Gruta: Prologue of the Gloomy Whispers
In this narrative-driven platformer game, you play as child that was living on the edge, trying to escape of her family. Running away, the kid wants to fight the monster she thought was causing trouble between her parents. What she found was not what she was expecting.
Using a sword and shield based combat, you have to fight different types of enemies and mechanics through the levels and reach your goal: Find and face the monster to save your family.
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Stylized pixel-art and original artstyle cutscenes;
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50 hand-crafted levels with increasing complexity;
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A action platformer game with a stunning and polished game feel;
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Tight controls - optmized controls for gamepads and keyboards;
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Original Soundtrack;
Read More: Best Lovecraftian Lore-Rich Games.
The Terrible Old Man
I never write bad reviews for games, because, if I don’t like one, I usually just put it aside and move along, but I cannot, for the life of me, understand how this game is so highly rated. Am I missing something??
The dialogue was bland and I noticed some very obvious mistakes, which just resonates on the fact that they didn’t put much effort into it.
The portraits were terrifying in an absolutely hilarious way, but it feels unintentional. It gave me serious Legend of Zelda: Wand of Gamelon vibes. The movement was awkward and sticky and there was no. goddamn. plot.
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Lovecraftian Horror Games.
This isn’t so much of a “reinterpretation” or “retelling” as it is a straight up clone of Lovecraft’s 1921 short story of the same name with a few unimportant details omitted. It says that it’s “based off” the 1921 story in its credits, but this game easily only uses 2% originality (if that) while the rest of the plot comes directly from Howard Phillips' own typewriter. I thought that this was going to more or less be a point-and-click adventure game with puzzles and various threads you can follow. However, there’s only one path to go down and only one ending that you can get. Sure, you can try all the bits of dialogue with each character (of which there are a few), but there’s only one selection per character that’s actually correct. You can easily find the correct answer by process of elimination. While you are supposed to go back and talk to people you’ve already annoyed or conversed with, this isn’t so much a “puzzle” as it’s something that players assume that they already need to do from the get-go (especially with point-and-click interactive fiction adventure games). Just so you know: I don’t care that this isn’t a puzzle game. What I care about is getting invested in a game whose plot from its original source material can’t just be looked up on Google in 10 seconds. If everything that’s going to happen can be revealed with a couple mouse clicks, I feel like something is definitely wrong with the game in question. I genuinely was looking for my expectations to be subverted, and they were not. Although I rather enjoyed the art design (the people’s faces were brilliantly scary and had a unique clay-like quality to them), it still wasn’t enough to keep me interested for longer than its expected 25 minute length. Maybe a longer game with more paths to go down could be worthwhile.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Gray Dawn
“Gray Dawn” - An Attempt at an Honest Review
TL;DR: Overly ambitious atmospheric horror game plagued by low budget and lack of experience, brings nonetheless enough originality and earnest charm to warrant a look for lovers of fresh voices in gaming.
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The Good:
Oddly-named new developer Interactive Stone brings a decidedly fresh voice to the world of adventure games and it is largely based on its novelty and sheer scale of ambition that I am recommending the game to fans of the unjustly criticised “walking simulator” genre. The implementation of religious imagery originating in the orthodox world (and in particular Romania, where the developer is based) consistently impresses visually and brings new twists to otherwise well-worn tropes.
– Real player with 7.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Lovecraftian Horror Games.
IN SHORT
Gray Dawn is a walking simulator that delves into a priest’s guild-ridden psyche after an altar boy disappears. The story is set in England and Romania and deals with guilt, grief, redemption and faith. Solid in graphics and soundtrack while lacking in tension and story.
PROS
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Beautiful backgrounds and music
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Interesting main mystery
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Symbolically rich and engaging story
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Very easy 100% achievements
CONS
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Low replayability
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Main mystery loses its edge after first playthrough
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
COLINA: Legacy
Curator page here-- [url] DaRevieweD #37[/url] -- [i]New review every Sunday[/i]
You know how YouTube makes such a random recommendation and it’s total gold that you wonder where it has been all this time? That’s what Steam did one ordinary day with COLINA Legacy- concocted by an indie team known as Chance6 Studiosof California!
From the trailer & store page it seems the devs hoped for it to come off as a fresh survival horror! Which I was really counting on too as it’s one of my favorite genres and I have not played much recently. Well no more stalling, time to get to the root of it~
– Real player with 12.2 hrs in game
Just when you think you’re in for a nice gentle takeoff, you go from 0 to Cthulhu in about 4 seconds.
One minute you’re asleep in the car on the way to grandma’s house; next thing you know, you wake up and everything looks gross, there’s writing on the walls, eerie voices on the radio and a puppet is sitting there trying to look inconspicuous but failing miserably. On the table nearby happens to be an artifact within which are inscribed the ancient glyphs that bind the powers of the elder gods who birthed space and time itself from beyond the void, or something.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
Dread X Collection 2
Score: 7/10
Dread X Collection games are a great concept. A horror house of mini-games that take 30-60 minutes to finish to unlock a larger narrative. The first game had a lot of duds and a few games that crashed and couldn’t be finished, and the same goes for this collection. There are far better games, but the duds are even worse this time around. At least there’s a larger hub world you can explore and get the games to require solving simple puzzles in a mansion you are locked in. It took me about 20 minutes to solve all the puzzles and find all twelve keys. It really doesn’t take much with some barely even considered puzzles. Each game is on a VHS tape locked in a box in the main room. You put the tape in the VCR and the game will pop up. It’s a neat concept and fun while it lasts, but you will spend the majority of your time with the smaller games. I will go through each one and let you know if they’re worth your time or not.
– Real player with 21.7 hrs in game
This collection takes place in a house with puzzles that you must solve to unlock keys to be able play the next game you desire. There is a free play mode if you don’t want to deal with the puzzles. There are 12 games in this collection and I will speak of each one in the order that I play them:
Squirrel Stapler
This was my first choice in this collection, its from the creator of DUSK, I enjoyed it. I will agree with a few others that the map seems like it could have been smaller, but at the same time the emptiness aside from the few squirrels and the vegetation and buildings made it kinda eerie to me. I always felt that I was being watched, and I was kinda right to think that. There are notes around certain areas of the map and they mainly have squirrel facts and some other topics. The main premise of the game is that you’re hunting squirrels for an “art project” involving your wife, and meeting god. How sweet of you. The game adds in new weird things pretty much each day, up to 5 days in total. The game isn’t super scary but it got me good a few times, especially the ending. Keep your rifle loaded; God is coming.
– Real player with 18.2 hrs in game
The Devil’s Luck
In what could have been another relaxing evening, Wesley faces a strange crisis that changes him forever. Experience horror like never before, in this nerve-wracking story, filled with unexpected turns.
Key features:
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Can be finished in one sitting of about 30 minutes.
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Contains jumpscares.
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Relaxing atmosphere.
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Decent graphics.
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Horror mechanics.
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Interesting puzzles.
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Uncover mysteries.
Moons of Madness
Moons of Madness
Tides of the Elder Gods
Review
Once again Funcom expands its online MMO’s lore - the formerly known The Secret World but re-purposed as Secret World Legends in 2017 - with a new interactive narrative experience in Moons of Madness which acts in exactly the same way as Funcom’s previous effort, The Park. What that means is you are getting a heavily story-based experience with some light puzzle solving as opposed to one that includes combat and an overdose of action.
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game
TLDR: I really wanted to love this as a huge fan of horror, lovecraft and narrative driven games but its just not “quite” there. It’s by no means bad, but it just didn’t have the strong story needed in a game…with no gameplay.
Pros - Pretty game to look at in places, clearly a lot of effort went into set dressing / area design, initially builds a good atmosphere.
Cons - Story is very shallow and predictable, characters are just bad, puzzles are very simple, lots of choppy framerates and some very out of place gameplay that felt shoehorned in.
– Real player with 11.4 hrs in game
The Land of Crows
One of the best portrayals of Cthulhu Mythos and Poe out there. Definitely a perfect lovecraftian game in my opinion. The game offers an amazing atmosphere of a desperate land full of polish culture. In fact, one can learn so much from playing this game. Inspirations are very promising and the game provides everything it claims. A really well-written and grim interactive book to read, so to speak.
The somber tale of a very romantic and “curious” polish nobleman filled with a lot of suffering and sorrow for melancholy fans. The most underrated game, I would say.
– Real player with 10.1 hrs in game
An interesting adventure game that’s filled with Polish history, strange entities and ghosts, but there are a few areas that could be improved upon.
Intro
The Land of Crows is an indie side-scrolling horror adventure game that’s heavily inspired by gothic writer’s of old, such as Edgar Allen Poe and Goete. It was also inspired by classic thriller adventure games of the 90’s, which is why it utilizes an old school art style. When I first discovered the game it immediately reminded me think of games like Downfall or The Cat Lady due to its art style but this is a very different entity in its own right. Do read on to see what I thought of the game.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
No one lives under the lighthouse Director’s cut
A curious game that you’ve found in a box with old CD’s, covered with 10 year old dust. Booting it up you find retro graphics, only two buttons ‘use’ and ‘run’ and a story that leaves you feeling uneasy.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2667620268
◆ The last lighthouse keeper left the island without a word. The loneliness must have gotten to him, or something. But forget about him for now, think about those unknowing ships passing by the island. They might crash into the rocks, it’s quite dangerous without a bright shining beacon of light. That’s where you come in: You’re here to save the day- you’re the new lighthouse keeper. And.. that’s it! Standing with a suitcase on the docks of the lighthouse island you’re now on your own. No explaination of what to do, except for the simple job description: Keep the lighthouse clean and running.
– Real player with 6.4 hrs in game
very good game so far. however the title is misleading, as something does indeed live under the lighthouse.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
10 Dead Doves
10 Dead Doves is a short, singleplayer, fixed-perspective horror story set in the heart of the Appalachian wilderness.
it’s 2004. The mountains are much older. Your name is Marcus Stetson, a seasoned backpacker who wants to relive the glory days of hiking the harsh Appalachian Trail– but you want more. You pool your resources together with your long-time trail buddy, Sean, to embark on one final outing, but your bond, will, and wits are put to the test when you receive a series of cryptic messages from a haunting, bird-like figure in your dreams.
Features
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Explore a fully realized short narrative full of mystery, heart, and mortal terror.
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Experience a thrilling psychological horror campaign with secrets tucked into every corner.
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Navigate the Wren’s peculiar Dove Dreams, and uncover multiple endings that will affect both your past– and future.
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Discover horrifically beautiful environments and uniquely flawed characters, all designed with charmingly disturbing ’00s-inspired 3D graphics.
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Grass.
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███ ███████████.
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Full voice acting and subtitles.
Explore the dark recesses beyond The Fence and attempt to survive the belly of the beast.