Dissonance: An Interactive Novelette
Not a game in the expected sense, but a really neat story in the end.
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
A short enjoyable experience. The user experience could use some support in terms of control support, installation, and navigation. But a nice quick experience overall.
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
The Gardens Between
Imagine playing with a very beautifully illustrated and intricate pop-up book. That is about as good a description I can give you for what The Gardens Between is. You can close and open the page to make things move backwards and forwards. But seeing as this is a digital pop-up book we can add some other mechanics too such as using lanterns to clear fog which would have otherwise been blocking your way. We can spin a dial to mess with the chronological order of other things independent of us….and just in general we can manipulate time to solve puzzles and uncover a fully relaxing and heartwarming story of two friends who love each other.
– Real player with 7.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Story Rich Emotional Games.
The first time I loaded The Gardens Between and saw the title screen, I knew I was in for something special. I was reminded immediately of the initial screen for “Braid” a game that I constantly referred back to for The Gardens Between. And like “Braid”, The Gardens Between is a beautiful puzzle game that often uses time as a mechanic and rewards patience, interest and pondering of the tales we tell ourselves of our rose-tinted youth.
The Gardens Between is a universal story then, all told without a script, dialogue or any written words whatsoever. As you journey with our young friends, Arina and Frendt, you get a sense of their personality and their enduring friendship and moments together, through objects that make up the levels and the snippets of moments they share when each is completed.
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
Shindig
Hey there hoomin!
Tbh, the moment I started creating my character, the game had already got me. Not just because there are many (hair) styles you can choose from, but the developers really made an effort to make variety and diversity one of the integral components of this game. And as you can feel while playing, they were very successful in doing so.
The individual and lovable characters are the main reason for playing this charming game! They come to life through their different personal backgrounds, their relationships between one another and their different ways of speaking (which is evident thanks to the great voice acting). But most of all, these characters are damn funny! Playing this game really made me laugh out loud - a lot. That’s why Shindig is not necessarily a single player game. You can also play it together with your family or friends to enjoy the jokes all together. I did the latter and it was one of the most entertaining nights in months.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
Read More: Best Story Rich Narrative Games.
Gonna have ourselves a Shindig!!!
Bought this charmingly illustrated and voiced old-school Point and Click adventure for my nine year old daughter, but found myself drawn in to the cartoon world of Shindig too, so spent the next few hours playing it with her and we both thoroughly enjoyed the game.
I know she liked this game as she has been singing the catchy tunes ever since!
A really nice concept (who doesn’t love having a party?) with friendly and memorable characters. Would recommend for young and old gamers alike who are looking for a relaxing evenings gaming.
– Real player with 5.2 hrs in game
Evangeline™
FIrst let me start off with I normally dont even take a second look at these kinds of games. But being from the area that the game is based on I figured I would give it a try and I am glad I did. It is a very heartfelt and compassionate narative on love and life. Take it slow, read everything, and think about those around you in your life that mean something to you and maybe you will cry just like me. Well done Racantour games, im excited to see what you do next.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
This game is far too aimless for it’s own good and the most significant story/emotional beat is comprised of one single segment at the very end of the experience. The rest of the 20-30 minutes you spend will be walking around reading like 10 random notes that tell extremely simple and vague stories that are underdeveloped, uninteresting and completely separate from the ending. The game also has this thing about color, but for the life of me I can’t discern what sort of meaning or symbolism they were trying to make because the colors seem to just randomly come and go and don’t have any real pattern or development over the course of the game. It’s also segmented by days, but none of the days build to anything, none of the side stories lead to any interesting revelations, and well… nothing happens. I understand that there was a personal story behind this and the devs wanted to stress the importance of love (which is a nice sentiment) but that doesn’t change the fact that this game is as aimless as they come.
– Real player with 1.0 hrs in game
Flaws in the People We Love
This game is deep and rather sad once you put a meaning to what’s going on. I did find out some choices are open to us, while others are not. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a happy ending, despite the uplifting music. At least I didn’t find it. Kind of sad, makes you think about what really matters in life and handling the choices we make. I hope there was a happy ending after the game as some of the things she said made me think it was possible.
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
Hi, i played the game & I gotta say I was moved by the story. Never do I feel emotion for a fictional character but in this one I had tears in my eyes & by the end I wanted to go back & make things right.
Screw the Mountain.
Please make a sequel to this. I know its only one person asking for it but I want to see this sad but beautiful story get a happy ending.
P.S. The voice actress on point. Plz bring her back.
– Real player with 0.5 hrs in game
Sword and Space
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Game operations: The mouse can take walk and talk, and the keyboard W A S D or ↑ ↓ ← → control direction, space and enter control OK key,too. Press “OK” for a second will be fast forward the plot.
SORRY， Only win7 can play this game.Thanks for AngelineFletcher’s correction.
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
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
A Bird Story
tl;dr - Join a mute, lock-and-key boy on his long acid trip where he nurses an injured bird back to health. 11/10 lackluster emotional ride.
A disclaimer before we begin: I have not played To the Moon yet. I currently have a cat, I had rabbits on two different occasions, and also a budgie. I did not play this game for 4 hours, it was more like ~1 - I left the game running while I went out because of its horrible checkpointing system; I refused to play through any scene again.
I got this game gifted to me by a generous friend, and was interested to see what the text/voiceless gameplay would be like.
– Real player with 4.7 hrs in game
A short, whimsical, bittersweet interactive story with surreal elements, lovingly detailed and narrated without any dialogues.
A bird story is one of those games where much of your enjoyment will depend in your pre-existing expectations of games, and in what you will read into the themes and the story. It is only mildly interactive and quite linear, and much of the time you are simply watching scenes unfold, yet I personally found some of the interactive moments all the more impactful because of that. It is simultaneously visually impressive for what it manages to create out of its tools, and pretty simplistic. The sometimes funny, sometimes sad visual story will be very evocative for some and almost saccharine for others, and I can easily understand both points of view. And yet I could vividly remember every detail of the 1 hour experience, a week after first playing the game. Emotionally, it hit all the marks for me. The way it manages to utilize the pixels, the colour palette, the music, the sound, the subtlest of animations to create its unspoken narrative is masterful. A second playthrough made me smile when I realised how much it uses little gaming conventions (taken out of their usual contexts) to help tell the story. There are just so many clever design details jam-packed into this tiny story, that a second playthrough actually felt worth the time, despite the fact that there is no new content to experience.
– Real player with 2.5 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
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
The Gap
Imagine. If you had lost it all - your family, your memories, your life. Who would you trust? Could you trust yourself?
The Gap is a hard sci-fi first person narrative exploration thriller. While you have to unravel the mystery through a few puzzles, the game mainly focuses on the narrative, atmosphere and environmental storytelling.
The year is 2045. Dizzily, you wake up, lying on the floor of a dishevelled apartment. Who are you? What and where is this place? Is there anybody around? All that is left of recent human contact are confusing messages written across the apartment. The reddish light of a setting sun makes up an eerie atmosphere. You may try to escape, but the entrance is locked. Feeling like you could black out anytime soon, you decide to explore the apartment.
Certain documents you come across offer you a glimpse into your ostensible past as Joshua Hayes, a neuroscientist who’s made some questionable life choices. Inevitably, your mission becomes piecing together the missing fragments of your past, solving the mystery of your and your family’s affliction.