Gruta: Prologue of the Gloomy Whispers
In this narrative-driven platformer game, you play as child that was living on the edge, trying to escape of her family. Running away, the kid wants to fight the monster she thought was causing trouble between her parents. What she found was not what she was expecting.
Using a sword and shield based combat, you have to fight different types of enemies and mechanics through the levels and reach your goal: Find and face the monster to save your family.
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Stylized pixel-art and original artstyle cutscenes;
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50 hand-crafted levels with increasing complexity;
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A action platformer game with a stunning and polished game feel;
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Tight controls - optmized controls for gamepads and keyboards;
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Original Soundtrack;
Read More: Best Short Dark Fantasy Games.
TUBWT
This is quite possibly the worst puzzle game ever created. The clues mean exactly nothing. There is no reason or logic to any of it. If you eat the wrong pill, you die and the game restarts. The best method is just to eat every pill you see, remember the ones that kill you, restart the game, and only eat the pills that don’t kill you. Do not buy this game.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Short First-Person Games.
I enjoyed some of the puzzles in this game but the main objective is to eat specific pills and there seems to be no indication as to what pills you need to eat. There are no clues, no hints, nothing. You eat the wrong pill and you die (and that will happen to you a lot unless you watch someone else play the game). After a little while I got sick of picking the wrong pill and dying so I just watched others play the game so I could stop restarting the entire game from the beginning.
If we had a neutral option I would definitely be selecting that for this game but since it’s either “recommend” or “do not recommend” I have to say I don’t recommend it just because the entire game seems to be based on chance or luck and I don’t care for that at all. There doesn’t seem to be any way to make an educated guess as to what pills to eat based off clues - it’s just pure luck. The ending tries to justify what you’ve just gone through but I don’t think it does. I think it’s a lousy explanation for lack of good game design. I heard there was DLC coming for this game and honestly I hope that’s true and I hope it expands upon the main game because there is something here. I just don’t like it in it’s current form. Maybe you will feel differently.
– Real player with 1.4 hrs in game
Beyond The Underworld
There are good and bad things in that game, though this time it’s definitely a thumb down at this point.
Good :
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Classic walking simulator.
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Nice music at the end especially.
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“Works”.
Bad :
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“Works” as in lot of bugs that hinder your progression.
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If you pause during the game, the pause overlay remains, forcing you to restart the game to get rid of it.
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I got stuck numerous times because the events wouldn’t lauch. In the island, I had the time to turn around the last island 3 times before the event to finally show up, allowing me to continue.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Short Early Access Games.
As a Kickstarter backer, I was excited to see the development and release of this game. After playing it, I’m happy to say it delivered, but there’s still work that needs to be done. I’m also giving this review knowing full well that it is in Early Access mode, so I have faith that things can be worked on.
Starting off with graphics, the overview is generally gorgeous. I would equate the experience of this game to viewing a lovely light show in a museum. Much of the game is screenshot and wallpaper-worthy as the colors and display really do stand out. However, when you start to really look into the depth, that’s when you may feel a bit less enthusiastic. Many textures need to be worked on, the 2D to 3D ratio is slightly off-putting in some scenes, and I’ve seen some spastic flashy glitches in some areas.
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
Esper - Make You Live Again
Brief
Esper - Make You Live again is a pretty straight forward story telling game in the design of a Visual Novel, known as a Kinetic Novel. Offering various characters and scenes, it gives a pretty accurate depiction of what it would be like to be in this universe.
Pros
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Good Story
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Decent Length (see Additional Comments)
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Chapter Select
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Good Options
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Good & Consistent Art
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Decent Music
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Has A Demo (Not many games do this anymore)
Cons
- Lack of Story Choices (see Additional Comments)
– Real player with 54.5 hrs in game
Esper - Make You Live Again is a kinetic Visual Novel published by Stoigames early this year, but the development has started back in 2015, and it’s clearly a work of passion.
Espers are people with special abilities, capable of establishing emotional links with individuals on the edge of rapture. Those feeling depressed, suicidal or in a tremendous sadness turmoil, if lucky, can be approached by an Esper, which will do everything to help. This order is well established among society, with schools that train and develop Espers, from a very early age. All of this running in the underground of the world as we known it.
– Real player with 14.2 hrs in game
Abtos Covert
“Abtos Covert man, I’m tellin' you. Easiest post there is, just a few nights and you’re off the hook. Only the outpost, a small shrine and the rest of the forest can be seen…
What did you say? Strange shadows? Weird sounds? Paranormal activities? Those are just legends, bedtime stories man! There’s no way there is stuff like that out there!”
About Abtos
Abtos Covert is a survival horror game in which you play the role of a soldier keeping guard on a remote outpost out in the woods. You must keep your wits while searching for the truth. Fend off the mysterious entities attacking the outpost, find clues from previous soldiers that had the same shift and survive every night. Things will only get harder as you progress, so stay vigilant. Can you survive every night and discover the truth behind the stories, or will you become part of the legend?
Features
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A realistic scenery, deep in the woods.
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Make use of the unique equipment of the Abtos Covert outpost.
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Alarm system with movement sensors will warn you of any outside threats.
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Defend yourself using the spotlights or hide inside the lockers.
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Listen carefully for any sounds. Danger may already be inside the outpost.
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Each enemy is unique. Learn how to confront each one of them.
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Survive the night shifts while you search for clues.
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Something happened in the outpost before. A story is to be uncovered.
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Don’t relax, ever! Each night will feel harder and harder.
Story
Well soldier, seems like you’re that guy. You drew the short straw and now you are to be stationed in the Abtos Covert outpost, a place commonly known for being quiet. But the moment it actually happens, the rest of the platoon is whispering: “Haven’t you heard the stories?”, “…heard someone disappeared there…".The stories about that place are innumerable. Human sacrifices, shadows running in the trees and souls still lost that sing a dreary song. When you ask your superior, he just laughs it off…
Decadent Thinking
Interesting premise, but the translation isn’t really serviceable. Maybe skip this if you can’t read Japanese.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Fate of Dynasty
Gosh, when they say short, they MEAN short! I didn’t even notice at first that I had actually made it to the legitimate end.
Not a bad game. Intriguing graphics, some interesting history. Simple controls. I can appreciate the amount of effort it takes to solve the puzzles included.
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
A very short game, but fun. The graphics are really beautiful! It even has history and nice puzzles. It’s free, so I recommend everyone to try it.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
CAT Interstellar: Episode II
CAT Interstellar: Episode II
Return to Mars as a UNC Marine for the second installment of the cult classic CAT Interstellar.
Episode II picks up 24 hours after the first episode and primarily follows the United Nations Common (UNC) Marine Sergeant Gary Freeman. In this episode you’ll navigate a treacherous Martian passage, drive a 4WD rover through Turing Canyon, and blast your way through a Martian laboratory as a Marine Sergeant on a mission to deactivate Android 42.
This experience is intended to be ~1 hour long and follows a very similar structure to the first game. It is a linear story with both first and third person gameplay.
Arcanbreak
It is a point and click adventure the characters can be moved with ‘w-a-s-d’ and then there is mouse to point and click. The experience could have been better if there was an option to press a key when the character is near the object to know about the object.
– Real player with 3.4 hrs in game
It’s a strange feeling, being first to review a Steam title.
Arcanbreak is a fantastical thriller and adventure game about abuse of power. It’s a short adventure that’ll take about 1-2 hours of your time to fully complete.
PROS:
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The atmosphere is dreary. The dark lighting and ominous music provokes the sense that something dark is brewing in town, and that’s one motivator to keep on the case.
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The character designs are nice enough. There’s a Kingdom Hearts meets Bloodborne aesthetic here, which I’m all for.
! Comrade Alexandria is a hardened fighter. Little movements, like the way characters will bob their heads around every here and then as a lookout, are nice touches. The banter takes a dark, but quirky approach, and it’s nice to read. Arun and Quila make neat protagonists.
– Real player with 2.8 hrs in game
Building 847
A short but thoroughly enjoyable indie storytelling experience!
I wasn’t sure I’d get through it in one sitting, but I found the ambiance very compelling and surprisingly tasteful in all its lighting and sound effects, so I couldn’t stop until the end. Overall, the writing does a great job at introducing what ended up being a rather intriguing story, so it was easy to follow along even without any voice acting.
Very promising. Looking forward for future titles from these devs!
– Real player with 1.8 hrs in game
The ambience of this game is through the roof!
Sound quality is good, it really sells you the mystery and the thriller inducing chills imo.
Now i will be describing some of the good and some of the problems and i don’t want to spoil things so play the game 1st then read the next part.
! Some pros:
! * I already told this but the ambience this game delivers is really good from the sound quality and overall gloomy and dark atmosphere really gives this game a boost.* I love detective/mystery games and if there’s a slight thriller/horror vibe to it i love it even more (e.g of games i love detective wise (sam and max, monkey island, the sinking city, wolf among us, the long reach, the last door series, disco elisium etc)).
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game