SOMA
I replayed this game and it hits me just as hard today as it did back when I purchased it at launch.
Plus, all the bugs I had at the launch (such as crashes during scene switches) have all been fixed.
Don’t want to say anything about the game itself in case I spoil it, but if you enjoy existential and thought provoking science fiction I would highly recommend it. The game drips with thick emotional atmosphere and the occasional cheap jump scares, but it doesn’t diminish the plot or impact.
I also love that the game (like PREY, the 2017 version) gives you several important decisions to make which ultimately do not get resolved as part of the plot; You are left to your own imagination to figure out what impact they had upon the world. That’s the sort of engaging thinking exercises I wish more games would give me.
– Real player with 28.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Drama Mystery Games.
Different than thought, different than expected and yet really good!
When I got the game, I assumed it would be a kind of bioshock that was just creepier. Yes, reading helps, at least sometimes 😊
But in this case it played absolutely no role because I didn’t miss the shooter aspect in any way. Soma is a pure adventure game from the first-person point of view.
Nevertheless, the underwater scenario is somewhat reminiscent of Bioshock but with an incredible sound experience. Everywhere it creaks and groans. The game lives from the great soundscape and you should definitely use headphones to play.
– Real player with 22.1 hrs in game
Memories of East Coast
Memories of East Coast is a short and linear Ren’Py visual novel which tells the story of two destinies entwined by a tragic accident. You play as Sam, a young police officer who decides to take a few days off and revisit his hometown, 15 years after the incident. There he meets Lisa - a young and bubbly, yet mysterious girl who seems to have a hidden secret.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2507006084
As he gets to know her better and finds out more details about her background, Sam becomes tormented by his own guilt and nostalgia. Linked by fate in a strange way, these two characters are brought together once again to support and heal each other during a rough time, without them even being aware of this.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Drama Immersive Games.
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Memories of East Coast
Developer: Roomah Gaming
Publisher: Roomah Gaming
Pros:
1. A matter of guilt and how one moves on with it. “Memories of East Coast” paints a story of how two lives collide with each other after an accident 15 years ago. Two parties with vastly differing ways on dealing with it. It doesn’t try to be the most complex thing out there, it just lets its simplicity show throughout the story. It’s melancholic and can be applied to the everyday person.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Robot Daycare
A charming little visual novel about friends, philosophy, memes…oh yeah, and there’s also a robot!
Personally, I enjoyed the game, as well as both endings (for different reasons; something something spoilers). It’s a fairly quick playthrough (maybe 1~2 hours), so it doesn’t require a lot of your time.
Also, the couple of easter eggs I stumbled upon when naming the robot were amusing. :D
– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Drama Artificial Intelligence Games.
I truly cannot reconmend this game, and here’s why.
I appreciate a game that tries to deal with mental illness and depression. I believe that these are important issues to bring to light, and to have a conversation about. However, there are 2 things about this game that made it really hard for me to swallow:
1. The way that all of the characters related to one another and to each others' personalities and challenges felt very contrived, inauthentic, and ultimately without empathy. You have a charcter that in the beginning literally tries to program a robot to kill his friends laughing with them by the end, a character who fakes his own death, causes everyone massive trauma,. and is ultimately like “lol whoops guys should I not have done that?”, and folks modeling behavior that is absolutely not the right way to deal with or help someone dealing with mental health issues. Yes. The game makes it clear that there are no easy answers and that dealing with those issues is difficult. But I legitimately felt bad playing the game at some points because I had no way to choose better actions for the characters because you literally get to make like 4 choices in the entire game.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
Deep Therapy
Deep Therapy is a pixel art platform game, where you take control of a psychologist.
As a psychologist you will deal with hostile minds that will try to “disconnect” you from it.
The design, the mechanics, the music … Always pay attention, because every detail has a meaning!
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Explore the patients minds
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The more levels you advance, the more difficult it becomes
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Collect lost memories
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Interpret their minds and memories
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Give the final diagnosis
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Precise controls
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Challenging Levels
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Unlockable hard mode
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Puzzles
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Gamepad and Keyboard compatibility
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Achievements
Psycholonials
So the trailers are very honest about the kinds of things this game does that might need content warnings. Guns and blood and mental anguish and stuff. But I also kinda wanna warn people about one other thing this game does because it’s pretty unpleasant. It’s also like my favorite thing this game does so, idk, up to you if you wanna keep reading.
This game fucks with you. The pretentious way to say it would be to call Psycholonials a “challenging piece of art” which I think definitely applies but, you know, jerk off hand motion. I’m not a writer but I’ll try to find better ways to phrase this because… it’s complicated. It keeps doing this thing where it puts you on the defensive by saying something super iffy, but I think after playing the whole thing that I’ve settled on giving Hussie the benefit of the doubt that that’s intentional and making a point. It drops a lot of really big, really red flags but all of them have a more charitable reading that is good actually but requires a lot of unearned good faith reading on your part to see it.
– Real player with 16.9 hrs in game
Hi, sit down and bear with me. Keep in mind i have never felt the need to write a negative review to a game in my entire life. I am just sad.
This game is simply awful, just incredibly bad. There is nothing to like about anything except the music and SOME of the art. Jokes are bad, it’s just “2020 haha” moments and it’s boring. Seriously, i would never finish this if i played it alone, it’s not interesting. Bear with me, what is there to like about an edgy mental “celebrity” who destroys an entire country just BECAUSE? What’s to like about dumb conversations and just “oh, society is bad and i have the right to act like this because… i don’t know, i guess i can”. A lot of deaths occur simply because, too.
– Real player with 9.6 hrs in game
ATRIA-1
Charge Game Studio presents a dark Sci-Fi first-person action thriller. Challenge yourself as a space colonist on a Russian ship lost so deep in the Universe that even the strongest com ties are torn. Experience the ruthlessness of cosmos, painful past, and extraordinary phenomena unfolding aboard the ship that all mix up into horror.
You are a former prisoner and the first victim of malfunctions on the ATRIA-1 spaceship. What’s it like to wake up after a year of criostasis and single-handedly fix up the ship with hundreds of unconscious people aboard? Eliminate a series of failures not only on board, but also in your own head: memory blackouts, recollection mirages, and strange visions. And don’t forget, all ship resources are running low: movement capability, air, energy, freedom, and common sense as well.
Dull Grey
It’s not the choice that matters, but the way you make it
The Strugatskys, Dostoevsky, Tarkovsky. That’s what the store page said and that’s all it took for me to fire this up as soon as I could. And what greeted me was a vast grey-white, desolate landscape accompanied by droney, sprawling dark ambient soundscape… and then the black text box appeared with simple words and angular, sharp lines evoking that early 20th century futuristic Soviet aesthetic in black and white. From the colours, shapes, sounds to the words, and overall presentation, everything in this game oozes minimalism and simplicity. And that goes for its length too. It could be said that Dull Grey is an interactive fiction equivalent of a short story whose one playthrough can be finished in about half an hour. But it packs quite a bit in that short playtime especially as you play more.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Очень необычная визуальная новелла о выборе, самостоятельности и одновременно зависимости и независимости от окружения. Ну, во всяком случае, так ее понял я. Играть только на русском.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Legend of Homebody
Game is addictive. Simple interface, but the game itself is challenging on some modes (Shen has a mental breakdown every time. I’ve gotten close to beating it, maybe another 20 hours…) If you enjoy having to actually pay attention to what you are doing and work for a win then this is a great game. I wish there were more characters, because I can honestly see myself playing this game on and off for years.
– Real player with 182.5 hrs in game
The game is more challenging than any other life sims I have played. Each character have their own story and 2 years of game play. The hardest to play was the female. Always died cause of pressure.
Could have options when interacting with the others and different scenarios…
– Real player with 18.3 hrs in game
Sink
A game about faith, life and soul…
《Sink》 it is a horizontal scroll RPG. In this cruel and realistic world, what attracts us. In the low period of life, do you believe in the power of religious belief, or choose to continue on your own will. There are all kinds of people in this world, what do they think about life, ideals, and society? We have formed this human society together, and when the end is coming, we choose to hand in hand to meet the end, or to fight hard .
Game features:
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pixel wind screen
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unreliable teammates in RPG
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inexplicable plot
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non existent exciting adventure stories
Do you have the confidence to get out of the predicament of life
Death will delete the SaveFile
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The Thought Police Hotline: Episode 1
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The Thought Police Hotline: Episode 1
Developer: Voonle
Publisher: Voonle
Pros:
1. The story does keep its merits as sci-fi with interesting inclusions such as the government taking over privacy and tracking emotions, calls, and other activities. I could see the inspirations if this was inspired by Minority Report or the anime series PSYCHO-PASS, or just the outlook on real life itself.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game