Bogatyr
“We sure can have a lot of stuff! We can even have nothing!”
~Mikhail Zhvanetsky
Letande vs. crappy Russian RPGs! Round 999! FIGHT!!! Seriously, though. When it’s about crappy Russian (also, Ukrainian) role-playing games, I’m a freakin' veteran. I’ve played and finished pretty much everything there was – from Заклятие (Spells of Gold) to Талисман (Talisman, an RPG in Slavic setting from 2003, not to be confused with German point-and-click adventure from 1995 and Nomad Games' adaptation of Game Workshop’s tabletop game). To be honest, though, I didn’t expect any new games of the kind. I mean, something like that? It was possible only during the very certain time period. A period, when majority of the Russian people didn’t have access to Internet connection and it was possible to sell pretty much any crap to them for the price of proper products. Games like Орда: Северный Ветер (Horde: Northern Wind) were possible only because there was no YouTube to show people what they’ll actually get for their money. The more accessible Internet became – the less of such games we’ve got. The lest one of the kind I’ve played was, I believe, Ukrainian Заговор Тёмной Башни (Dark Tower Conspiracy, AKA Dungeon Quest) in 2006. After that? All those wannabe developers switched to mobile games. Which are not nearly as fun to suffer through.
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Drama Hack and Slash Games.
Well, I have no idea who made English translation , but he must be executed.
For rest of the game - world and soundtrack combined are TASTY , pleasure for my eyes and ears for this price. Blood is shameful though, combat - found it funny, but only for 3 hours not more.
7/10 for Indie like that. Trash cause of translation, but good enough for that money and I still understood the story.
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
“Who put Bella in the Wych Elm?”
~The unknown individual
To be honest, I didn’t really plan to write this review. I mean… what is there to say? It’s the second game in Supermassive’s horror anthology (a series of short spooky stories told in “choose your own adventure” way with some QTE elements) and I already wrote detailed review of Man of Medan (which was the first one), so, like I said, what else is there to say? Surprisingly, it turned out that, even though the core mechanics here is almost identical to what we’ve seen in Man of Medan, the actual storytelling, the structure of the game is pretty different and it does make it to feel… well… different. So… here goes.
– Real player with 52.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Drama Survival Games.
“Little Hope” is one of the few cinematic, story driven games that are better played with a friend than alone and this is why I bought it. Unfortunately Supermassive Games let us down once more. We tried it a dozen of times, but just like their previous title the online coop is full of glitches, infinite loading screens and corrupted save files that didn’t let us finish the game. One year later they don’t even bother solving the problems and patching the game. Two years later they haven’t patched “Man of Medan” either. The single player is decent but nothing special. Cool story and atmosphere but definitely a step backward compared to “Man of Medan” as of the gameplay, decisions making and sceneries design. You can try couch coop though.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
TITANKIN: Prologue
Great game with a fantastic story. Loved the combat and animations.
The game was a bit harder than I expected at the beginning, but once I understood the mechanics and planned things a bit more strategically it became a fun challenge.
Can’t wait to see what FerfWorks comes up with in the future!!
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Drama Mystery Games.
Titankin: Prologue is extremely charming. The characters are all really fun and pleasant to spend time with. If you love classic JRPGs, awesome pixel art, and loveable characters you will love this game.
Something most JRPG fans will also appreciate is the level of challenge. It manages to be tough without being frustratingly difficult. You’re going to need to make use of your items and manage your resources well, but the feeling of accomplishment is in line with classic JRPGs of the past, games which clearly inspire Titankin in its execution.
– Real player with 9.1 hrs in game
Autonima
A steampunk adventure game set in a world of robots and myth.
You play as Ohm, one of the robotic lifeforms known as Autons, during the slow decline of their civilization. Explore the world of Autonima through dialog, found objects, environmental story-telling, and puzzle-solving, as you make your way up the mountain.
The future of their civilization is uncertain. Faced with extinction, the Autons search for powers beyond their own. Your quest is to find answers to the disappearance of Makers, and try to saving all life. Choose wisely. The fate of the world hangs in the balance.
Marginalia
Super interesting. Didn’t quite get the story but I think it’s supposed to be vague in that regard. Really enjoyed the music, atmosphere and environment. I didn’t expect it to be inspiring but seeing the distant pink lights and hearing about an old family story really made me want to start brainstorming a new music project. I don’t know if any of these characters or events are real or based on real events, but I think researching it would remove its mystique, so I won’t. I played it again straight after finishing it (mainly because the ending dialogue cut out mid-way through) to see if there was anything I missed but I couldn’t find anything. A short fun little experience!
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
There’s a moment early on when you’re following the traditional walking simulator flow of moving from exposition drop to exposition drop that you’ll see something… weird.
And there’s a moment where you’ll get lost in the woods and stumble upon something unpleasant but unremarked upon.
And there’s a moment where you’ll realize something is extremely- well… the less said about it the better.
I really enjoyed this interactive story. The writing and voice acting is excellent and the level design is incredible. You won’t understand why I say that at first but… you will eventually.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Citizen of Rome - Dynasty Ascendant
I would not recommend the game. Seems to have been abandoned. And any feedback on historical inaccuracy of the game has been ignored. Visual style is fun and nice.
The reality is that it is a super addictive “mobile type” game. Which is why I have racked up so many hours in it. You can play it anywhere, at any time. And you can just open and close it. So it’s ideal for killing time while waiting for a stream to start, etc.
But. The fact remains. It’s woefully factually inaccurate. And for things that would be easy to fix, (e.g. Consuls could only run every 10 years, you can run every year in the game - women can have jobs that were exclusively for men, women can also go for education that was exclusively for men in ancient Rome). The only way to make any upward social mobility is through the annual betting activities. Which is quite a hack to be honest, because when you have played the game for as many hours as I have, you can actually tell which sequence of results you will be getting.
– Real player with 356.7 hrs in game
First impression:
This game needs a major fix. The randomness to it is out of control. Lazy programming seems to have just assigned ranges of behavior that consistently contradict your own strategy. Any game designed so that you can put in an hour of work only to have everything fall apart because of a dice roll is poorly designed. If I want to sit on my floor and roll a 10-sided die 400 times hoping to never roll a 1 lest I should become the book of Job, I can do that by getting a die out of my old box of Risk and wasting my time on hope.
– Real player with 47.4 hrs in game
Furry Shakespeare: Dashing Dinosaurs & Sexy Centaurs: Winter’s Tale
⡴⠑⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⣀⣀⣤⣤⣤⣀⡀
⠸⡇⠀⠿⡀⠀⠀⠀⣀⡴⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣦⡀Play it!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠑⢄⣠⠾⠁⣀⣄⡈⠙⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣆ Juegalo!
⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⡀⠁⠀⠀⠈⠙⠛⠂⠈⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⡿⢿⣆
⠀⠀⠀⢀⡾⣁⣀⠀⠴⠂⠙⣗⡀⠀⢻⣿⣿⠭⢤⣴⣦⣤⣹⠀⠀⠀⢀⢴⣶⣆
⠀⠀⢀⣾⣿⣿⣿⣷⣮⣽⣾⣿⣥⣴⣿⣿⡿⢂⠔⢚⡿⢿⣿⣦⣴⣾⠸⣼⡿
⠀⢀⡞⠁⠙⠻⠿⠟⠉⠀⠛⢹⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣌⢤⣼⣿⣾⣿⡟⠉
⠀⣾⣷⣶⠇⠀⠀⣤⣄⣀⡀⠈⠻⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇It’s good
⠀⠉⠈⠉⠀⠀⢦⡈⢻⣿⣿⣿⣶⣶⣶⣶⣤⣽⡹⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇es bueno
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠉⠲⣽⡻⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⣜⣿⣿⣿⡇
⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣷⣶⣮⣭⣽⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣀⣀⣈⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
This game, it takes the words from your very beating breast. It robs you of the very words you would only use to worship it’s form. It contains the pure essence of the great Bard himself, William Shakespeare. It bears his name but is no pretender, for it practically is one of his great works. Alongside Macbeth and Othello, this game should go down in history as a masterpiece of writing that shall be studied for years to come.
It contains life-changing dialogue that brings the characters to life with the ease and grace of a Toy Story movie. The line “my sauce transcends form” really speaks to the human experience, speaking of the uniqueness of each person’s true nature or “sauce”.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
The Epic of Inanna
Captivating stories of voice and very nice graphic.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
So you’ve read the description and now you’re down here in the comments trying to figure out what’s it all about. Click the video above to see some of the gameplay, mechanic and hear my thoughts on the game.
The Epic of Inanna is a visual novel with the occasional FMV thrown in. The voice acting is probably the best part of the game. The graphics, images and music are all pretty much average for what you’d expect for a visual novel.
Note This is like watching a movie. There are no choices to make, no multiple endings to find and probably no replayablity.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
The Rewinder
I really wanted to like this game, and I finished it, but in the end I can’t recommend it. The settings are very pretty, and the writing is detailed and well fleshed out. The overall story started out interesting but by the end I can honestly say I have no idea what happened or how it all fits together.
The main negative for me though is that the gameplay is mostly not interesting. It is disjointed and the puzzles come in several varieties that feel like they belong to different games. The most fun parts of the game are when you travel into other people’s memories and alter them to change history. Unfortunately that’s just a small part of the overall game. The rest are mostly tedious classic puzzles like magic squares, count on an abacus, etc. There are one or two fetch quests that are amusing, but they don’t fit into the rest of the story very well. There are some “action” sequences that are just annoying.
– Real player with 15.4 hrs in game
The Rewinder is a short, low-stress puzzle game. Almost all of the puzzles are very intuitive and the pacing of the story is incredible. I finished my first playthrough in about 5 hrs and spent the rest of my playtime collecting all of the flowers and finding the secrets in the game, which should be a lot quicker for people playing in English once guides are available (There are guides available in Chinese).
There are a couple of bugs and translation issues that are normal for any video game at release, and is probably already being addressed as I write this. But aside from that, I feel that the introduction of the story really led me to expect a lot more out of this game. The way the story is framed at the beginning left me feeling like the second level was going to be drastically different than the first, or at least, the second level wasn’t going to be in the same village as the first. Once I got used to it, I think the game benefited from staying in the same two villages for most of the plot and returning back to the same places after you have altered the timeline.
– Real player with 12.5 hrs in game
古剑奇谭三(Gujian3)
After series of disappointments to find a decent story-driven RPG among modern games and tired of replaying classics I’ve decided to give a chance to a Chinese RPG. So I’ve bought Gujian3 and… put it aside after the first mission considering it to be some mediocre slasher. Last year I gave a go to another Chinese RPG - Xuan-Yuan Sword VII and was relatively satisfied by its story ang gameplay. After that I checked my Steam library and found long-forgotten Gujian3. Struggling to drop it during the first mission I’ve reached Skyelk and finally found what I seek in games - a decent RPG with involving story and interesting characters. And it appeared to be so involving that became my “second reality” for two weeks. Thorough gameplay took 100+ hours and almost none was boring.
– Real player with 188.4 hrs in game
This review has no spoilers and is very long.
Before you buy it, you should know this game is heavily story-driven and exploration-based. If you are a gamer that like exploration, collecting rewards, and/or storytelling, you are in for a treat!
This single-player game does require internet connection to run. This very inconvenient function might have something to do with IP protection during its initial release in China to prevent pirated copies. Unfortunately, the IP protection was carried over to the Steam version, likely because the developer wasn’t planning to release the game in English during its initial release in 2018.
– Real player with 184.1 hrs in game