Trouble Hunter Chronicles: The Stolen Creed
Iskonsko Studio has put a lot of hard work into this indie gem and it really shows!
From the starting scene I was instantly hooked and wanted to keep playing to find out how the story unfolded. There’s a lot of puzzles to solve and most of the characters in the game are voiced which I think adds a lot to the immersion.
Don’t be fooled by the demo. The full version is so much better, smooth and fun to play than that early build of the game.
I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys Point & Click- adventures
– Real player with 15.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Conspiracy Games.
It’s a long path to the truth; good luck getting there.
Though my recommendation is somewhat low, those particularly fond of Point & Click will find more to digest here, if not a sufficient challenge. Trouble Hunter Chronicles: The Stolen Creed is a pretty packed adventure with a lot of dialogue and puzzle-based trials. If one can get past some rather apparent technical visual and auditory mishaps, it’s a perfectly satisfactory mystery title geared towards retro veterans. But I really must stress: good luck.
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
Under the Counter
Under the Counter is a narrative simulation in which you run a bar on a local market. Your task is to solve the mystery of its missing people while serving food and moonshine to both city residents and demonic forces from a parallel world.
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Serve your famous stew and drinks to customers. Be careful to do it right so the payment is adequate.
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Help the locals, the resistance movement, and even the invading soldiers (at least the ones who are friendly!) by using your exquisite networking skills and natural charm.
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Test your senses and serve simultaneously. You know, like a good bartender who pours the pint while chatting up his guests.
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Immerse yourself in a wartime story with a supernatural twist. Surely Eastern European urban folklore is not something that you can experience in video games very often?
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Enjoy the alluring hand-drawn graphics and animations that reflect the strange atmosphere of the unfolding story.
You play as Vincent, an ex-sailor who started his stall with food and drink. People still need to eat during the war, and you can cook the best stew basically out of anything. To make things fancier, your second specialty is home-made booze. [And in times like these, people drink a lot.] It is unique not only because of its sheer alcoholic content but also in the way it is served. Most people will drink just as a straight shot, but AT YOUR PLACE they can mix it with cherry juice! Simple, but genius.
The biggest problem that interferes with your business is the Great War that has started a few months ago. So, your city is now occupied, the enemies are imposing their new order, and they don’t treat your people in a good way. But by some strange twist of fate, they do seem to like you and your services. It makes you the perfect double agent and you immediately start plotting with your former friends from the military.
The war is in its prime and the enemy is omnipresent. But that’s not all. The market keeps getting weirder. First, you hear about the disappearances. On top of that, there are rumours about an odd military unit that has just arrived in the city. Since the day you heard about it, you’ve kept having eerie recurring dreams about a monstrous entity slithering in the darkness and gazing at you with its many eyes. And your customers seem to become increasingly stranger each day, not to mention that mysterious woman who carries a faint, yet so easily recognisable scent of the sea…
Read More: Best Mystery Simulation Games.
Over the Alps
Over the Alps is a spy story that takes place as tensions escalate into World War II as told through a choose-your-adventure featuring choices that feature personality and character traits of your protagonist. The scenery is designed after postcards of the Swiss Alps and are remarkable. As any choose-your-adventure story goes, the writing is the most important, and playing through, you can tell that the story is crafted in detail and is quite funny to read through.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Mystery Choices Matter Games.
Pitch perfect: the writing reads like the best old adventure classic you’ve never read and manages to pack punch, warmth, humor, and pathos in short paragraphs and postcard-length mini-episodes. You’re never too long before you’re making a new choice or zipping to a new location. I haven’t enjoyed a game’s writing this much since 80 Days. Oh look! This came from some Inkle veterans. Makes sense.
The writing isn’t the only thing that’s pitch perfect. This game has a simple, great visual design that doesn’t hold your hand. Navigation is subtle and never distracts from the vintage poster style art: flocks of birds are used to indicate buildings you haven’t explored yet, a spinning compass tells you when it’s time to choose the next path on the map, etcetera.
– Real player with 7.9 hrs in game
Flowers -Le volume sur ete-
Wow, wow, wow. What a game. Let me just say that this is usually not my kind of thing, but by the end of it, I really quite enjoyed it. This is the second game of the series but if you didn’t play the first game like me, you really wouldn’t be lost at all so there is nothing to worry about there.
I don’t think the main story is particularly interesting. In some ways, the main story is actually really cliche. But I think what really carries the story through is the dialog and character development these characters go through on top of just being interesting and likeable characters in themselves. I particularly love Erika, the MC of this game and Suoh who I think is the MC of the last game. Chidori never rubbed off on me that well but I feel like that was the point of her character and her development by the end of it made me care for her all the same.
– Real player with 39.4 hrs in game
Score: 10/10
Spoiler warning: If you don’t want any spoilers for this game, jump to the last paragraph
(I will refer to Flowers -Le volume sur printemps- as Spring, this game as Summer, Flowers -Le volume sur Automne- as Autumn, and Flowers -Le volume sur hiver- as Winter.)
Scores for the series
Whole Flowers Series: 9/10
– Real player with 32.0 hrs in game
Martha Is Dead
Martha Is Dead is a dark first-person psychological thriller, set in 1944 Italy, that blurs the lines between reality, superstition and the tragedy of war.
As conflict intensifies between German and Allied forces, the desecrated body of a woman is found drowned… Martha!
Martha is dead, and her twin sister Giulia, the young daughter of a German soldier, must alone deal with the acute trauma of loss and the fallout from her murder. The hunt for the truth is shrouded by mysterious folklore and the extreme horror of war that draws ever closer.
What will prevail?
Features
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Unashamedly authentic voice acting in Italian
The first Indie game to launch using the native Italian language as the default setting – for full immersion into the story and the characters.
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From the creator of The Town of Light
The second game from LKA, the award-winning developer of “The Town of Light” and specialists in reality-based narrative games focused on tough subjects.
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Deep and dark multi-layered narrative
Martha Is Dead is an exploration of loss, relationships and the psychological undertones of a dark period of history through the eyes of a young woman who seeks the truth, but who also has secrets of her own to hide.
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Explore a detailed recreation of the Italian countryside
Freely explore the breathtakingly realised Tuscany countryside on foot, by boat, or bike. Grounded in reality, Martha Is Dead’s setting and historical context are inspired by real facts and places that have been faithfully reconstructed in true LKA fashion.
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Play with dolls
Play with numerous marionette sequences in the puppet theatre to remember repressed memories.
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Mixing folklore with superstition
Unlock symbols and use tarot cards to unveil new aspects of the game and to summon the spirit of The Lady.
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A backdrop of War
Collect newspapers, telegrams and listen to the radio to keep updated on what is occurring in the world during the war.
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Virtual photographic greatness
Take pictures for the sheer pleasure of doing so, and also to progress through the story and discover more about the game world. A simulator will guide you through 1940s photography, where you’ll be able to develop your actual photos through a fully working in-game darkroom!
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Authentic Italian music of the era
Immerse yourself in a deeply evocative and atmospheric soundtrack containing underwater music specialists Between Music and their Aquasonic project; The Town of Light composer Aseptic Void and his moody yet spinetingling tones; and held together in true vintage style featuring reimagined versions of classic tracks including Schubert’s Ave Maria, O Bella Ciao, with original tracks written and sung by Francesca Messina, AKA 90s disco star, Femina Ridens.
