Home
Home was one of the first (previously) PC exclusive horror games that I ever bought. Although I have been a fan of everything horror all of my life, this little hidden indie gem really kickstarted everything that I do today. I even reviewed it once upon a time ago, and it was one of the first game reviews that I ever wrote. However, as my writing style has progressed and grown through the years, and the fact that I recently replayed this subtle masterpiece on console, I’ve felt compelled to rewrite my original review. Back to the game that started it all, back to Home.
– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Indie Games.
It’s a bit hard for me to form a certain opinion on Home, while certainly being a very interesting adventure, there’s flaws that I can’t seem to ignore.
You wake up in someplace, and all you find is a flashlight. From here it’s up to you to find out what happened. This is the first problem, I surely like games that based themselves in mystery and even those that leave some of the story open to interpretation, but Home relies HEAVILY on that certain aspect. While some people may like that, it sort of irritates me that I cannot find the true explanation of this game. There’s 2 ways the story can go, it all depends on what you decide in the basement part of the game, but you have the same 3 endings if you choose one or another because in the end, they’re both tragic as hell.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
School of Horror
Man this game was really worth the time. I was given the game through random selected steam cards, and boy was I lucky to get this game. I would recomend this game to anyone over the age of 16 years.
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10/10
-Signed MeOldMateAustie™
– Real player with 5.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery First-Person Games.
So the game was, quite clearly, updated with a new underground map. An update could be a nice thing, but in this case the underground map is an enclosed labyrinth with no way out. I’ve tried heading down every possible path to its end and there’s nothing but dead ends and a few bundles of zombies littered throughout it. It kind of… well, it sucks. The game is monotonous and pointless and, with the update, there is absolutely no way to get to the portion of the game where you’re shooting zombies. I was looking for meaningless fun when I bought this game, all I found was the meaningless part. I am sad. I wanted to shoot zombies with the weapons the game’s description promises are in the game; but that part of the game is inaccessible and the game ends up a walking and dodging simulator with zombies senselessly appearing as part of the scenery.
– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game
Ilamentia
An amazing series of exploratative puzzles, and one of the best uses of design space that I can recall.
The game itself is difficult to explain. Its a first person wasd + mouse control scheme with only 4 additional forms of input. Fire, jump, restart, and exit. These functions change slightly from level to level. Sometimes you might not be able to jump, sometimes you might be able to fly, sometimes your fire button does… something entirely different.
There is very little in the sense of hints (usually you have the name of a level and a single short sentence with which to build your guesses). This can be a boon or a curse depending on how quickly you pick up the goal of a stage.
– Real player with 18.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Indie Games.
I’ve completed most of the game now and formed a love/hate relationship with it. The gameplay is nice and some of the levels are creative. BUT… Way too much of the challenge in this game revolve around the player not seeing a f’ing thing except the screen flickering or the theme of the world you’re in makes everything a huge pile of shit on your screen. On some levels you have to do platforming while the platforms are hidden and there’s nothing in the level that allow you to judge distances so you have to count in your head to figure when not to press forward anymore. Some levels make you lose your vision as you progress and this theme of not seeing s**t repeats over and over. There is some kind of logic in the puzzles but the rules mostly change as you progress and you will “die” because theres no way you could have known what will happen. I’ll give an example here about the poor puzzle designs here so SPOILER warning incase you’re going to purchase the game.
– Real player with 16.9 hrs in game
Castle of no Escape
I bought this game to support the dev because I thought CoNE2 was really great, and the developer was active and continues to fix bugs and upgrade the game.
I know what the developer was trying to achieve in this game. I never played Leygreff’s Castle but the developer has elsewhere said his design choices were based around honoring that game. What I have played a lot of in my youth, and as recently as two weeks ago is a game called Telengard. And this game bears many resemblances to Telengard and games of that era.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
THE GAME
Explore the mysterious castle full of monsters and secrets in a quest to collect all the treasures (that will also protect you from the curses on your way) and crush the main boss. The game won’t let you exit the castle, no matter how you try. Technically you can win, but there is no end.
CONTROLS
Press Enter to start the game
Press 1, 2 or 3 to select a hero
Strength, Intelligence and Dexterity at the hero selection screen are the maximal values which that hero can get. Strength is both for life and attack power, intelligence is both for mana and spell power. Dexterity affects your attack and defence accuracy.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
Echo of the Wilds
This review is based on v6 of the game.
Echo of the Wilds is a great little pixel art puzzle/survival game with a very involved developer.
I beat the game my first time in about 17 hours and completed all achievements after about 36 hours. I would say that there isn’t much replayability after getting all of the achievements and most people would be satisfied with just beating the game once (you could get all achievements in one playthrough, but it took me multiple playthroughs to figure out optional puzzles and to really get the mechanics of the game). It was definitely a worthwhile game for me and I did enjoy almost every minute of playing.
– Real player with 37.3 hrs in game
Exceeded my anticipation
I bought Echo of the Wilds on the morning of the 9th and “completed” it on the 11th, early evening (approx. 20 hours). I took only 3 breaks from the game, and two of them were against my will. I’m telling you this to give you an idea of how much I really enjoyed this game. Survival-puzzle game sums up EotW tidily, but it’s like nothing I’ve ever played before. There’s quite a bit going on - with three quarters resting solely in the player’s hands and the other quarter left to randomness and the seasons. Some players may feel overwhelmed in the beginning and give up. Just stick with it, it pays off.
– Real player with 26.8 hrs in game