The Place I Called Home

The Place I Called Home

I’m going to give this a “thumbs up” based on the story. Often painful to hear and without a cookie cutter happy ending, it is excellent.

My reservations are with some of the game design decisions and mechanics.

–I don’t understand why the hunger meter even exists. This is a game about a melancholy walk through difficult memories, how does the threat of starvation more effectively tell that story?

–Using the left mouse for the axe and “X” for interact is as intuitive as wiping your butt with your off hand. It can be done, it just feels wrong. You only swing the axe nine times. I would much rather click the mouse repeatedly to pick things up and use a random letter key for the axe.

Real player with 1.6 hrs in game


Read More: Best First-Person Adventure Games.


i got this game for free to do a curator review on it and im going to be truthful. i came up with more major stuff when playing then the story plays out. its your basic pretty walk sim were you learn a small history on the girl your playing as. the story’s your basic tug your heart strings story that you can put into 21 notes and 8 small talking parts. sad that this stuff happens for people but i couldn’t give any care on this girl as was more expecting “o maybe this well happen or this!?” then “o nother note… and nother…. mk… 15 found… 20… and ok meh” at most its a time killer for something you could guess well happen at worst its 5$ tossed into a bin.

Real player with 1.0 hrs in game

The Place I Called Home on Steam

ReThink | Evolved 4

ReThink | Evolved 4

This is the seventh game in the ReThink franchise and the fourth game in the ReThink | Evolved series, and this is definitely the best one so far. Some new cubes and new mechanics have been added which allow for more complex puzzles than previous games, and they definitely added to my enjoyment.

The core concept of the ReThink games is to light a series of colored targets with laser light. How you combine the lasers to achieve the correct colors and how you place and angle the lasers to hit the correct targets is up to you. Sometimes the puzzles are easy, sometimes the puzzles are difficult, and sometimes the puzzles are quite tricky. There were many times when I was scratching my head for a bit and finally had the “Aha!” moment, which was very fulfilling. Also, from what I recall of the previous games in the franchise, this one is more spacious, with many of the puzzles spanning several sections.

Real player with 23.4 hrs in game


Read More: Best First-Person Logic Games.


Another good puzzle game by Yaeko. Compered to previous Rethink games (I played most of the franchise) this one has many new cool features and the puzzles are a bit harder. If you haven’t played any of the Rethink games before, I wouldn’t start with this one. See you all on Rethink 5

Real player with 13.7 hrs in game

ReThink | Evolved 4 on Steam

ReThink 2

ReThink 2

Pros: Excellent game series as always. The puzzles are much more difficult. I love these first person puzzle games.

Best price in the genre at $10

10/10

Cons:

I quit at lvl 40, it just seems too hard after several days.

EDIT: I beat lvl 40 finally realizing what I missed, will continue on

Game has laser glitches where changing a laser cube may leave connected laser colors that shouldn’t be allowed to stay within the game rules.

Real player with 38.0 hrs in game


Read More: Best First-Person Logic Games.


Got stuck on room 40 for anywhere from 2-4 hours, got bored and softlocked myself into room 39 using a laser from room 40. I’m just going to assume that’s how the game was meant to end, since I’m not smart enough to figure out 40’s actual solution and my pride doesn’t allow yet for looking up solutions externally.

The first ReThink was easy enough that I assumed later games would similarly be walks in the park, but I cannot salute the developer enough for constantly finding ways to consistently step up the difficulty in every iteration. If you like indie first-person puzzlers, get every game in this series. The mechanics are simple enough to grasp, but still offer a lot of challenge.

Real player with 13.1 hrs in game

ReThink 2 on Steam

Blind Spot

Blind Spot

Blind Spot is an excellent first person puzzle/exploration game. I enjoyed the scenery and the diversity of the puzzles. The story is told through text descriptions of objects and rooms, as well as ongoing text messaging with an ‘unknown number.’ It is a story about family - loss and forgiveness. For me, it was a bit hard to put all the pieces together to have a clear picture of the narrative details but I came away with a general sense of what had happened.

I struggled a bit with manipulating objects using the ‘E’ key and/or the mouse and continuously dropped things when I was carrying them by accident or attempting a specific placement. I think this is a function of the engine and not the actual game (or my own lack of coordination). It would have been nice to have a ‘run’ option but this is not a deal breaker because the game requires little or no backtracking.

Real player with 10.0 hrs in game

For the Most Part, this puzzle game made sense and you had a clear idea of What To Do OR What To Solve.

A few times, something as simple as a HIDDEN HOT SPOT broke the continuity of play.

At times, however, it wasn’t clear what to do next….even after looking at a walkthrough I said to myself: “How would ANYONE know this unless they just TRIED, TRIED, and TRIED everything they could think of which quickly=”" makes="" a="" game,="" adventure,="" or="" puzzle,="" lose="" it’s="" grip. br="" Anyway, that said, the graphics are wonderful and the background music and sounds feel and fit the situations. /which

Real player with 9.0 hrs in game

Blind Spot on Steam

Maquette

Maquette

A good game, but not worth $20.

I haven’t kept up with this game much after the initial announcement but after seeing how cool it looked I decided to blind buy it.

What I didn’t realize is that this isn’t really a puzzle game so much as the game is a medium to tell a love story.

That’s fine because other games like Edith Finch/Story About My Uncle have done this great, but my god I have not felt this disappointed in a long time.

I expected some loose story to go with this game about wacky mindbending puzzles and I got the complete opposite.

Real player with 15.8 hrs in game

I was super excited for this game, and immediately purchased and downloaded it as soon as it was possible on Steam. I grew up with games that used to be called “adventure games” but today are generally labelled “walking simulators”. ‘Myst’ was the first computer game I played and ended up being hugely influential on my gaming tastes along with its sequel ‘Riven’ and then the forgotten classic ‘Obsidian’.

So obviously a game like ‘Maquette’ immediately piqued my interest and I waited and watched for any updates on it that I could find, especially after finishing ‘The Witness’, I needed something to fill that adventure/walking/puzzle game void that was left.

Real player with 14.7 hrs in game

Maquette on Steam

ReThink | Evolved 2

ReThink | Evolved 2

As fun and compelling as the previous. The bigger levels are imposing but upon solving or watching the French kid solve them on youtube, they are very logical. Know that some lights don’t care what color they are lit with while others are picky and watch for the mirror surfaces, all of them are there for a reason. Keep in mind these levels are interconnected so you might have to get resources from the last level into the next one.

Love how the boxes show the multiple target sites, have gotten used to this from the first one and think I’m doing alot better!

Real player with 31.8 hrs in game

Great button and cube puzzler with light reflection optics added - if you like games like Talon Principle or Portal, give this a try - it has very little in the way of story, just a collection of puzzles, but it is satisfying. The interior graphics are beautiful, very crisp and believable modern decor, and the mood is very relaxing. I found myself pausing to view a sunset or moonrise out of the windows.

Only real drawback is the lack of a storyline - in fact, if the developers had added an AI type character to control testing (earning release to the outside world), this could easily have elevated story-richness and broaden the game’s appeal due to the fact that the game already has the player navigating through rooms in a sequence while being teased with tantalizingly beautiful exterior views of a city and flying vehicles which you do not seem to be able to reach.

Real player with 17.3 hrs in game

ReThink | Evolved 2 on Steam

ReThink | Evolved

ReThink | Evolved

So, I know puzzle games are supposed to be puzzling, but the difficulty ramp in this game is a bit extreme. Literally you go through 3 or 4 trivial rooms then hit a gigantic puzzle room with multiple targets, auto-catapults, and elevators. Not the best design choice, in my opinion. There seems to be an assumption that mechanics and design are familiar, but I don’t think that first “real” puzzle has been properly trained for.

That said, for the most part the rest of the game is fun, though I’ve had to look through some walkthroughs as some of the manipulatable targets are simply plain black tiles that blend into the wall graphics.

Real player with 17.8 hrs in game

This is a beautifully rendered logic game that fans of Portal will enjoy for the chance to solve more button and cube tests within a pristine futuristic architecture but with the clever addition of light puzzles - reflection, redirection, addition & subtraction of colors. You are in a building made of glass and panels, you can see the outside world with busy aircars bustling about but until you solve the puzzles, you are on your own - no GladOS, Wheatley or announcer, and no real chance of death. The music is very relaxing and will stay with you, and the architecture is so beautiful that I often just stand in various spots and enjoy it (there’s the pity that it can’t be visited!). The Evolved series differs from the other ReThink series in that you have full ability to place and point cubes anywhere rather than just at designated spots.

Real player with 15.0 hrs in game

ReThink | Evolved on Steam

The Surreal Imaginarium

The Surreal Imaginarium

WOW !!!

Definitely the best multimedia work of art for VR ever

Must have IT

(Great for those who like to experiment with altered states :))

Real player with 1.3 hrs in game

[0.3] Controls & Training & Help

[0.2] Menu & Settings

[0.3] Sound & Music

[0.4] Graphics

[0.7] Game Design

[0.3] Game Story

[0.4] Game Content

[0.2] Time to complete feels ok? (& if the Game can be repeatedly played again)

[0.2] is it Enjoyable & Fun?

[0.1] Could it hold a spot in Favorites?

[0] BONUS point: Multi-Player related

[0.9] BONUS point: Review for VR

Stars received: 4.0/10 ___ Note: v.3 [0.0 to 1] = personal impressions

Game description key-points: art concept seen in VR eyes

Overview: it’s might appear as a Game, but it isn’t :) VR art showcase

Real player with 1.3 hrs in game

The Surreal Imaginarium on Steam

DeepWeb

DeepWeb

I enjoyed 98% of this game. The graphics and aesthetic are great. It really has a sci-fi feeling to it. The music is also top notch with my favorite track being from level 4. I don’t really have a problem with the controls at all, and the platforming in this game can be challenging, but not unbearable.

I found I was able to get through the seven or the eight levels in about two days playing it on and off. Then I got to level 8 and was completely stuck. A few days later a friend was able to point me in the right direction. This was the only time I was truly stuck and had I never figured out how to beat level 8, I would probably give this game a negative rating. But there is a solution; it is just difficult to understand.

Real player with 105.3 hrs in game

A neat but hard puzzle/platformer Where your trying to escape an AI who’s taken you prisoner in a tron like world, you’ll likely die a’lot trying to beat courses but once you get the hang of jumping, timing, and solving the tricky puzzles you’ll come out on top (until the next level) :). The levels runs suprisingly smooth on good graphics for me on ultra. The few issues thou are “spoilers up ahead”

! at the first level spawn area the glass platforms don’t respawn and they lead to the answer to the first puzzle forcing a restart, in one level the cubes can get stuck to the walls and fall in deadly pools forcing the player to restart (thankfully its at a checkpoint), and there’s a moving death field under a button in the ceiling that you have to press under a moving jump pad in the start of level 8 that is almost impossible to get past even if you slow it down (“almost” impossible because i did get past it once(oops, seems there’s a trick to doing and i was doing it wrong the whole time)). I’ve finally beaten the game and it was a nice journey, if your looking for a challenge this could be it good luck.

Real player with 14.1 hrs in game

DeepWeb on Steam

Land of Ngoto

Land of Ngoto

So far I am enjoying this game. It’s quite surreal and abstract. Love the logic puzzles in it so far. My only issue is the animation and audio seem to be choppy at times. A lot of the audio during the opening scene cut out completely, and it appeared to skip a couple of times. I don’t know if it was the game itself or if it was my system that was causing it. I am running Windows 10 on a system that’s at least 5 years old (belonged to my mom, then she let me have it a year-and-a-half ago when I made noises I wanted to save up for a new desktop with gaming capabilities).

Real player with 12.5 hrs in game

This is a hard one to review. It’s definitely not a great game. Pretty much everything about it is mediocre, except for the phantasmic atmosphere and a few clever puzzles. Even then, not all of the puzzles are good.

• The intro and ending to the game are extremely tedious. The ending is literally 5 straight minutes of walking through a flat, barren field with nothing to look at or do.

Real player with 2.5 hrs in game

Land of Ngoto on Steam