Guilt Free
this is a very tedious game.
i’m not quite sure if it was done intentionally, but i think that was rather well-executed. the creators did not bother with putting fillers in an attempt to lift the mood, but instead dove right in and sustained the immersive experience of dealing with someone who has bulimia.
the choices presented for your character’s response and alice’s responses to them can be extremely aggravating, frustrating, and tiring to listen to. their thoughts and feelings were never sugarcoated– and credits for the game for giving the character a diverse set of options rather than being just supportive or unsupportive. they can be supportive and effective. supportive but ineffective. in that regard, i consider the game well-thought out and realistic in the way we, as people, may consider the same responses to actual people like alice, and have an equally diverse range of reactions towards discovering alice’s woes.
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Story Rich Choices Matter Games.
This short and highly replayable game depicts bulimic and anorexic symptoms accurately, and does well to convey the experience of slowly uncovering and helping someone through an eating disorder and body dysmorphia.
The art is competent and quite stylish, fitting the mood of the narrative. A few details are odd and hint at the game’s indie origins, but overall everything is consistent and charming in appearance.
Much of the dialogue deals with bulimic symptoms in real-world detail, which was completely accurate to my own experiences, and may trigger players who recognize these symptoms. Paranoia and gaslighting are also depicted on the part of the narrator with the same narrative realism. The game has a “trigger warning,” and given its content and audience, this is warranted.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
Sixth Extinction
I really enjoyed the game, it’s very unusual game as the combination of narrative and puzzle is something I have never seen before in such a way.
I enjoyed the different stages and when I started playing, I thought to myself “will all of the game be like this?”.
But I quickly found out the puzzles changed with the narrative and I really enjoyed that!
So a quick list of pros and cons:
PRO:
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Interesting and diverse puzzles, often suprised me
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Satisfying to solve the puzzles
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Really nice mood and fitting graphics
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Story Rich Puzzle Games.
Just finished the game and… wow. I’m speechless. The end is amazing!
But if the end is amazing, it is also because the game is really well done. Very nice art, well-balanced puzzles, nice sounds, and a very special atmosphere. Really interesting idea to combine puzzles with a story - and what a story…
I really got fascinated and wanted to finish it… and then, the end!
The portrait layout (phone-like) is okay but feels a bit cramped. And because the drawings are so nice, they should take the full screen! It would also help for the immersion. But this is only my taste.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
The Beginner’s Guide
This piece is a beautiful work of art. This is the first actual game to make me cry. The amount of depth and emotion that was put into this game was exceptional, and I didn’t expect it at all. Even when the game doesn’t make sense to you at some times, it still affects you. As the characters change, you change with them. You and the narrator’s view on everything surrounding this game changes entirely throughout the story. This game is worth the money, and much more and I feel like this is a game everyone should experience. 11/10
– Real player with 4.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Story Rich Walking Simulator Games.
One of the few games that actually made me cry and question what is “trying to find yourself”. Game itself gives and includes a lot of psychological messages, not just to the creator of the game Davey but to the player aswell. It is really a deep game to understand and realise whats going on. Depression and finding yourself is a part of everyones life and it only gets better if you are able to know your worth. I dont even know if Coda is Davey, or if Coda is a real person. But i can assure than so many people can relate what “Coda”’s feeling and experiencing. Definitely recommending this masterpiece of a game. “Edit : made my mum play it, she cried…..”
– Real player with 3.7 hrs in game
Choose for ME
Choose for ME belongs to the “Puzzle Drama” genre, in which the player will find himself at the center of an exciting story told as in a movie.
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Help Mads to shed light on his memory and reconstruct the moments that marked his life… and the development of his video game
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Live this emotional journey and discover the truth solving puzzles and riddles
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Get carried away by the psychological flow and explore Mads' mind
Forgetter
Disclaimer: I helped out with testing the game and got the game as a free copy.
The game is mostly a “walking simulator”, so the gameplay is kept relatively simple and the focus lies more on the experience of entering the very different minds of two artists and exploring their memories and traumas. Some of these memories I kind of expected (e.g. pressure from parents) but there are also other memories, some of them even pleasant that I didn’t see coming. Personally, it felt like I got to know two people by discovering some of their key memories, which was interesting to me, because I don’t know much about the artist life. I would have liked to see the game explore the different ways the “brain recycling” technology plays out for people, like in an episode of “Black Mirror”.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Novice developers from Hong Kong were very kind to submit the game to my curator page https://store.steampowered.com/curator/26168615-Video-Games-Art-International/ and ask for my opinion.
I would thank developers with a positive review, but this is more kinda mixed review.
The game is in first person view and allows for free exploration of 3D environments. Incipit of story is very intriguing and original. You’re a young girl on probation for a new weird job at MindJob corporation. You’re a “forgetter”. Your mission is to clear the minds of famous deceased artists! Yes, at MindJob they recycle the minds of geniuses and artists and implant them in children brains! Families pay for their children to be next generation geniuses and artists! But artists and geniuses minds are affected by traumatic memories and deviant behavior, so you have to erase and clean them before the new implant! Do you want your son to be the next Van Gogh but with both the ears, without deviant behavior? Mindjob has the solution for you! :-)
– Real player with 2.7 hrs in game
Gothic 1881
A story with a nice twist in the end, albeit it is short.
– Real player with 1.9 hrs in game
Utterly Pointless
Gothic 1881 is a very short (less than 2 hours) RPGMaker game that really fails to deliver anything meaningful. For less than $2, I did not expect much, but I have played games that are less than an hour long that have left more of an impact to me than this game does. The ideas are definitely there to be elaborated on, but the overall execution of the ideas is really lackluster and bland. If I had to be perfectly honest, this feels like someone’s college project.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
Murder Diaries
An unusual idea, but at the same time very exciting. That’s what make this game unique.
I mean content-plot, it is not just a short story. MOREOVER, while playing you are getting more and more new adventures. Our task is to collect some fragments of the story and finally investigate murder.
Pros: interesting plot, good graphic, well-chosen soundtrack
Cons right now can’t be noticed by me, i might played too little time to notice them.
And to conclude, this game is something unusual, not like others one. Really good one to spend free time
– Real player with 11.0 hrs in game
there is a sense of horror in the process of playing
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game
Retention: A Love Story
From a playability perspective Retention: A Love Story would have more enjoyable if the development team stripped away some of the puzzles in favor of a simpler more story driven game. Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and other forms of cognitive decay are excellent themes to explore because most of us have seen someone we love impacted. Last year 3-Fold Games explored similar themes in Before I Forget and to many, it was one of the more emotionally moving titles released that year. Retention does an excellent job making interesting stylization choices and the voice acting is fairly decent. Those two aspects prove to me that if some of the more buggier aspects of the game were removed there was potential for this to be more dynamic than the finished product.
– Real player with 7.8 hrs in game
Free game made by students, but I cannot recommend it. It definitely needed way more polish than it got, with clunky controls and so many bugs. Puzzles are basic but annoying and will often break, and there are no actual “saves”, just checkpoints, that don’t persist after exiting the game. There are at least 2 game breaking bugs, where the only fix is to close the game and start all over again, and after the second one I just couldn’t force myself to get through it again for the story, which just feels miserable even without the Alzheimer’s angle they’re going for.
– Real player with 1.7 hrs in game
The Last Show of Mr. Chardish
The Last Show of Mr. Chardish is a story with multiple layers and is made up of a central framework with 5 very distinct ‘mini-adventures.’ The sound track is enjoyable and the voice acting well done.
The primary story is played from a first person perspective and is much like a walking simulator, exploring an old theater. You are Ella, an actress returning to your history at the request of Mr. Chardish (a person you worked closely with in your past). You walk through the ruins of the theater, listening to a taped interview with Chardish. You examine items lying about (collectibles) and listen to snippets of remembered conversations. You find several masks in the theater and putting on each submerges you in an adventure based on a play by Chardish. These vary in artistic style and objectives. The mechanics of each are very different, as well. Within each of 5 segments, there are collectibles that contain more recordings of conversations to build out the history of your own past with the man and the theater. The segments have different styles of puzzles with a common theme of using the environment to build your path through a surreal landscape.
– Real player with 12.7 hrs in game
Are you looking for an emotional game with an interesting story, incredible soundtracks and decent voice acting while experiencing a game with artistic and sometimes surrealistic visual graphics? Then The Last Show of Mr. Chardish is for you.
Not all games about battle royales/PVP, having impossible challenges during platforming/parkour games, etc. Story oriented games could be called a niche genre, mainly created to adults because of their deep thoughts. These games offer much lower playtime than other games while the asking price is still 15-20$+. Considering a purchase is still a valid option if you like to support quality games with a deep meaning instead of buying the 500th reskin of a boring shooter.
– Real player with 9.3 hrs in game
Creepy Tale 3: Ingrid Penance
Creepy Tale 3: Ingrid’s Penance is a macabre interactive adventure filled with bizarre events and puzzles.
The story revolves around a capricious, spoiled girl named Ingrid. She steps on a loaf of bread to avoid getting her shoes dirty and tumbles all the way down to hell.
The underworld is teeming with creepy creatures. Some of them want to swallow little Ingrid whole, others want to torment her with never-ending nightmares, and still others want to turn her into a charming statue to impress their neighbors.
But, when it seems like Ingrid is doomed to perish in this infernal pit, she meets Molek, a talkative, sarcastic demon who has been watching her adventure with fascination. She has no choice but to trust the little demon. Who knows? He just might be the key to her redemption and a way home.
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Multiple endings Ingrid’s fate depends entirely on your choices and the actions you perform over the course of the entire game
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Gripping puzzles that incorporate a wide variety of mechanics
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An immersive, fully-voiced storyline with references to the works of Hans Christian Anderson, the Brothers Grimm, and other authors.