Temporality
A surprisingly affecting music video describing the memories of dying soldiers in the Great War. Though brief, perhaps a bit too repetitive, a few more scenes would have helped a great deal (you will see the same scenes several times, wait for the fade out and credits to reach the end). Interesting that the composer, Julie Buchanan also did the music for The Other Half. For more about the Great War, listen to Dan Carlin’s Blueprint for Armageddon.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Experience Experimental Games.
This is a heart wrenching game. Although simplistic in nature, it’s atmosphere really makes you feel for the soldiers and makes you want to rewind over and over in the hopes that the bullet just might miss them. There isn’t any dialogue or character names but you get a feeling that each and everyone of those soldiers has a story and a family that misses them. This reminds me so much of “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Great book and movie, you can get the movie on youtube for free) in which you have a group of friends join up and slowly die one by one. The cut scenes sort of build on the semi-story of your individual character and in a way make you connect with him. I had to rewind time and pause after the final bullet came, I sat there and contemplated what I’d just witnessed. I highly recommend this game.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
XPock
Yes!
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Experience Experimental Games.
It’s ok.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Indecision.
Indecision was a neat psychological experience with a few jokes. If you like these games I would recommend not reading this review to keep a fresh mindset. The game is made out of small escape rooms and sometimes there is more than one way to leave. All exits seem to lead to the same linear path unless I am missing some clues. The length is maybe 20-30 minutes. However, I am not convinced that you are done with the game after the first playthrough. I won’t give any spoilers but I have found something different later. We could be dealing with one of those sneaky developers.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Experience Exploration Games.
What can I say about Indecision other than the fact that I wasn’t too indecisive to buy it?
Maybe the fact that I should have been.
Did you watch the trailer on the store page? If so, you already know almost everything of what this game is about.
Did you watch someone else play it? If so, you’ve already experienced everything this game has to offer.
For such a short and cheap game, I must say it was enjoyable. Most puzzles have straightforward solutions but getting to figure them out (which, for a first time, is usually a surprise all its own) feels… Well, for lack of a better word, rewarding.
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Visceratum
“_That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die._” - H.P. Lovecraft
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A frank, sometimes surreal, other times horrifying story with a good portion of caustic irony and grotesque..
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Simple controls and no “platforming”, pixel-hunting or teeth-grinding puzzles allow you to concentrate on the main thing - the story and your participation in it.
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A unique atmosphere woven from real photographs, bizarre plasticine animation, and enchantingly murky music by Serge Bulat.
Blood. Guts. Our own meat.
Here are the Great Ancients sleeping in each of us.
Should we fear imaginary monsters, or creatures crawling out of the depths of the sea? After all, they are only the wretched of this world.
The unknown and fleshy within us - is the true, underlying horror of which we may not even be aware. A horror about to break free…
Visceratum draws inspiration from the work of those who have been able to look into the abyss of humankind. Let’s honor those names: Lovecraft and Kafka, Beksiński and Giger; Cronenberg, Švankmajer, Lynch. And many other masters of the dark arts gave a bit of their energy to the seed from which Visceratum sprouted. However, the game does not try to parasitize on the greats - by paying tribute to them, it seeks to construct its own reality.
The strange visuals, сrawling at the bottom of the “uncanny valley”, combining serious themes and drama with outright absurdity - create a special surreal atmosphere of Visceratum. Will you dare to step into these dark waters?
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Free for everyone at the time of review.
Hardware: Win 10x64, 3570k mildly OC, GTX 1070, 16 GB, SSD.
Super laggy on my system; took me a full 30 minutes to complete a game advertised as 5-10 minutes. I see the system specs state “Windows 7”; I’m guessing this is either a Win 10 issue (some games lag badly in 8 / 10 that run fine in 7) or possibly the 10xx series video card.
I recommend taking a very brief glance at the videos before playing to see how fast the game is supposed to move. If the game is going to lag for you, it will start at the opening credits, which take so long to change screens (tapping an arrow key helps) that it feels like the game is locked up. Don’t press ESC; that instantly closes the game.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
‘The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff’' - Ambrose Bierce
James Cox has adapted, as part of his ‘100 games in 5 years’ project, the timeless classic short story titled An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge written by Ambrose Bierce in 1890. It has seen many variations since its inception ranging from short story to full novel inspirations, radio screenplays including a Twilight Zone broadcast, TV drama/movies and even music videos including Bon Jovi’s song Dyin' ain’t much of a livin'.
– Real player with 0.1 hrs in game
Color Souls
Incredibly amazing game. The movement of the character is a lot of fun and every boss and mechanics in the game are really surprising. The levels that you can jump on the monster’s head in sequence were very well thought out.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
A pretty good platformer. I really like this unique aesthetic and gameplay concept where you can’t see the enviroment, so you have to move and jump to splash ink revealing the obstacles and platforms.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
Heal
I am disappointed with the game, I think it just wasn’t for and was not what I expected. If you can’t handle clunky controls think twice before buying this. In every single level the game annoyed me with its controls in some way.
I understand that it’s a port, but it could have been done better.
EDIT: Turns out the game is not a port, but a multi platform release. Which does excuse the controls somewhat, since releasing on mobile and PC is difficult. However since PC is the main market for the game, I still believe it could have been done better.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
This piano melody seems vaguely familiar…
Heal sets you in the shoes of an unnamed old man as he wakes up from a dreamless sleep. However, the house he wakes up in is different from what you’d expect. Instead of waking up to the same old room, the door is locked and the only way to unlock it is to solve some puzzles around the room. From here, you guide the old man through seven different rooms where you’ll solve many puzzles along the way.
Heal is pretty easy to pick up, both from how it controls and how the puzzles are designed. You control the old man’s movement by just clicking where you want him to go with icons popping up for items or areas that you can interact with. These icons do require you to hold them down for about two seconds, but you’ll pretty quickly get used to it. Usually, this includes zooming into a puzzle (where you’ll be able to click or drag moving pieces), but it also includes looking through a cracked door or a window to see a puzzle hint/solution and walking through a door to get to the next chapter.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
One Hand Clapping
This game is super neat, especially if you already have a vocal background. It could get frustrating otherwise, as you will be asked to match pitch and harmonize. There’s also some rhythm elements, so having a sense for that will also help.
The sound design is lush and gives many clues. It takes the sounds that you’re producing and incorporates them into the game as you go, resulting in even richer soundscapes. The puzzles are occasionally mildly bewildering, but then they click and become super intuitive. The art style is super cute.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
I love this game! I finished my first playthrough the same day it finished downloading, and I’m definitely going to play through it again. I keep hearing that the devs are going to add more content, which is super exciting. The voice controls are wonderfully intuitive - I grew up playing some of the first video games that used singing as a mechanic (think karaoke games) and wow - things have changed in a good way.
Some things to note: you’re going to want a decent mic for this. It doesn’t need to break the bank, but you should probably have a pop filter on it for best results. I didn’t play with one and it definitely picked up background noise on occasion. I’m not sure how to adjust the sensitivity of my mic personally, but you’re gonna wanna play around with things until you find something that works with your setup.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game