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 Investigation Games.
The Secret of Hutton Grammar School
Brought back memories of Space Quest, as our undaunted janitor cleans up the scum of Hutton Grammar School. That being said, it is an awfully short game, but there’s a lot worse things you can do with a dollar. It’s clever, some good humour, and the voice acting is solidly done. To say much more would be to give away the whole game, more or less.
I wanted to support the author while also seeing what else they had made. My only issue, which is admittedly small, is that the mouse moves somewhat slowly. In a longer game this might have been a problem but this is short enough that it doesn’t pose any real hindrance from enjoying yourself.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
This is a lovely little inexpensive game that seems to have been originally made for a jam. The game can be completed in about thirty minutes, but I smiled the whole way through.
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
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 Investigation Games.
Escape Knox Manor
Great little fun game! A little confusing for a minute or two, but you easily get the hang of it. Can’t wait to see more games in the future!
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Good for a steam game. I liked the sound design.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Broken Sword 2 - the Smoking Mirror: Remastered
A true point&click classic
This game is a true classic. This is my favorite point&click game. Probably one of the reasons is that it was my first. I fell in love with this game right from the beginning and couldn’t stop playing. Remember that when it came there was no internet and youtube walkthroughs, there was no hints and highlighted objects. I spent couple of weeks or even more until I completed it (I understood only half or less English text back then and couldn’t understand a single spoken word) and it felt so rewarding and this was the day when I knew I want more drawn point&click adventures.
– Real player with 11.1 hrs in game
Even though my guess is that most of the people who’ll buy this game are familiar with the version that came out 19 years ago, I’d just assume there are new gamers who want to know whether it’s worth checking out. So, here we go!
Broken Sword 2 - the Smoking Mirror is an adventure game that has its fair share of flaws. But oh boy, is it fun!
The game was released in 1997, back in the golden era of point and click adventure games (after the huge success of the first game), and I’m so happy to say it’s aged quite well. In fact, I found the character portraits/facial expressions which are exclusive to the remastered edition completely unnecessary. Most of them are plain bad (starting with George’s and Nico’s) while others bear no resemblance to the actual characters they represent.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
Keizudo
I haven’t played much and I’m not sure if I intend to play much more but I think I can recommend this game all the same from what I’ve experienced so far. The writing is competent which is important because this Is a visual novel. That said, it is not necessarily presented in a way which is comfortable or easily digested (a majority of the time, you have to click through action menus consisting of “thinking”, “investigation”, and “move” to determine your next action within a linear set of actions that all must be taken to progress the game. This can fluctuate from frustrating to engaging depending on the scene and how much dialogue there is. I can’t help but think this system needs to be refined a bit. That said, for me, this game’s visuals where a treat. I adore the pre-rendered low poly look and their dedication to that style even in the character art. In an era of graphic obsessed pc gaming, this a bold and unique move which came to me as a fresh change of pace. I absolutely recommend this game to anyone seeking a new type of visual novel with a bold approach to its presentation.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Narita Boy
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Review by Gaming Masterpieces - The greatest games of all time on Steam.
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Is this game a masterpiece? Yes. And quite a strange one.
You play a young boy in the 80s, who is sucked into his computer after playing a simple action game for the whole day. You have been summoned by the priests of the Digital Kingdom, a kingdom in the digital realm inhabited by thousands of programs and threatened by HIM. It is a world with quite a few similarities to the world of Disney’s Tron. HIM is an evil program, who sends his minions to enslave the whole Digital Kingdom. Noone is able to fight the minions of HIM, only you, Narita Boy, the wielder of the Techno-Sword, can kill them.
– Real player with 18.2 hrs in game
My playtime: 12.7h (based on Steam, 100% achievement, 2x playthrough)
Grindy Achievement(s): No.
Optional Achievement(s): Yes (8 missable achievements).
Difficult Achievement(s): No.
Intro
Narita Boy tries to emulate the look of retro games while combining modern elements at the same time. It is a platformer game that will make you think as if you are playing a retro game while not playing it, with combat and puzzle as its focus.
Pros:
- Bosses with different attack patterns
– Real player with 12.8 hrs in game
The Slaughter: Act One
The Slaughter is a noir point-in-click adventure game from Brainchild, which is a one man team I might add. It’s reminiscent of old adventure games like Monkey Island or Full Throttle, and more recently, it reminds me of The Blackwell Legacy (which also took inspiration from those classics).
In The Slaughter you play as Sydney Emerson, a down on this luck, behind on his rent detective-really is there any other kind-living in London in the East End in 1880. The story opens with Sydney on his side in a dark alley getting beaten by a large man named Sallis and his diminutive employer Mr. Finch. You luck your way out of that situation and you soon get a case to work on. There is a serial killer roaming the streets and a client is paying you for you private detective services.
– Real player with 18.5 hrs in game
BRAINCHILD, we need more!
This little point-and-click is dark and adorable, funny and unique, and super entertaining! I couldn’t resist playing the whole thing in one sitting, but that being said, it is reletively short. Being hooked, I started reserching the game, and realized that this seems to have been a solo project of BRAINCHILD, which makes it all the more impressive.
| PROs | CONs |
| Entertaining story with adult themes |
– Real player with 8.0 hrs in game
Kalidazkoph
I honestly really enjoyed this game. I found it by accident while looking for another game, and added it to my wish list. I am very happy I did. If you are a fan of horror and/or puzzle games, I would highly recommend Kalidazkoph. It had a very unique style that I found interesting since the first time I watched the trailer. The extremely distorted old-fashion video camera look to the game had me hooked. The scares in this game, while there are not very many, got me better than most horror games have. This game lets you feel comfortable only to completely brake your trust time and again. The story of this game is interesting, though it is certainly not a lore heavy experience. All and all, this game was great and gets a 10/10 from me.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Oof. If you do buy this, I recommend that you get it when it’s on sale. $6.99 is too much.
This is more of a ‘Meh’ rating since steam’s tragically binary rating system only seems to allow for a yes or no. If you are highly sensitive to motion or film effects, stay away. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve had to bring this to a Developer’s attention, but ‘headbob’ and ‘film grain effect’ NEEDS to be a toggle for f*cks sake. Headbob stopped being a novelty when the Doom engine was popular. That was almost thirty years ago. Sheesh!
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
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