Oxenfree lives up to most of the tropes you expect out of an indie Point-and-Click game on the surface. The graphics are fairly simple, there obvious mechanics you expect for the genre are simplified to the point that some are non-existant, and it’s about a teen-girl in generic horror situation X. But if you dig deeper, you find the horror situation is executed with extreme talent and skill, making it much more involving then you would ever expect, the obvious mechanics missing are taken over by new subtle and exceedingly well crafted ones, and the graphics while simple, are used exceptionally well along side the sound to create one hell of an eerie atmosphere that will keep you rolling. Simply put this game is going to come out of left-field to those that look past the obvious, and in fairly refreshing way. It won’t challenge you much in the traditional sense, but you will be left wondering which choices you made and how you talked to the other characters affected your end result. If this intrigues you and you have a taste for creepy games, you might want to give this game a shot. But you still might want to wait for a sale since, like many games of this type, it is actually very short (I finished it in under 4 hours). However, if you are looking for a challenge to finish the game rather then to see your way to the best ending (which in itself could be up to you to decide), this game is simply not made with you in mind.
Little Nightmares came out touted as one hell of a creepy experience and it lived up the the experience. Overall I loved my time with this game and if you, like me, have a penchant for this type of disturbing in your games, are going to have a great time. You may not always understand the fine details, but you will understand enough to be happy with what just happened, and the process to get there will have far more ups then down. Sit, back, relax, and enjoy everything you are about to experience.
Little Inferno is a fun little title, but not so much because of the gameplay itself as the style and humor that keeps it interesting. You will literally spend almost all of the game in two screens doing three things, but that time will accompany you with cats that fill the fireplace with poop, snake in a cans where the joke is that it’s not snakes, but hypodermic needles, extermination toys that will set fire to things you haven't managed yet, nuclear bombs, the moon, and god knows what else. The real secret to how fun this game is is the sheer variety and dark humor in the toys you will burn and watching the results. There is just enough here to enjoy to the fullest and be done about the time you finish the game itself. If you are looking for something easy, funny, and relaxing to play for a night or two after work or school, this game can certainly fit the bill depending on your sense of humor. But if you are looking for something with deep gameplay and skill-based mechanics, you are barking up the wrong tree here… the only skill this game might help you develop is word-play.
Simply put, I loved this game and anyone with a sense of macob and who enjoys the occasional puzzler should probably pick it up. If it wasn't fantastic, I would tell you the $10 they want for it now is too much, just due to how short it is... but it is a masterpiece in it's own right. Get this when you get a chance.
Kyrandia 2 is a very enjoyable title when all is said and done, but is far from perfect. In fact, I would say it is outshined by the preceding title. For everything it did better like improve the use of color to make it even more stunning or introduce a way to expand your inventory beyond 10 slots, it seems to do something else wrong, like technical glitches or an extremely obtuse puzzle here or there. If you want to continue the story of the Kyrandia series, it will not let you down, but it is definitely a “one step forward, two-steps back” situation.
Legend of Kyrandia is a very solid point-and-click adventure with a solid (if somewhat simple) plot, great looking world, and smooth as butter gameplay. But it is also very much a product of it’s time, with issues like the ability to lock yourself out of winning, laughable voiced lines, and bug or two. To call it the best game ever would be a bald-faced lie, but it is a very good little title from a by-gone time that aged very well. If you like this kind of game, you could do far worse then to check it out.
If I were to call this a good game, I would feel like I was lying. That’s not because it’s not good, in fact it is absolutely fantastic, but I have a hard time calling this a game. You do very little while playing, basically roaming through the hallways and finding artifacts to reflect on the artist’s memories. There is no real threat and literally almost no conflict to resolve. Rather this is a virtual haunted house, and an amazing one, dribbling information about how we reached this desolate point perfectly between the horrors you will be submitted to on your way. If you are here for gameplay and to survive the house, you are kinda in the wrong place and I recommend you walk away right now. This game will not do anything for you. However, if you are here because the story intrigues you or you are looking for scares more then something to beat, you are definitely going to enjoy your time playing.
Much like the first season, I have to recommend this game to anyone who wants to see cosmic horror done right. True, it doesn't pull the fear factor as well as it's predecessor, but it still weaves the tale itself masterfully. The only caveat here is with you as the gamer: first to play the original game first, and second to not be looking for something action packed. I'm not sure you will miss anything playing this first, but it's designed to follow up so it would be like opening a book halfway through with nothing more then a cliffnotes recap to catch you up before you being. Yeah, you get it, but you know you are missing the full effect. And of course, this being a point and click game. If you are expecting any kind of real action in the gameplay, you are once again barking up the very wrong tree.
While the puzzles were a little too easy most of the time and there is definitely more to the story then we have so far, what you get here is still worth your time in pure story-telling and atmosphere alone. At it's $10 asking price, it's far from a bad deal, and if you can get it on sale, it's a downright steal. However, this is also not a game for everyone. If you do not like cosmic unknowable horror, you are not going to get into the themes of this game at all, and if you are looking for an action title, you are not looking in the right place.
Knights of Pen and Paper is a solid game, but not a perfect one. It has fairly well thought out mechanics and there is nothing you can do in the game that the game itself doesn’t make intuitive to do, but there are multiple points when the difficulty-curve is not so well designed, even going so far as to require you to grind well after finishing every quest in the game save one that is actually HARDER then the last main quest of the game. It is also very simple. In fact many would probably call this game an RPG-lite and they would not be wrong. Despite the new angle of playing the people around the table instead of the heroes on their character sheets, this game is overall a very simple title… simple enough I was not surprised to see the game is readily available, not just on the PC, but on mobile phones. This makes for a surprisingly good game overall, but not one designed to be played over long sessions. Rather, it’s a series of bite-sized sessions that will ultimately get you through the to the end, assuming you have the patients to get through some of the later muck.
