Isolomus
This is as weird as I was thinking it was going to be, but I don’t think I’d consider it “horror”. Although, I guess I could see it maybe being almost horror in an abstract way, but personally, I was expecting something scary or even dark/suspenseful. It definitely is none of those things. But it does have very surreal features and the story is probably deeper than what I got (which was just some trippy adventure that could have been someone’s twisted dream). I loved the graphics (which was all handmade, and I very much love whenever games do that).
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Psychological Horror Casual Games.
I’ve always been quite fascinated by claymation - I can really only imagine what a tedious and laborious process it must be, all for the sake of aesthetic - but from the couple minutes of Googling I did during the writing of this review, there really don’t seem to have been a lot of games which have been brave enough to adopt it (Hylics is one, and incidentally managed to become one of my favourites mostly because of that). Isolomus , then, is a game I find impossible to dislike: if you want to know whether this one’s for you, all you need to go is scroll back up and look and give the screenshots a look. There’s honestly not much to do other than click on things and then watch things happen (mostly very, very unpleasant things) and anyone looking for logic or sanity should probably look elsewhere, but on the other hand, well… you DID see that can-fly, right? Add in a strange soundscape featuring creepy ambient drones and wet squelching sounds aplenty, along with a surprising amount of replay value to see all the different outcomes that come from what you choose to click on (just as long as you’re not expecting any GOOD outcomes…), and you have a very pleasant(?) use of 20 minutes or so. While I can’t yet confirm if the rest of Michael Rfdshir’s games are any good (only that they all look cool as fuck), something tells me I’ll be compelled to find out soon enough.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
White Mirror
White Mirror is Infernal Dream’s third indie horror game - not that I played the ones before yet - and just one of those mediocre 15 minute hits on horror with really, really, REALLY bad narrative translation. For the record, my play time is for the pure purpose of dropping game cards. It might have been a recommendation if you are a strict horror games collector who wouldn’t mind the lack of a story, but for the ordinary gamer who’d enjoy a decent horror, this clearly is not it.
Our game here has the implication of a story through some notes scattered around the environment, but the narrative translation is so genuinely bad, I’d be fascinated if someone would be able to understand who is who, and what’s been going on. From the fragmented word usage in the notes, I’ve manage to gather that our hero is some kind of an occult collector/artifact hunter in search of an item called “The White Mirror”. His search leads him to our starting area, a seemingly abandoned house. There is someone called Martin leaving us most of the notes, and I guess that’s an informant of some sorts. As we go further into the house, we’ll discover the mention of another person - P.G. - who should have been the former proprietor of the said mirror… and no, said mirror won’t even make an appearance in this 15 minute horror shot.
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Psychological Horror Walking Simulator Games.
White Mirror is another game made by the creator of My Bones and it’s just as bad.
White Mirror puts you in the shoes of a man looking for an ancient mirror in a house and that’s pretty much the basic plot.
Now I don’t know why this guy keeps making the same game over and over again, as I stated in my My Bones review all the games this guy makes end up being more or less the same, but they take place in a different environment.
But unlike My Bones this game is somewhat is a game. You have stealth segments, puzzles (if you can call them that) to solve and in general it feels like a true game, but the more you play the more the problems show up.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
ASTRAL
You play a young boy with a large head who breaks out of some sort of research facility to explore a world which has gone to pieces. Shown mostly in black and white with odd splashes of colour, you venture across the city to an underground bunker where you discover your true destiny. Along the way you’ll encounter and be chased by horrifying enemies, solve the occasional jumping puzzle, and best of all, occasionally wear a mind-control helmet which lets you take control of other beings and make them do your whim in order to progress further. The environment flows naturally from one location to the next, with the joins being very smooth and gradual. The physics engine is top notch, and you never feel like you missed a jump because the game wasn’t reading your controls correctly. The camera is very dynamic, and your character moves in and out of the scenery following the curves of the land in a pleasant way, giving the world more depth rather than just “run right”. Everything is explained through “show don’t tell” and the lack of voice acting makes the game that much more atmospheric.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Psychological Horror 2D Games.
I just cannot recommend this game, it’s terrible; sometimes you’ll spend a minute walking on direction, sometimes you’ll spend five minutes getting past a certain bit then have to go all the way back when you die, you may decide to have a break and when you reload the game find you have to do the previous ten-fifteen minutes to get back to where you are because the chapter system is broken, this game is not enjoyable and for the price not even worth it, play black the fall, inside and limbo if you enjoy these types of games.
– Real player with 4.9 hrs in game
MOTHER
I have mixed feelings about that game— the story is, to be brutally honest, infantilely ridiculous. Moreover, the gameplay feels repetitive at some point and limited to traversing from point A to B.
Last 3 nights are a horrible choice of a game design— it is all the same, annoying process, throwed in the sake of forced “challenge” and, I presume, prolonging this short already digital story.
On the other hand, I adore the artistic touch applied in here. The cozy, yet tense atmosphere with consistency have been accomplished. The story looks interesting and it gave me subtle thrills in the first 3 nights.
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
After 3 hours I regret to say that I can not recommend this game.
The atmosphere of it is wonderful and the slow build up, the introduction of the monsters is incredible. Perfect from what I can tell. The difficulty of managing resources (well being of your kids - use the cookies wisely, the light allocation of the house, etc) is also spot on. It is a real challenge. You need to recognize rooms as well and have a good feeling for the layout of the house as it’s critical to later evenings.
But the interface is absolutely god awful, and I have gotten stuck in geometry requiring me to replay evenings. Clicking on nails has to be done several times, and rotating the screwdriver was fucking terrible. If I hadn’t watched a video of someone else playing (seeing that I had move the curse far, far away from it to rotate it) I would never have figured it out. So stupid. An example of this are the pill bottles - there’s no hint as to what you need to do to them (take off the cap using the mouse and cursor, click on the bottle to raise it high above your head, then tilt it to pour the pills out of the bottle and into your mouth).
– Real player with 6.0 hrs in game
the static speaks my name
===[ ❤ Audience: ]=== ☑ Kids ☐ Everyone ☐ Casual players ☑ Pro players
===[ ☼ Graphics: ]=== ☐ Potato ☐ Really bad ☐ Bad ☐ OK ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful ☑ Masterpiece
===[ $ Price/quality: ]=== ☑ Full price ☐ Wait for sale ☐ Average ☐ Refund it if you can ☐ Don’t do it
===[ ☣ Requirments: ]=== ☑ 90' PC ☐ Minimum ☐ Medium ☐ Fast ☐ High end ☐ NASA computer
===[ ☼ Difficulty: ]=== ☐ You just need 2 arms ☐ Ez ☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Hard (first few hours) ☐ Dark Souls
===[ ۞ Game time/length ]=== ☑ Really short ( 0 - 2 hours) ☐ Short ( 2 - 8 hours) ☐ Few hours ( 8 - 12 hours) ☐ Long ( 12+ hours) ☐ Endless
– Real player with 53.6 hrs in game
This game is a about a man named Jacob Ernholtz, and his last day alive. Or I suppose his last minute, since the clock is stuck at 3:22 AM the whole time, but It can’t be broken because the alarm went off… Anyway this is less of a review and more of an analysis. That being said, there will be -
SPOILERS
I’ve spent a decent amount of time combing over this game and trying to piece together the narrative. At first glance it’s clear that Jacob is obssessed over a painting of two palm trees. It’s not a very special painting in my opinion. However he has gone far enough to have an entire room dedicated to this painting and many variations, perhaps looking for some hidden meaning. But why that specific painting? Well, Jacobs username on the chatting application is “ratherBtravelin” - a bit odd considering he has boarded up his windows and (I’m assuming) he stays inside as much as possible. He’s not a complete agoraphobe, judging by his grocery list. I believe this painting has struck a chord with Jacob simply because it’s a way he can vicariously be somewhere he wants. Somewhere exotic and sunny. Perhaps with friends and family. I imagine he sees himself as happy there. Unfortunately due to his depression (which is the cause of his isolation in the first place) he develops a consuming obsession over it, instead of actually taking a trip to the bahamas.
– Real player with 52.8 hrs in game
Bonbon
Context is something Bonbon developer Aetheric Games would like you to take into mind as you play his game. Context matters. As you play bonbon several questions may come to mind: why does this game control like ass? Why does the main antagonist look like a slab of raw meat? Both of those questions are answered thusly: Context; you play as a baby and therefor you can’t walk properly and the rat looks crap because this is a child’s point of view. However, it doesn’t feel like it was designed this way. It feels like the developer just threw this all together and decided that, instead of fixing what’s broken he’d add the above context.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Bonbon is a very short basic adventure type game with horror elements. The protagonist is a small child who must complete chores before having any fun, with both activities continuously interrupted by an omnipresent and selfish “friend” named Bonbon. The game explores themes of a child’s rampant imagination, ones that are perhaps exaggerated by domestic issues with absent parents and arguments.
While I did find the visuals appealing there were some features I found annoying and tried my best to avoid, such as the glitched and static-filled response of the child when speaking with their toys; every time I was reminded of Aphex Twin’s Rubber Johnny. There were also several inconsistencies with continuity, like a blanket’s convex indents remaining after leaving the bed and being able to rotate the character’s head 360 degrees as their body remains stationary. The sudden appearances of Bonbon itself can be quite frightening but still remain non-threatening.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Plug & Play
Each time I start a new play-through of P&P I feel as if I am going home. There’s this strange comfort I get from it that I rarely have found in other games. I won’t go into it to much now, but the music changes with each scene so perfectly, it fits the mellowness of the colourful art style very well. If I had to sum up Plug and Play in one sentence, that sentence would be “Plug and Play is an emotional, precious tale of romance and strict violence that has the potential to outdo both Life is Strange and Undertale.”
– Real player with 6302.5 hrs in game
After completing it many months from the start, there are a few notes that come to mind when reviewing it. The first one is this: it is a beautiful story of both the highs and lows for the main protagonist and tackles the main issues that any person will experience in life. Second, as far as the notion of sorrow and pain goes, this story does effectively make you feel every heartbreaking moment that it has to offer. Lastly, despite being long, it draws real relationships and ties with each character you meet and ultimately have you going till the very end.
– Real player with 12.7 hrs in game
Fractured Minds
It’s rather obvious that this game isn’t a huge professional one, but rather a dear heart project, dealing with the issues of depression and the resulting self-loathing. So on an objective basis, sure, it’s extremely short, there are quite some bugs all around, the gameplay isn’t deep, and achievements even delete themselves if you start a new game (so you have to do them all in one take). But guess what, I’ll still give this a thumbs up, probably because I’ve got a history of my own that can kind of relate to the creative process of making this game. And honestly, during my playtime, sometimes I was even doubtful if some chapters really were expressing what she (the dev) wanted to say the right way. But after finishing it, what really got me emotionally in the end, were the closing statements. So if only for those, big kudos for stepping out of your boundaries, making all this effort and exposing yourself that way courageously. Anyway, my final conclusion, the game is cheap, sometimes even way cheaper in bundles and such, and if you can spare the few cents, why not support some familiar people here and there you sympathize with. But for anyone else, better stay away from this game if you’re annoyed by those difficult topics.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
I am not going to give something a positive review based on “one person development”, or “this supports mental health awareness.” I’m all for indie games and mental health awareness. But this game is terrible. If I hadn’t received it in a bundle would have refunded my money. This looks like a unity game. I have no issue with unity games if they’re good. But so many unity publishers create stuff like this and throw it on Steam. The worst part is, if it has a stigmatic theme, it’s ultimately embraced by the community like it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. This is literally one level disguised as 6. The graphics weren’t terrible, as you can tell some time and effort was put into them. But they’re not great either. Just mediocre. I can’t even remember if it has a soundtrack, so if it does it couldn’t have been that memorable as I cannot remember a single musical note.
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
SEPTEMBER 1999
Set in the style of found footage September 1999 is the kind of game you will either love or hate and depending on if you loved it the chances are you will replay it to make more sense of it but if you hated it you will sit there thinking wtf did I just witness?
September 1999 is a UNITY game that gives you a brief time to investigate where you are and what is happening which, depending on if you can get your mind around what you are seeing, can either be very confusing from the start until the end OR if you are patient and allow the scenes to play before you then it gives you the chance to put together the pieces of the jigsaw and disturb your senses.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
98DEMAKE delivers a fantastic interactive vignette as a follow up to their feature debut OK/NORMAL . September 1999 is raw emotional horror. The title begins in media res and begs the question: am I watching something I am not supposed to? The aesthetics of the first shot illicit a subdued discomfort from the player. Going for the mouse feels odd, so when you finally decide to shake it and the POV follows you are almost remorseful. Never have I played a game that in less than 6 minutes made me feel gross for playing it, but somehow held me prisoner until its completion.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Asemblance
See written review below or watch it here: https://youtu.be/3L7ndJOulP0
THIS IS A MIXED REVIEW! TL;DR: SKIP TO CONCLUSION!
Asemblance is a first-person, psychological thriller that uses environmental puzzles to progress through the story.
The game takes place inside of a memory simulating machine, and you have no recollection about why you entered or how to get out. The experience is a bit of a mind bending one; I really like the concept of the memory machine, and having to learn about things with no idea of what is really going on. The gameplay is mostly walking around, zooming in on objects, reading documents for more information, and searching for your next objective.
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
I rarely write reviews, and even more rarely do I write negative ones, but I feel like I need to put my opinion out there.
The thing is, there’s a lot of potential to this game. It’s atmospheric, the narrative (such as there is) is well constructed and implemented, there are plenty of intriguing elements. But there’s just nothing of substance in the gameplay. There are no real puzzles, no real mysteries to solve or challenges to overcome. There’s plenty of information to be gleaned from a diligent exploration of the game’s tiny play area, but progress (again, such as there is) depends either on interacting with the incredibly obvious interactable objects or on incredibly obtuse and specific actions, neither of which create any sense of satisfaction.
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game