Fey: Distant Daydream
“Please, come and tell me it’s good enough!"
These are the words written in the peculiar letter calling you, a solitary appraiser, to an abandoned estate far outside the nearest town.
When you make your way there, you suddenly awaken within the mansion, locked in a dusty bedroom. In some ways the place seems ordinary and yet you sense a distinct fragrance of something magical all around you.
Exploring the house, reading its books and appraising knickknacks will let you grow closer with the characters you will meet or hear of. Then, as you take a trip down memory lane and unbox stowed-away memories, you’ll slowly encroach on the answer to the original question.
Just what are you really supposed to be appraising here?
Fey: Distant Daydream is a mystery game centred around exploring a hand-crafted retro 3D environment. Solve puzzles through careful observation and use of objects in the environment as well as Effects, magical items that you carry throughout the game with a plethora of different effects.
Some puzzles will require you to combine information from the environment in escape-room inspired sequences. Others will have you read cookbooks to bring back a taste only faintly remembered, some will have you search through books for clues and yet others will require you to carefully consider the objects at your disposal.
Progress through the mansion and find out the truth of why you were asked to come to this place. Find and use unique effects such as a pocket watch that will let you glimpse into the past of a location. If you want to take it slowly, feel free to read one of the books or snap a photo with your eternal companion - an old camera.
Will you find what was lost within the depths of time and recover it? Or will you perhaps find true meaning in what is here?
Features
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3-5 hours of gameplay made with pure love
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Hand-crafted late 90s style retro 3D graphics
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A slowly unfolding tale of the past and a world wherein memories can be more than mere remembrances
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Around 10 different Effects to use across the game
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Elaborate puzzles to solve over the course of the game, all unique from another
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A sense of humor
Read More: Best Retro Mystery Games.
P.U.G.S. Agents
P.U.G.S. Agents is a classic 2D Top-Down adventure in the 80’s style with completely new heroes. Two agents of the secret organization P.U.G.S. must solve the mystery of the mysterious explosion at the local factory S.N.A.C.K.S. The suspicion of Arch-Evil Jamnior arises and the agent KGB (Kiss & Good Bye) is seen near Fazita Fazinova.
In the game you will be able to relive the chilling adventure in the hearts of pugs, meet the heroes of different races, and what’s important to find the dog’s snacks.
Control agents, solve puzzles, use pugilistic equipment, discover the true nature of the pugs agents!
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Pug thrilling 2D Top-Down adventure
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Pug agents cooperation mode
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Quests, Puzzles and minigames
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Twisted storyline with different races heroes
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Special PUGS Agents suits, tools and devices
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and secret of the Snacks
Read More: Best Retro Strategy RPG Games.
Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony
Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony is an adventure game that is merging the traditional storytelling with modern-day pixel art graphics.
CHASING A MYSTERY THAT IS UNEXPLAINED FOR 150 YEARS
A group of people who set out to establish the first settled colony in America in 1587, mysteriously disappears a short time after arriving. They leave only an island name carved on a tree: “Crowalt”.
Now, the year is 1737.
A young and ambitious adventurer Hugh Radcliff pursues the Lost Colony to make his first great discovery. Now, different people live in Crowalt, where he came to solve this mystery. He will hover around the island and definitely will get in a series of troubles to find what happened to the Lost Colony.
CLASSIC POINT AND CLICK MECHANICS
Collect, combine, and use items to solve puzzles.
PIRATES ARE HERE TOO!
Try to deal with routine pirate visitors of Crowalt and of course, enjoy funny dialogues.
FOLLOW YOUR JOURNAL
Hugh draws important things and takes notes regarding them in his journal. It will be updated after important events and findings during the game.
MAKE CHOICES
Lie or speak only the truth.
COLLECT ARTIFACTS
There are lots of historical items around the island, collecting them will take you to another level of… achievements!
EARN THE TRUST OF NATIVES
Natives are discreet residents of the island. Taking information from them will require earning their trust.
Read More: Best Retro Mystery Games.
The Low Road
I really wanted to like The Low Road and I wish Steam had a ‘meh’ button.
Pros: Choices matter and dialogue decisions really impact how things go. The opening puzzle is all about using social engineering to get a target to willingly give up secret information and the game does a good job of hinting at where people’s buttons are which is great. Puzzles are mostly contained to a few screen so there isn’t a lot of backtracking filler anbd loading times as you scour the environment for clues and items. Finally, the voice acting/writing on the two main characters is well done and I actually liked the main character which is very important when you’re following them on an adventure like this.
– Real player with 10.5 hrs in game
Going into this game, I didn’t know what to expect. I finished it in about 4 hours. That’s with leaving the game running while taking short breaks every once in a while.
Story
The beginning of the game starts off very enticing and intriguing. You get to talk to all the characters and learn little unique aspects about them. However about halfway through, the plot seemed to take a turn I wasn’t expecting. The missions began losing their sense of seriousness to me. This happened to the characters as well, particularly Turn. I understand his character goes through an internal conflict, but his conflict seemed pretty humorous to me.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
Deep Therapy
Deep Therapy is a pixel art platform game, where you take control of a psychologist.
As a psychologist you will deal with hostile minds that will try to “disconnect” you from it.
The design, the mechanics, the music … Always pay attention, because every detail has a meaning!
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Explore the patients minds
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The more levels you advance, the more difficult it becomes
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Collect lost memories
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Interpret their minds and memories
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Give the final diagnosis
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Precise controls
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Challenging Levels
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Unlockable hard mode
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Puzzles
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Gamepad and Keyboard compatibility
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Achievements
Nightmare Frames
Alan Goldberg’s luck is about to change. He’s a frustrated slasher films scriptwriter in the Hollywood of 1985, and Helen Westmore, an eccentric millionaire, will grant him any wish if he can find out about the whereabouts of the last, unpublished work of genius horror director Edward Keller, considered to be the scariest film of all time.
Alan will find his way amongst B-films production companies, VFX workshops, religious cults, and a small haunted town called Serena, the dark reputation of which began when Keller was last seen there.
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Point & click adventure game solely based on inventory puzzles.
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An investigative thriller that gets darker as you progress into the story. From ambient horror to more intense one.
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More than 60 playable locations, and half a hundred characters to interact with.
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Original soundtrack by synthwave musician Heclysma.
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In Joe’s Diner you’ll be able to listen to SYNTHWAVE FM, where DJ Karen Johnson broadcasts licensed tracks by Heclysma, Decade Defector, Vincenzo Salvia and Self Delusion.
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By the author of award-winning Urban Witch Story and Billy Masters Was Right.
The Horror Of Salazar House
რეტრო სტილის თამაშები ყოველთვის მომწონდა, ან თუნდაც პირდაპირ რეტრო. ბავშვობის ნოსტაკგიაა თუ კონკრეტული მიზიდულობა, ვერ გეტყვით. მიუხედავად იმისა, რომ ეს თამაში უხარისხო შეიძლება მოგეჩვენოთ თავიდან, დამიჯერეთ უკმაყოფილო არ დარჩებით.
თამაში არის “თავგადასავლის” ჟანრის, და ნახევრად-სვლებზე, რადგან ზოგიერთი მოვლენა მთავარი გმირის მოძრაობისაგან დამოუკიდებლად ხდება. ზოგიერთ მომენტში, გაუგებარია ზუსტი მექანიკა, მაგრამ თამაშს, ეს ბევრს ვერაფერს აკლებს.
ვიზუალს რაც შეეხება, არქაული სტილისაა, თუმცა თანამედროვე დამუშავება აშკარად ეტყობა. არაფერია გაუგებარი ფორმის, და ყველა ნივთი ადვილი საპოვნელია.
– Real player with 4.6 hrs in game
I always have been a firm believer of the idea that horror games reach their full potential as point and click games or visual novels; after all some of my favorite horror games are “Corpse Party” and “Misao”. The reason for this is that visual novels and point & click games have the freedom to add an enormous amount of depth to the story to compensate for their simplistic gameplay.
And so this game that I have mentioned in the title was on on my wishlist for quite some time, for two reasons. Firstly I have never played a retro styled horror game such as " I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” , and it has been on the backburner for too long and secondly Puppet Combo recommended it on twitter.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Contradiction - Spot The Liar!
This is a FMV detective & mystery game developed by Baggy Cat, created thanks to a kickstarter campaign. Since I love detective games and tv-shows I decided to give this one a go. This is a lovecrafted masterpiece, great from start to finish. I’m gonna try to explain why.
You play as detective Jenks, investigating a girls suicide in an english village. Mysteries surrounding the suicide quickly leads to a murder investigation. Jenks only have a day to solve the mystery. He quickly finds out about a private school for adults called Atlas that uses some questionable methods, and you learn more and more as you go. Every chapter is an hour in the game, but every chapter took me more then an hour each. It’s a pretty tricky game, but you can use clues if you get stuck.
– Real player with 15.2 hrs in game
TL;DR: It’s a very fun and interesting game,
! with a very, very, VERY bad (and extremely) unsatisfying ending
I’m probably very late to the “reviewing contradiction” party (what a weird party), the game being almost 6 years old now and having been talked about in the ExtraCredits YouTube channel (the reason why I bought it in the first place!), but I’m gonna have a go at it anyways.
Contradiction is an FMV game where you must investigate in one night a supposed suicide in a small village. The investigation is done almost entirely by talking to people (i.e. watching small bits of questioning), though some evidence is found by walking and snooping around (in fact, I’m no lawyer or law-enforcement officer, but I feel like a quite a few of the evidence found wouldn’t be admissible in court!) But the main aspect of the game is asking people about things, which can directly lead you to new evidence, but will always lead to a set of statements from each person. This is where the main mechanic of the game comes in: you can select two statements (they must be from the same person though, hold this for later) that contradict each other and if they do, indeed, you get a new line of questioning where detective Jenks brings up the contradiction to the person in question, usually leading to new evidence. When you reach key milestones in the investigation, the time moves forward, and some new witness can become available (or unavailable), and going certain places can unlock certain events that can give you new evidence to ask around about.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Insights - Maniac Vortex
Very nice game with some difficult puzzle solutions, interesting story and has a couple of timed puzzles (which I normally dislike), but those were manageable.
– Real player with 4.2 hrs in game
Great game with a bewildering story. Strong ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ vibes. Although rather short (about 3 h of gameplay) Insights is not quite easy, some puzzles are quite tough to find out. The only thing that bothered me was the inventory, I prefer the classic hover inventory on top or bottom of the screen. Else: very well done, exactly such dark, obscure adventure games I am looking for!
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
S.U.B.
Small and simple co-op but very fun
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Small co-op station game.
1 submarine, 2 players, 4 stations (steering, weapons, scanner, smelter), 1 level. essential, this feels like a minimalist version of Catastronauts that is also less exciting. You navigate the deep looking for keycards and scrap metal while fending off laser sharks, and when you enter the enemy base, it turns out they’re in another castle, and the game ends. Mind you, the concept isn’t that bad, and if the devs had put some effort into making a campaign and different enemies, it could be a lot better; but as it is, If you want to do couch co-op, I recommed springing for a better game that has more variety.
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game