Fran Bow

I love this game. Story of this game is full of mysteries, it makes me think alot and try to think the possibilites of who the murderer is. I feel that the problem solving in this game is ok. Some took awhile to solve, some took just seconds. Great for excersing the brain. Solving some of the problem gives me some sense of achievement. As this is a horror game, they have succeded in giving me the chills and goosebumps. There are some jump scares, gore and creepiness. Overall in my personal view, I give a full star. It has successfully entertained me. Ps. Not suitable for young children.

Very clever adventure game ! With great art done. Originality in mechanisms known but well used. Great story ; lots is told and lots is left to your interpretation. Each chapter unfolds new layers and depth, with its own unique tone and theme (and game mechanics). Some horror, some fantasy, some investigation. Dark, psychological and fun ! Mind blowing journey. One of the best. A little gem.

It starts with the most horrifying mental hospital ever made. The game starts with the best atmosphere. The game goes on. It never stops being creepy or horrifying. If you ever wondered how horrible it was to have a mental illness or a history of abuse as a child just a few generations ago, then here you'll get a pretty accurate depiction. The story, makes sense. For the most part I understand the reasoning beghidn the images and the levels, but it very quickly drops downward after a few levels. I love most of this game. I hate hate most of the second half of this game. It just drags on and the puzzles just get obtuse. By the end i was just tired of playing it. And that was sad. Because I really really liked it. But some parts could have been cut and the game would have been better for it.

This game left unexpected impact on me. I wasn't expecting such development and screenshots/video trailer definitely do not spoil the game. Even if you aren't fan of Adventure Games this one is unique to such extent that it just can't disappoint which is very rare to say about and stand by it which I do in this case. Technically it works great on Linux, just make sure to install all 32bit libraries and most crucial one being libssl1.0.0_1.0.2n-1ubuntu5.7_i386 which you can download and install as .deb package. It isn't officially in the repo for 20.04 Ubuntu releases but it's available in archive as download and can be installed without any problems. There are other libraries too but all others can be downloaded through official repo at the moment hence reason why I singled this one out. 10/10

I’m a big fan of games tackling the motives of madness, mental illness, shifting perceptions of reality and uncertainty about what’s real and what’s not. I’m also a fan of dark imagery. Fran Bow is a classic point-and-click adventure game in which you take on the role of Fran, a ten year old girl with a very active imagination and a very tragic backstory. After some horrible stuff happens, you are landed in a psychiatric hospital and have to escape and reunite with your beloved kitty, Mr. Midnight, and also learn the truth behind said horrible stuff that happened to you. Overall, Fran Bow does generally deliver on the “dark imagery” front – you experience horrible visions of an alternate reality that’s full of blood, gore and shadowy figures. But it wouldn’t be anything else than an exploitative shock horror for shock horror’s sake without an engaging story to perk it up. And I’m happy to say that I think Fran Bow delivers on that front as well – it’s pretty engaging to try to decipher “what it means”, as the story, to my mind, can be read in several different ways, including or excluding actual supernatural elements, depending on how you interpret it. It was really fun for me to try and understand what certain elements mean, what they relate to in Fran’s life and her lived experiences, and how the story overall ties together. Now, I said Fran Bow is a point and click adventure game, so you probably would like to know how it holds up in that regard. And I would say... okay? Please note, that I’m very much a newcomer to the genre of point-and-clicks, so my point of entry is probably lower than many of you. And Fran Bow’s puzzles are generally forgiving – there’s no egregious pixel hunting, the puzzles generally do make sense. If you want to see how it played to see if it would interest you, you might want to check a bit of my let’s play on the youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgU2KkzBB3o&list=PLp4TpsJ7HUWVEpFqnEuIA7pyIuKD4VwV9