EMPORIUM

EMPORIUM

Emporium is meditative and ethereal, and immensely sad.

Effectively a 2.5D walking simulator, with minimal interactivity, a fractured narrative, and haunting mood. It is beautifully presented, with dreamlike imagery and ambient sounds. It lasts about 30mins, and is worth playing twice to see all dialogue.

For me it was an unforgettable experience, but it won’t appeal to everyone. It’s slow, echoingly empty and lonely, and aching with despair. But if you like experimental non-linear narrative, or just appreciating a dreamlike and melancholy mood perfectly evoked, Emporium excels at this.

Real player with 4.5 hrs in game


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Being alone is part of survival.

Tom Kitchen brings us, not a game, but what he calls an “interactive vignette"; I like that phrase, it’s apt, and better than the pejorative “walking simulator”. Both are accurate terms; you will walk a lot in this game, but fortunately there is a run button for the impatient.

This review started with a quote from the vignette that really grabbed me. It strikes as truthful, and likewise one must to be alone with this experience. If you allow it to be a deeper reflection then you will probably get something out of it, but it’s not a happy one. Regardless the creator is a good writer and has created an experience that is thoughtfully poetic.

Real player with 1.9 hrs in game

EMPORIUM on Steam

ATRIA-1

ATRIA-1

Charge Game Studio presents a dark Sci-Fi first-person action thriller. Challenge yourself as a space colonist on a Russian ship lost so deep in the Universe that even the strongest com ties are torn. Experience the ruthlessness of cosmos, painful past, and extraordinary phenomena unfolding aboard the ship that all mix up into horror.

You are a former prisoner and the first victim of malfunctions on the ATRIA-1 spaceship. What’s it like to wake up after a year of criostasis and single-handedly fix up the ship with hundreds of unconscious people aboard? Eliminate a series of failures not only on board, but also in your own head: memory blackouts, recollection mirages, and strange visions. And don’t forget, all ship resources are running low: movement capability, air, energy, freedom, and common sense as well.


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ATRIA-1 on Steam

Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbit-Hole

Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbit-Hole

This is a game that’s difficult to recommend to most people. Partly because of the elephant in the room (disturbing content that makes a lot of h*ntai look tame), but also because of its style of storytelling.

I was able to stomach the content pretty well, but the narrative was hard to follow for me and many others initially. I was willing to put the effort into trying to understand it as I went through, and that made the story much more fulfilling to me. This won’t be the case for everyone though. The story is difficult to keep up with, and at times it can feel like its own project trying to match your understanding with the pace of the game’s events.

Real player with 398.0 hrs in game


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Infinite ejaculation

I’ve been sitting on this review for a few months. I have a love/hate relationship with this game and a lot of opinions about it. Subarashiki Hibi is considered by many to be a masterpiece. I found it to be far from it, a schizophrenic mess whose positives are scattered throughout, but whose negatives come from the very meat of the novel. As this is a philosophical eroge, that meat is philosophy and porn. This bipolar contrast between highbrow and lowbrow has its appeal. “Infinite ejaculation” could be an apt metaphor for it.

Real player with 110.2 hrs in game

Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbit-Hole on Steam

Seul (Alone): The entrée

Seul (Alone): The entrée

Crim’s Humble Opinion Curator

Seul (Alone): The entrée

A philosophically fueled choose your own nightmare like novella. There is some pretty grim material within the readings. Strap on your David Lynch, Kafka, and other surrealism enjoyments hats because this one will be for you if you enjoy those artists and can handle dark subjects. The story is a part of a past and continual project series. The past game can played here for free. The future projects will continue to unfold the story.

Real player with 1.3 hrs in game

Seul (Alone): The entrée on Steam

MAN STANDING

MAN STANDING

If you like weird and odd games, this one may interest you… Supposedly you are the last person on the planet and you are to find something ( at this point I dont even know what Im looking for).. you end up walking all over the surface and you will see statues of dogs, humans, pianoes and boxes… lots and lots of boxes with an “energy” beam streaching skyward of different lengths. Inside the boxes are the “last words” of the individuals who placed them there…. texts from meaningless code to words of wisdom to nasty insults can be read from the boxes. As you travel across the surface the statues have a “sensor” that projects a minimovie into your mind, most of them are bizzare clips from the early years of movie making. You also are to go to a newer modern bunker type building to activate the unit and mark your presence with a hologram. Once done you set off to the next place… If you pay attention, you will notice a disturbance in the air, a dome can be seen via the shifting of the energy streams coming off the boxes, these domes are protected by “Air sharks”. The “weapon” they use is a wad of goo ( mucus?) to slow your movements to a crawl, your defence from the air sharks is a handfull of shit ( I kid you not) you throw the handfull of shit at the shark and it turns to smoke… The best method of handling the onslot of the sharks is to walk backwards and force thee sharks to follow you. Being in this position you can throw the shit with better accuracy. So, when the sharks attack, walk backwards and start slinging da poo… As I said, its a strange game, slow travel time and a bit of a challenge with the sharks. Oh yeah, almost forgot, when traveling up the face of steep cliffs, rapidly tap the spacebar while moving in the direction of choice, when done fast enuf you will float as if you are wearing a jet pack. for 99cents its an okay game… the real question is, do you want to tie up the disk space to play it?

Real player with 15.4 hrs in game

MAN STANDING

is truly the gem of 2019. This game is probably the greatest game to ever exist. This is not an exaggeration. ALFINA has really blown it out of the park with this one. It is truly a unique experience.

Story

The player will have to shoulder the heavy burden of the only surviving person in the world who, in a fit of schizophrenic delirium, walks to places that hold memories of untimely people who left this world.

The story is excellent. It is written by the literary genius ILYA KOGIMBOVICH (sorry if I spelled it wrong) where it really questions one’s moral standing in a morally gray world. It is quite deep, philosophical and thought provoking, leaving us with some very important questions. I shall not spoil it for you in this review, you must experience it yourself to truly understand the masterpiece. However I must warn you, the story may not be understood by everyone. The writing is on the level of Rick and Morty, so you know for sure that the game is meant for the geniuses in our time.

Real player with 4.7 hrs in game

MAN STANDING on Steam

Let Me Die (inside)

Let Me Die (inside)

In principle, the game in places resembles Russian locations both by entrances and gloomy surroundings, it seems to me that the developers want to teach us how to cope with despair, and it is also instructive with the stories of the characters

Real player with 3.9 hrs in game

After 3 hours of playing, I came to the conclusion that the game is rather boring and monotonous, I don’t even know who might like it. I believe that such games only exacerbate the situation and very rarely can help someone. Friends, I do not recommend it.

Real player with 3.1 hrs in game

Let Me Die (inside) on Steam

ReTox

ReTox

trippy as fuck

Real player with 4.5 hrs in game

The best visual novel and game about drugs I’ve ever played. If you want to get sucked into a vortex of twisted plots, this game is definitely for you. Different storylines and endings make this game playable for long hours. Depiction of drug effects are also very imaginative and sometimes trippy as hell.

Real player with 3.5 hrs in game

ReTox on Steam

Emo Simulator

Emo Simulator

Emo Simulator

This game gives you an ability to feel yourself an emo. The character’s story is that he is a 19 years old college student who is heavily bullied and not understood by anybody. The game was inspired by Beyond: Two Souls, Life is Strange, and films of Zvyagintsev and Bykov.

We plan to have dialogues, plot, cutscenes and interactive movie style cameras. The plot will have two endings, good and bad.

This is a plot-based game, by subculture developers, for subculture players. By this project we want to tribute to emo culture which we appreciate, we want o create something, relatively relatively (to other emo games) quality about Emo, a one-stop game for all emos, a serious a dramatical game that would become a part of this culture’s legacy.

We want raise important social issues in this game, like an issue of unmotivated agression towards people who are different from main population and what it leads to.

The game does not encourage suicide, just like shooters do not encourage shooting people.

We state it clear: we are against suicide, do not do it.

Features:

  • Be an emo

-Play guitar

-Drink energetic in first person view

-Listen to post-hardcore, the game will feature some russian emo bands who decided to contribute to the project

  • Atmospheric emo’s room. Posters, guitar, amp, razor, things that describe his personality, like certain poems

-Cut the character (do not do it in real life, if you are suicidal call suicide prevention line)

-Be bullied at college (4K experience)

-Make right choices

-Talk with therapist

-Play in a band

Technical information:

First/Third person view

Good graphics

Emo attributes

Achievements

_Cut_scenes

Plot

Face animations

Emo Simulator on Steam

Area of Darkness: Sentinel

Area of Darkness: Sentinel

_“How did it get to this; A meeting I didn’t want to have; a trip I didn’t want to take.

My life’s in the hands of strangers I don’t even trust.

From the moment I first stepped foot on the Sentinel Islands, I saw creatures that I thought were the thing of legends…

My only goal now: Survive.”_

Area of Darkness: Sentinel is a psychological thriller/adventure game that offers you a uniquely immersive cinematic VR experience like no other. Set in 1978, you’ll play as Dr Anne Evans on her journey from New York to the iconic Sentinel Islands; one of the few remaining places in the world untouched by modern civilization; a true area of darkness. Along the way, you’ll encounter a cast of intriguing characters and creatures, uncover harrowing mysteries and fight for your very survival.

Features

  • Play as archaeologist Dr Anne Evans in the faithfully-recreated 1970’s game world

  • Immerse yourself in the truly cinematic experience with its 135-page script and decisions that affect the storyline and multiple endings

  • Breathtaking locations to explore: from an upstate New York mansion to millennia-old tombs on the Sentinel Islands

  • Experience thrilling, life-like set pieces built from the group up for VR, including the sensation of parachuting from a plane at 30,000 feet!

  • Interact with a vibrant cast of characters that all play an essential role in the unfolding mystery

  • Fight supernatural creatures using the intuitive, motion-based combat system

  • Solve unique puzzles using a variety of techniques such as controller motion, item combining, physics-based throwing, and environmental manipulation

  • Collect dozens of fully voiced journal entries, telling an exciting sub-narrative of those who came before…

  • Fully motion-captured scenes choreographed using professional actors and voice actors, with animation created by an Emmy-nominated Animation Director

  • Full body view (no floating hands here) and a physical inventory system (without the need to navigate through menus) allows for total VR immersion

  • Smooth VR-optimized movement and rotation options mean no motion sickness!

  • Cinematic movement and rotation options for the VR Purists out there - feel the intensity!

Area of Darkness: Sentinel on Steam

My Hole is a Mouth of Dirt

My Hole is a Mouth of Dirt

‘We lose ourselves in the things we love. We find ourselves there too.’ - Kirstin Martz

In this surreal psychological horror made in RPGmaker MV, Mole enters a tunnel complex under the premise he is being guided by God to complete a purpose during the ‘Endtimes’. Throughout Mole’s time spent down there we see him seeking out the Voice to direct him and, it is here, we see the mental journey being taken until Mole is finally ‘told’ what he must do by the Voice which is to bring a baby to Him. It is this task that enables Mole to confront struggles & overcome challenges in order to complete this Purpose.

Real player with 3.0 hrs in game

I feel physically sick after playing this because of how involved I got and how badly the jumpscares got me, and I think this is worth a shot, however I do have some notes:

  • The speed: I get giving a run option would mean rethinking a lot of the chase parts, but it was kind of frustrating in some points.

  • The music: I’d never recommend lyrics AND writing you have to read and understand (it’s not accessible for many people), and some of the music felt particularly out of place - in particular, the jukebox was playing something too cheery. It was not bad, just weird.

Real player with 1.1 hrs in game

My Hole is a Mouth of Dirt on Steam