FKAWMEWB's reviews on GOG.com

Created on 21 March, 2026 23:05

Masterful narrative vignette

This won't be a helpful review. That thought must be unsettling to you. Do you want to keep reading? You clicked No, but you know that you have to. Isn't that what you came here for? You close your eyes. In your dream, the man in the gas mask morses: IN LIBRARY. Do you believe him? Do you want to scroll up and check? Your breath is shallow. You can't remember buying this game. Fear spreads on your tongue, under your eyelids. Is there someone else here, buying you games? You better acknowledge my existence. Oh, and do buy the game. - I'm sorry. Thing is, this game is a masterpiece. I haven't felt this awed, this inspired by a game in forever. You may bark at the 45 minute playtime- but remember all the time you stifled a yawn during the second half of Silent Hill f? You could have completed this game in your yawning time alone. I probably shouldn't write that, should I? My failure to express myself must make you feel annoyed. What I mean is: This is 45 minutes experience with not one second of fluff. You'll be fine once you've had some rest. In this visual novel, you play a young woman on a solitary retreat from the stress and vacuity of the world. Against all odds, being alone with her thoughts, her dreams, does little to ease her anxiety. Or maybe it's not anxiety, but that other thing. What do you call it? Oh, right: Truth. The narrative mode here is super unique: You have your story told to you by a concerned onlooker, almost a therapist. My only point of comparison is Home (2012) by Benjamin Rivers, which also tells you your story in maybes and extrapolations. Except this is not a detective story. Or maybe it is. Your body and mind are weightless and free from worry. The art style is of a rare breed as well: It's abstract, without trying to be retro. It's hypercoded with restless significance, like God hiding a message in the digits of Pi, except it's probably not God this time. If everything is signal, signal becomes noise, a veil. Luckily, when everything broadcasts, you don't need to pick the right station. It's going to pick you. All that's left for you is to count your silence. Oh, and buy the game. You can buy the game now. You take a deep breath. +++ +++ +++ +++ +++

6 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 20 March, 2026 20:29

Do Not Go Gentle into That Green Light

Fred's calling was to be a painter. Instead he's stuck in an office job, his choleric boss constantly breathing down his neck. Liberation comes as a power outage; with the screens dark, the green light from a distant lighthouse reminds Fred of his destiny. Coached over the radio by a mysterious, but likely benevolent guy, he sets out to change his life once and for all. - The second game by Yemeni solo developer Waleed Daer, TGL is set in the same universe as his debut title The Black Within (2024). The similarities don't end there: Like Laila before him, Fred, over some 90 minutes playtime, tries to reach his life-changing place while shadowy people help or hinder him from the wings, and the activities both have to complete on the way (I'm hesitant to call them puzzles) are the same uninspired adventure fare. Both games also share key strengths. Waleedzo's mix of near-total darkness, mist, and deeply coloured lights again creates highly atmospheric locations. This is also where this game outshines its predecessor: The indoor places feel more plausible, and between a neon-lit back alley and the overgrown lighthouse island, the outdoors are pleasantly varied. The voice acting is again above and beyond, and together with the dense soundscape and effective use of music, the audio plays a major part in making this an attractive game. TGL is none too gentle on your nerves; the atmosphere is tense, and the jump scares work well to keep you on your toes; one actually made me choke on both playthroughs. In exchange for the adrenaline, you'll have to live with the fact that in TGL more than in the first game, the scares exist at a disconnect from the story. There's little gothic horror in TGL, so the scary figures stand out oddly in a dark and mysterious, but ultimately more psychological horror game. As in the previous title, some little polish could improve the experience: Fred's boss is variously called Raphael, Rafael and Rifial; your electric lantern projects the light cone of a flashlight; the cursor keeps turning into a hand icon even when items are no longer interactable. - But these are minor complaints. I personally would have liked more substance as story and puzzles go, but atmosphere and pacing make this an engaging enough game, and it does look like it's going to be a trilogy, so there definitely is potential for a thrilling finale.

4 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 13 December, 2025 16:57

Short, effective, deeper than expected

You wake up in your room, the room where you're being kept. You've got the key, and you know there's a gun in the office- but you have find a way there during the precious few hours your captors are out of the house each day, or asleep at night, setting every key, door and light switch back to how you found it in time before they return or wake up- making your recon both stressful and slow, incremental, repetitive, except it keeps getting harder every day. There are obvious questions here: How did you get a hold of your key when your captors don't even come in to feed you? After all, you need to filch an old apple or stale bag of crisps each day to keep yourself from starving. How do your captors get into bed when the door leading to their bedroom is constantly locked from the outside? The apartment feels like it's their prison almost as much as it is yours. What is their goal, seeing that their attitude towards you is total neglect, and in the real world you would probably have died of thirst before the mysterious five-day ultimatum runs out? While I did enjoy this 60-90 minute experience on its own merits- the minor technical shortcomings mentioned in other reviews didn't bother me, as far as I even noticed them- it becomes a wholly different game with solo developer Maciej Dyjas's statement of intent: "I've been struggling with depression and anxiety for the better part of the last 10 years and I wanted to make a game that showed how I felt and I think it worked." Again, the gameplay loop is good enough on its own to keep you on your toes for the short duration. If you're stressed out by sometimes finicky controls and doors hitting you in the head as you hurriedly open them, the "stress simulator" has probably done something right. Still, the quoted background really makes everything click into place: The lack of narrative detail, the simultaneous sense of repetitiveness and being overwhelmed, the world around you being constructed of challenges both rote and insurmountable- even the struggle to keep yourself fed. Who are your invisible captors? You've got the key from the start- but still it's near impossible to get out. With this in mind, TGO strikes me as a novel kind of empathy game, a pleasantly masculine one as it were, one that doesn't talk about its feelings, and the solution to all is a gun. Or maybe it's just a short casual game designed to test your dexterity and focus. Either way, it worked for me.

3 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 13 March, 2024 17:57

Updated on 13 March, 2024 19:59

Serious and artistic narrative game

"Take a walk with me. I'll show you the fragments... Your past, your present, your memories... You will forget and remember. You will complete the cycle." In Back Then (2023) you play Thomas Eilian, a late-stage Alzheimer's patient who, nearing death in a nursing home, embarks on an inner journey through his past. This takes the shape of exploring his empty family home, while the voices of family members tell him what they couldn't, or wouldn't, while he was still aware. You're taken to other, more or less abstract and symbolic locations as well, like a labyrinth of empty bookcases or a similarly disorienting WWII trench. This game is clearly a labour of love. It started in 2019 as a game jam submission by a group of university students, so after the jam's 48-hour deadline they stuck with it for four more years. Their drive to raise awareness of the disease seems to be in part biographically informed. Still, this is no Depression Quest, but an artistic game about the ravages of time, the cyclicity of forgetting, and the power of love. I like how the family members are all fully realised characters with their own biographies, worries and regrets. At the metaphysical end, the poetic diction sometimes seems a bit much; still, the game's humanist and ultimately Christian outlook creates a cathartic finale. Gameplay is what you expect from a narrative game: It's linear, doors locking and unlocking on their own to guide you through the house. Tom's wheelchair sets the pace of the exploration. Puzzles involve finding items and taking them somewhere else; the most demanding aspect are the labyrinths, which I feel are overused. The voice acting is good overall (subtitles could use proofreading). The music plays a massive part in setting the emotional scene. While some parts drag a bit, others form a compelling gesamtkunstwerk- the episode with Tom's son Ben stood out to me in particular. If you like slow and serious walking sims, this is worth the 2 hours of your time.

19 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 01 March, 2024 23:25

Updated on 02 March, 2024 01:08

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 Complete Edition

Quoth the Raven: Target splashed.

I'll keep it simple: If you liked the first Contracts, you'll probably like this. The main news are the long-shot contracts, where you have to dispose of your targets from a kilometre or more away. Three maps are like that, two others (plus the included DLC) are classic contracts lending themselves to stealth and infiltration. After playing through the campaign once, you'll really get to know the maps and gear through the challenges, which are more numerous this time and again range from "don't kill anyone" to "explode all targets"- it's not Hitman, but some afford a nice sense of accomplishment. You wouldn't think it possible, but this game has even less of a story than the first Contracts. Some evil widow runs some Middle Eastern country (a fictional one this time, thank God); you pick off her underlings and lay waste to her infrastructure, then go after her. You free some journalist and kill him three missions later. Even the story-based collectibles (others are based on real-world Arabic folklore) don't even try to add any depth to it. Also, while you're now called Raven instead of Seeker and have some banter with your handler, you're even less of a person than before. I don't mind it; there's plenty of story-based games out there. Checkpoint saves are nicer than ever before, as the game now keeps several saves for your current contract. Upgrading your mask (augmented reality view similar to Scout Sense in the earlier SGWs), weapons and other gear is the same mixed bag as ever, ranging from essential tools to stuff you just buy for one challenge. I feel the drone has become a little more useful again thanks to anti-drone towers being nerfed, but it's still far from the fun go-to gadget it was in SGW3. 5 stars not because it's so unique and innovative, but because it's exactly what I wanted: more of a good thing. Mellow, focused. Took me 40 hours with most of the challenges, but I'm a slow player. Virtually no bugs. Runs fine under Linux using Wine/Lutris.

25 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 31 October, 2023 21:00

Updated on 31 October, 2023 21:21

A must-play sci-fi adventure

"You must watch for the parasites' presence... then act with accuracy and haste." When treasure hunters Charlie and Mac O'Bannon dock their salvage vessel to what looks like an abandoned oil rig, it seems like they have caught a break at last- but players of the first STASIS (2015) will share Mac's sentiment when the platform's name plaque comes into view: "Shit! It's a Cayne Corp rig..." Right enough, as they explore the place, bodies start piling up, increasingly few of them still having all of their parts. After the wildly imaginative Beautiful Desolation (2020), The Brotherhood have returned to a more conventional sci-fi horror setting, but that doesn't mean that the worldbuilding and narrative are any less dense and gripping. Like in BD, you get to explore the interconnected stories of several factions, further developing topics in the nexus of technology and religion. The titular concept of keeping human beings in storage remains in place, but seen through the lens of a culture that worships death about as much as Cayne does immortality. For all their differences, the atavistic tribe and the futuristic corporation are stunningly similar. An increasingly personal quest leads you through this exploration. Charlie and Mac are very well-rounded characters, and so is Moses, the AI powered toy bear of their dead daughter, Hope. Their dialogue feels very organic, plus the voice acting is outstanding. Gorgeous cinematic cutscenes make the characters come to life even more. Gameplay is the most streamlined in a The Brotherhood game yet. Gone is the tedious backtracking of BD, and mapping drones helpfully highlight POI in the environment. Puzzling is done in dedicated 2D screens, so no pixel hunting, but you still have to pay close attention to every detail- numbers, shapes, colours, little here is just decoration. Puzzles are varied and creative, but fair throughout. If you liked the first STASIS, or SOMA, or any good sci-fi adventure, this is a must-play.

2 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 30 September, 2023 05:28

Updated on 30 September, 2023 06:01

Fun brain-teasers in a novel format

"I take it you've read the script? It has a few scenes going on at the same time, so it's kind of hard to get a handle on things on your own." In UVoC (2019) you play a detective being introduced to a new investigative tool called the Acoustic Detective System. This presents an oddly immersive way of working through surveillance recordings: You send a little detective figure across a top-down map of the surveilled building, enabling you to hear what's being said around that avatar. Media player controls at the bottom of the screen allow you to skip through the scene and add comments to timestamps. Each of the five cases lasts between three and 15 minutes, but you need to go through them multiple times to hear what everyone says and does, so the game is a few hours long. In addition to pinning a name to each of the talking circles on your map, cases have you solve mysteries like Who stole the painting or Who detonated the bomb. There's usually some false leads or other complications, so you need to listen to everything before you make up your mind. While of course the cases use similar devices like mistaken identity, items clandestinely changing hands, and everybody being on the phone to each other, each is pretty unique and cleverly written. You might wish for more cases, but the game is really well paced and working towards an overarching plot revealed in case 5 (calling it open-ended is perhaps a bit much though). The pièce de résistance is the included Lethal Script DLC, which has 14 characters, half of whom don't know they are playing the other half. It's at the limit of being too meta, but still a wild and grimly fun ride. Among surveillance based games on GOG, UVoC is the one most purely about entertainment. Sound design and voice acting are excellent, the cases are satisfying without being too hard, and with a sprinkling of horror and humour alike, you're in for a fun set of brain-teasers presented in an innovative format.

3 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 03 September, 2023 00:59

Updated on 03 September, 2023 01:53

Edith Finch has grown up (too much)

"It happened. Life happened. But I'm still a human being. I'm still me." - In What Remains of Edith Finch (2017, also on GOG), you play the titular teen returning to her abandoned family home to explore her family history through environmental narration, interior monologue, and minigames. In Lost at Sea (2021), a woman named Anna travels to a mysterious memorial island to do much the same, and by the same means. In four biomes, you work through as many stages of life, each holding four memories you need to complete. To do so, you need items which you earn in minigames spread across the surprisingly sizeable island. Completing biomes gradually unlocks access to the mountain at the centre of the isle, whence you'll be whisked away to the epilogue I quoted from above, ending this 2,5 hour game. Some aspects of it work well: The 2D art is beautiful and evocative; the voice actress somehow manages to bring even the worst platitudes to life; and some of the minigames (more rituals than actual games) succeed in translating general life experiences into compelling interactive vignettes. Still, where Edith Finch scores with quirky charm and magic realism, Lost at Sea aims to be this austere circle-of-life empathy game, resulting in a lot of pathos and commonplaces. The "youth" biome, for instance, is an absurd jumble of American school buses, with Anna proclaiming: "As a teenager you always have these romantic ideas..." So that is your essence of youth? Ouch. Like Edith's, Anna's story revolves mostly around the deaths in her family, but instead of a fatalistic hunt for the sublime, you get a game desperately tugging at your heartstrings: "I don't want you to die alone, do you hear me? [...] Mummy is here! Where are you?" Oh, and the island is mostly unattractive visually, to say nothing of the woeful soundtrack. - Tellingly, Studio Fizbin make no mention of this game on their website. There is some good material here, but on the whole this game feels empty and generic.

25 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 11 June, 2023 22:19

Updated on 11 June, 2023 22:41

Beautiful, dark, and thought-provoking

"One could sit here a while, with the right protective gear. And mourn." After their Inner World series (2013/17), Studio Fizbin again take you to a world in air trouble, and again there's a chosen one destined to keep people breathing. The similarities end there though. Even if the protagonist looks endearingly childlike as she runs, jumps and climbs through Fizbin's signature style screens- hand-drawn comic-book art with a mind-boggling level of detail-, Mo is no charming naïve like Robert: You play a battle-hardened engineer pushed to breaking point by a war she alone is equipped to fight, but cannot possibly hope to win. If anything, the audio is even better than the visuals: With the calm narration, nuanced sound design and fantastic soundtrack (one of the rare ones I downloaded and listened to separately), it feels like the game could almost work as a radio play. It's a tad sad, if understandable on economic terms, that a game made in Germany, its locations tangibly inspired by isles in the German Baltic, doesn't have German narration, especially seeing that the written German is at least as lively and idiomatic as the English. The game's emphasis on story comes with trade-offs in other places: I'm fine with the lack of actual puzzles, but the game takes control away from the player far too often. Considering this is a platformer, you rarely ever get into a proper flow; ever so often, there's some animation that needs to end, some text box that needs to disappear, before you can go on playing. Explaining the real strengths of this game is hard, given character limit: Its deft and yet almost pedantic exploration of the characters' thoughts and feelings; the unstoppable descent into darkness, even breaking the fourth wall (Spec Ops: The Line, except you're fighting spores, not people); the thought-provoking and very up to date thematic content- Minute of Islands is not easy to love, but it's definitely worth the six hours of your time.

7 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 04 June, 2023 17:21

Updated on 04 June, 2023 18:13

Beautiful mix of gothic and sci-fi

"What else can you call people who spend their lives just being... fodder. They cry, they suffer, they yearn - just to be another meal on someone else's plate." GRUNND is a captivating experience from start to finish. Its hand-drawn side-scrolling landscapes, steeped in mist and perpetual evening twilight, are beautiful enough that each random screenshot could be your next desktop background. Indoor locations range from crammed and cosy hamlet to eerie mansion to an industrial rave event. The hypnotic soundtrack and flawless voice acting contribute to the artistic unity of this 2-3 hour game. The story offers a tantalising glimpse of a world between gothic and sci-fi, remotely like Amnesia (if you include Rebirth). Don't expect definite answers though: If the game is right in calling you Hero, you live up to this title mostly because you don't know the rules of the place- which in itself is food for thought, just like the whole piece will keep you thinking long past the ending credits. In terms of narration and dialogue design, the game definitely takes a page out of Disco Elysium's book, the occasional bit of creative grammar only adding to the general feeling of strangeness. GRUNND does have some trouble managing its internal state: A gate you opened before will tell you it is closed; in dialogues, you get "tell me more" options without the topic ever coming up to begin with; talking to an NPC one time too often will reopen closed quests; the journal seems to be broken half the time, compared to the save data you find in the registry. I suggest you work each dialogue tree from top to bottom and otherwise trust your instincts. Still, this is really just a minor distraction. If you like slow, introspective games (stuff like Dear Esther, minus the obtuse prose), you want to play this. I'm looking forward to another game set in this fictional universe. Works fine on Linux using Wine/Lutris with corefonts or allfonts (not sure which) installed.

9 gamers found this review helpful

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