Head AS Code
I like it. This is an indie game styled after the Zero Escape franchise, so there are a lot of references and spirit you can feel throughout the game. Just so you know, Head AS Code is a remake of the original title and is somehow superior in every sense. The presentation is pretty simple and there’s a lot to think about in this plot-driven story. I wish I could say much about the characters and the plot, but a lot of this game relies on reveals, so the magic would happen best if you saw them yourself. Coming up with theories is great, and I like to think this game gave me many opportunities to guess at what’s going to happen next. One of my only real non-spoilery complaints about this game… I’d say it would be the serious lacking of puzzle difficulty. As in, there’s only one real head-scratcher and that’s it. All the “puzzles” are just clicking the next option and that’s it. I get why creator decided to remove the difficulty from the game and I understand that many puzzles in the original version alienated the player from ever solving them without outside help. Still, this beats out doing obscure mathematics anytime.
– Real player with 26.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Multiple Endings Games.
A refreshing swim during an absolute drought of mysterious multiple-route sci-fi visual novels, exploring esoteric concepts both originating from science and philosophy, and delving into matters of the mind and body.
Many game reviews I’ve read act redundant by repeating the plot summary and anything else you would find on public platforms, so I’ll try to refrain from doing so.
Written alone by one person, this visual novel features a strong and distinct cast whom you will interact with often, soaked in their own mysteries, to varying degrees of intimacy and personality across several routes. This is one of few VNs where, when given the option to talk with certain characters, I had wanted to talk to everybody right off the bat. What fuels the nuanced characters, their desires and motives? Hidden behind layers of facade and veil, YOU will quest to learn the reason for each member’s existence.
– Real player with 25.3 hrs in game
Telling Lies
It pains me to write a negative review for this game. I loved Her Story for it’s story and Viva Seifert’s incredible performance, even though the game play (you are a cop working with the world’s worst video archiving software) was maddening.
Telling Lies has much of the same strengths and weaknesses. The cast is terrific and the writing gives them a lot of meaty, emotional moments to work with. The plot is diverting, with multiple characters and scenarios popping up that you’ll want to spend time disentangling everything.
– Real player with 42.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery FMV Games.
Telling the truth about Telling lies
I have a problem and I’m not alone. The whole game industry has the same problem: how to tell stories with games? A good story has its own laws. Ask any writer other than your 8-year-old little sister. The story has a build, thought out ups and downs, twists and turns, beginnings and endings. The game follows different rules. The player has to be an active doer, not just a listener, reader or a watcher. The players’ choices and actions will have to have an impact on the game, otherwise the experience is flat. Unfortunately these two collide. Where a good story demands a pre-defined route to work, a good game wants freedom and choices. It’s like marrying a feminist to a chauvinist. It simply does not work or at least has not worked so far and it’s not from the lack of trying. Sam Barlow’s Telling lies is another effort to marry the unwanting partners.
– Real player with 19.3 hrs in game
ESCAPE
Deep in the dark underground, countless weirdness coveted the world on the ground in secret.
Finally…One day, everything got out of control.
You will be in a uncontrollable research institution which called“收藏品”, and witness the site being disintegrated by 【Data Elimination】.
Seek a gleam of light desperately in the erosion of the darkness, leading you to a closer platform to the road less travelled by.
《ESCAPE》is a platform-adventure game of new weird style, which based on the SCP Foundation. You will approach the truth of each weird collection step by step through contact, exploration, collection, and puzzle solving. Restore the unknown experiments and analysis the asylum’s records. Survive from these supernatural objects by the known information, and even use them to help you escape.
Read More: Best Mystery Dark Games.
NUTS
Nuts is a fantastic little game with fantastic art and sound design. I played the demo when it was released and immediately fell in love with the look and feel of the game. The best way I can think to explain the extreme appeal of this game to ME is that it feels like you are occupying a liminal space. Like you are on the threshold of two planes of existence. From the desolate bus stop that you initially arrive at to the wide empty forests with these strange little squirrels being the only living things besides yourself… it’s strange, perhaps even a bit eerie in later chapters, but overall peaceful.
– Real player with 4.2 hrs in game
I feel like I am the perfect audience for this game—I love Firewatch, Gone Home and almost all first-person adventures / walking simulators. Recently I’ve enjoyed Call of the Sea and Old Gods Rising, despite their flaws. But Nuts left me very unsatisfied.
The success of a game like this rests on three things: The game world, the puzzle mechanic, and the story. Ideally, all three would be great, but usually one of them is weaker. So, Firewatch has an incredible game world and characters, but weak puzzles. The Witness has an incredible game world and puzzles, but no real story. Sadly, Nuts has an incredible game world, but the puzzle mechanic and plot just did not work for me.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Em-A-Li
I hate when there is no options for key bindings. Don’t like playing with arrow keys on pc. Both Em-A-Li games can be navigated by mouse, that’s good but you have to press enter key to enter doors or use items, which ruins it.There is a non stop static noise in bg from start which is annoying for me. The story is not that good and the voice narration lags behind the words narration so I end up reading faster and skip which ruins the fun.No options for narration format so no choice. Game is small and doesn’t eat up time. If i play it continuously it will finish within 35 mins i guess. Still not worth the time for me. Ended up watching youtube while playing lol.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Another of those games where the overall rating is probably neutral, but there’s no such option on Steam, so I’ll err on the positive side because I did enjoy my short time with it (my playtime is quite a bit longer than what you need, I started in a different computer and then I tried to be very thorough).
The game is almost a visual novel/walking simulator in terms of how limited interaction is. There’s a few hotspots along the way which you can interact for more flavour text which can be mixed, but the main narrative has a grand total of one meaningful “choice” in it, which really only skips you some small amount of content if you take the more “obvious” (at least if you are generally genre savvy) option. I saved at this supposed fork in the road and when I came back to see what happened and was relatively unimpressed with what was there.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Lost Lies
Lost Lies is a true detective feature-length thriller movie game. Walk into the shoes of detective picking up a case of a missing officer:
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Discover a mystery of her disappearing and find the path to solve a case of series suicides.
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Immerse yourself into the thrilling story where your choices can lead to different endings.
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Analyze documents, find clues and interrogate suspects in your way to solve the case.
But be prepared, not everything is as it seems…
Our Secret Below
Curator page here -- [url] DaRevieweD #30[/url] -- [i]New review every Sunday[/i]
Brian Clarke of DarkStone Digital makes a comeback with his second major game! This time it’s a mystery-thriller with some psychological elements and a lot of challenging puzzles. If you’ve read my previous review of Inner, you’d know I was quite taken by his work thus far and his fresh set of eyes in the horror genre. He has a certain charm in creating smaller scale projects but still promising spacious room for players to ponder upon and enjoy.
– Real player with 19.7 hrs in game
Alright strap yourselves in because I’m about to go on a whole rant of details that are probably going to make me sound like a madman hunting for Pepe Silvia but here goes…
This game is absolutely delightful across the board. It’s definitely not for everyone, but as someone who is REAL dumb at puzzles and has the memory of a PS2 memory card, this game makes me feel like mf Sherlock Holmes. A lot of “hrmm….hrm….no that doesn’t make sense….wait…A HAH!”
Also full disclosure, I technically received one copy of the game, but I truly believed in this game for the reasons below and backed it on Kickstarter for an additional two copies to giveaway for a charity. So I’m not exactly sure if I’m supposed to claim I got this for free when I bought multiple copies? There’s the info though, you decide. But check out my other reviews, I got no problems being critical on games received for free.
– Real player with 13.5 hrs in game
Ruthless Water
Was a kawaii chatroom, changed to parkour overnight. ┌╏ º □ º ╏┐
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
1. This game’s thumbnail is clickbait
2. optimization is doodoo fart
3. Slender man can walk through walls
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
The Hand of Glory
Comic-like Point & Click detective, fully voiced. The game consists of two parts, which could be considered as games on their own. A good experience!
Story & setting
You start as Lazarus Bundy, a detective in Miami. He appears to be the muze for the serial killer Blowtorch, because that man is addresses him personally through his communications. Lars, as he is called, hunts this Blowtorch without respect for protocol (or his own health), which gets him suspended (and nearly killed). This is where the game starts.
– Real player with 32.2 hrs in game
Review edited and updated on December 5, 2020, due to the release of Part 2
Hand of Glory doesn’t disappoint. It’s one of the best adventure releases of 2020 so far, with very well-done cartoon visuals, strong voice acting. and an easy-to-use interface. Quality at every level.
A lot of love was put into the cartoon-style animations and colorful backgrounds.
It would be easy to expect this game to be all fun and hi-jinks and there is a lot of that but there are also some very tender and heartfelt moments.
– Real player with 29.8 hrs in game
Eldritch Academy
A nice mild magical girl (without the flashy change scenes or clothes change)
type horror with mild yuri romance. This is the prelude of the Eldritch University VN which is The Girl who got Badly hurt and her girlfriend..
You have the 3 girl endings and a harem and a secret ending, I have the secret and harem to find.
It is a good VN so give it a go.
– Real player with 68.3 hrs in game
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cute yuri game
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interesting mystic concept
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a few fun conversations
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this is NOT a horror or a thriller. there are definitely no scary or tense moments in the game
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the game is short, but terribly repetitive
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I expected more from Akomi, almost all her innuendo are dull
This is a cute short game with misleading tags in the annotation. The characters and the story itself lack depth. Even so I enjoy this game. You should give it a chance
– Real player with 27.3 hrs in game