A Forgetful Loop
Pros:
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Simple mechanics that form some surprisingly complex levels
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Writing is better than it has any right to be for a puzzle game
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Music is top notch and rather catchy
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Honestly peak gameflow
Cons:
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Lost track of time during play, which is ironic really
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Existential dread about the nature of quantum mechanics
Disclosure: Was a beta tester for this, but purchased my own copy on release
– Real player with 14.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Sci-fi Puzzle Games.
This is a great, fast-paced worker assignment puzzle. it’s a lot of fun! As someone who likes time management/cooking games where you have to frantically cook multiple meals at once, I took to A Forgetful Loop immediately. It has a few bugs, which can generally be solved by closing and reopening. The story sections (which are text only) are sad and stressful and sometimes kind of horrifying, but you can skip them if you want to. I reported a bug and the developers were very responsive and nice. I would definitely recommend this game if you like fast paced time-management worker assignment games.
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Californium
I’d say that I’m a little mixed on this one.
Obviously, I have a love of psychedelics. I love the Bay Area (live there), love the PDK inspiration, love the artstyle, love some of the sound(s) and love creativity & originality.
The reason I’m mixed is due to a little bugginess and honestly the game requiring a little too much patience on my part (I’m a pretty patient dude too). It almost feels at times like it is bordering along “ambient” gaming to solve the “puzzles”. And by “puzzles” I mean the game relies heavily on one core mechanic: find the right spot for clicky, click, repeat. This becomes a bit tedious; even for a $10 game and not immersive. Which sucks because obviously this game has the right ingredients for being very immersive (or even only immersive without clicky click, aka Alien Isolation mod removing the Alien - aka spontaneous combustion exploration instead of clicky clicky) but the tedium of finding that one core mechanic puzzle to progress dampens the immersion & experience for me. This is where it becomes almost “ambient”, the looping atmospheric effects and saying WTF is that little symbol to click, causing much retracing over an already limited (and by limited I mean small) map.
– Real player with 5.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Sci-fi Psychedelic Games.
Devs are French and yes, there are noticable English spelling and grammar errors throughout but not unplayable bad. And the English voice acting is on a much higher level than the localization/translation bits and bobs so if you are worried about things being lost in translation that’s not an issue, for me at least. And if you have even a passing familiarity with PKD then you ought to be able to catch the little nods to his books because, well, they aren’t so little nor subtle. It is interesting to see a French perspective on a somewhat contemporary popular American mind and world(s) though. For that alone I feel the game is worth it to me. But this game is MOST DEFINITELY not for everyone, and I would be very selective with whom I reccomend it to. Most PKD fans should find something valuable in the game. I make the assumption that most PKD readers will be less critical of writing and more interested in unique and original ideas in general, and this game is certainly that.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Please Wake Up
This game is AMAZING! It’ll have most at the edge of their seat, heart racing and very concentrated. A must grab for any psychological horror. There is text in between levels to move the story along, but it does have a blur effect that can be a bit straining on the eyes, BUT, it can be turned off!!! NO WORRIES ON THAT!
Let’s break it down
The game follows a young boy in a coma trying to wake up while reconstructing different scenarios. I won’t spoil much, but different events and weave the narrative along nicely as things get more intense. A very well crafted narrative! I like it a lot, it’s simple and has a bit of spice in there to have an awesome story. I will say though (KINDA Spoiler I guess) the ending is JUST a little empty and I would’ve liked to see more.
– Real player with 2.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Sci-fi Alternate History Games.
This game will scare the **** out of you, but at least you will remember some really profound questions and interesting facts about memory reliability that constitutes reality vs. illusion distinction.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
XTHRUST
An excellent example of “easy to learn, difficult to master” gameplay.
You pilot a rocket-powered drone using only two buttons - one for each engine. The challenge comes from alternating, combining and timing the use of these engines to skilfully navigate through the various single player and multiplayer tracks competing for the best time.
The current amount of single player content isn’t spectacular, with only 4 tutorial levels and 6 other levels. However each level offers a bonus objective that can be challenging and adds to replayability.
– Real player with 10.7 hrs in game
TL; DR: A game with easy to learn but very difficult to master controls is bogged down with a dead multiplayer, a grindy XP and coin collecting system, and a very minimal amount of effort in singleplayer content (a grand total of 15 levels you will get nowhere near the top time on, some you won’t even be able to complete the extra “achievement challenge”, because they, too require a ton of grinding). There’s also microtransactions for coins but with a dead multiplayer I don’t really see the point of purchasing them.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
2020: THE RIDE
I hated 2020, but this I loved. It’s beautiful in a surreal sort of way, though I feel bad saying that, given the grim subject matter. Still, it’s free, and I agree with the statement at the end. Nobody asked to get on the super fun ride 2020 was. But each of us gets to choose if we stay on.
Works fine on the Oculus Rift, I noticed tiny bits of lag, but I also hook my headset to a potato.
– Real player with 0.4 hrs in game
This is an extremely boring game with bland visual effect, really suck.
–————————————————
Manual achievement:
0/0
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Blue Drifter
SokerPop 2077 is a cyberpunk bounty hunter simulator featuring 8 minutes of content and 7 achievements for an approximate 15 minutes of “judge, jury and executioner”. To pay for your $900 ticket to outer space, you must terminate 3 highly dangerous criminals across the 3 sectors using the highly sophisticated scanner and your trusty charge blaster. As you traves across the vast empty design space, you will need to operate a hovercar that traves much faster once you realize that you need to hold shift for boosters. I would tell you that game has a fantastic concept that had a lot of great ideas, but it would not be SokPop if the game was actually developed beyond the proof of concept.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Very promising conception, neat atmosphere, nice raw aesthetics (reminds me “Bernband” a bit), but still very simplistic.
10-20 mins duration is fine, there is no problem with it, but the saddest thing – every location in the game looks completely same. There are no unique details and nothing interesting at the islands – nothing to explore. The mood and the atmosphere of the game assume this sort of bluesy melancholic vibe and wandering spirit, but the game itself doesn’t support this motivation.
– Real player with 0.6 hrs in game
Lost Voice
At first glance, the story is simple, if not cliched. A player finds themselves in a strange and unfamiliar world - they don’t know where they are or how they got there. And it appears they don’t remember anything up to this point. Almost immediately the player is contacted by a group of characters with similar symptoms and together they start an investigation to unravel these mysteries. Where are they? Why can’t they remember anything? These and many other questions will be answered in the most unexpected ways.
At its core, Lost Voice is a first-person shooter, with strong exploration and some puzzle elements. Town Square is a safe space where the player can go to seek shelter and communicate with NPCs. Teleport Room that can be found there is used to reach other worlds (dungeons). Each world has its own gameplay twist.
There is no “Game Over” screen in Lost Voice. Instead of dying, the player teleports to the Well when HP is depleted. Upon climbing the Well to the top, the player transports to the Secret Room, nearest to the player’s “death” location. These rooms are closed from the inside, so the player will need to figure out how to unlock them.
Space Hole 2020
Thank god I am not epileptic
– Real player with 6.1 hrs in game
I’m trying to determine the best way to describe Space Hole 2020. Not necessarily a game, exactly. At least not in the way the equally amazing Space Hole 2016 and Space Hole 2018 were (in one opinion.) More the culmination of the reversal of everything the YEAR 2020 has turned out to be. It’s as if all the misery, pain and loss of Year 2020 was thrown into the air, but instead of falling, everything that made Year 2020 so awful converted into the various objects of their opposing beauty and wonder, music, color and art for gamers to explore and enjoy as Space Hole 2020. What you’ll quickly discover is that Space Hole 2020 is almost equally game and art installation (though not in a pretentious, scary or off-putting way,) And the music is a world of its own, and you likely find yourself as much experiencing the music as listening to it. Simply beyond description (which, I suppose, is a reasonably good description for the game in general, if “indescribable” can technically be used as a description.)
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Blade Walker
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– Real player with 6.8 hrs in game
I can’t really recommend this, even as a free demo-scale experience. The cyberpunk environment is great, but you’ll have to find necessary puzzle items in extremely shadowy and cluttered environments. The most interactive and eye-catching things in the area with the last puzzle have nothing to do with said puzzle so you will waste time with a red herring non-puzzle. There is no menu, no save, and the intro is unskippable.
On the other hand, there is talent visible. The ingredients for something satisfying are here. It’s just not there yet. With a bit more playtesting and a few more rooms and puzzles, I can see this becoming something worth a few bucks.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game
despatch: Entity Astray
Experienced on the Oculus Quest 2
You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/wA_Tf2MRfHI
I bought this game on the Steam release sale (10% off). While I can’t say that I feel I got my money’s worth, I also can’t quite give a negative review. Consider this a neutral recommendation. There’s lots of things to like about this, but there seems to be an equal amount of things not to like.
This is a sci-fi escape room. If you’re expecting a puzzle experience like in The Room VR: A Dark Matter, then you will be sorely disappointed. This game lacks the production values, polish, & the amazing puzzle design (along with good hint system) in the The Room. Instead, you have puzzles that are open-ended and you have to find the right item or the correct code and figure out how to use them or pair them with another clue.
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
The Devs have listened to feedback and added smooth turning and other control options, very good.
The game itself consists of a quite a few puzzles that are difficult to understand or outright confusing unless you’ve done them before. I don’t feel rewarded for finishing them, rather annoyed at the solution. I often found myself making progress only to be faced with yet another puzzle, and thinking “What was the point of that last one?” or “Why am I here?”
It lacks direction or explanation for why I’m doing any of the things I’m doing. Am I supposed to be doing this? Is the game glitched or have I just not found the correct solution? There’s just no indication of what I should be doing.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game