Black Closet
Are you good enough to get into a prestigious college?
Well, you better hope you are, because that’s your ultimate goal as Black Closet’s main character Elsa Jackson. Actually achieving that goal requires a successful term as president of your school’s student council, and achieving that goal requires putting the lid on several potential scandals without damaging your own credibility too badly. Let me tell you, there are a lot of potential scandals, and other forces at work may end up making your life more difficult. But first you need to identify and neutralize the traitor within your ranks…
– Real player with 104.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Female Protagonist Games.
Black Closet is one of my favorite games. The characters are interesting and sometimes complex, the story is entertaining and contains some interesting branches, and the gameplay is a really fun application of resource management to solve mysteries.
Elsa, the player character, is the president of the student council and must strategically deploy her “minions” (the other student council members) to resolve various crises so that their fancy private school remains respected while also trying not to ruin the student council’s reputation with the rest of the student body. These crises vary from mundane (the daughter of someone important might be failing a class) to serious (a student has gone missing). You need to assign the right minion for various investigative tasks that match their personal skills (for example, you don’t want to send the nice friendly girl to yell at a culprit or send the introvert to gather info via a friendly chat with a suspect) while also balancing your minions' needs because they will be temporarily unavailable if their workload causes too much stress. The cases are randomized, so this is great for replayability!
– Real player with 66.2 hrs in game
The Patagonians
The events of this terrible night began ten years ago.
However, today they will overtake you and make you remember the promise made once.
Rushing to find your missing daughter, you will become participants in terrible events.
But this time it won’t be possible to retreat.
Waiting for you:
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Original 2D graphics.
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Atmospheric environment.
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3 zones and more than 20 locations.
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11 types of deadly enemies.
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Simple controls.
Explore locations, look for clues, solve puzzles, fight dangerous enemies or flee, destroy obstacles.
Do whatever is necessary to reach your goal.
Read More: Best Difficult Action-Adventure Games.
Pathologic 2
I had a very hard time thinking of what I’d write for Pathologic 2. Despite the fact that there are so many reviews, this one got some attention, and I really appreciate that. I feel compelled to write something because it’s deep into my bones and it’s not showing any sign of leaving. It just feels like it deserves a review. Having gone through it now multiple times, I can honestly say it’s become one of my favorite games and that’s against a lifetime wasting time on them.
First and foremost, is this a horror game and if you don’t like horror games will this be too intense? The first answer is “kinda” and the second answer is “no”. It’s a horror game in that the tone and mood are quite dark and the general feeling of the game is eerie. There are certainly spooky things you’re going to experience here and there. Is there lots of gore, jumpscares or terribly intense horror movie moments? No, not really, and if you can get through the average episode of the original Twilight Zone then you’re brave enough for Pathologic 2. Tension is there, fear is often present, but it’s the kind of fear and tension that is trying to teach you something, not just give you nightmares. I recommend wearing headphones when you play to get the full experience of the atmosphere, or taking them off if you are feeling yourself getting too creeped out.
– Real player with 241.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Difficult Story Rich Games.
I would rate this game 9/10, but it may not be a 9 for everyone. Let me over-explain.
Pathologic 2 is a bit of a mash up of a survival game and plague doctor simulator. The game is both a remake and a sequel of the original Pathologic that was released in 2005. You don’t need to play the original game as it references the original as having happened, but retells the story with big alterations and new plot points. The original game had three characters you could play with different views of the story, but this one only has the Haruspex at the moment. However, even just this one route will give you a full, complete game with an average of 30+ hours of gameplay. The developers are planning to eventually release the other two routes in the future, budget willing. This game was made with the idea that a game doesn’t always have to be fun, sometimes a game can stretch you out and make you question what it’s asking you to do. You will get stressed, you will get frustrated, and you will start to doubt whether you can even do everything the game is asking you to do, but that’s the point. It will take well known tropes and rules of gaming and break them in an attempt to break you. It tries to make you feel as if you’ve actually gone through the experience of trying to save a town from a disease and how crushing, frustrating, and heartbreaking it can be to try to do that. This in turn makes the joy from the moments when things go right that much sweeter.
– Real player with 213.4 hrs in game
Riddlord: The Consequence
Yes, it’s interesting, but also exasperating in many ways. Bunch of woo-woo puzzles based on mystic concepts like I-ching trigrams, but no logic to them whatsoever. Somehow the mysticism of the puzzles relates to the deeds of the four fictional-real serial murderers whose lives and careers this game tries to connect in a fictional plot. Premise possibly of interest, but what the actual puzzles and clunky execution of same have to do with the premise is hardly convincing. Some puzzles were relatively straightforward; others like the I-ching trigrams were totally arbitrary as far as this player could tell. I would recommend with reservations.
– Real player with 28.4 hrs in game
if you like the room series, pick this up, it’s very similar, but longer and a lot more difficult, and unlike the room games, it’s priced fairly in euros and isn’t insanely overpriced like certain clones ported lazily from mobile. it was a bit buggy on release, nothing that going back to the main menu couldn’t fix, but now you can take screenshots without it messing up the inventory.
– Real player with 10.9 hrs in game
Forgiveness : Escape Room
I played this when it first came out and just recently revisited Forgiveness. It is a well done ‘escape the room’ game with 7 distinctly separate locations to solve and exit. Each room is assigned to one of the Seven Deadly Sins. In some cases, I saw the relationship between the room and the sin but others are a bit obtuse.
Puzzles consist of finding items, decoding passwords, and generally looking at conceptual clues to puzzle your way through the exit door. Most can be solved if you are willing to look at everything (high and low, under and over).
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
You wake up dazed! You look around to find yourself alone, locked in a room which appears at first glance to be an infirmary. A voice comes over a speaker and begins talking to you. He claims he is God and that you are there to be judged for your sins. He will continue to explain to you why you’re there and that you do have a chance at redemption if you can pass his test. You are given clues scattered around each room; you must find them to complete the puzzles and pass the challenge. Some clues are visual, some are items you will need to collect and figure out how they fit into the puzzle you need to solve in order to escape. You will examine many items laying around the rooms for hidden clues that are needed to solves the puzzles. Your time is at hand; you have been chosen. Try to find the clues and solve the riddles that lay before you or face the consequences of your sins.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
BORDERCIDE
The detective drank until he passed out, almost like every day, and fell into the arms of the nightmare. This time it was the ringing of the phone that woke him from his nightmare. They called him for the one thing he enjoyed doing in this life. They called him for the one thing he was good at in this life. They called him to do his job. When he heard the news of the murder, he knew he would catch the murderer at any cost. No one could get into him and the murderer. When he heard the news of the murder, he was relieved. He could finally be able to escape from this emptiness. He could finally be able to escape from his nightmares. Most importantly, he could finally be able to escape from himself. Or could he?
Comic-style cutscenes
80+ comic-style cutscenes inspired by Sin City
Use the abilities of the detective
Dodge roll through the bullets
Become invincible using your “Rage” ability
Surprise your enemies with a flashbang
Different atmospheres
A relentless chase in different atmospheres
Other gameplay features
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Enemy variety consisting of 8+ enemies.
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Recover a certain amount of health when you kill an enemy with the last bullet in your magazine.
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Use your character’s abilities and create your own gameplay style.
Return of the Obra Dinn
In “Return of the Obra Dinn” you’re an insurance investigator who is tasked with determining the fates of all 60 crewmembers aboard the Obra Dinn, a merchant ship that went missing in the early 19th century. Among your possessions is a pocketwatch that, when opened while standing nearby (the remains of) a corpse, shows you a glimpse of the deceased’s surroundings – and what they heard – at the moment of their death.
Furthermore, you have a book in which you keep a record of every crewmate’s death and disappearance. It also contains an artist’s rendition of the face of every crewmember and a list of the crewmember’s names, their occupation and their nationality. Your task is to assign a fate to everyone aboard the ship by using the 3D stills the pocketwatch provides you with. Some people’s fates are easier to determine than others, and the game will rely heavily on your deductive reasoning skills, since you’ll have to draw conclusions by narrowing down possibilities. Although sometimes conclusions based on guesswork and incomplete information were required too.
– Real player with 15.7 hrs in game
TL;DR
People declaring Obra Dinn a prime example of games-as-art and a shining pinnacle of what games in general should strive to be, probably have little to no understanding of how games actually work and wouldn’t recognize a good game if it hit them in the forehead. The core puzzle is good, tho.
Longer version
It’s better to know one important thing before even considering buying The Return of Obra Dinn. This can make or break your experience with it.
The whole affair boils down to solving one big constraint satisfaction problem (think the famous Zebra, or Einstein’s, puzzle) uniquely presented as a series of “memories” (still 3d dioramas) accompanied by an interactive notebook instead of a usual cell table. There is nothing else to it, period.
– Real player with 15.6 hrs in game
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
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
Scrutinized
If you are a fan of horror, Papers, Please, Welcome to the Game and challenging games then this is right up your alley.
Like other games released from the Developer, this one too features heavy jump scares that work and a real sense of stress.
This game is all about learning. In order to get better at the game, you need to keep playing it and really get multitasking down. Don’t expect to play it once and just breeze through it. I always see a lot of negative reviews toward these types of games without even learning 1/10 of what’s needed to complete it. Just be persistent, patient, and things will get easier.
– Real player with 48.8 hrs in game
Warning! Spoilers and huge paragraphs ahead!
Scrutinized is a game where you play as a criminal analyst named Luna Youngman who files reports in search for the person who killed her cousin. Doesn’t sound too complicated, does it? Wrong. You also have two people named Tanner and Dmitri trying to kidnap you. You have to file a certain amount of cases a day to win the night, if you file too many wrong, you lose. If you get kidnapped or killed by either of the men trying to break into your house, you lose. If you don’t lock your windows before you go to bed, you lose. If you don’t check the cameras every 10-15 seconds, you lose. If you don’t check your entire house every 30 seconds, you lose. IIIIt’s a lot. As interesting as this game’s concept is, I just can’t bring myself to like it. I’ve made a total 3 episodes on Scrutinized at this point, and I understand how the game functions more or less. You lock your windows, you check the cameras, file or shred a report, check the cameras again, check the house, check the cameras, file a report and so on. It’s a constant stress that envelops in this game that is only resolved by beating the night, but not even then, if you don’t check your house the kidnapper will kill you in your sleep. And on occasions on the hardest difficulty you have a chance of just dying instantly. The developer has released multiple patches to try and fix this bug, but nothing seems to work. I have seen many, many, many clips on people just dying at the start of nights. Now I haven’t even touched the hardest difficulty because I honestly have no interest to. The ending is the exact same as the normal ending, and dying randomly doesn’t sound very fun to me.
– Real player with 29.1 hrs in game
Tartapolis
The game has a nice noir vibe to it. The story so far is interesting and mysterious. I like the liquid mixing mechanics which has a nice amount of combinations. Overall the game is easy and fun to play but i would really like to have a map so i can find my way easier.
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
I like this game. I’m looking forward to carrying on, exploring the city, and completing quests. I did read the dev response to another review where there was discussion of a map being put in. Do I have to find the map first? Or did the map not get put into the game yet? That would be my one disappointment so far. Not having a map. If a dev could respond and lemme know what’s up with that, it would be appreciated. Cool game though.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game