I pre-ordered Kathy Rain after seeing the trailer and so far it's exceeded my expectations. I love the retro art style and the high quality voice work really stands out from other indie titles. If you're a fan of Gabriel Knight I'd strongly recommend Kathy Rain.
Her Story is unlike anything else. Really it is. I won't bore you with the synopsis, I'm sure you've read that above and know the premise of Her Story. The effort that's gone into this title is impressive, everything from the subtle and immersive audio design to the authentic aged VHS aesthetic to the video (which apparently was achieved by actually transferring HD to VHS and copying it a number of times to get an authentic generation loss effect). The game is anti-HD, all played out on a Windows 95-esque desktop in 4:3. You'll begin the game probably typing 'murder' or something similar to try and establish what's happened, your theories will build over time (sometimes red herrings) and it's genuinely rewarding when you discover a new avenue to pursue. I believe Her Story borders on art and can genuinely claim there is nothing else there like it. Her Story is an experience that stays with you after playing it, you'll find yourself considering different theories and itching to go back and explore the mothballed computer you mysteriously have been given access to. Her Story is a thought provoking masterpiece that makes the player question everything, including who they are playing as. Explore, experiment and get drawn in.
First played Phantasmagoria 2 when I was around thirteen (on my old 486 PC!) and loved it. I know it's popular to make fun of Phantas 2 because of the famous Let's Play on YouTube, but it really is a great game and as an interactive movie title works really well. The only downside to the Gog version is that it uses Dosbox and therefore runs in low res compared to the Windows version. if you do have the Windows version there is an installer you can download for free that removes the scanlines and slightly upscales the video - I'd recommend playing this in Windows if possible purely because the rough DOS video will take you out of the experience somewhat.
It's great to see Sierra games coming to Gog.com, and Gabriel Knight is without a doubt one of my favourite Sierra adventures (along with the sequel). The voice acting's top notch (Tim Curry, Mark Hamill), the story's full of intrigue and great dialogue - just an all round excellent game.
