Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller
When I started playing Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller in 2016 the game’s unusually brutal and violent nature caught me unaware and scared me away (the fact that the pace of the game slowed down after the opening events was also one of the reasons why I stopped playing it). When giving it a second chance more than 2 years later, I was positively disappointed. After having finished it I must say this is the goriest adventure game I have ever seen - many characters ended up getting killed/mutilated by the time the credits started to roll. This unexpectedly serious tone of course has nothing (or at least little) to do with Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller being a great point and click adventure game, if we can overlook some of its shortcomings (and the base concept of the use of psychic abilities).
– Real player with 30.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Episodic Supernatural Games.
Introduction
When I first encountered Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller, it was in a bundle -It looked interesting but I put it on the back burner since I was busy with other games. Fast forward a few years, I asked my friends on Steam what game I should play as a break from my usual things, and this title came up. After looking into I realized this seemed like a great idea! I had not played a point-and-click adventure game in a while, the other reviews seemed positive and it was recommended by friends as well. Drawn in by the comic book art style and the opportunity to play a female protagonist I booted the game up and instantly became addicted. This title offers a solid story, good gameplay and hours of fun for any gamer.
– Real player with 26.6 hrs in game
National Park Girls
From my review on Yurimother.tumblr.com follow for more news, reviews, and media around LGBTQ+ women media
Studio Coattails delivers cute girls, the beautify of the American outdoors, and a distinct whiff of homosexuality in their new visual novel National Park Girls. First things first, this is NOT A ROMANCE, while there are definitely hints of yuri, that is not the focus of the game, so, if you are seeking high-octane lesbianism, look elsewhere. That being said, variety is the spice of life, so I jumped when I had the opportunity to play the first episode.
– Real player with 15.4 hrs in game
~Minor spoilers~
Also me am big sad that it’s not big gay cuz i wan (female) national park to give (female) hooman de smooch. (I has humanoid BIIIIIG obsession)
Watched episode 1 and already knew this would be an outstanding novel. It has a similar taste to Highway Blossoms but has a different texture. Overall the characters are great and the names of a select few are laughable. Noticed a few typos in there but with that aside, I can see the game causing me to shed a few tears in the end. I’m 14 and my favorite character just so happens to be Yellowstone. She’s quite relatable when it comes to working and getting thrown around the house but her slang speech can sometimes get a little bit annoying. Yosemite’s character model is outstanding from the rest and her defensive personality made me chuckle a few times but under that she’s a sweet character and will open up to those kind to her. Zion is incredibly adorable, innocent, and fearful of any threats. Every way I look at her, I just can’t find any cons. Eve is a complex character who tries protecting the parks but ends up fighting people for supposedly not caring about their jobs. I find her violence to be kind of adorable in a way. The way she went as far as to squaring up against a drunk man who I think was taller in order to protect Yosemite honestly made my heart melt. She hides her sadness with anger (as seen towards the end of episode one) and slowly starts accepting the park trio into her home. A small con is that she get’s angry a little too often but that’s about it. my overall thoughts on this game’s first episode are a 9/10, I love it and can’t wait for the second episode.
– Real player with 10.6 hrs in game
Life is Strange - Episode 1
I’ve been playing games for 30 years. I never thought a game would touch me. This came did it.
– Real player with 27.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Episodic Atmospheric Games.
It has taken me years (and several restarts) to finally finish this game and I have no words to describe how much I love it. It was a beautiful story, wrapped up in heart-wrenching choices and gorgeous cinematography. Every episode is engaging and intense. I sobbed my through the final episode and I am very much looking forward to the other games in the series. This game will hold a special place in my heart and I love my best friend for making me buy it 3
– Real player with 26.8 hrs in game
Life is Strange: Before the Storm
DISCLAIMER
The review you are about to read is based on my own experience with the game and my own personal judgment and rating system! No third party has impacted anything said in this review. This review is also 100% spoiler free, so you don’t need to worry about that either.
Gameplay and Movement Controls (17 out of 20)
Everyone pretty sure expected the classic gameplay from the first game. ‘Before the Storm’ is based on the Unity Engine. Deck Nine had to re-do the gameplay aspect for this game. I must admit that I was very used gameplay feeling from the start, not that it’s that much different but still it is. Overal mouse control is pretty weird I have to admit. It feels like the mouse is working flawlessly sometimes and sometimes it just doesn’t register the movement right away. Which is later followed by half a second delay to anything you do with your mouse in terms of camera movement. I’m pretty sure it has to do with the engine itself or the developer set it that way on purpose, but since almost all games that are based on the Unity engine have had the same input delay issue of some sort for me in the past, I doubt it. It is not a game-breaking thing, but sometimes it can just be frustrating while moving the camera around.
– Real player with 57.1 hrs in game
More reviews on our Curator Page
Before the Storm is the prequel to the award-winning and highly claimed Life is Strange , one of the best Point & Clicks ever made. Is this complementary release as fulfilling and ground-breaker as the original? For fans, absolutely!
I find it hard to believe someone would be picking up Life is Strange: Before the Storm without first going through the original game. With that said, Before the Storm pretty much follows the steps of Chloe’s friendship with Rachel and their mischievous adventures.
– Real player with 43.4 hrs in game
Millennium 2 - Take Me Higher
My playtime: 31.2h (based on steam, 100% achievement)
Grindy Achievement(s): Yes (4+ achievements).
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (28 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.
Intro
Millennium 2 - Take Me Higher is the second series of the Millennium series and a sequel to Millennium - A New Hope , a turn-based RPG Maker game. There is no difference between both games except new characters and areas to explore.
– Real player with 31.2 hrs in game
I enjoyed the first part of this Millennium series a lot and I thought that this series might be as fun as Aveyond. Unfortunately part 2 of Millennium just isn’t as good at all and reading reviews of the rest of the series I see that the main issues I have with part 2 only gets worse as it progresses.
The main storyline was much shorter than the first game. Things felt more unbalanced and there wasn’t enough areas to explore to make all the traversing through the map feel anything but like a boring grind once I’d already visited a place.
– Real player with 29.0 hrs in game
The Walking Dead: Season Two
I will be the first to admit that when I beat The Walking Dead: Season 1, I not only cried, but I cried like a baby. The story, setting, and, most importantly, the characters all pulled me into this world where no one is truly safe, and your decisions matter and go beyond the “choice 1 = good-but-risky, choice 2 = evil-but-conserative” trope. So when Season 2 was announced, I was eager to get my hands on it. Now, ten months have passed and the season is over, ending with “Episode 5: No Going Back”. Was it amazing, and how did it stack against Season 1?
– Real player with 26.6 hrs in game
A stirring and well-acted journey, Season Two of The Walking Dead may not deliver the breakthrough experience of the first season, yet it retains the emotional punch that makes this undertaking just as heartfelt and gut-wrenching as we all so fondly remember. Each episode builds upon the last, and we open with the slightly older and more experienced Clementine being once again ripped from the last vestige of Season One’s survivors. These initial scenes, when Clementine is truly at her most vulnerable, allow new characters and personalities to fill the void, and they are definitely a step up from those that we have love and lost before.
– Real player with 26.2 hrs in game
Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos
PLAY JUNIPER’S KNOT BEFORE YOU BUY THIS GAME!
Juniper’s Knot is another game created by the same people that made Dysfunctional Systems, and is legally free to download for Windows, Mac, Linux, and iOS at Dischan’s website . It’s pretty short, and should give you a good idea whether or not you’ll actually enjoy this game.
You’ll probably notice that there was no sort of interactivity involved in playing Juniper’s Knot, aside from clicking to progress to the next line of text. This is more or less how Dysfunctional Systems plays, except this game actually has moments where you get to choose from a short list of options what you (Winter) should do. However, there aren’t many times you actually get to do this, and it is actually possible to play through the entire story by only making a single decision. All of the choice moments in the game are placed together around half-way through the game, and they only lead to two endings. The ending you get is determined entirely by whether or not you can convince your mentor (Cyrus) to listen to what you have to say, and not do what he initially decides he should do in order to solve the problem he’s given. I wouldn’t consider either ending to be a “good ending”, but I suppose that’s why this is only the first episode in the series.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
The sad irony of Dysfunctional Systems: Learning to Manage Chaos, is it comes so very close to standing alone but in a last minute effort, fully commits to setting up more episodes we’re all but certain never to see.
Let’s back up for a moment though. Dysfunctional Systems is a visual novel following Winter and Cyrus, who play the part of mediators: peace keepers of sorts to the different distant worlds surrounding their own. It’s their job to step in when things become too extreme, and ensure a world doesn’t destroy itself in acts of war.
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
Millennium - A New Hope
My playtime: 41.2h (based on steam, 100% achievement)
Grindy Achievement(s): Yes (7 achievements).
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (45 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.
Intro
Millennium - A New Hope is the first out of five series of a turn-based RPG Maker game with a lot of vast dungeons, quests, and secret rooms.
Pros:
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4 difficulty choices
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Freedom to choose either random encounter or touch-based encounter at the beginning of the game
– Real player with 41.2 hrs in game
Initial Thoughts: 10 Hours (see below)
Keep in mind I’m playing on hard.
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This is possibly the most poorly balanced rpg I’ve ever played. The battles are horribly slow unless you turn on a menu option to increase the speed of the animations to 150%.
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It seems neither Marine nor Benoit have enough useful skills to properly combat enemies. The most useful skill Marine has is “Call Jeanne” which summons a fairy like creature that can attack multiple enemies and heal to great effect. This in theory could overpower a player if it weren’t possible for enemies to kill a character before you can summon the fairy and give it a command. I often found myself summoning it using it to heal twice then letting it attack. Some enemies are also totally immune to it’s attack (I just used to to heal in those instances).
– Real player with 36.5 hrs in game
Millennium 3 - Cry Wolf
Quality game all the way through. Not the top RPG (also less than top price!) but good. My second purchase of the Millennium series.
This game has custom art , music , sounds and no re-used rpgmaker stuff. The story is there and so is character development. Good stuff not great.
I would get Millennium 2 first - it’s a little better and a little longer. Millinium 1 I haven’t tried yet. Many re-used things from Millennium 2 are in the game, but many new things too.
– Real player with 25.4 hrs in game
My playtime: I have some offline playtime in this game but I finished the game in ~47.7h (100% achievement)
Grindy Achievement(s): Yes (1+ achievement, 1 achievement might take ~3h to finish).
Optional Achievement(s): No.
Difficult Achievement(s): No.
Intro
Millennium 3 - Cry Wolf is the third game of the Millennium series and a sequel to Millennium 2 - Take Me Higher . This game has a labyrinth-like dungeon, more side-scrolling dungeons, and a lot of homing enemies.
– Real player with 25.3 hrs in game
Millennium 5 - The Battle of the Millennium
After leveling up everyone to level 99… I guess for no reason… I played, won the tournament, and got a ‘bad’ ending. No spoiler on what the ending is, but after reading other reviews, I was sorely disappointed. I’m gonna assume they have more games planned with these characters which is why things aren’t resolved, but after reading the comments, I’m really not sure I want to even try for the ‘good’ ending. I love the character art and the characters themselves. The story’s okay and I like the monster designs and the weird world they’ve built. However, I can’t recommend this chapter of the game as-is, since it’s so unsatisfying or even all that interesting given the build-up.
– Real player with 110.7 hrs in game
Millennium 5 is a very disappointing ending to the series. Obviously, if you’ve played the first four you’re going to play this and it’s not a bad game on its own. However, there are things you should be prepared for.
First problem is, just like in Millenium 4, the overall game feels kind of lacking. There’s one town and a lot of very long dungeons and that’s about it. In the first two games, and, to a lesser extent, the third, it felt like there was more to the game world, more to discover, more NPCS and secrets other than the secret rooms.
– Real player with 58.7 hrs in game