The title basically says it all. What we have here is a lovingly crafted game. The sheer amount of unnecessary side characters with mind-bogling diversity all specially animated and charaterized. Mechanically, the game itself is fairly light platforming mixed with light puzzling sprinkled with a small amount of choice and consequence. The story, while nice, is quite linear and fairly predictable if you have any awareness of this kind of narrative. Occasionally gets a bit preachy but mostly maintains a pleasant fairytale wibe. In fact no single aspect of the actual game stands out. But still the game manages to charm.
Tormentum is a game where the visuals are king. And it is very good looking. So good looking in fact that it trades animation for static imagery. The style is grotesque for the sake of being grotesque but the same thing can be said of the inspirations quoted. Which do show rather plainly. The game itself is very casual adventuring. The kind of casual where most problems aren't solved with an item in the _same_ room. And the NPCs spell out the situations and solutions in excrutiating detail. Which gets me to the writing. The writing is, shall we say, unpolished. The very first scene has a character dumping loads of exposition on you. This sets the theme for the whole game. And since we are playing a silent protagonist you are always being talked at. A lot. One does wonder however how much of this is due to the translation since the game obviously wasn't originally in English. The story tries to evoke moral ambiguity but is actually operating strictly black and white. This only becomes evident in the ending. Which is rather divisive. In short, OK effort with over-emphasis on graphics. Which is modern AAA gaming in a nutshell :-)
Stasis is a book example how horror should be done. No real jump scares here. Just a story that starts weird, progresses through creepy and ends at horrifying. And even though there are monsters the real horror lies elsewhere. The story really pulls no punches. Mechanically the game is functional. A few puzzles are a bit obtuse due to limited information but since the lack of information is a stylistic choice I can't really hold that against the game. The game looks and sounds great while still leaving enough for the players imagination to fill in and being all the better for it. If terms like 'adult fear' or 'body horror' don't drive you away you really should try this game.
Dex is not a bad game. The writing tries too much and the mechanics are bit simplified but in the end it succeed in what it is trying to be. The combat works, the platforming works, the simplified hacking works. Nothing really stands out but no problems either. Of course "what it is trying to be" is Deus Ex. Very very much so. Now there is nothing wrong with emulating the greats but for anyone versed in sci-fi and cyberpunk the story (or characters) hold no surprises. One gets the feeling that there would have been potential for much more here. An enjoyable experience but would I play again? Good question...
