The Peresmeshnik

The Peresmeshnik

The story of the game is pretty interesting! There’s no jump scares but it really does make you question who is bad or good the story reminds me a lot of the thing with a hint of c’thulu (possibly just cause it’s a big bad at sea and the charts?) Overall I enjoyed the play through and it kept my interest as I replayed it multiple times for the achievements and they weren’t insanely hard to get or anything!

my full play through with all achievements here: https://youtu.be/2155w1tHkjw

Real player with 2.1 hrs in game


Read More: Best Interactive Fiction Text-Based Games.


Let your imagination run wild with this story game! Its a quick play through with a well thought out story ark. Its taught me to trust again!

Playing The Peresmeshnik for the first time brought back memories of my survival days in Rust and Ark where I developed PTSD and an excessive amount of paranoia. I might have lost my mind the first playthrough, but I made things right eventually.

A word to the wise: Don’t let that tentacle bastard get you, like it got me!

Real player with 1.6 hrs in game

The Peresmeshnik on Steam

Windrush Tales

Windrush Tales

_We were invited back. Told that we’d be welcomed to start our new lives. Our new homes.

The “mother country.”

But this…

…This isn’t the Britain we dreamed of._

Fresh off the devastating fallout of World War II, Great Britain called for help to rebuild from the bombs and bullets. And in June 1948, hundreds of men and women from the Caribbean answered that call.

The arrival of HMT Empire Windrush signalled the beginning of many brave immigrants arriving with just a small suitcase of their best clothes, hopes and dreams, to craft a fresh start.

What they found wasn’t what they expected.

Windrush Tales is an illustrated text-based narrative game exploring the courage, community and culture of a generation.

Step into the shoes of three very different, playable characters arriving during the Windrush era of Britain, as you face the challenges experienced by Caribbean migrants adjusting to life in the UK.

Your choices will affect each character’s journey as they attempt to grow, change and sometimes, just simply exist, in the face of an ever-changing world rife with racism and bigotry.

Will you truly find a place to thrive between the hope and hostilities of your new home?

Key features:

  • Play a world first: Explore country-changing history from a different perspective in the first ever video game based on the real-world arrival of the Windrush generation.

  • Discover an engaging, branching narrative: Immerse yourself in an emotional, non-linear, illustrated text-based story with three playable characters and several different endings.

  • Experience a slice of Caribbean culture: Take in the sights and sounds of a generation through beautifully hand-painted visuals and authentic music.


Read More: Best Interactive Fiction Adventure Games.


Windrush Tales on Steam

Fiendish Thieves

Fiendish Thieves

A short interactive horror movie about 2 thieves that search for vintage items in an abandoned warehouse. The movie is a perfect mix between Home alone and Frankenstein with a lot of slapstick humor!

https://youtu.be/UF8nt7k9800

Real player with 7.8 hrs in game


Read More: Best Interactive Fiction Adventure Games.


Fiendish Thieves is a short game that can be finished in under an hour, but multiple playthroughs are required to see all of the different scenes. I would say the game leans more on the side of comedy. If you’re a fan of B-movie horror, then this should be right up your alley.

Real player with 5.2 hrs in game

Fiendish Thieves on Steam

Mean Routine

Mean Routine

A fun, simple game. Perfect for casual players.

Real player with 1.1 hrs in game

Need a neutral option.

In reality don’t see how all these department heads would be in such meetings together, nor how and why you would be involved if not being a department head yourself.

Its almost more like you are in an interview with the whole company board where Its a people pleaser game: make suggestions that pleases the right person on questions asked and you end up with a job in that department.

With such unrelated randomness to issues the game might as well just be a dart board or form of roulette game.

Real player with 0.4 hrs in game

Mean Routine on Steam

W4RR-i/o-RS

W4RR-i/o-RS

There is basically nothing to recommend this game. It might’ve been interesting if stapled to its successor, W4RR-i/o-RS: Descent , as an additional mode that integrated with the gameplay in that game. But here it is, exactly as the Store description states: a nearly zero-player game that almost plays itself. This is not some secret game hiding behind a bland listing. It is exactly what it says on the tin.

I did end up pasting hundreds of commands (with line breaks) into the terminal window and watching the list of Warriors live, fight, advance, and die. It’s certainly a way to quickly demonstrate to oneself how easily the human mind can spin a narrative from the output of a weighted random number generator (to borrow from xkcd #904). But once I got all of the achievements, I immediately uninstalled this game.

Real player with 2.0 hrs in game

It’s just a simulation rolling game or a stat battling game. The simulation aspect reminds me of a game I used to play called Biogenesis but this game is much less interactive. I didn’t understand how to play the game at first until I just start spamming the roll command and got a bunch of achievements.

Real player with 2.0 hrs in game

W4RR-i/o-RS on Steam

A Rabbit and the Mystic Fog

A Rabbit and the Mystic Fog

Experienced on the Oculus Rift

You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/lddyGhPOy0Y

This is a 20-30 minute story book adventure for VR. You explore the map, talk to the meadow creatures, and try to solve the mystery of the mysic fog. It sort of plays like a Visual Novel, except you have little quests to do as you uncover the story. In theory, this should be a chill & lovely mini-adventure that I could recommend to families.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this game. It just has too many issues. The biggest issue for me was the teleportation system in this game. It’s simply terrible. You’re supposed to be able to face the direction your teleportation marker is pointing, but I found it almost impossible to control. I finally gave up and played this game standing and just physically faced the direction that I was teleporting towards. There is no smooth or snap turning.

Real player with 0.9 hrs in game

I didnt realize this game needed VR. I was able to access the debugger so I got a good look at the map and its guts.

10/10

Real player with 0.2 hrs in game

A Rabbit and the Mystic Fog on Steam

Anachronism>

Anachronism>

Detailed review:

This is based on my own opinions.

I will try not talk about the events and details of the story in my review. I think the less you know about it before you start, the more enjoyable it’ll be!

Context:

1. Value for money

2. Gameplay

3. Story

4. Graphics and Art

5. Nice-to-haves

6. Negatives

7. Recommendation to players (+18)

8. Summary

1. Value for money

For the price I payed, I have definitely got my money worth from this game. I have 40+ hours and enjoyed most of the game. I personally think anything below $2 that provides 40+ hours of fun is worth it, for sure!

Real player with 44.3 hrs in game

The game was nostalgic for me. The sounds of the computer, keyboard, floppy disk are sensational and the fact that the game doesn’t have music gives you a very good immersion. The story holds your attention and you want to know all the endings. I loved this game, waiting for the second one already! :D

Real player with 7.8 hrs in game

Anachronism\> on Steam

BATTLESCAR: Punk Was Invented By Girls

BATTLESCAR: Punk Was Invented By Girls

Got it for 56 cents as a part of a bundle. Still got disappointed.

To be fair, it is well executed in terms of visual storytelling and cinematography. Some really creative sets there!

Unfortunately, these can’t do much if the narrative and the main characters are bland and uninteresting. The abrupt and undercooked ending made the already underwhelming story - a complete waste of time for me.

Also, it is an oculus exclusive, has a good amount of gender politics at its core, and if your chapter gets interrupted, like USB disconnection (thanks AMD) you need to suffer through the whole chapter without the option to skip forward.

Real player with 0.9 hrs in game

As a VR artist, I really enjoyed this experience. It is quite daring in terms of the format of narrative and also mixing a kind of “book” feel into the VR aesthetic. I would recommend it for any VR artists as a source of inspiration.

The story is not the best however, a bit tacky and shallow but still enjoyable.

Disappointed that it took much longer to get on Steam than on Oculus Store and also that they only support Oculus headsets, especially since there are almost no interactions (any?), so it’s not like supporting controllers of other headsets would’ve been difficult.

Real player with 0.9 hrs in game

BATTLESCAR: Punk Was Invented By Girls on Steam

CLOSED HANDS

CLOSED HANDS

Overall a very well written interactive story that follows the lives of six characters in relation to an event that affects the whole community they are a part of. The format allows you to follow each of the character’s story in whatever order you want and if you want to explore other paths, you don’t have to restart the game (which I think is a very nice feature).

Follow the tragic story of a working class white man in his fight against corporate woke-ism and cancel culture in a world that does not care if he is left behind, the adventure of a mixed race boss girl who is not afraid to tell old people that their proven ways of working are bad, a young man who is radicalized by an Antifa-esque organization, a reported who has to choose between click baits and the truth and a parent who has lost control of their child and does not know/care what he is up to.

Real player with 12.9 hrs in game

Very interesting story. I initially thought the game would be like Orwell but this is entirely different. Only the initial plot is the same : there was a bombing. We are skimming through a script offered through various means (text like in a book, chat, emails, conversations,…) each split into timelines.

We go through several branches of the story as we like to pursue the details and get to the end of the scenario, viewed from 5 different characters. Each story is unique by the way it is delivered and very true at the same time. We can picture the scenes easily while reading the fragments of stories. The writing is particularly polished, so polished it like this would have been a great drama tv series for instance.

Real player with 9.0 hrs in game

CLOSED HANDS on Steam

Conspiracy!

Conspiracy!

A short but exceedingly sweet little game of deduction in the style of The Return of the Obra Dinn. The musical finale is the cherry on the cake of a well written and well voice acted gem.

Real player with 2.5 hrs in game

A bit like a light weight ‘Return of the Obra Din’ - read the conspiracy posts, listen to the podcasts and the google stuff to pinpoint dates. When did Bryan Adams play a certain venue, what is Taylor Swifts birthday, what year did 21 May fall on a … Good fun for a couple of hours.

Real player with 2.2 hrs in game

Conspiracy! on Steam