where your vision is kind of obscured by the darkness, but not like some horror games where you can only see as far as your nose.
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
Wow! This game is a lot of fun.
The AI is glitchy(I’ll talk about that in a second) and it’s a little short as it can be completed in just over an hour, but overall a very enjoyable experience.
I loved the idea of being a security guard in a creepy old high school during holiday break. The atmosphere was very unsettling but welcoming at the same time. The story was fleshed out well enough, I kinda feel like there could have been some more meat to it though. Maybe more diaries/articles? Or maybe more urban legends shared by the nice lady in your ear? While eerie, I felt like it could be more unsettling.
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
The Phantom Fellows
Oliver Cobblestone can communicate with a dead- not the dead, but rather one Englebert Picklebender. Together they investigate the paranormal to bring peace to occupant spirits and haunted hosts alike.
Share laughs with the living and deceased in this point-and-click comedy adventure while attending to specters who haunt your clientele. Use Oliver’s incredible ability to, um, be alive, and Englebert’s capacity for the incorporeal to fulfill agreements with the respiratorily challenged. Oh! but the breather paying you will need physical proof you’ve done anything at all, and how will you get something out of nothing? Call your closest pal, take your deepest breath, and stumble headlong into the unknown on a personal journey of social entanglement and brotherhood beyond the veil.
As you pass a week with the Phantom Fellows, you’ll encounter many spirits. Some yearn to be reunited with a possession, others wish to commence their eternal repose, and of course a few simply enjoy a good haunting. Between spooks you’ll also meet many warm-bodied breathers (for better or worse), and all the while a shadowy, malicious spirit will lurk near Oliver for a dearly personal reason.
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Hand-drawn pixel art and animations
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Completely interactive- take control of the characters!
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Switch between Oliver and Englebert! Sometimes being dead has its perks. Maybe.
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Play through eight days, explore each new location, negotiate with ghosts, sweet talk the living, and perform slapdash acts of tomfoolery!
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Revisit locations from previous days any time after Day 3 and discover more answers! or questions?
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Some puzzles have alternate solutions as the ending has an alternate of its own
Please Note The demo does not feature a soundtrack. We decided to best serve the game itself, a score will be written for it in its entirety. So instead of putting placeholder music in the demo we decided to just kindly suggest you put on some of your favorite tunes, get comfortable and enjoy The Phantom Fellows demo!
Warp Frontier
I do not think the puzzles are good, but overall I find this game compelling, both in the story and for the meta-puzzle of ‘what do I have to do differently to get the other achievement’ element. One playthrough takes very roughly seven hours. I was in the beginning of my second playthrough when I started this review. I think it would need at least three playthroughs to get all the achievements. For full disclosure, I’m an immigrant to Australia. If you don’t like our sarcasm, you may not like the presentation and characters.
– Real player with 19.0 hrs in game
edit: more save slots available + skippable travel animations.
warp frontier stars space cop and former drummer vince ‘tin man’ cassini, who kicked some ass back in the day when he wasn’t on the turps or gigging with his band, but still has some juice left in him (the non-alcoholic variety). on his way home for a birthday celebration, his ship gets shot down. after some first aid to the ship he finds the attackers, killed by nothing somehow, then runs into a girl who leads him to something he’s been trying to find for a long time.
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
Foul Play - Yuri Visual Novel
Great characterisation, good art, and very fitting music. It’s easily as well written as (if quite different from) others I enjoyed like RazzArt’s Starlight Vega, Studio Elan’s Highway Blossoms, and Hanako Game’s Black Closet. This is on top of its reasonable replayability (ignoring bad endings and minor variations, there’s at least two completely distinct endings following each romance). Just overall a very well put together story.
– Real player with 19.8 hrs in game
I have laughed plenty, I have sobbed myself to sleep, and perhaps a couple of other unspeakable activities. Good, relatable, real wlw content. Plenty of moments where I saw myself in my own experiences, especially when navigating the community and the coming-out process. Makes me feel better about who I am and what I’ve gone through. ggwp, thank you for your work 3
– Real player with 17.8 hrs in game
VOENKOMAT
VOENKOMAT is a social game.
This game makes it possible to become a worst enemy of russian teens and guys - military comissar. You need to send to the army as many as possible soldiers, protect your military HQ from foreign spies and save your soul from karmic devastation.
Don’t go to army - play VOENKOMAT!
You need to help to voenkom-newcomer to do his job proper.
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You’re in the army now. Really
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You can go through citizen files and learn their terrible and silly secrets.
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Only you decide future of russian army and military HQ by making important choices
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Ocean of “Russian spirit” and funny soundtrack
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Secrets, Easter eggs, Odd events and buckets of humour
All characters and events in this game are entirely fictional and the whole game was made to make someone smile on the Internet
Cat’s Menace
This game was a lot of fun to play in front of my stream audience, however playing it by myself without friends would have been a rather miserable experience, I’m afraid. The game has no save or checkpoint system, so when you have a Game Over, you have to start the entire game over from the beginning. The game operates by having you assign a cat to a task and making choices to decide whether the cats succeed or fail in the mission. The choices have no logic behind them, so it’s a coin flip in deciding if you lose the cat you assigned or not. Also, it doesn’t seem to matter which cats you assign to the mission. They’re essentially just very cute life counters.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
So, I’m going to be honest and say, I LOVE CATS…
Now, when I then looked at the “Similar to games you’ve played: The Witcher 3 and Portal 2” I was ready for this game to BLOW. MY. MIND.
Spoiler alert: It did not…
The other reviews are spot on:
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English translation is bad, even to the point where some things doesn’t make sense
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It’s game over pretty easily and you have no idea what would be the right answer to the events you’re prompted with
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When you get a game over, you start over from the beginning - so it becomes a pattern of blindly guessing what’s right and having to remember every right answer to get further in the game. Which gets boring and annoying very fast.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Alien Function
Fun game with great story line and good puzzles ranging from easy to very challenging. Very very linear but the story line was engaging enough to want to keep on the ride. Really brought me back to the experiences i had playing Kings Quest, Police Quest, etc series way back in the day (showing my age now).
– Real player with 15.4 hrs in game
no hints, this game is bad.
i really wanted to see the end of this, but it’s just a ‘‘click everything until something works’’
also, the only alien you will see is on the title screen.
– Real player with 9.6 hrs in game