Atonal Dreams
Atonal Dreams is an RPG reminiscent of classic console JRPGs: you roam around a field and through dungeons looting treasure chests, talking to NPCs, and engaging in (non-random) turn-based battles that pit your team against hordes of monsters. Grow your characters by masterfully using skills to alter modifiers, build combos, and either destroy your foes or convert them to your side. The game is heavily story- and lore-rich, featuring an often-silly cast of characters who each have hidden depths that are gradually revealed.
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In the world of Alora Fane, the omnipresent miasma causes thoughts and feelings to manifest as monsters. These can be destroyed with weapons, or tamed using magic. Tamed monsters can be controlled as allies for the duration of the battle.
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Skills can level up by gaining XP equal to the damage inflicted with them. Stack up bonuses by manipulating a variety of psychological stats for efficient growth!
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There’s a strong focus on story and characterisation. Dialogue scenes use full models with nuanced facial expression shifts that that add an additional layer of nonverbal storytelling.
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A quirky blend of absurd British humour and deep layered meanings and metaphors about the nature of mind and reality and characters' hidden backstories and self beliefs.
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No unnecessary padding or tedious grinding; the game aims to make a memorable mental mark without overstaying its welcome.
STORY
Alora Fane’s gods once walked among the people they dreamed into being, until they were slain - and the world itself wounded - by a defiant blasphemer known as Blight the Betrayer.
A faction of devout knights called the Seraphim emerged to maintain ordered civilisation in the gods' absence, while those who saw the gods' death as freedom from tyranny founded the Blight Wolves to live lives of defiant chaos in the wild.
Centuries after this cataclysm, Savitr - a legendary Seraph whose unusual purple skin and horns reflect the inner demons that haunt him - and his starstruck apprentice, Collie - a former Blight Wolf, eager to rise above her brutal past - set out on a quest to rescue Savitr’s scholar friend from an island of monks who gaze into the infinite sea of potential dreams beyond physical reality.
Savitr’s quest to bring light to the world to atone for his past sins will face challenges from the competing belief narrative of his fiery squire, and by facing their dreams incarnate, they will reveal the light of truth at their core.
Read More: Best Immersive Lore-Rich Games.
Blind Drive
What an interesting game. Blind drive puts you in the shoes of Donny… A guy who is blind folded and cuffed to the steering wheel of a vehicle and sent on his way down a highway against traffic. I will say nothing more on the story as I don’t want to spoil. Anyway, the gameplay is simple enough… You hear a vehicle on one side of the road, steer to the other! That’s not all though. The story takes some wild turns and puts you through many different and sometimes unexpected situations to test you. In all, the sound design is great and story is funny. For it’s price, I’d certainly have to recommend this insane and wacky journey. Sit back, relax, and happy steering!
– Real player with 10.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Immersive Action Games.
It’s not everyday one discovers a new genre - and what a pleasant surprise it is!
Playing eyes closed, flat on my back with surround sound headphones and a wireless keyboard, Blind Drive is a wild narrative-driven adventure.
The sound effects and spatial design create an immersive atmosphere, complemented with excellent voice acting and often hilarious one-liners (“Give me a break; I’m driving blind! Can’t you see?"), while the graphics make a complete mockery of my 32:9 monitor.
For gamers who think they’ve seen it all, Blind Drive is like playing VR with your eyes closed.
– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game
Memories of East Coast
Memories of East Coast is a short and linear Ren’Py visual novel which tells the story of two destinies entwined by a tragic accident. You play as Sam, a young police officer who decides to take a few days off and revisit his hometown, 15 years after the incident. There he meets Lisa - a young and bubbly, yet mysterious girl who seems to have a hidden secret.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2507006084
As he gets to know her better and finds out more details about her background, Sam becomes tormented by his own guilt and nostalgia. Linked by fate in a strange way, these two characters are brought together once again to support and heal each other during a rough time, without them even being aware of this.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Immersive Visual Novel Games.
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Memories of East Coast
Developer: Roomah Gaming
Publisher: Roomah Gaming
Pros:
1. A matter of guilt and how one moves on with it. “Memories of East Coast” paints a story of how two lives collide with each other after an accident 15 years ago. Two parties with vastly differing ways on dealing with it. It doesn’t try to be the most complex thing out there, it just lets its simplicity show throughout the story. It’s melancholic and can be applied to the everyday person.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Loading Human: Chapter 1
Despite the negative comments from other Vive owners, I decided to take a gamble and bought it. Personally, I love the intriguing story a lot and graphically it’s very beautiful. Voice acting and music are good too. This is clearly a very well-made production. On the other hand, it’s obvious that the developers have chosen for a one-size-fits-all solution for PSVR, Oculus and Vive, and this means : a seated vr game with less refined control and movement than Vive owners are used to. A seated game has its advantage though : you can perfectly play it when you feel lazy or tired. But, to be honest, you own this incredible room-scale capable piece of technology with these advanced controllers, and yet, while playing this game, you feel like you are forced to use a primitive system of moving, and of picking up and using things, and this doesn’t feel quite right. On the other hand, it’s not all that bad : once you get used to the interface and start focusing on the story and the game itself you can enjoy it a lot. Like someone else wrote : maybe we should stop complaining and be glad that it was released for Vive as well, instead of being a PSVR exclusive for example. :) Anyway, bottomline : game and story are really great, I’m going to keep playing this one, no doubt, I’m far too curious of what’s going to happen during this game and how the story will evolve, but… potential buyers that own a VIve will have to be sure that they can overcome that feeling of having to use a limited system of movement and control. But for me, being able to play a beautiful full-blown adventure, is a welcome change from the many simple demos and wave shooters for Vive.
– Real player with 33.9 hrs in game
Experienced on the Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality
You can view my full gameplay here (part 1): https://youtu.be/lGiwfhdV2H0
and here (part 2): https://youtu.be/63vsjWkhku8
This is one of the best walking simulators in VR. It’s got a really good story with very nice VOs. My first playthrough took 3.5-4 hours to complete. On my second playthrough, it took a little under 2 hours.
Most of the negative reviews have to do with the default locomotion method, which admittedly is terrible. However, the game did add full locomotion with smooth turning a while back, so those reviews are now no longer accurate.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Arcadian Rift
An upcoming sci fi FPS game being created in Unreal Engine.
Take on the role of a pirate in a star system devoid of government and laws. Use your arsenal of weapons, gadgets, and upgrades to hunt down the four rogue AI which have conquered the system.
ABILITIES & GADGETS
Choose from a variety of gadgets and abilities which can be used in combat to spice up gameplay.
UPGRADES
There are also upgrades which can be used to build your character into unique paths. Pretty cool yo.
You can follow the development of the game on David R. B.’s YouTube channel where he posts monthly updates!
Detective Butler: Maiden Voyage Murder
Nice detective kinetic novel for one or two afternoons I guess (yeah, there are actually no choices at all) and one that is completely FREE at that. It’s full of overused tropes and it doesn’t take itself seriously at times but I certainly wouldn’t call it bad either as it leaves some food for the thought in the end, so it’s probably somewhere in between.
So yeah - it was enjoyable yet also flawed experience for me. Women characters here are mostly likeable and detailed but all man except captain and protagonist father would benefited from more developement. The pacing was actually pretty good but the mystery was maybe way too easy for me as I guessed the culprit and how everything happend right after the murder happened. Which is good and bad at the same time but thankfully the rest of the story was interesting to follow at least. But the main flaws were probably both main characters - detective Butler and main character (Golder’s son) unfortunately.
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Excellent! A free murder mystery visual novel. It’s apparently the first part of Misadventures of Detective Butler series. Originally released in 2013 and then got onto Steam in 2017 with some edits and improvements. I liked this a lot. Has a lot of personal moments and mystery itself is fairly interesting. Albeit I really would like to force detective to grow some beard first. You don’t get to choose anything in a game, which is shame, as I think they could at least test us with picking a suspect at the end of a game. But hey, at least it gives enough clues to solve it fairly before the murderer is revealed.
– Real player with 7.2 hrs in game
HORROR TALES: The Beggar
7th of July, 1926. An elder man wandered in Barcelona, lost in his tortuous thoughts. A streetcar rolled over him in Gran Via with Carrer Bailén. No identification could be found in his jacked and it was impossible to identify him. He was still breathing and remained covered in his own blood in the street floor. Taken for a beggar, he was then taken to Santa Creu hospital, were ill vagabonds and poor folks without family were taken. Three days after, as a direct consequence of the accident, that elder man died in a soulless tiny room. Famous architect Antoni Gaudí died.
Set in the mind of a famous Catalan architect, players will experience otherworldly threats in a mysterious open-world island filled with secrets and mysteries. Explore the island to unbeil it’s secrets and forge your own path while fighting horrors and your own inner demons.
Features:
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Immersive First Person exploration of an open world island filled with threads and mysteries.
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Survival Horror gameplay with vertical level design.
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Anxiety-inducing enemy encounters.
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A variety of puzzles to solve to progress in the island.
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Non-linear level design.
HORROR TALES SAGA
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1340640/HORROR_TALES_The_Wine/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1343340
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1372450/HORROR_TALES_The_Astronaut/
HORROR TALES: The Wine
⚖️ Grade = B. Worth a buy, if you enjoy path unlocking adventure. However, if you’re looking for exciting scenario, it doesn’t have
EXPECTATION CHECKLIST:
✔️ Proceed without any guide or map
✔️ Run away from Hostile
✔️ Simple horror (no head man)
✔️ Physic Puzzle
✔️ Short reading
❌ Stay alive with limited equipment
❌ New pickups location for replay value
❌ Horror art & creepy music
❌ Horror death
❌ Cinematic Cutscene
❌ Sneak Pass Enemies
| GRADE |
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
Visually stunning! I wasn’t expecting many spooks from this and was honestly low-key hoping for more of a walking simulator experience where you get to peacefully walk around an abandoned plague-ridden ghost town and admire the sights and scenery without having to worry about spooks, unexpected chase sequences, or regular threats to my life, but The Wine did a good job of delivering a healthy mixture of both! I’m especially thankful for the addition of what I affectionately call “baby mode” which will automatically vanish homicidal maniacs after a solid minute of running around so that you can solve your puzzles in peace. I kept baby mode on for the whole game but only noticed it twice on particularly awkward puzzles, and it definitely didn’t diminish the experience of the game or make it any less scary!
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
PCI Public Crime Investigation
Excellent game with such a great style… been waiting for a game that plays as legit as this one! Everything in it is full of realism.
Full support!
– Real player with 19.1 hrs in game
Really interesting concept and very well executed. PCI casts you as an armchair detective. The French police are asking for assistance with some of their cases. You must create an actual account in order to play online as a team or by yourself and accrue points after finishing up cases. There are 6 cases total ranging from around 30 minutes to 4 hours. The content is VERY dark in some cases and deals with some heavy realistic topics (I’ll list some TW’s at the end of this). While I felt uncomfortable during playing I was so hooked. The cases are riveting and the quizzes at the end really engage you actively with the material. The actors/actresses do a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life (even the worst ones) and not even making you realize they’re acting.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
Through The Fragmentation
Short but sweet. Charming, but at the same time, low-key depressing. The setting, the themes, the visuals, and the music all come together very nicely. The multiple endings and achievements add replayability, and coming back for more was well worth it. There’s some pretty deep and metaphorical stuff going on, which might hit home for many of you, I found it really touching too. Had a very pleasant experience. I don’t think the charm of this game is going to wear off of me for a long time, very memorable stuff.
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game
Defragging For More
I love it to pieces. Or should that be ‘I love it to fragments?'
If like me you’re a fan of Thirty Flights of Loving and Gravity Bones, you might be in the right place. One aspect I really loved about those was the light inventory management combined with something like a spy premise. There’s something so effective about an ‘augmented walking sim.’ Throw in as many varied and single-usage mechanics as you can and you birth something constantly engaging. Not the norm given how expensive a disposable approach to gameplay would make most games.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game