A flawed game but with an engaging story that, in my case, struck me especially during the final act. You play as a woman that just lost her adoptive father. The time as come to make the last goodbye to him. Strange (and creepy) visions will occurs to you, and by following trails and clues you will learn more about yourself and your past. The gameplay is one of those that some call "walking simulator". You walk, interact with object, read, speak your way through the story with a twist thought. You can access to an alternative dimension, a creepy copy of the world. During those phase the screen is split in two and you see your character in both world doing the exact same movement and gesture. Using this duality in the level design, riddle are to be solved. A mechanic that distinguish this game from the other of the genre. Visually stunning, the artistic direction is great and the voice acting is on point. Be warned this isn't an horror game with screamer, and bloody stuff. This is more a game of atmosphere doing thing softly, between light and shadow, with a neat sound design and a good music. In order to keep the immersion, the game is very "cinematic" with a simple gameplay that will not be to everyone liking. A ten hours adventure the price is however too high, i recommend you to give it a try when it's on sale.
Under his appearance of a simple point and click there is a deep pixel art story. Hard to resume or describe the artistic direction, as well as the musics are perfect for the game atmosphere. Dialogues are well written, various topics are exposed giving us a critic of our world and society with a touch of absurdity, triggering laughter when less expected. A unique gaming experience that leaves a mark. Even if you're not into point & click, you should give it a try (at least the demo).
Nice little puzzle game. The gameplay could not me more simple. You have two moves : cross a tile or jump over. For each level you have a limited amount of cards or move-set that can combine (or not) the two movements described before. The number of tiles you can cross with each movement is indicated by a number on the card. The goal is uses the cards at you disposal to finish the level. You have 10 worlds each one with 9 levels more or less easy, and 3 more challenging. Each worlds bring specifics tiles who have various effect (you can only jump to move, you slide, you die if you stop on the tile, etc..). The combination of the types of tiles and the cards gives you a great level design and interesting puzzles to solve, for a total of 120, The sound design is really cool and the music is quite chill. However sometimes when you are stuck, because the music is looping, it can get to your nerves. I finished it in a little more than 5 hours, and i'm eager to do their next puzzles games : railbound. A must play for all the puzzle game lovers.
A fps game were you play a woman in a urgent mission and take action because of a stranger event occuring. The gameplay is the main quality of this title, nervous you can jump, wall ride, run and dash. You have at your disposition 4/5 weapons, each one with 2 different shots mods, on normal and one special. The combination of those weapons and the mouvment capacity make it fun to play. The story is forgettable but it is normal since the game is 2 hours shorts. Therefor you don't have time to really know your character , the bad guys and the world. Bosses could have been more interresting for the most part, you just have to keep your distance and shoot. The skins you can buy are useless since most of the game is in first person mode. A very short game with an enganging gameplay that could have been a great game with a real story, at least character building.
A metroidvania in the line of "Dark Devotion" and other pixel art game that inspire themself from dark-souls but in 2D. First thing first, the game artistic direction is a success. Animation are readable, satisfying and smooth. The background is beautiful. However, the color palette is not very varied, all turning around black/white/grey and all the shades possible except for some zone with their own identity (yellow, blue, etc) The red is also present, bringing out you need to see or to highlight a character. All in all, the colors palette serve a purpose and she is in accord with the game story and lore. The game-play have a good feeling. You can do light and heavy attack, dash, jump and parry and have a special weapon with a specific attack pattern. Here is an interesting part of the game mechanic. When you die, you re-spawn and can choose another special weapon among three. This is well thought and make the death as a part of the game, not a failure. There is also a clean/red moon system. If you die too many time, the red moon comes up and enemies are more difficult to beat. Of course you can make offering to have a clean moon again with special item you collect during your exploration. Enemies aren't that varied, but they are all different in their pattern. Therefore it can be repetitive toward the end of the game. Bosses are challenging and comes with satisfaction once you beat them. I sometimes was lost in where to go or what to do since the game have no quest log no anything to guide you. It is pleasant to see that some game let the player think by himself and don't help him to much. If you're a completionist and want to do all the quest, you will have to do the game twice since there isn't manual saves and there is one quest you can choose not to finish for another one. Overall a good game with interesting mechanics and a neat artistic direction. I recommend it if you like metroidvania and pixel art.
A cyberpunk game with dices. You wake up in a space station with no idea of where you are and how to survive. In order to excute actions dices in limited number are at your disposition. The higher the value of the dice is, the better are your chances of success. That's it for the gameplay, the rest is up to you. Explore the station, do quests and side quests to progress in the story of the various character you will encounter. Completed them and earn points to unlock skills. Skills mostly used for upgrading your dices and chances of success. All the characters are drawn with care and acordingly too their backstory, each one is different and recognisable. The music is perfect for the game, synthwave and smmoth electronics theme puting you in a cozyness and immerging you in the game. The game isn't difficult once you understand the mechanics, all the interest are in the choices and actions you will make and that will impact the ends of the quests you do and ultimatly the ending of the game itself. If you aren't a native english speaker, this game might be a challenge since all you will do is read dialogue with charaters and read your thoughts. So if you're not sure about your english this might come with some difficulty. A really good role playing/narrative game in a cyberpunk world. Stories are good and touch on serious/interesting themes. With that come great music and a beautiful artistic direction. If you like cyberpunk, narrative game and have a strong english go for it. Took me around 10 hours to do, and at the moment 1 free DLC is to be released and two are already out.
A 3D platformer where your goal is to go through each level without dying. The game is hard, but not necessarily in a good way. You have a limited amount of life and if you consume them all, you die and restart the level from from the beginning. But like all isometric game, perspective is a traitor and for a platformer it's get really frustrating. Thankfully the camera is totally controllable. Otherwise the level design is good and every level is different. The fighting system is okay, there are a limited type a enemies and you get the hang of it quite fast. There are a lot of collectible to gather in each level, and collect them all means some backtracking andbe very careful of potential hiding places. The story is good but hard to follow since is written and spoken in verse, and it could have been more developed. Bosses are all unique and pleasant to fight againts, maybe with an expection for the third because you walk and on ice, meaning that you slip. There are bugs, the most annoying is to loose all your life and die for no reason when you fall. In conclusion a platformer where you will die often. The gameplay could have been more polished, same for the story. I recommand it you buy it on sale.
A game that take the bet to be a space shooter. Not an easy one. When i started playing i was afraid that i was going to flight in circle with enemy ships like a dog chasing his tails, hoping to hit when i can. If this was the case for the beginning it isn't true after. By doing the main story you will unlock skills that completly change the gameplay, making it so much fun but not to easy. Battles are dynamics and satisfying and the feeling of power is very good. You dodge, shoot, then get behind an enemy shoot him, do a hard turn to focus another one. Special mention to the music really epic when needed. Your ship have three type of weapons, each one efficient for specific enemy and damage, like destroying shield or hull better. In addition to that, you can upgrade your ship with chips, allowing to enhance your resistance, speed, capacities, etc. That will cost you money you can earn by exploring the world and doing side quests. They are very good, each one with her own script, story and characters. There are also random quest that will appears in your way, always the same and less interesting. But the game has flaws. The story is good with some really intersting subject, but you never see the other characters. All interactions are made with the ship's radio, making it difficult to identify or follow the story sometimes. Despite the fun of the gameplay, toward the end of the game it get a little repetitive. Boss fight are messy, there is a lot happening on the screen and you don't always know what to do or how to dogde. Some mechanics aren't explained very well and i was stuck at various moment until i understood what to do. Dialogue shut themself up if you approach a point of interest to introduce you the new side quest, so i missed several conversation.. Overall a good game, not perfect but enjoyable if you insist a little.
A strategy game that may not look like much from the outside, but once you start playing reveals all its qualities. The core gameplay is about preveting monster (the veks) to detroy cities. If they detroy to much you loose. To defend yourself from the veks, like in pacific rim, you will have at your disposal squads of three mech each one with specifics abilities. From one squad to another the gameplay will be totaly different. All the challenge in the game isn't to finish the game but to complete success and acheivement specific to each squads in order to unlock more squads and gameplay style. There are four island plus one final. After completing an island you can spend upgrade for your mechs (only for the mission), but you must be careful because those are expensive and you can rarely upgrade more than one skill at a time. The game is fun, with engaging music and a simple artisitic direction which favors readability. After some difficult start and failures, you are going to understand and uses the mechanics (puns intended) and subtility of the gameplay at your advantage. After winning once, thrilled by the success all you want to do is to restart another game, try new strategy, new squad, new abilities and before you know it you spend 40 hours in the game. I'm not into strategy game nor very good at it, but readability and design is great enough for a newbie like me to play, enjoy, and win with a little bit of perseverance. I recommand it if you like or want to explore turn based strategy game.
Let's starts with the obvious, the game is beautiful with an unique artistic direction. Right at the beginning until the end, the immersion is total. The music and sound design are also really kicking in, with nice moment of music and cinematics well executed. Voice acting is great with the same voices (french here). As for the story, it's good, not as simple and predictable as you can think when you begin to see where the game is going and all the characters are well written. You will not travel as much as in the previous games, but that is okay, because all the effort were but on creating a rich and credible city Vaghen, and it's surronding, where most of the game will take place. Build smaller but better basically. You can see all the love the dev put in the game. The gameplay is like any point and click and the puzzle are quite simple, way simpler than before. That i enjoyed because i was more focused on the story and less in solving riddles. Some blackspot : some moment are rough meaning that the writing could be more demanding. For example, a wooden table isn't a credible shield against a machine gun. etc.. but nothing dramatic. I also had frames drop, so the optimisation could be better. And finally, the camera rotation is not helping espacially in small places. If you liked the previous syberia go for it. If you don't know the games and don't want to play 3 games, (i myself didn't even finish the third, too many bugs) i think you can stil play it. This is a new story, even is there is element of previous game. There is a resume available si you will not be lost.
