Dark Nights with Poe and Munro
Dark Nights with Poe and Munro is a FMV comedy-thriller game, where the player intervene in radio hosts' adventures in six episode. The game is playing in the same universe like The Shapeshifting Detective from the same developer.
I bought the game at the first place, because I really liked The Shapeshifting Detective.
Sound and music is most likely the brightest part of the game. Especially the main menu theme, but all of the songs are really good. Other sound and voices are really good in the game, has good quality in my opinion. In the last episodes, one of the actress voice was low, but that’s all really.
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
The Infectious, Shapeshifting Madness of D’Avekki Studios!
(The infectious madness I’m currently enduring is that of COVID symptomatology, so please forgive anything that doesn’t quite make sense!)
I think I love it.
The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker had a huge impact on me. A fact poor D’Avekki Studios will have already been well exposed to if they caught any glimpse of my Shapeshifting Detective review. Where it really separated itself from all other FMV games then and since is that it was effectively one-on-one campfire storytelling. Patients were constricted to lounging on a central sofa as they beguiled you with outlandish stories against a superbly crafted atmosphere. Your imagination was put to work, but with the FMV visuals lending it all more credibility. Nothing else is quite like it and thus quite matches it (the closest perhaps being Her Story). I’ve been eargerly awaiting anything D’Avekki ever since.
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
Gruta: Prologue of the Gloomy Whispers
In this narrative-driven platformer game, you play as child that was living on the edge, trying to escape of her family. Running away, the kid wants to fight the monster she thought was causing trouble between her parents. What she found was not what she was expecting.
Using a sword and shield based combat, you have to fight different types of enemies and mechanics through the levels and reach your goal: Find and face the monster to save your family.
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Stylized pixel-art and original artstyle cutscenes;
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50 hand-crafted levels with increasing complexity;
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A action platformer game with a stunning and polished game feel;
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Tight controls - optmized controls for gamepads and keyboards;
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Original Soundtrack;
Read More: Best Episodic Lovecraftian Games.
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 Female Protagonist 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
PROZE: Enlightenment
The very last part of the game was a bit frustrating due to the lack of checkpoints for the last puzzle, which made it unnecessarily hard but other than that I had a fantastic time with the game. I would highly recommend getting this if you’re into exploration/puzzle games with an interesting story.
PROS:
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Great visuals and level design
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Good puzzles (with some nice physical puzzles too)
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Very good audio
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Intriguing and promising story
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Great atmosphere
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Very responsive controls with options for faster movement, snap and smooth and left-handed
– Real player with 10.0 hrs in game
OK, here goes:
This is not a bad game, and it really has a lot of good things going for it: interesting story, really great sound effects (spooky as hell in many spots!), and in many places is open-world enough to keep it less than completely linear. That being said, here are the the things I really had trouble with:
- IT’S SO FRIGGIN' DARK!! Almost the entire game - with the exception of a couple of cut-scenes - takes place at night and/or in interior spaces with little or no ambient lighting. This works great to achieve a mood - and yes, it’s creepy as hell - but soon become a royal pain in the ass, especially when you’re required to use two hands for things - like tools - where you’re forced to put away your flashlight and fumble around in the complete dark. VERY frustrating at times.
– Real player with 9.6 hrs in game
Necrobarista
Full review (including score): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vnutf8U-ZaE
Summarized review below!
A visual novel with almost Persona-style graphics? Sign me right up for that. I’ve been playing through a lot of visual novels lately with the same 2D art, so it’s about time for a change of pace.
Note: Had to trim review to fit character limit, check video for full version!
Pros:
- Really cool visual direction. Necrobarista may not have the best graphics, but it makes up for this with some of the best visual direction I have ever seen in a visual novel. By visual direction, I’m referring to the lighting, camera angles, framing, and everything else that goes into presenting the graphics to the player. It is some very cool stuff here, with the camera constantly shifting between characters, going wide for certain lines to add emphasis, and even omitting dialogue entirely and just showing little snippets of animation to better illustrate certain scenes. It’s like a movie in a way and was definitely a nice change of pace compared to the usual flat backgrounds with 2D sprites popular in the medium.
– Real player with 11.8 hrs in game
I waited three years for this game and I don’t regret a thing.
I have some qualms with the “Memories” system- it’s somewhat arbitrary, and some of the short stories have stronger narrative impact if you read them earlier in the scenario rather than later (which will more likely be the point where you’ll get to read them)- and some characters that are more-or-less prominent in the trailers don’t actually stay their welcome long at all, but aside from that this was one of my favorite visual novels to read and experience of all time, and I had high expectations just from teaser trailers. (EDIT: Most of this has been recently addressed. More details at the end of the review.)
– Real player with 9.7 hrs in game
PROZE: Prologue
Ryzen R5 1600 | 16GB RAM | GTX 1080 Ti | Oculus Rift
I Super-Sampled The Game at 1.5PD via Oculus Tray Tool And Played On The High Preset. Throughout My Play Through, I Only Dropped Below 90fps While Looking At The Structure Being Built Off In The Distance While Standing Next To The Guy Outside. Other than that, performance wise, the demo ran great. After I began to pick up objects I immediately realized that the game featured dynamic depth of field. And while it’s not perfect, it’s pretty freaking cool! This feature is something we’re expecting to built into the next-gen VR HMD’s but on a physical, more accurate level. In saying that, this software implementation isn’t bad though. After I finish typing this, I’m actually going to go back in there and try to get the three achievements.
– Real player with 2.3 hrs in game
This is awesome as for a Free game.
Got myself completely immersed from the first seconds of the gameplay.
The body thing is amazing. I wish it would get some adjustments in the future, but overall this is much better than flying hands.
Locomotion was pretty intuitive and comfortable with my Rift’s touches.
Pressing “B” button allowed me to switch between sitting and standing positions.
I have found the graphics switch on the wall and mid settings worked great for my setup (Geforce 1060). no huge frame drops and pretty good graphics.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Alan Wake
Alan is a famous writer of psychological horror books who goes with his wife to vacation in Washington, more precisely in a small town called Bright Falls. In this place the protagonist begins to experience episodes of its last book published and about which he does not remember to have it written. However, all the current events in your life are directly and indirectly related to this book. Here could be a lot more said, however they would be spoilers of the game.
Alan Wake’s graphics are very beautiful, well rendered and polished. The detail levels of various objects are quite high. The light and shadow effects are exceptional and the textures are very well crafted. Details such as the reflections of light over the water and the light of the lantern illuminating the setting or even focusing on objects through a glass are excellent. Undoubtedly graphically the game is very well done. The fictitious and mountainous town of Bright Falls with its native forests, abandoned and old mills, empty houses and sheds made of wood and weathered are exceptionally well portrayed. When you are driving a car, a pick up or a jeep very fast pop-ins are present, but do not even bother.
– Real player with 190.0 hrs in game
Alan Wake is a psychothriller game based on supernatural powers. It shows how powerful darkness really is. The game is set in a rural town called Bright Falls in Washington state, USA. Alan Wake is a professional writer from New York City who decides to go on a vacation in a small town. However, his vacation turns into a nightmare as he is attacked by possessed beings known as the Taken. Wake’s wife is apparently kidnapped from their cabin located in a nearby lake, encouraging Wake to look for her in the wilderness. The game is spread across six episodes that feel like a TV show.
– Real player with 73.9 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
“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