South of the Circle

...But not much of an actual game, is it? This would have been much better in pretty much any other medium BUT as a game. As a book, I could have read it at my own pace; as a movie I wouldn't be interrupted constantly by silly and immersion-breaking boxes and circles; and as an audio drama, I could have engrossed myself in the great acting and soundscapes.

"Gameplay" is just click on a few dots which represent a certain emotional tone in which you "respond" to the continuous dialogs. Sometimes you don't even get a choice, just "one dot" shows on screen and it's Hobson's choice! Graphics are nice, detailed non-textured polygons. Reminiscient of early 90's games like "Another World". Flight sims of the time would have been good with this style of scenery back in the 90's instead of the ugly first generation textured polygons! Worth every penny for the £0.00 I got it from - but I wouldn't pay for it. It's more a "lefty student" art project than an actual game.

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.