The Companion
Absolute stunning visual and audio! A perfect game for those who are looking for a chill, relaxing and exploration game.
The controls are great too! I really love the dash ability. Different levels also have very distinct visual. The developer is also very open to feedbacks and continously improve the game overtime, really appreciate it!
– Real player with 19.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Emotional Open World Games.
GRAPHICS: 9.5/10
SOUND QUALITY: 7.5/10
GAMEPLAY: 7.5/10
CHARACTERS: 8.5/10
STORY: 7.5/10
OVERALL: 8.1/10
Experience one family’s harrowing journey through the wild. Summon and follow wisps, witness visions of the past, and interact with the present to change the future.
At first, I was very impressed by The Companion. This visually striking, emotional fantasy adventure hits all the right notes both figuratively and literally (the score is heartbreaking in all the best ways). Then I found out it was also created by a self-taught solo developer in under a year! David Fazzio, the game’s writer, director, and designer, started learning game design in 2015 when the Unreal Engine became available for free. After putting aside his initial multiplayer project, Fazzio shifted his focus in 2020 to the intimate yet epic story that would soon become Studio 46’s debut game, The Companion—and what a debut it is!
– Real player with 14.3 hrs in game
Sweet Love
A serious subject displayed with minimalist elegance and rhetorical gameplay. Video games are also great at that: to convey important, personal and yet universal experiences.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Emotional Narration Games.
Don’t let my game time fool you, the game is finished in 16 minutes.
I am not fond of platformers in “normal” times. But Otterways made an amazing game that conveys a message all of humanity (men and women) should all learn.
If you can save buying a coffee on your week, you can buy the game, and possibly a few keys to share with whoever you want!
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
Nebula Within
A life philosophy ruminating, fast-paced, geometric twin stick shooter made by the human, Nick Oueijan. Allow me to maybe put it a bit differently, one man’s escape from the black hole life tends to create for a lot of us at some point and a vessel that helped him break free from his own personal one.
Despite only using geometry shapes, the game’s visuals are very well done. Sharp, colourful geometry on a black background with tiny white, swirling stars makes for some good contrast and individual shapes stand out nicely. Game menus and selection are awesomely done, allowing you to pilot your ship and shoot to select individual options which are represented by different drawings. Even looking through your collected mantras is done by turning the pages with your ship.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Emotional Indie Games.
Introduction
Fair warning at the start, the developer has been very kind to reach out to me as a Curator to leave a review for this game and despite me being extremely thankful that they did, this review is and will stay my personal honest opinion of the game. P.S. Considering the game this review might be a bit more of a ‘deepdive’ than normal.
Nebula Within is an Asteroids style game with a focus on zenning out and just enjoying the game and yourself with an overarching theme of motivation and relaxation.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
Sea of Solitude
EA is usually known for two things: microtransactions and more microtransactions. As a result, many gamers overlook their EA Original lineup, which features unique indie titles. One such is Sea of Solitude.
Shallow Sea
It’s always amazing to see developers find creative and unique ways of tackling themes surrounding mental health issues. Some succeed, some fail. Sadly, Sea of Solitude falls in the latter camp.
It fails for a couple of reasons. First, the writing. Instead of providing a more in-depth commentary on a particular issue, it opts for quantity over quality. As a result, it only skims over them and does a rather shallow take that boils down to “this is good” and “this is bad”.
– Real player with 6.4 hrs in game
There are a bunch of short little 5 hour games or under now that you can play on the EA 5 bucks a month deal. This game and Unravel 1 and 2 etc. If you pick up the monthly pass to play these games you will knock them out in a single session or a week at most and will still have 3 weeks left to download and play a bunch of other neat games. Sea of Solitude is a once and done game for me so it is a perfect candidate for the monthly pass. But we are not here to talk about whether the EA pass has value or not we are here to talk about this game. So what can I tell you about it? Unfortunately not a lot. Spoilers.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game
Ignatius
Very good game, love the ambience and the great art.
Recommended.
The installed .exe has been renamed and Steam didn’t find it in my drive D :
Just copied and renamed the folder “Ignatius - Reunited_Data” to “Ignatius_Data”, and the exe “Ignatius - Reunited.exe” to “Ignatius.exe”, and Steam worked ok (otherwise no played time is registered).
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
This game is an adorable noir style game with great coloured highlights. The music is creepy, there are puns that are amazing, and the story is sweet.. The game is generally quite easy, BUT, if you move incorrectly can be very unforgiving - but it was worth it and I had a lot of laughs with it.. The design is just beautiful - there are a few spelling errors and jittery bits but in my opinion I put it down to it feeling like an old school movie that used to flicker and for all I know, that’s how its meant to be portrayed.. The enemies aren’t overly hard, it would be easily playable by a younger audience.. It reminds me of other games that I have played such as Machinarium and looks similar to what Limbo looks like - but it was still beautiful regardless..
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
The Elysian Field
This game is as beautiful of a game as a game this short can be. Absolutely love it!
SPOILER Warning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6EKrgvZGHY&t=185s
I highly recommend that every people open their mind and heart up and give this game a play. it’s short and sweet and will make you think about the meaning of your life.. while you are here now.
I only wish every indie developer showed us the heart this indie dev does with this excellent short adventure!
This game won my rare “Zaxtors Indie Gold” award that I usually only give to about one game a month, where dozens of games fall short of getting my ZIG award. Excellent work @ dev!
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
A short piece of art.
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between
What do you see up there, when you consider the infinity around us? And as you wander on your own journey, who are the strange, unworldly others who probe those questions as they pass like ghosts through your travels? Were they ever really real?
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is about the thoughts that exist between destinations, the parts of journeys that dominate our time but not our attention, when our minds wander to parts of ourselves and our world normally left unexamined. On a late night highway drive, a quiet train car in the early hours, a walk through a moonlight park, or the endless wait in a deserted airport, we listen to weird music amid the ambient announcements of delays, and question our place in the universe.
Inspired by long travel and the stream of consciousness it fosters, Glitchhikers asks you to look inward. Find the answers to your questions, and question the answers you receive. Ruminate on life, the universe, our place and purpose in it. Voyage through a freeform narrative experience, converse with the endless inevitability, and explore the cosmic, hopeful world you find yourself in.
A follow up to the critically praised short game released in 2014, Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is an expanded experience, reborn and reimagined.
No pressure, no failure, no optimal path, no journey exactly the same. Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is an introspective freeform game where the player picks a journey, slips into that liminal space and has a unique experience travelling into their own thoughts, guided by the characters they meet along the way.
A late night drive, a deserted airport lounge, a moonlit walk through an empty park, a quiet carriage on an overnight train, a 24-hour convenience store. Never the ultimate destination, spending time in the inbetween creates a setting for contemplation and reflection, a mood that exists in these liminal spaces.
The hikers you meet on each journey will travel with you for a time, offering thought-provoking conversations, and questioning your place in the universe. Who will you meet? What will you talk about? Were they real or just a figment of your imagination?
An extensive original soundtrack full of chill grooves, upbeat wonder, dreamy synths controlled by your movement through space, and that one busker who makes you feel right at home: each journey has its own feel.
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between both expands and dives deeper into the ideas behind the original Glitchhikers (released as a short conceptual game in 2014), to fully realise the concepts and present a polished and fleshed out experience to a new generation of players.
Silverstring Media are a vital and vibrant voice within narrative indie games, creating a string of short experimental titles and working as narrative guns for hire on indie darlings including Celeste, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Manifold Garden and Wandersong.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449230/
Sonority
Sonority is a music-based puzzle game. You are playing as Esther, a young girl who has made it her task to unveil the secrets of music. Equipped with her panpipes she arrives at the mysterious rockery, where she will have to use her wits to pass test after test. Will the legendary preceptors of music be at her side?
Unveil the secrets of the abandoned rockery and find out what happened to it and its former inhabitants.
Use music to manipulate your environment to your advantage. Traverse ravines, ascend rock spires and rejuvenate the world around you.
Delve deeper and find the lost songs and art of Sonority and get to know our talking, singing raccoon.
Suicide For Him
It is a dream come true to see this game take shape like this, and I am very excited to see it grow!
Although it is an indie game with a small team, it has so much to offer such as:
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A beautiful and original soundtrack
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Brilliant voice acting that brings the characters to life
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Entertaining extras that add more variety to gameplay
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An anime/manga, stylish art-style that is appealing to look at, especially for fans of the genre
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Customisation of the main character which will expand further
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An engaging story with the first act being a great introduction to the game’s character and universe
– Real player with 43.7 hrs in game
I want to know what the connection between this game and the simulator is? Because the style is kind of similar.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
The Lost Legends of Redwall™: The Scout Act 2
I will admit, after playing Act 1 on release, I was very doubtful that Soma could continue their franchise. The gameplay was very buggy, as expected from a new developer, and it got so frustrating that I couldn’t stand to play the game anymore.
Fast forward a couple years, and to my pleasant surprise, Soma used their lessons learned from Act 1, and it shows here in Act 2 (They even vastly improved the gameplay through patches in Act 1!). Though there are some glaring bugs in the gameplay and level design, they’re much less plentiful than Act 1 was upon release. Most notable were the lack of collision object which would allow you to fall through the world. In general, Soma are really applying themselves in making a great game with a great story for any Redwall reader.
– Real player with 31.8 hrs in game
If you liked Act I, chances are you’ll enjoy this one too. The gameplay is essentially the same and, even if it isn’t groundbreaking, it has the same charm and character as the first instalment. There are new characters with plenty of personality, including one based on an actual character from the Redwall book. The artworks are lovely as before and the soundtrack is great.
Also I’d like to give the devs, Soma Games, some extra praise: though these Redwall games are sometimes a little buggy, Soma really make the effort to correct as many glitches as they can. They actively facilitate player feedback with a bug reporting option on the menu, and week by week they’ve been steadily patching as many issues as they can. A committed developer is one worth supporting!
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game