Astrologaster
Let us consult the stars.
Astrologaster was one of those games that I almost passed up on. I don’t remember exactly when I first came across Astrologaster, but it didn’t click with me at first. I was just sleepily browsing the upcoming games section around midnight, as you do, and it popped up. Finding the name interesting, I clicked, looked at the screenshots, and thought “hmm, I don’t know”. I saw it a couple more times, but when it got closer to the release date I finally watched the trailer. Why I didn’t watch it before, I can only blame it on being way too tired that night. With the combination of finding the trailer and the real life element behind Astrologaster intriguing, as well as peeking at a gameplay video, I thought “Hey, why not take the chance?”. Spoiler alert, I’m glad that I did.
– Real player with 13.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Interactive Fiction Funny Games.
To Whom It May Concern,
I am writing this Letter of Recommendation for the General Public, as such that it is publicly displayed for All to fashion and be notified of the most excellent Occurence that has blessed our Water Vapour Storefront.
I feel obligated with great Duty to inform the good People of this Community that the very Heavens have brought down a veritable Angel of scientific Inquiry and medical Expertise. Why, I am, of course, referring to Doctor Simon Forman, an extraordinary Gentleman of grand Intellect and greater Empathy for the common Man. Through the Science of the Stars, Doctor Foreman instills a Sense of Security and Safety towards his Querents, many of which are notable Members of the higher Echelon, for good Reason! It is clear Doctor Forman’s medical Practice is of such immaculate Degree that God himself speaks directly to him via the starry Sky above!
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
Casina: The Forgotten Comedy
An interesting take on classic play, that needs just a tad polishing
Casina….well not gonna lie, it was a pretty unique experience for me since I have almost no idea about classic play. So, by the time I finished the visual novels (which surprisingly hooked me in) I was kinda curious so I looked for the original Casina play. I was like “aaah so this is what they’re adapting” and I like how they tried to keep it as close to the original play as possible.
Now about the game
– Real player with 4.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Interactive Fiction Historical Games.
Casina: The Forgotten Comedy is a modern iteration of the ancient Latin play set in Greece with the same name “Casina”. I have a little background with theatre and plays and was excited to enjoy the story and the art together in a different way! Fully voice acted with accompanying art and scenes to set the stage of a highly desirable slave and all the men who wish to have her to themselves.
Even before playing the game, I could tell the art of the game was going to be easy on the eyes. The art for the game is well done and I enjoyed the consistency across the entire game. Some of the backgrounds aren’t as finely detailed or manicured but were still appealing and enjoyable throughout. I like the idea of having choices in a visual novel and multiple endings, it makes it feel like your choices may have bearing on the outcomes which makes for a more focused patron of the story. Others have said they don’t care for the voice acting, and while it is not the best of the best and some of the ranges of character seem limited, I still found them to be very well done in craft and style. The voices felt like they were fit for the characters they were voicing, which I feel like is the key to voice over acting like this.
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
Stupid Stories
Blockbuster Story :)
– Real player with 3.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Interactive Fiction Time Travel Games.
Nostalgia kicks in hard on this one.
Great, little adventure game with love fore the details. Riddles are challenging but fair with a well thought trough in-game help system. Get it on sale.
– Real player with 2.6 hrs in game
Unnatural Freaks: Wolf At Evergreen
This was actually a pleasant surprise. You play as Frankie, who runs the Unnatural Freaks vlog. And you’ve rolled into town to investigate werewolf sightings. Everyone seems to be happy with the tourism and the new werewolf museum, but is there really a werewolf?
Overall it was lovely as I’m a huge fan of werewolves, so I loved that the town went all out with the theme. Though I was puzzled as the museum was both opened after the sightings, but the current curator took it over? Or did he mean the building?
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
‘Unnatural Freaks: Wolf At Evergreen’ is an interactive story about small-town sightings of a werewolf. You play the role of a vlogger talking to all the townsfolk about what they did or didn’t see. Despite the game crashing a few times I did enjoy the game and started to get into the story. Sure, it only lasts for about 30-40 mins and it is very low-poly, but for a free game it’s worth a look if only for the storyline and to give a new developer a chance. I would love to see more from this game and I would be happy to pay for the next episode, just so long as the content amount justifies the fee.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Kyle is Famous: Complete Edition
I played through every single one of the endings of this game. And although I would love to say ti was worth it, I cannot.
The humor is funny at first, but then you realize that the writer of this game has an obsession with vore/cannibalism/vomit and it’s pretty easy to predict the direction of every single ending. Also, there were many times when perfectly decent endings were drawn out to the point where it’s completely ridiculous and unfunny, like it’s necessary for Kyle to completely change society every time he dies.
– Real player with 13.6 hrs in game
The trailer for this game gave me major Stanley Parable vibes so I was excited to play it. Unfortunately the trailer is pretty misleading. The narrator reads out your choices and the results in a normal voice. There’s no emotion (confusion, anger, exasperation, etc), and there’s no additional comments. The only similarities with Stanley Parable are that playthroughs can unlock additional options for the next playthrough. As far as humour goes, it had the odd funny moment but most of it was just stupid, and not in a funny way IMO. Humour is very subjective though so I can understand some people liking it.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Odd Adventure of Chub, Color, 23 and You
Fun little visual novel thing. Enjoyed my time with it quite a bit.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
there are like two kind of things to do in this whole game but the story and characters are enough to make you keep going.
your dialogue options won’t matter but I think it’s there to make you pay attention to the conversation they have.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Stranded 2
The absolute worst game I have ever played. Complete horse sh*t.
I grew up on text based games so real excited about this but wouldn’t recommend to my enemies.
For $3 I’ll keep just in case it is ever actually playable.
– Real player with 6.1 hrs in game
Not just a text adventure. There’s art, sound and also has an advanced parser as you can see from the trailer. The puzzles are fun and challenging. Plus, as a bonus, you also get Zenobi Software’s Stranded 1 along with it (playable in the accompanied Spectrum emulator).
I do recommend reading the manual, even if you have played many text adventures before this one. It has tips and new features which you really don’t want to miss out on.
– Real player with 5.4 hrs in game
Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale
Tally Ho is one of my favorite cogs, and this is a delightful sequel. If you like Tally Ho (or, if you haven’t played Tally Ho but enjoy goofy hijinks, quick-witted dialogue, and falling in love with your valet), then I highly recommend this. I’m sad to have reached the end, but I’m eager to play it again.
To get into specifics:
First, I liked the romantic interests so much that I had a very hard time choosing between them on my first run–I was totally convinced I would go with one, but then fell for another, and that thought process was so nicely portrayed in the story itself that I stopped in the middle just to think about how lovely it was to have this problem at all.
– Real player with 87.2 hrs in game
I’ve played through to several different endings and many different paths (though most of my playtime is the game sitting idle), and this is an extremely fun, very well written game with a ton of variation. As others have said, this is the first story in a trilogy, and as such does not reach a firm conclusion, a fact that the game itself lampoons, but I really did enjoy the journey and look forward to future installments.
That said, this is another game that highlights how poor COG’s save system is, or rather how it doesn’t exist. A game with as many variations and complex storylines like this begs for multiple playthroughs, but the lack of the ability to save your progress when you’ve completed a run means that you will either have to play through it again multiple times when the next game comes out or wait until the entire series has been released to play through all three games as many times as you’d like. Probably a minor quibble, but I get the sense that a lot of people who really like these games, like myself, play through them multiple times to uncover as many scenes as possible.
– Real player with 43.3 hrs in game
Plan B from Outer Space: A Bavarian Odyssey
A funny, replayable and “Zork-esque” Choose-Your-Own-Adventure game that compensate the shortness of a single run by offering lots of different choices that lead to extremely diverging paths and endings.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
forgot to cover my space ship, created new beach front property, 10/10 would do it again.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
the office simulation
A pretty good game for a game jam, however there are some things that need to be pointed out.
What I like.
Environment- I honestly enjoyed the environment since it reminded me of those liminal space images you’d see online and the uncanniness of the graphics helps with that.
What needs to be worked on.
Movement- the movement feels too floaty and there is a slight choppiness with the camera.
Quality of life- some quality of life things are missing from the game currently such as the ability to mess with the options from the pause menu, other bits are minor such as the keyboard clipping through the table at the beginning.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
Spacious room to move around and clear pathing make Office Simulator a solid platformer. With firm controls and the classic Mario Land style of air control, you’ll have no problem maneuvering the various obstacles strewn about.
Unfortunately however, there is no visible way to boot up Dallen Clicker on the office computer, so I can only recommend getting this during a sale.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game