Adventure Game Hotspot
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Horses certainly won’t be for everyone, as it can be deeply disturbing, but it also has an engaging, smartly layered narrative that is sure to elicit strong emotions. Your choices may ultimately be inconsequential, and the puzzles are few in number, but the strong art direction and approachable mechanics make it easy to play. It could reasonably be argued that Horses would be just as poignant in another medium, like a comic or film, but as a game it confronts you first-hand and communicates its thought-provoking themes very effectively, and is worth a play (or two) from any dedicated horror fan.
The Mermaid Mask is the rare third entry in a series that not only lives up to the audience’s hopes for it, but exceeds them. It’s neither compelled to fix what isn’t broken nor content to repeat itself, and while it respects both its predecessors and its fans’ regard for them, it’s more than willing to do things its own way. Those who’ve been meaning to check out the Detective Grimoire series can start here if they like, and enjoy the best it has to offer, while returning players will be delighted to find new heights awaiting them. Excitingly, the table is set for further adventures if the developers choose, and hard as it may be to imagine them surpassing what they’ve achieved here, you won’t ever catch me saying never again.
At a crisp four or so hours, Mind Diver shouldn’t take long for those who enjoy deduction-based adventure games. While the puzzles do require some use of the ol’ noggin, those looking for a more hardcore challenge may be disappointed. Yet I have no reservations about giving the game a full-throated recommendation for the story alone, enhanced by the complementary ease of play, cool graphics, believable voice acting and pleasant soundtrack. While the science fiction aspects don’t tread new ground, the love story resonates deeply and is well worth the price of admission.
I wanted to get through this whole review without using the word “cozy” (rats, so close!), but in many ways you couldn’t find a warmer blanket of a game for which the word would be better suited. The soft, picture-book winter aesthetic, colorful cast of friendly characters, atmospheric music, and gentle progression of satisfying but mostly challenge-free game mechanics will make you and your family want to savor the game alongside cups of hot chocolate, regardless of the time of year. It’s a notable improvement from Snufkin, and what really adds logs to the fire is the writing, which is thoughtful and humorous and isn’t afraid to let just a little bit of the cold air of heavier themes seep in through the cracks at the windowsills. I do wish there was a similar bite in terms of difficulty and exploration, as the developers seem a touch too eager to smooth rough edges and lead you along like a mountain guide in the Alps, but a few trickier collectibles and some optional side quests help to fill out the experience for those who wish to wander a bit further afield. As it stands, though, Moomintroll: Winter’s Warmth is the exact kind of cheerful adventure my family loves to enjoy together, bringing smiles to our faces, warmth to our hearts, and endless reruns of a 90s animated Moomin show to our TV screen. I guess we’ll call that a win.
WILL: Follow the Light really does remind me of the ocean. It’s an up and down experience with intermittent rushes of excitement between extended periods of calm with not much happening. And how much I enjoyed myself seemed as fickle as how the wind blew – sometimes fair weather, sometimes foul. It’s not so much a mediocre game as a highly uneven one that ends up somewhere in the middle. It looks great and sounds good, especially on the water, and you can’t help but feel like a boater (if not a sailor) even with minimal input. For puzzle fans there are some surprisingly head-scratching conundrums, and for story lovers there’s enough underlying character drama to want to see it through to the end. It’s unfortunate, then, that a lack of focus, insufficient guidance and a lot of rough patches result in the whole being less than the sum of its parts. And that’s really a shame, because there’s potential for a great game here that may have found its way if only it had taken a slightly different tack.
Call of the Elder Gods is both a worthy successor to Call of the Sea and a great addition to the mythos first laid out by H.P. Lovecraft. I certainly felt more involved and interested here, because while pulpy this game feels more Lovecraftian than the first game’s lure of the waves. The sequel is every bit as beautiful and well acted as its predecessor, and the addition of a second playable character added a welcome new dynamic, while the puzzles are mostly fun to solve, feeling like an archaeologist’s dream of deciphering the past. Overall, it certainly ranks high on my list of titles with a major supernatural bent, and any fans of the developer’s first game are sure to enjoy this follow-up just as much if not more than the original.
Overall, Moses & Plato: Last Train to Clawville is an engaging visual novel-plus. This might turn off some players looking for a traditional adventure game, but I enjoyed the story of these two new animal detectives immensely. From the gripping tale of murder and political intrigue, to a nicely drawn and voiced group of eclectic suspects, to a well-written investigation on a train that would be right at home in an Agatha Christie novel, there’s plenty here to both entice and capture the imagination of anyone who loves a good mystery. The cast of anthropomorphic cartoon animals may not appeal to everyone, but they work wonderfully here and make me want to go back and try out the other games in the World of Wilderness series as well.
It took me a little over ten hours to get through the game, though a large chunk of that was trying to figure out what I was supposed to do and how to do it. Mixed in with a little frustration, however, is a rich, haunting atmosphere that compelled me to keep moving on. The game successfully conveys the feeling of encroaching madness in a world that is as far from Euclidean as anything can be. Several locations even defy the laws of physics, which, while disorienting, is a fun way to mess with the player’s head. You don’t need to know Lovecraft to be immersed in this story, but there are plenty of nods to his works here, including a major plot point involving the Great Race of Yith and the appearance of a Shoggoth hybrid. Either way, Cthulhu: The Cosmic Abyss is far from a perfect game, and yet despite its lack of adequate guidance at times, it’s a worthy addition to any fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of the strange and terrifying.
Shuten Order takes an honest-to-goodness shot at breaking up the inherent monotony of visual novels and their mountains of text. While this puts it in a class of its own, the consequence of featuring so many varieties of gameplay is that it’s virtually impossible to appeal to players equally. And, of course, there is still a lot of visual novel here, so a love for the genre remains a must. For those that have it, everything on offer – from narrative to character designs to voice acting – is high quality and well worth experiencing, so long as you block off a lot of time to get through it all. It may not be the future of the medium, but it is an intriguing experiment nonetheless.
After a bit of a slow start, REANIMAL manages to find its footing – ironically considering you spend so much time in vehicles – in plenty of time to become a worthy spiritual successor to Little Nightmares. It might not have you trembling in fear, but many sights will repulse you and make your skin crawl (in the best way), while its clever world design will keep compelling you forward, whether to protect the children or just to stay fully immersed in seeing whatever aberrant, unhinged horror comes next. Tarsier fans should gobble up its familiar mix of survival, stealth and light adventuring, which offers more of the same… but a bit different. It’s perhaps easier than its predecessors, but this keeps the pace brisk whether you’re playing on your own or with a co-op partner at your side. The ending (including post-credits epilogue) clearly leaves room for all sorts of DLC, and indeed the developer has already announced three upcoming "Expanded World" expansions. I'm all for it, as I look forward to seeing (and not seeing) even more of this dark, gorgeous, utterly abhorrent world. Like its predecessors, REANIMAL is certainly not a pure adventure, but new name or not, it combines enough of the right strains to make a winning genre hybrid once again.
Earth Must Die revels in its comedic, over-the-top adult sci-fi insanity while delivering a genuinely great adventure game experience starring a power-hungry megalomaniac. Never before has it been so much fun to be the arbiter of your own species’ destruction!
Centum is aesthetically compelling, with imagery that haunts like a deathbed hallucination and an oppressive, doom-laden atmosphere that grabs you by the hindbrain and doesn’t let go. The problem is that its ambitions extend far beyond that, and it flounders in trying to realize them. The mechanics and writing seem confused and aimless, and the game struggles to make its design choices feel relevant or justified in context. It confuses when it means to mystify; frustrates when it means to entice; rambles when it means to provoke thought. There’s some promise here, to be sure, but Centum doesn’t just depict an intractable struggle with a well-intentioned but flawed computer program; unfortunately, it also provides one.
More of an homage to classic Clock Tower than a traditional adventure, Bye Sweet Carole is the kind of game that will either hook you in the first thirty minutes or likely won’t be your cup of tea. It can be both methodical and intense, while also being heartwarming and utterly beautiful to behold. It touches on deeply personal themes and handles difficult topics with grace. The rare but sudden switches to combat feel out of place, and encounters with monsters can sometimes be brutally difficult while simultaneously juggling attempts to solve a puzzle, but a generous checkpoint system never punishes you much for trying new things, even if they end in failure. In between there are many quieter moments of thoughtful gameplay and storytelling, and as a whole this is an incredibly special game that will stick with me for a long time.
Few other video games I've experienced have touched on big philosophical ideas like eternal recurrence, or left me reevaluating the way I make my way through the trenches of daily life like Necrophosis. Few others also have anything approaching its grotesquely gorgeous aesthetic, which not only successfully blends the influence of iconic horror artists but, in its scale, brings cosmic horror to life in a way previously little seen beyond the mind's eye. The conundrum here for anyone contemplating playing, of course, is that the game has clearly failed to reach its full potential, struggling to provide a compelling moment-to-moment experience. That cannot be overlooked, but I would still encourage anyone with any sort of philosophical inclination to ignore those concerns, and to trade an imperfect experience for a uniquely meaningful piece of art.
Whoever says you can’t have brains and beauty – and occasionally some old-fashioned brawn – has clearly never played Keeper. I do not use this word lightly, but to me it’s an artistic masterpiece. And yet it’s also a very entertaining game, blending familiar formulas from multiple genres into something daringly, creatively unique. Where most games play it safe, this game goes big and it’s all the better for it. Not all of its swings may land for everyone, particularly point-and-click purists disappointed in the shift away from leisurely puzzles to light platforming toward the end. But for anyone in search of something a little – or a lot – different, Keeper is not to be missed, serving as a shining beacon of light in an industry of relative sameness.
I’m terribly ashamed to admit it, but I’ve never read the original Death on the Nile novel. I will get around to it someday, but in the meantime I was very happy to play through this interactive and embellished version of the story. For those who have read it or seen the various movie adaptations, the addition of Jane should add some much-needed novelty, and the two storylines of Jane and Poirot intertwine masterfully and even lead to an epilogue I didn’t see coming but made perfect sense. There seems to be a lot more to do here than on the Orient Express – perhaps even a bit too much that doesn’t really seem relevant to the story. And yet I was captivated by the setting and scenery, and really liked searching around for clues and elusive collectibles, as well as questioning people and trying to figure out their secrets. I’m very much a fan of these Poirot games, so I hope that if there’s another, Microids remembers that solving a murder with one of literary fiction’s greatest detectives is interesting enough without a boatful of diversions.
Fans of Firewatch are likely to enjoy this similarly designed walking simulator set in the northern wilderness, though Arctic Awakening’s story fails to bring enough tension or wonderment to match its acclaimed predecessor.Adventure Game Hotspot est un site internet de jeux vidéo édité aux États-Unis
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