Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars
So far I have read the equivalent of a 300 page book and I’m only an hour in. I don’t mind that there aren’t any voice actors. What bothers me is that every place our hero goes, he “finds” a stack of books and instead of going about his business, decides to pick each one up and read from it. I understand there’s a theme to the books, but why would you kick off a game with this much reading? Our hero goes into the library where there are about 20 shelves filled with books. I’m not exaggerating when I say that he picks a book from each one of the shelves and reads about 3-5 paragraphs from each book. Then he goes around and reads books on stands too. I love to read but today I decided to play a game instead of reading a book. Unfortunately, the game disagreed with me and made me read a book anyway.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
Arkhangel: The House of the Seven Stars is a beautifully great haunting Lovecraftian game; okay let’s talk about the story.
It’s a cold wintery day as Michael Kearney is on a train with his wife Lily and their daughter Gabrielle as they head to their new life in the little town of Haven, where they can put all their troubles behind them and start anew.
But Michael has been having strange dreams about dark waters and an unknown ancient evil resting beneath the cold waves, what could it mean? Is it just anxiety or is it something else. Whatever it is if Michael is not careful it could destroy his whole world.
– Real player with 11.5 hrs in game
Death Becomes You - Mystery Visual Novel
I am currently aiming for a complete playthrough with all endings before I write an extended review for another outlet. It’s an intriguing tale that dances in that moral grey area, at least that’s where I’m at right now.
– Real player with 12.4 hrs in game
A very great game! It got me more and more hooked as I progressed through the story.
It’s a murder mystery that focus on the relationship of the characters and you can keep discovering their depths and how different they are. The routes have distinct vibes allowing me to get attached to each character’s personalities while also showing the different sides of Lyra, and how strong her presence is for better of for worse.
It deals with magic in a interesting way, in a dark tone that shows the multiple possibilities and the dangers of magic in thsi world.
– Real player with 9.5 hrs in game
Silver Blue
Silver blue is a BL visual novel 15+ with anime style, containing adventure fantasy content.
♦Three love interests and their respective routes, with 10 different endings overall depends on your choices.
♦Around 150k-200k words in content.
♦More than 40 in-game Illustrations.
♦30 original backgrounds.
♦20 original soundtracks (currently we have 6.)
♦OP & ED videos.
♦4 different title screen for each route.
Read More: Best Interactive Fiction Clicker Games.
Rainswept
Rainswept provides an overall enjoyable experience but suffers from a lack of consistency in what is otherwise a mostly-polished piece of interactive fiction.
You need to go into this with the mindset that you’re about to watch a movie, not necessarily something that’s groundbreaking or will blow you away, but at least delivers on the genre by giving you all the things you expect at it from face value.
Yes, you will be required to show Detective Stone around a small town and click on various interactables as the investigation of an apparent murder-suicide plays out before you, but the developers make it clear from the start that they have a story to tell you, and a specific order of events in which they want to tell it in.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
*This review is for v1.1.5a
Playing status: 100% achievement, ~3x playthroughs
Grindy Achievement(s): No.
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (11 achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.
Intro
Rainswept is a text-heavy adventure game where you have to investigate a murder that is happening in a small town.
Pros:
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2 endings with minor story branching
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Freedom to explore the area in any order that you want
Cons:
- No fast forward for most dialogues
– Real player with 7.1 hrs in game
The List
“The List” is a mystery game where you search and watch video clips from a police database in an attempt to solve a cold murder case.
The mechanics are very similar to “Her Story”. You have access to a database of video clips showing the answers of a crime victim during several interrogation sessions in a police department. You can search this database by entering single words, and the database will show you the first 5 clips in which the person uttered that word. Finding new clips gives you new ideas for search terns, such as the names of people or places. As you find more and more clips, your understanding of the case grows, though you still have to do a lot of interpretation and deductive reasoning (partly because you don’t have access to the policeman’s questions). What’s nice and really helpful, is that each clip you have viewed will automatically be added to a timeline, where you can rewatch clips in their correct chronological order.
– Real player with 10.8 hrs in game
The List is another addition to the FMV mystery search type, where the player has to piece together a set of clips to ultimately solve the mystery surrounding the main character. If you liked games like “Telling Lies” and “Her Story” this is for you.
The design of the game itself follows those games in which you have some limited case information, a database, a search function and a series of videos of a one sided interrogation to piece together. This was decently done, with a few hiccups in it’s search terms (There was a typo in one of the clips) or the general vagueness of terms, where words might have a tense that you must acknowledge otherwise no results can show. I felt that maybe the developer could have changed some of the terms for a few of the clips.
– Real player with 8.3 hrs in game
Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story
‘‘Our prime purpose in life is to help others and if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them’’ - Dalai Lama
Accidental Queens have followed up A Normal Lost Phone over 6 months later with a similar UI mobile interface but with a different, yet vital, informative theme for the player to uncover clues to solve the recent dilemma.
In this continuation of the Lost Phone theme it is centered around the female protagonist, Laura, who has an active social life & is a lively confident woman who starts a relationship with Ben who she encounters on a night out. Another Lost Phone: Laura’s Story has you acting detective with her phone to uncover the reasons why the phone was ‘lost’.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Another Lost Phone is similar in concept as the developer’s previous game A Normal Lost Phone . This one, however, has a deeper story which I enjoyed more than the previous one. You’ll find a phone belonged to a woman named Laura and learn how her life used to be before this phone was lost. She has many friends who care about her and has a nice job too. But there are things people don’t know until they pry into other people’s life. The story is intriguing, some people may relate to her problem as it is very common but no one actually speaks about it.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
Fey: Distant Daydream
“Please, come and tell me it’s good enough!"
These are the words written in the peculiar letter calling you, a solitary appraiser, to an abandoned estate far outside the nearest town.
When you make your way there, you suddenly awaken within the mansion, locked in a dusty bedroom. In some ways the place seems ordinary and yet you sense a distinct fragrance of something magical all around you.
Exploring the house, reading its books and appraising knickknacks will let you grow closer with the characters you will meet or hear of. Then, as you take a trip down memory lane and unbox stowed-away memories, you’ll slowly encroach on the answer to the original question.
Just what are you really supposed to be appraising here?
Fey: Distant Daydream is a mystery game centred around exploring a hand-crafted retro 3D environment. Solve puzzles through careful observation and use of objects in the environment as well as Effects, magical items that you carry throughout the game with a plethora of different effects.
Some puzzles will require you to combine information from the environment in escape-room inspired sequences. Others will have you read cookbooks to bring back a taste only faintly remembered, some will have you search through books for clues and yet others will require you to carefully consider the objects at your disposal.
Progress through the mansion and find out the truth of why you were asked to come to this place. Find and use unique effects such as a pocket watch that will let you glimpse into the past of a location. If you want to take it slowly, feel free to read one of the books or snap a photo with your eternal companion - an old camera.
Will you find what was lost within the depths of time and recover it? Or will you perhaps find true meaning in what is here?
Features
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3-5 hours of gameplay made with pure love
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Hand-crafted late 90s style retro 3D graphics
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A slowly unfolding tale of the past and a world wherein memories can be more than mere remembrances
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Around 10 different Effects to use across the game
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Elaborate puzzles to solve over the course of the game, all unique from another
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A sense of humor
The Medieval Psychologist
STORY
Bernard is a stranger who has just arrived in Lostworth. Its purpose is to help people spiritually. He can solve the problems of his patients, sometimes by talking, sometimes by preparing medicine or magic, and sometimes by lying. He is not a priest or a sorcerer. He is just a researcher who knows a lot about the spiritual structure of man. The source of this information is his books.
While focusing on patients' personal stories and solving their problems, Bernard finds himself in the strange events in the city. Bernard will face the truth about himself as he uncovers the secrets of the city.
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
Choices That Matter: And The Sun Went Out
Incredible, a definite must play if you enjoy CYOA books and games. While not literally every choice you make is going to change the course of the narrative, they hel immerse the player into the main character’s role, this paired with the intresting story and characters, and the intriguing mysteries make for an amazing experience if you like this kind of game
– Real player with 16.1 hrs in game
I’m just starting arc 5 i think and wow has it been a cool ride so far. i googled it and apparently on any given play through you only read 150,000 of a total 600,000 words which leads me to believe that these choices that seem like they really change whats going on, really do. Which also inspires anxiety but hey that’s all in the fun of making serious choices. so far solid 8/10 8.5 because canada eh
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game