Betweenside
So far, so good! A chilling and intriguing little Gothic tale with some innovative ideas on interactive storytelling. I will update this review as I keep playing and have more things to say.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Story Rich Games.
5.5/10
Although I recall writing a paper on “Gothic” literature in college, I can’t recall any hallmarks of the genre. I thought the idea of “rewriting the story” was a neat one, and was amused by the way that some of my revisions were then featured in the game’s environments (on a trophy or on posters). The game involves moving from object to object revealing brief vignettes, choosing whether to rewrite this part of the history and which of Victor’s family members to bequeath the item to.
However, I had difficulty figuring out who was speaking during the game’s vignettes, and therefore had difficulty choosing exactly how I might want to rewrite the situation. In addition, the game did not communicate exactly how much of each story I would be rewriting. I might want to alter one line, but upon choosing the rewrite option, almost the entire vignette was erased. Lastly, I just didn’t like the personality of the family lawyer that I was playing. His views on the importance of a military career and the incompetence of a more sedentary career clashed somewhat violently with my own.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Stick Nightmare
This is a quite good game if you love challenge (timing plataforming) and good level design. Expect to die a lot, but at the same time you’ll be learning and mastering the layout, to the point where things won’t be so hard anymore, which is a lot rewarding in the end!
– Real player with 5.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Difficult Games.
I reviewed this game for Two Credits. You can see the full review, the score I gave it, and some neat screenshots from my time playing the game here: http://twocredits.co/review/stick-nightmare/
Summary:
I could have forgiven the lousy aesthetic, the repetitive music, the lack of resolution options, even the clunky control scheme. I could have forgiven all of those things to an extent if only the gameplay were good - but it’s just not. The game is definitely challenging, but not in the way that classics like Super Meat Boy or some of the older Mario games are - it’s a challenging platformer because it handles awkwardly and will repeatedly test your patience with its bugginess and condescending tone.
– Real player with 5.5 hrs in game
Self-Isolation
The Game
You can finish in 1-2 hours a nice-short simulation game. There are a few little horror in the game. But its really short game i finished all endings with 3 hours. But its a nice game and very cheap u can buy and try it.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
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another endings
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little nice details
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little horror things
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game price
Cons:
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short gameplay
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some translate problems
my score for this game 4,5/10
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Indie Adventure Games.
es un juego sorprendente, a pesar de que la traducción al español puede flojear, es extremadamente entretenido y llegadero dando vueltas inesperadas y dejandote con ganas de volverlo a jugar
– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game
World of One
I reviewed this for Two Credits. You can find the full review, the score I gave it, and some cool screenshots from my time playing here: http://twocredits.co/review/world-of-one/
Summary:
When World of One sticks to puzzles and dealing with enemies by avoiding them, a bright light begins to shine in its dark world. Puzzles are varied and many have multiple solutions. They are also surprisingly nuanced; simply solving some of them incorrectly will solve them, but it will also lead to your death. The experience falls apart a bit when it begins to focus on combat, but it should be noted that, despite that fact, I played through practically the entire game in one sitting, which took around seven hours, a testament to the fact that the game was still enjoyable long after the focus had shifted slightly. It’s a game that I wish had focused more on its puzzles, bringing back some of its mechanics in new and interesting ways more often, but one that still manages to remain interesting and present challenging puzzles throughout despite the fact that it does not.
– Real player with 6.9 hrs in game
World of One is a dark fantasy puzzle-platformer that reminds me Tim Burton’s work. Obviously, any black/white platformer gets compared to Limbo which really isn’t a good comparison beyond surface level features. It is not a bad game but I feel like toward the second half there is more frustration than fun (mostly do to poor hit boxes, combat, and time-consuming respawns) While I feel that game could be sufficient with few updates I was forcing myself to enjoy it.
The first Act focused primarily on puzzles, story, and platforming which was very enjoyable. I only died few times and felt like I was playing a casual, sinister looking puzzle game. Then it starts snowballing downhill almost to where I considered refunding it. In next few Acts, generic combat becomes a big part of the experience. Game has a lot of insta-death so you constantly replaying 2-4 minutes sections between checkpoints. I died at least 100 times to just poor visual hit boxes. The combat system gets really boring and just feels like a massive waste of time when you die in an unfair way.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
A Plunge into Darkness
Not wild about ending and last boss battles were a long slog but i liked it . Fun game
– Real player with 11.0 hrs in game
As typical for Aldorlea Games, this is an RPGMaker-built game, but with pronounced survival horror elements: Your party spends the entire game trying to escape a haunted mansion, with no stores, a limited supply of items to acquire, and no inns or other cheap ways to restore HP (though skill points recover during battle, and some skills can heal HP).
The gameplay offers quite a bit of fresh air. You have the usual leveling up by getting experience points from battles, but you can also choose a special upgrade from a selection after defeating a boss, such as increasing a certain stat or increasing a skill to a different tier. The skills themselves are delightfully oddball while also useful. For instance, one does extra damage if the enemy is afraid, and another does a whole onslaught of hits to randomly selected foes.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
Actual Sunlight
I look at Evan Winter, the “protagonist” of Actual Sunlight, and that Evan Winter is distinctively me.
Well, not exactly me. I’m not in my late 20s/early 30s yet. I don’t have a dayjob that I neither love nor care for. I’m a college kid from China studing economics in the States. Oh and I do cook pretty well, and my obsession with following Ikea’s assembly instructions to a T proved to be a bit overwhelming to the few friends I have.
Everything else, however, is pretty close. I’m in an alien country, spending money I don’t have learning stuff I neither love nor am good at, getting by with passing grades, lying to my parents that everything’s fine so they wouldn’t completely lose faith in me and their decision of funding my study, and of course, escaping into videogames. I live with four roommates under the same roof who each live their own lives and barely social at all with each other. I’ve no idea if I would ever find a job, or even complete this degree. I’ve gained 40 pounds since I came here, and Evan’s reflection in the bathroom mirror is not far from my own. Hell, I even have a similar “relationship” like Evan and Tori’s with my ex, my first date, who I broke up with 4 years ago. And for the past four years, I’ve been living with my broken promise, which I never told her, that I would make a man out of myself one day and finally face her with confidence. Along with dozens of other promises I could not keep.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Buyer be advised: “Actual Sunlight” is basically a visual novel… and I don’t mean the kind with fan-service cheesecake tossed in (unless you’re into flabby white guys). There’s almost no traditional gameplay in it. You play it not for “fun”, but rather for an emotional experience and perhaps for some insight into the psychology of depression.
If you’re still reading, then maybe you’re open-minded enough to get something out of this game. You play as Evan Winter, an overweight white-collar drone who tries to bury his loneliness in video games, daydreams, and misanthropy. Gameplay consists of guiding Evan through a few days in his overly routinized life, interacting with other characters and environmental objects in order to trigger Evan’s dark and sardonic commentary (the game is very text-heavy). As the game progresses through its roughly hour-length, Evan’s depression becomes increasingly severe. There is only one possible ending no matter what choices the player makes along the way. And with a name like “Evan Winter” … brace yourself.
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
Albert and Otto
Mixed reviews are a pretty accurate description
Overall I have to say I do like this game. It’s hard not to like it. With a beautiful soundtrack and graphics to boot, the game compliments it’s self well. Along with that, I would say the first 3/4 quarters of the game plays well and the mechanics are decent enough to get by. If you’re looking for a short game to run through, this game only took me about an hour to beat (7 hours were spent practicing to beat parts without dying, and to get achievements). This could be a pro and a con.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
This is a game I really want to like. The art style, and even the puzzle elements, are pretty reminiscent of Limbo, but presented in a longer format that lends itself well to developing a deeper story. Yet, after the completion of Episode 1 (a 2.5 hour adventure) we know very little, if anything at all, about the story or the world it is set in. I find myself with more questions than anything else, and not in that intriguing “oh man I can’t wait to see what all this stuff is” sort of way, but in that “seriously why am I even here” manner.
– Real player with 6.3 hrs in game
BAPTISM
Summary
Nicely written story, but to me it feels like the ending is cut off. Without me trying to give away spoilers, I think the ending has a lot more potential.
Pros/Cons
**+ Well written
- Nice sound
+/- ‘Okay’ visuals (suitable to ambiance), and I did like the animated design of the personas a lot (including the ‘eyes’ and ‘sun/light’ signs – I think I fully understand their meaning), and the mansion. However I did not like the images of the church and road, that look too much like regular photos made black-white, and also didn’t really blend in with the story.**
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
A kinetic visual novel, curiously referred to by its developer as a “game”. As a strong and frequent advocate of walking simulators and such, even I’d opine that a product in which you click through a linear story and never once make anything resembling a choice is not really a “game”.
It is, however, a fairly interesting and by-and-largely well-written short story (though the end was a tad abrupt for my liking). So is the unorthodox audio-visual presentation of a visual novel justified? I would say so, yes. It arguably makes for a more immersive experience, though some literary purists would no doubt argue that the text should be doing that job for itself. Each to their own I’d say, and I certainly can’t fault someone for trying something new in this artistically-saturated day and age.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Clandestinity of Elsie
Things got off to a bit of a bad start with this game, thanks to it taking me ages to work out that SPACE was the way to choose a menu option, rather than - I dunno - left click or Enter, like most NORMAL games? Guess I don’t play games of this nature (read: old-school, “retro” RPG) too often. I’m going to put it down to that, though many of the other (unremappable?) keyboard buttons seemed like odd choices also: A to equip gun, S to shoot, D to reload? I also had difficulty trying to work out where DOORS and trivial things like that were, but after not TOO long I got the hang of things enough to concentrate on the GAME, per se (hint: always be on the look-out for doormats and red arrows)! I’ve also experienced some crashing issues, but it’s early days yet for the game’s release (so they’ll hopefully be fixed), and the save system is fortunately generous enough to render this not TOO huge an issue (once you hit the first save point, you can pretty much save at any time). Anyway, enough about minor technical issues…with no further ado, let’s get on with the review…
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
This is one of the handful of RPG Maker games I like because it focuses on an compelling genre of psychological horror. Since the game follows a similar path of Silent Hill, I was more interested to give this game a try.
There was one major drawback to the game and it involves the combat system. In fairness, the combat system does feel “realistic” in a sense that, it should be harder to see beyond your light until the monsters come close. Also, your gun should take a split second before letting off the next bullet; sadly, realism is thrown out the window due to frustrations of the combat mechanics. Most of the time, it’s difficult to avoid getting hit due to the restrictive movements of the character. The RPG Maker engine only allows you to move up, down, left and right. The character cannot move around freely as in diagonally; although, I have seen other RPG Maker games do that. Running doesn’t help much in the game since the enemies tend to run at you just as fast. In addition, the map layouts are not as open enough to move around with many obstacles in your way, that at times, I find myself bumping into walls or trees. By then, the enemies are already on you. With limited lighting as well, you don’t get many opportunities to take out the enemy at a distance. Again, I think that is how the game is supposed to be. Fortunately, the only remedy in progressing is saving often even if I have to die a lot.
– Real player with 5.0 hrs in game
Classified Stories: The Tome of Myrkah
Classified Stories: The Tome of Myrkah
Nothing really grabbed me about this title. It was just average all the way through and quite boring. It’s certainly overpriced but might be worth a go on sale.
In a Nutshell
Classified Stories is a first-person adventure game with light puzzle and shooter elements.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Pretty good and atmospheric 1st person horror action/adventure. A good bit of searching, a bit of puzzle solving, and a proper amount of shooting, not too much to make this game more action than adventure. A couple of serious scares too. The game isn’t very long, but if you really look around everywhere it won’t be over in less than 1h. I paid 6.50 euro, which, for was a decent price for what the game has to offer.
There are a couple of small problems, which are getting ironed out by the devs. As mentioned by another reviewer, the flashlight isn’t working properly and can be a bit frustrating. Also, there’s a game breaking bug, which I reported, and hopefully the devs will fix in a later version. If you’re playing v1.0.3, make sure you don’t jump over the short part of the rock wall in front of the RV. Or, do it for fun, but save first.
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game