Draugen has a beautifully told, surprising, deeply melancholic story that captivated me. The story needs something to get going, but becomes very exciting towards the end. There is a reason for the playfulness and the strange behaviour of our companion Elizabeth, which is mentioned by other reviewers. However, this reason only becomes understandable at the end of the story. I don't want to spoil this reason here. The graphics are fabulous, atmospheric, colorful up to dark. The artists play with the mood of the player and put him in the state of the main character Edward. The music accompanies the romantically sad mood and is wonderfully mixed. A dream with the right headphones. If there's anything wrong, it's some graphic repetition in the textures that creates a chessboard effect at great distances. The screen space reflections make reflections of the banks and mountains disappear when looking down towards the water surface. This causes some immersion to be lost. Measured by the price, the playing time is a bit short with about 3-4 hours. Nevertheless I enjoyed this playing time very much. I can only recommend Draugen to friends of filmically staged walking simulators with a slow narrative speed. But the interested buyer should wait for a cheaper price than 19,99 Euro.
Graphically brilliant. Outstanding sound. Perfect control. Funny characters. The story is not gone. Balanced puzzles. A slowly increasing level of difficulty. Lovable. All these features I associate with Monster Boy and the cursed kingdom. It was an experience and a fulfillment that I have rarely experienced in games. Many thanks to the developers for such a masterpiece. It runs just as well on my high-end PC as it does on my GPD Win 2 UMPC. Scaling to perfection. Simply great.
After about four hours the horror was over. I don't want to say too much about the story, because the atmosphere is carried by it. So much can be revealed. A man with his dog helps with a search in the forest and supports the local police. A lot of strange things happen and we get more and more into the depths of a fever-mad nightmare. We learn about the events from an ego-perspective. Our alter-ego has a body. The view can be compared with a mixture of Outlast and Firewatch. The immersion is excellent. The graphic representation of the forest and my dog is outstanding. Shadows, textures, light rays and colouring were chosen very well. The game world is divided into individual areas and not in the actual sense an open game world. There are invisible walls on slopes and abysses. If you had seen the first Blair Witch film, you would know that the protagonists moved in circles and so the horror of the scenario was intensified and had an oppressive effect. A similar mechanism is used in the game. Often I walked in circles for a long time and tried to figure out how to go on. Apart from the great graphics mentioned above, the sound and music design is especially praiseworthy. Through a binaural system I felt very much transported into the game world the whole time. I strongly recommend using headphones. Everything seemed very oppressive. Once I caught myself looking around because I thought the sounds were coming from the apartment around me. Really cleverly done. All in all, the game was fun and I couldn't complain at a reduced Halloween price. Although the game didn't last very long, some parts seemed a bit sluggish. But I suppose that was the intention of the developers. I can recommend the title.
I wasn't aware that this game has been around for so long. It flew under my radar. Broforce is just horny. The pixel optics knocks me over and meets the modern 16-bit look. The action on the screen explodes almost every moment to the extreme. The sound blows you away with fat explosions and hard metal between the stages. The multiplayer mode is chaotic to strategically good - depending on your playing style. I can't stop playing Broforce anymore. Give me more, now - Broforce.
In and of itself I like walking simulators. A calm atmosphere, a beautiful story, an atmospheric graphic and sound design. Yes, Dear Esther has all that. But now comes the big one: 1.5 hours playing time for 9.99 Euro? I bought it at a reduced price and still feel like I paid too much. Dear Esther has his moments, I just wish I had a little more interaction. There is only one form of interaction and that is movement. And I can't influence the movement in the speed. After five minutes I was desperately looking for a button to accelerate. If I could have walked faster through the landscape, the game would have gone through in 30 minutes. I had the impression that it was an artificial method of extending the playing time. As I said, a little more interaction, such as lifting up and looking at objects, would have been desirable. The function of the zoom in and the flashlight was also only half-heartedly implented. I am a friend of minimalism but sometimes more is more. At the end there is unfortunately a bland aftertaste with the impression of a shooters on rails without shooting.
Randals Monday is a point-and-click adventure game with too many difficult puzzles. I used the help function early on. A complete solution is built directly into the game. The programmers probably knew exactly why they had it built in. Otherwise there would have been too much frustration for the player. The dialogues are funny and the German speakers are professional. But unfortunately there is much too much of the dialogues. I never thought I'd play an adventure game where I'd click away all the dialogues at the end because they just annoy me. At the end of the game I simply didn't have any nerves anymore for the never-ending jokes, clambags and incessant allusions to pop culture, games and nerd culture. These points were the highlight of the game. In the beginning I had a lot of fun looking for all the allusions to my favorite movies and games. But it didn't stop. I was almost beaten to death. Here fits the old wisdom that less is more. Graphics and sound are fine. The game leaves the impression of a modern flash game from a browser. Up to the time I was in prison, the only thing that bothered me about the game was travelling between the scenes in the subway. Again and again the same animations. Fortunately it could be skipped. An overview map could have shortened a lot. The game made me really sad in the end, because I would have loved it so much.
"Katana Zero" is a pixelart game that uses time as a game element. The player will have to die a thousand deaths, slow down time and memorize a lot to create the levels. There is also a great story about forgetting, memory, drugs, military and obedience. The best thing is by far is the soundtrack. Partly driving, partly melodic electro beats by different artists. As soon as GOG offers the soundtrack for sale, I will also add it to my collection.
"Virginia" is a short game with a deep story. Since the characters don't talk and everything is told about gestures, facial expressions, music and plot, the viewer has to concentrate a lot. Especially the ending is the result of a drug-induced fever of the authors like the movies of David Lynch. To call the game a game is almost an exaggeration. There are some points the player triggers. However, these events are limited to looking around, walking around and pressing a button. The story doesn't stop there. However, I often asked myself why I had to press a key at all. I would have preferred to watch the film in one pass without the interference of my actions. The graphic style is independent and is probably best compared to a rough cell shading look. This makes the game timeless. An outstanding exception is the music accompaniment. Due to the lack of dialogues it plays a big role to emotionally involve the viewer in the action. The music was recorded by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The quality of the music is outstanding and a feast for the ears. I bought the game in a sale for an incredible 0.99 Euro - a bargain and definitely worth it.
"Gibbous - A Cthulhu Adventure" is a fun point-and-click adventure game. It has a casual humor and the characters are lovably written. Especially the dialogues between Buzz and his cat are lively and rich. Kitteh still has a sarcastic touch in her statements. The animations are top class. I have rarely seen such beautiful backgrounds and drawn figures. Due to the engine used, even real-time shadows are displayed in the backgrounds. The puzzles are mostly simple to moderately difficult. Only with two or three puzzles I had to think a little longer. Due to the lightness of the puzzles I was in a nice game flow, that was very pleasant. I can only give the game top marks. The German text translation is very close to the English original and is fun. I would have only wished for one thing to make the whole thing even better: a German voice output. Anyway, a great game.
It's a journey through time. A time travel into my young years. I had so much fun with the Castlevania parts. Especially Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the night were and are masterpieces. Unforgettable their music and level structure. Now Bloodstained starts to continue this tradition and although it is not officially Castlevania, it is obviously his descendant. At first I missed the cartoon style of my beloved predecessors, but after a short time I was convinced of the playing feel and the outstanding soundtrack. A perfection and precision in control that is rarely achieved. Jumping with pinpoint accuracy and navigating in the air. Wonderful. There are few games that I play 100 percent through. Bloodstained - Ritual of the Night is one of them. A pleasure through and through.
