South of the Circle

This game is, by nowadays standards, a walking simulator. You walk, talk (choose between emotions to convey) and sometimes interact with objects. The gameplay is a bit janky, most hitboxes were colliding with each other, which was visible but didn't break the immersion for me. But since the main focus of this game is the story, it's not like we really should care. The story is set in the middle of the cold war, with our protagonist being in the middle of the antartica, and reminiscing himself of his time as an academic, talking with his friends, love interest, and director; all while trying to complete his work. The game will make you choose between multiple important options at some point in the story, all of them making the ending more impactful and meaningful. I can only recommand this game to people that like short and story-rich games (even though I would also recommand getting it while it's on sale).

Not a good game. Style and sound design is not bad, everything else is meh. Uninteresting story, random moments that make no sense. It's too slowly paced, nothing happens for literally most of the game. Think of it as of veeery boring movie. Ending is silly, I didn't get it at all.

I got this for free and I've slowly been working through my backlog. Most of the free games have been terrible, there have been a few gems. This one is firmly in the former camp. This is not a game, it's a movie with poor, lazy art and very little to no interaction. This should have just been a movie. This studio keeps bragging about their awards, but can't actually describe or sell the game itself. Why? Because this can't stand on its own merit. I'd honestly feel bad for anyone that paid for this, let alone at its regular price.

As someone put it, it's a "woke" story - and a good one at that. I enjoy good storytelling, and this has it. But I also like to reach the end of the story and have closure, and this fails in that regard. Did they live happily ever after? Did they not? I really can't tell. I understand this is most probably a creative way of ending the story, but I don't enjoy it. Also, it's not a game - it's a story, a movie if you will, where you control the pace, nothing more. So, for me, not worth the full price. If you get it at a discount, and if you enjoy stories - even incomplete ones - then by all means go for it.

I didn't expect much, but was pleasantly surprised. There's not much of gameplay, no puzzles either, but the story is definitely worth your time. It made me think a lot. I don't understand the negative reviews, if you really can't relate to anything in this game I'm sorry for you. I appreciate the addition of concept art. Thank you GOG and developers for gifting me this experience.