tomorrow won’t come for those without ██████
I don’t typically write reviews, but I genuinely loved playing this game. This is just based off of my experience but I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys:
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Connecting dots and working a little to figure out the plot. The game doesn’t just come out with an exposition bomb, which I appreciate though I can understand that isn’t for everyone.
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Psychological thriller/horror elements. Creepy vibe? Check. A dash of body horror and existential/cosmic dread? Check.
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Puzzles. There are a few puzzles that stumped me for a bit, but it never felt entirely unfair. (Plus, if you really need help, there is a guide written by luna-terra that will help you through the game and get the alternate ending without spoiling the experience)
– Real player with 4.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Minimalist Stylized Games.
tomorrow won’t come for those without ██████ gives you the same feeling after playing as all of etherane’s other work. your mind gets foggy, your hands feel numb, and you want to cry but you don’t know how. you lay down in bed, turn the lights down to low, and just ponder.
etherane’s newest game comes with a new story just as surreal and mind-boggling as hello charlotte, seeped deep in low-humming religious trauma and blocked memories. the art is beautiful, and the slow-brewing horrors and states of melancholy make it even more so. i do appreciate the ability to turn flashing images off [which, to those curious, only comes up in one ending, and there are flashes when going between some rooms].
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
Dull Grey
It’s not the choice that matters, but the way you make it
The Strugatskys, Dostoevsky, Tarkovsky. That’s what the store page said and that’s all it took for me to fire this up as soon as I could. And what greeted me was a vast grey-white, desolate landscape accompanied by droney, sprawling dark ambient soundscape… and then the black text box appeared with simple words and angular, sharp lines evoking that early 20th century futuristic Soviet aesthetic in black and white. From the colours, shapes, sounds to the words, and overall presentation, everything in this game oozes minimalism and simplicity. And that goes for its length too. It could be said that Dull Grey is an interactive fiction equivalent of a short story whose one playthrough can be finished in about half an hour. But it packs quite a bit in that short playtime especially as you play more.
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Minimalist Dystopian Games.
Очень необычная визуальная новелла о выборе, самостоятельности и одновременно зависимости и независимости от окружения. Ну, во всяком случае, так ее понял я. Играть только на русском.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
reYal
Absolutely worth playing, and worth the money. Like people have said, mindbending, difficult but in a way that guarantees you’ll never be stuck. It’s not that you don’t know the solution, for the most part you’ll know the solution but it will be very mentally taxing to carry it out. Simple, elegant, with appreciated randomization so you could play it again while keeping quite a bit of the challenge.
I’ll admit I’m kind of sour about
! adding a new gameplay mechanic during the most laborious part, when the visuals aren’t even good enough to be sure what it is you’re looking at or what rules might have changed.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Minimalist Experimental Games.
Oh wow! Great puzzle game! Really had me thinking differently.
I had to take it one step at a time til completion!
I love the little characters and different styles.
The tunes were great and had a very peculiar sense of things getting… odd.
I can’t wait to see more by the developer.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
JACK
JACK is a physics-based 2D puzzle-platformer crafted by bringing textured acrylic paintings and pencil drawings into the game engine to create a tactile and visceral world. Played as one seamless, linear experience, JACK explores existential thought in a surreal environment.
Obversion
The game’s difficulty ramps up as you progress through the 28 levels, each of which poses unique challenges. It’s not hard to work through them, though: with mechanics that are easy to pick up on without explanation (except for controls, shown when starting the game), plenty of accessibility features (those being autojump, automove, and the undo/redo buttons) that can make it easy to traverse over obstacles, and a free hint that can be picked up at the start of every level, plenty of help is given for players to work through the rather complex nature of 3D first-person puzzlers. Observation, planning, and cleverness are key in order to reach the end of all of the puzzles made, even more so with the bonus yin-yang collectibles.
– Real player with 22.3 hrs in game
Obversion is a complex yet elegant platform puzzler. You can work your way through it without significant struggle or you can take time to ruminate on the puzzles. The difficulty does ramp up through the worlds and you may find yourself with a puzzle that requires more thought than blindly barreling forward.
The music is a special gem. I wouldn’t want to spoil it for prospective players, but what I can say is that it compliments the levels and builds on itself as you progress.
The dev put a lot of thought into movement mechanics and it seems that the puzzles have been mapped out and thoroughly thought through. I found myself stumped in one place or another until I noticed a pattern or subtle hint.
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
Mirror Land
WHAT IS THIS
Mirror Land is an original game that focuses on optical illusion puzzles. It is inspired by some Magic Mirror Concepts such as FengYueBaoJian in Dream of the Red Chamber and The Mirror of Erised in Harry Potter. It uses MAGIC MIRROR to GRAB and RELEASE characters and cooperate with moving the MAGIC MIRROR to complete incredible space puzzles.
According to THE MIRROR CONCEPT, a series of gameplay and stories are created. Meanwhile, this game uses poetry-writing methods as a source of reference, which makes the game more interesting and creates a poetic atmosphere in it.
**For closer eye movement and deeper puzzle layout, the puzzles of this game are specially developed for vertical screens. If the player’s display can be rotated to vertical, as long as the windows desktop is set to vertical. Then open the game, the game will be full screen. Or, if the display cannot be rotated or you don’t want to bother, players can just use the normal horizontal screen mode. The game experience will not be different, and the areas on the left and right sides of the screen will be filled with black. **
HOW TO PLAY
You can learn how to play from the demo video or read the tips below.
0.The MIRROR and The Feet of the character have an interactive relationship.
1.When you can see The Feet of the character in the MIRROR, press the MIRROR Button, thus the character is tied to the MIRROR surface and turns into 2D form.
2.When the MIRROR is moved, the terrain reflected in the MIRROR is changed.
3.When the 2D form character’s feet meet an empty foothold reflected by MIRROR, press the MIRROR Button again, thus the character is released to the corresponding terrain.
MECHANISM
Pedal Trigger can make the terrain or other things change.
THRUST DEVICE When the character moves to the front of the THRUST DEVICE, this device will do a powerful thrust and push the character out for a certain distance. During this process, the
character is not affected by gravity.
CLUSTER LIGHT
When the source of The CLUSTER LIGHT is turned on, there will be a beam of The CLUSTER LIGHT. It can be reflected by a MIRROR. You can make the LIGHT travel to different positions by adjusting the angle of light emission as well as the angle and position of the mirror.
1.The CLUSTER LIGHT can pass through transparent terrain.
2.When the CLUSTER LIGHT reaches a FLAT place whether it is transparent or not, a TELEPORT POINT of LIGHT can be etched at the irradiation point.
3.LUMEN STONE CAT can travel in CLUSTER LIGHT-TELEPORT POINT System
NPCs
LUMEN STONE CAT is a passenger of the CLUSTER LIGHT. It is a mysterious animal imprisoned in the LUMEN STONE. When it is not exposed to the CLUSTER LIGHT, it looks like a dull square stone that is almost as tall as the character. In this case, It can be dragged and moved on a flat place, helping characters reach different terrain. But when THE CAT is moved to a teleport point of the CLUSTER LIGHT, which connects with another teleport point by CLUSTER LIGHT, THE CAT will transform into a cat that can swim in the LIGHT. After it reaches the teleport point as far as it can, THE CAT will transform into stone-form again.
The SILENCE is such a STABLE being that no character can push it away. When it blocks a character’s way, the character can only walk away and wait for it to go to the next position, or catch it and put it in the MIRROR.
The STRENGTH In most cases, the STRENGTH will push away every movable object that gets into its reach. How far it pushes an object depends on the size of STRENGTH. During the pushing process, the STRENGTH and the object are not affected by gravity.
What The STRENGTH can push away: the character, the cubes, and smaller STRENGTHs
What The STRENGTH can not push away: THE SILENCE, THE LIGHT FLOWING STONE CAT, and solid terrains.
When the STRENGTH pushes the objects beyond its ability, it will be pushed away by the reaction force.
The STRENGTH can also be caught and put in the MIRROR.
CHESSBOARD OF THE MIRROR MECHANISM
1.When the character is caught and put on the CHESSBOARD OF THE MIRROR, he will become a chess piece that can move to the adjacent chessboard grid.
2.Each chessboard grid has a corresponding relationship with a certain foothold out of the MIRROR. When the MIRROR releases the character, the character will be placed in the corresponding position.
THE STORY OF MIRROR LAND
There is a continent in the darkness where the sun, the moon, and stars do not exist. The LIGHT is stored in a big mountain like gel. The mountain is called LUMEN.
Living creatures near the LUMEN gradually evolve into humans. They learn the methods of mining and using the LIGHT. They pipe the LIGHT to high places, illuminating most places. Technology and civilization are developing. Kingdom has formed.
Not far from the west of the LUMEN is the MIRROR PLAIN where the supply of MIRRORS is inexhaustible. Once the last piece of MIRROR PLAIN was exploited, an earth movement will come. A new MIRROR PLAIN will raise.
These MIRRORS can catch living creatures and put them into the surface of MIRRORS. This is discovered by accident.
One of the believable legends is about a hunter. Once upon a time, he was chasing the LUMEN BEAST. This BEAST escaped to a mirror. The hunter prayed subconsciously that someone could help him catch it. Unexpectedly, THE MIRROR responded to his prayer and caught the BEAST.
Later, people found a way to make MAGIC MIRRORS between witchcraft and technology.
THE STORY OF XIU(the character)
XIU’s ancestors are INKMEN,XIU is a inkman as well. INKMEN is one of the results of human genetic modification.
After humans learned to make MAGIC MIRRORS, some clever bad guys commit crimes with MAGIC MIRRORS they make, and leave no trace of themselves. The ruler of the kingdom decides to keep all the clever guys under supervision. Every movement of them has to leave a trace behind. So the clever ones become INKMEN. Ink always seep out through their skin, and their shoes cannot be waterproof. So the footprints they leave are all ink-like.
XIU’s mother was a TRAFFIC MIRROR ENGINEER. In a TRAFFIC MIRROR test 7 years ago, when the MIRROR released her, she disappeared. This strange thing made people panic, but no reason was found.
Now XIU is fifteen years old, inherited mother’s relics.XIU found 7 SPECIAL STONES among them. One day, a mysterious voice came into XIU’s ears, saying,” Take THESE STONES to the FURNACES I designate. Then forge them into a HAMMER according to the drawings I give you. Use the HAMMER to smash the one-thousand-year-old MIRROR hanging in the capital. And you can find your mother…”
“As long as there is a chance of finding my mother, I will try it…”
Room of Pandora
amazing puzzle game!
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Nice game that would even be more nice though if the devs would react to help-questions in the discussions…
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between
What do you see up there, when you consider the infinity around us? And as you wander on your own journey, who are the strange, unworldly others who probe those questions as they pass like ghosts through your travels? Were they ever really real?
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is about the thoughts that exist between destinations, the parts of journeys that dominate our time but not our attention, when our minds wander to parts of ourselves and our world normally left unexamined. On a late night highway drive, a quiet train car in the early hours, a walk through a moonlight park, or the endless wait in a deserted airport, we listen to weird music amid the ambient announcements of delays, and question our place in the universe.
Inspired by long travel and the stream of consciousness it fosters, Glitchhikers asks you to look inward. Find the answers to your questions, and question the answers you receive. Ruminate on life, the universe, our place and purpose in it. Voyage through a freeform narrative experience, converse with the endless inevitability, and explore the cosmic, hopeful world you find yourself in.
A follow up to the critically praised short game released in 2014, Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is an expanded experience, reborn and reimagined.
No pressure, no failure, no optimal path, no journey exactly the same. Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is an introspective freeform game where the player picks a journey, slips into that liminal space and has a unique experience travelling into their own thoughts, guided by the characters they meet along the way.
A late night drive, a deserted airport lounge, a moonlit walk through an empty park, a quiet carriage on an overnight train, a 24-hour convenience store. Never the ultimate destination, spending time in the inbetween creates a setting for contemplation and reflection, a mood that exists in these liminal spaces.
The hikers you meet on each journey will travel with you for a time, offering thought-provoking conversations, and questioning your place in the universe. Who will you meet? What will you talk about? Were they real or just a figment of your imagination?
An extensive original soundtrack full of chill grooves, upbeat wonder, dreamy synths controlled by your movement through space, and that one busker who makes you feel right at home: each journey has its own feel.
Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between both expands and dives deeper into the ideas behind the original Glitchhikers (released as a short conceptual game in 2014), to fully realise the concepts and present a polished and fleshed out experience to a new generation of players.
Silverstring Media are a vital and vibrant voice within narrative indie games, creating a string of short experimental titles and working as narrative guns for hire on indie darlings including Celeste, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine, Manifold Garden and Wandersong.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1449230/
Lost Voice
At first glance, the story is simple, if not cliched. A player finds themselves in a strange and unfamiliar world - they don’t know where they are or how they got there. And it appears they don’t remember anything up to this point. Almost immediately the player is contacted by a group of characters with similar symptoms and together they start an investigation to unravel these mysteries. Where are they? Why can’t they remember anything? These and many other questions will be answered in the most unexpected ways.
At its core, Lost Voice is a first-person shooter, with strong exploration and some puzzle elements. Town Square is a safe space where the player can go to seek shelter and communicate with NPCs. Teleport Room that can be found there is used to reach other worlds (dungeons). Each world has its own gameplay twist.
There is no “Game Over” screen in Lost Voice. Instead of dying, the player teleports to the Well when HP is depleted. Upon climbing the Well to the top, the player transports to the Secret Room, nearest to the player’s “death” location. These rooms are closed from the inside, so the player will need to figure out how to unlock them.
Antimatter Elevator
Trippy, stressful, satisfying! Perfect ending is DIFFICULT!
– Real player with 3.0 hrs in game
Game gets super repetitive, music is just… Weird, nothing really interesting here that would be worth your time, and plus you can’t run the game in full screen so theres that, honestly I got bored of the game. And only put in a couple of minutes in it…
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game