Devoul- Curse of the Soulless
Good story
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Nonlinear Open World Games.
A game to congratulate. The main character pulls you into the game either by the playability or with the story. The scenarios are diverse and wake up your attention - the music also. You can “play” with the time of the game and stay by the small games and quests inside of it. It’s fun. I love it.
I miss the times when games were made to leave something to the player. I miss games like this.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Elderand
The game has a heavy focus on skill-based combat, which means reckless explorers will be punished time after time. Do not fear, as your timing and positioning will improve once you find your battle style.
Choose a look that suits you best with character customization options that allow for varying skin tones, hairstyles and colors.
Become the most powerful warrior by leveling up your character’s attack, magic, and other stats to take on the unforgiving beasts of the land.
Discover, buy, and collect a myriad of items, including unique relics, potions, weapons and shields. Bargain with shopkeepers to gather even more loot and upgrade your character.
Journey to distinct lands filled with ancient mysteries to unravel. Slay lethal creatures, find hidden passages, and befriend strangers from the Errant Breach to Omulore. While forging your path through the world, remember one thing, curiosity is your greatest ally.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1413660/Elderand/
Read More: Best Nonlinear Lovecraftian Games.
DESOLUS
DESOLUS
Desolus is an atmospheric puzzle game where you explore a city of Gothic architecture torn between multiple universes. Solve surreal puzzles by twisting architecture with black holes, and travel between dimensions to navigate impossible space. Witness a cataclysm which threatens to merge past with future, and experience the final moments of a lost city.
Desolus has been awarded at numerous game festivals, including an exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a nomination for ‘Innovation in Art and Narrative’ at the Boston Festival of Indie Games, and nominations for ‘Excellence in Art’ and ‘Excellence in Music’ at MAGFest.
FEATURES
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Explore a hauntingly beautiful fractal-like city of immense interconnected Gothic architecture.
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Solve surreal puzzles by manipulating black holes to send architecture between universes.
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Seamlessly travel through portals which connect multiple universes and impossible spaces.
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Listen to an atmospheric original piano soundtrack created by Kyle Landry.
Read More: Best Nonlinear Open World Games.
Simona’s Requiem
I like it allot!
This game has an atmosphere that is hard to come by. It reminds me of the atmosphere in games like Knytt. It’s a relaxing experience I can highly recommend. Stunning visual elements a true pixel-art adventure.
Also, a big plus for the dark humor!
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
I have a love-hate relationship with platformers: I really love playing them, but I get very frustrated if they are too difficult, even more so if I am completely immersed in the game. Simona’s Requiem proved to be not only a fun, entertaining and overall a wonderful metroidvania, but in terms of difficulty it also managed to find a balance between being overly challenging and ‘I can do this in my sleep’ - you know, it just constantly hits the spot which forces you to push your limits without making you want to pull your hair out.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
Deep Lake: Prologue
nice opening music. nice graphics. Story is okay- from what I can make of it. Bad translation in parts which made it hard to follow. For example the mc stepped in a ‘paddle’ twice and got his feet wet smh. I hope the later installments fix this. Might be pretty good if they do. I’ll give the benefit of the doubt and thumb this one up, but if there’s no improvement, I’ll have to change my recommendation.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
This is the first ‘visual novel’ I have experienced. It isn’t a game; you don’t make any choices. So, having gotten over that expectation, I will proceed.
Obviously a novel needs an interesting story, and this is interesting. I imagine it is better in Russian, but since I don’t understand a single character of Cyrillic, I had to make do with the English version. It needs some work. I was able to get the gist of what they were saying most of the time, but an important part of a novel, to me, is how the story is told. So in order to make this a successful English visual novel, they’re going to need to find a fluent Russian/English translator. Google Translate just doesn’t do it. You can’t use the word ‘defile’ when you mean ‘define.’ Two totally different meanings.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Citadale - The Awakened Spirit
Scanlines should be a mandatory feature for all retro-style games. It adds so much to Citadale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QU3qTfPmGjU
If you want to see Citadale and its difficulty in action, watch my video. Take old-school Castlevania, add a second item slot, the generosity of checkpoints, and a couple of odd design choices. Stages can be tackled in any order, with the castle acting as a sort of hub. Bosses are painfully difficult.
You have a shield that is sometimes useful. If you pick up a subweapon, I hope you were paying attention because the one you just had is gone. (This is my only serious complaint. I wish you dropped the previous one so you could switch back, especially with the two slots available.) Some enemies bleed poison that will hurt you. Being deliberate and having good timing is the key to everything.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
I wanted to like this game but I couldn’t… Graphics are fine, music is OK, animations are meh, enemy IA non existent and story, I didn’t gave it the chance.
IA is the main reason I’m not recommending this game. Enemies seems to move randomly or using some kind of pathfinding algorithm in order to reach you, which some times is just painful. There’s a boss who will move immediately after being hit, sometimes it will move in your direction… sometimes it wont, aaaand if you enter the room without a subweapon you can throw upwards you might end up dying of boredom waiting for the boss to move down so you can reach it. Also I don’t recomend it because I hate instakill spikes…
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
Saint Kotar
It’s an interesting game, and has many excellent points. But all in all I can only give it a weak recommendation.
Pros:
–Excellent, dark art style.
–Very atmospheric.
–Subtle but fitting music, with a couple of tracks that are so good that I find myself excited for the soundtrack.
–Extremely dark, in a way that few games are willing to go.
–I played through it twice and generally enjoyed the experience both times.
Cons:
–Extremely thin story that often doesn’t make sense. A huge chunk of the game is spent wondering why your sister would have ever had you all come here. Having played through the game twice, I find myself still unable to answer that. Possibly the answer is, “Actually, she didn’t.” But if that’s the correct answer, a HUGE amount of story that fleshes out how the character who did knew to do that and why they’d want to just isn’t in the game (but absolutely should be).
– Real player with 41.6 hrs in game
Full disclosure: I backed this game’s Kickstarter and have reviewed it for the Croatian gaming portal FFA. You can find the Croatian review here . This is an abbreviated version of that review.
Saint Kotar is a traditional p’n’c adventure game trying its best to fit in with the rest of the adventure greats. It plays like most standard examples in the genre - you explore a variety of locations, examine and interact with objects, talk with people quite a bit and try to piece together what exactly is going on.
– Real player with 28.2 hrs in game
ENCHAIN
You are the Last Deprived, the final corpse to ever rise from the stone depths, dooming all creation to a ceaseless death. This underworld does not welcome you. Unlock the secrets of the crypt, take back life from your fleshless brethren, and fight your own way out of humanity’s tomb.
ENCHAIN links hack & slash juggling and frenetic platforming with fast-paced retro FPS gunplay. Inspired by platform fighters and Quake, smash the undead into pieces with your lantern hook and arsenal of guns. And, with progression and verticality influenced by Dark Souls, tackle a single interconnected world chunk by chunk, retreading old paths and secrets.
Get lost in the chasm. No one will be holding your cold, hollow hands along the way.
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Grapple, shoot, kick, and dive between platforming and combat
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Fracture and harvest the bones of the undead for resources
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Explore an intertwined, non-linear underworld
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Rest at cozy lantern posts to store the fruits of your travels
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Listen to atmospheric music by Oliver Trinidad