The Guilt and the Shadow
So, this is yet another gloomy indie game about psychological disorders.
There’s little to say about this one. In its own genre it’s probably OK. The visuals are stylish and the sound design is quite awesome.
But the story doesn’t really catch your attention. The monologues and occasional dialogues are quite unnatural. And the gameplay part just plainly sucks. You walk slowly, you need to backtrack the levels all the time, it’s surprisingly hard to find a proper spot to start climbing a ladder. So, all in all, as a game this thing kind of fails.
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Short Dark Fantasy Games.
An emotional experience about the torments of a man plagued by the “guilt” of his mother’s suicide (“shadow”).
Set in a black and white pencil drawn world, the player guides the mentally ill protagonist through a succession of dreams/nightmares.
To advance in the game, we have to solve simple puzzles to unblock passageways or unlock memories.
The pace is slow, giving the time to the player to immerse itself in the dark atmosphere of the game. And the game can be finished in one setting, which I would recommend in order to not lose the connection to the story.
– Real player with 5.3 hrs in game
Wooden House
For this review I will talk about my reviews.
I am none-native english speaker and I use steam review to practice my english. It generally worked out for me and I even have a few small review fans that like to read them. Which made me very happy. I feel bad that a lot of my spelling and grammer is bad but I don’t overly concerned to fix every single one of them because i am not selling my review for money.
This game however is selling for money on steam. Very well made small indie horror game by a none-native developer that put in a lot work for the enviroment, music, sound effect and terrible english.
– Real player with 4.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Short First-Person Games.
GDNomad strikes yet again, with another really bad horror game.
Story:
You play as a man who wants to get away from every day life and decides to take a retreat to their new home, but after a night there you notice there’s some spooky things going on and that’s where the story kicks off.
The story is atrocious and is insanely hard to follow and you barely know what’s going on, because of the most notorious staple of GDNomads games, THE BROKEN ENGLISH. Pretty much every sentence written has poor english grammar that makes it hard to actually understand what is going on.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
BAPTISM
Summary
Nicely written story, but to me it feels like the ending is cut off. Without me trying to give away spoilers, I think the ending has a lot more potential.
Pros/Cons
**+ Well written
- Nice sound
+/- ‘Okay’ visuals (suitable to ambiance), and I did like the animated design of the personas a lot (including the ‘eyes’ and ‘sun/light’ signs – I think I fully understand their meaning), and the mansion. However I did not like the images of the church and road, that look too much like regular photos made black-white, and also didn’t really blend in with the story.**
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
A kinetic visual novel, curiously referred to by its developer as a “game”. As a strong and frequent advocate of walking simulators and such, even I’d opine that a product in which you click through a linear story and never once make anything resembling a choice is not really a “game”.
It is, however, a fairly interesting and by-and-largely well-written short story (though the end was a tad abrupt for my liking). So is the unorthodox audio-visual presentation of a visual novel justified? I would say so, yes. It arguably makes for a more immersive experience, though some literary purists would no doubt argue that the text should be doing that job for itself. Each to their own I’d say, and I certainly can’t fault someone for trying something new in this artistically-saturated day and age.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Circle
is doing many good thing ! vary fun game
eddat: is vary fun game, but after many hour game have really grown on me and me heart. it game about the dark side of depression, loneliness, and some red bitch. all and all it very good game only take me 7 minute to beat because I very fast and is very good game to speedrun like me ! remember to have fun time and take care ! I give game 9/10 bijou !
– Real player with 132.2 hrs in game
awful translation and tries too hard to be cryptic but comes off as genuine cringeworthy projection of autism
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
The Inner Darkness
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The Short of it: A well-crafted, challenging, indie platformer/puzzle/horror. The physical logic puzzles and dimensional shifting really make you think through trial and error - I felt smarter having played this =)
Reminds me of: A fairly unique title, it doesn’t remind me exactly of any other title I have played. If you like good puzzle platformers, indie horror, and modern pixel graphics, you’ll probably like The Inner Darkness.
– Real player with 9.5 hrs in game
I must give the game it’s dues. It really uses as much of its limited mechanics as it can without ever really overstaying its welcome (as you can see, the whole thing took only slightly more than an hour to beat, playing suboptimally). Even a couple of core mechanics which I feared would become annoying never became so, they just added a slight illusion of urgency.
The puzzles were on the easy side, with more than a few times me overthinking what they needed, but several did feel clever enough (even if they were never particularly lateral). A few of them did easily screw you over due to movement rather than misunderstanding the core puzzle, but that was partially on me for rushing.
– Real player with 1.6 hrs in game
Flicker of Hope
I really wish I could recommend this game. There are some very interesting aspects to this game that I’ve never seen before. Unfortunately, however, the gameplay is just too poor to recommend.
First the good: So, the first thing you’ll notice is that the main character design is absolutely adorable and beautifully representative of the themes of light, hope, etc. that is visually expressed throughout Wick. Additionally, the way that Wick and the candles that he lights are the only light in the map (and how the light changes as you sneak and run) and the idea of the light being what leads Sister Mara to you is gorgeous and elegant (and can only really be expressed in the form of a video-game). Finally, the method by which Jean Wick revives is by possessing one of the candles that he’s lighted, which once again is beautifully representative of the the theme and story of spreading light around the cathedral.
– Real player with 10.6 hrs in game
Pros and cons are down below) Check out the gameplay here (the game is the 1st there):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUU8y9NG5sA
Advantages:
1. A very cool stylee! It’s so adorable but terrifying at the same time! Reminded me A LOT of Little Nightmares. Such a great job on this one!
2. I absolutely loved how the story is unravelled through the environment! Game mechanics are also fascinating, I never ever played as a candle! I think the whole concept was amazing!
3. The game was terrifying! I loved it! It’s so cool! I didn’t expect that I will produce high pitched screams playing this at all!
– Real player with 7.0 hrs in game
A Mortician’s Tale
There are things we occasionally tend to think about, but in the same time not give them much thought. One of such things is death. An image of a final frontier every single one of us will have to face eventually, which sometimes pops up in our mind, accompanied by questions like when, in what way or what’s beyond? These few are impossible to answer in a correct way, but A Mortician’s Tale does a good job at explaining one thing. What will happen to our body?
To answer this question, the game puts us in the shoes of Charlie, a young goth-looking woman, who starts her new job at a funeral home. Without a moment to waste she receives a welcoming e-mail from her coworkers and initial instructions regarding her first assignment, which is of course preparing a corpse for its rest, while following proper medical procedures and honoring the wishes of the family / deceased. After successfully completing that part of the job, our protagonist is obligated to go out to comfort the mourners and pay her respects.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
I would like to start the review off by saying that despite my negative review, I still believe this game is a great experience, and a game that should be played by people who generally enjoy these types of games, you know who you are.
The game is short, there’s not much gameplay, it’s simple point’n’click stuff. Most of your time will be spent reading what the characters have to say or are thinking, and reading through your emails each day that you play, and this is no secret.
The 4th tag for this game is “Short”, if you buy this and give it a negative review for being short then you need to stop buying games on impulse, and take at least the 3 minutes it takes to read through the store page and look through the screenshots.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Actual Sunlight
I look at Evan Winter, the “protagonist” of Actual Sunlight, and that Evan Winter is distinctively me.
Well, not exactly me. I’m not in my late 20s/early 30s yet. I don’t have a dayjob that I neither love nor care for. I’m a college kid from China studing economics in the States. Oh and I do cook pretty well, and my obsession with following Ikea’s assembly instructions to a T proved to be a bit overwhelming to the few friends I have.
Everything else, however, is pretty close. I’m in an alien country, spending money I don’t have learning stuff I neither love nor am good at, getting by with passing grades, lying to my parents that everything’s fine so they wouldn’t completely lose faith in me and their decision of funding my study, and of course, escaping into videogames. I live with four roommates under the same roof who each live their own lives and barely social at all with each other. I’ve no idea if I would ever find a job, or even complete this degree. I’ve gained 40 pounds since I came here, and Evan’s reflection in the bathroom mirror is not far from my own. Hell, I even have a similar “relationship” like Evan and Tori’s with my ex, my first date, who I broke up with 4 years ago. And for the past four years, I’ve been living with my broken promise, which I never told her, that I would make a man out of myself one day and finally face her with confidence. Along with dozens of other promises I could not keep.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Buyer be advised: “Actual Sunlight” is basically a visual novel… and I don’t mean the kind with fan-service cheesecake tossed in (unless you’re into flabby white guys). There’s almost no traditional gameplay in it. You play it not for “fun”, but rather for an emotional experience and perhaps for some insight into the psychology of depression.
If you’re still reading, then maybe you’re open-minded enough to get something out of this game. You play as Evan Winter, an overweight white-collar drone who tries to bury his loneliness in video games, daydreams, and misanthropy. Gameplay consists of guiding Evan through a few days in his overly routinized life, interacting with other characters and environmental objects in order to trigger Evan’s dark and sardonic commentary (the game is very text-heavy). As the game progresses through its roughly hour-length, Evan’s depression becomes increasingly severe. There is only one possible ending no matter what choices the player makes along the way. And with a name like “Evan Winter” … brace yourself.
– Real player with 3.8 hrs in game
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
Free for everyone at the time of review.
Hardware: Win 10x64, 3570k mildly OC, GTX 1070, 16 GB, SSD.
Super laggy on my system; took me a full 30 minutes to complete a game advertised as 5-10 minutes. I see the system specs state “Windows 7”; I’m guessing this is either a Win 10 issue (some games lag badly in 8 / 10 that run fine in 7) or possibly the 10xx series video card.
I recommend taking a very brief glance at the videos before playing to see how fast the game is supposed to move. If the game is going to lag for you, it will start at the opening credits, which take so long to change screens (tapping an arrow key helps) that it feels like the game is locked up. Don’t press ESC; that instantly closes the game.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
‘The hardest tumble a man can make is to fall over his own bluff’' - Ambrose Bierce
James Cox has adapted, as part of his ‘100 games in 5 years’ project, the timeless classic short story titled An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge written by Ambrose Bierce in 1890. It has seen many variations since its inception ranging from short story to full novel inspirations, radio screenplays including a Twilight Zone broadcast, TV drama/movies and even music videos including Bon Jovi’s song Dyin' ain’t much of a livin'.
– Real player with 0.1 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