Whispering Willows is a 2D horror puzzle game where you play as Elena Elkhorn, a little girl who searches for her missing father in an abandoned mansion. Elena has a special power that allows her to travel in spirit form, which helps her in solving puzzles and interacting with ghosts. For a horror game, I wouldn't exactly call this game scary, in fact, it's kinda peaceful, with few scary parts and more friendly interactions with the ghosts, some even help you and have funny dialogues. WW has unique cartoon-like character models and hand-drawn cutscenes. If you want a short and light horror experience, give WW a try.
Pumpkin Jack is a spooky, funny platformer game where you play as Jack, the Devil's champion as he plans to make the world fall into chaos. But a human wizard is preventing that, and the mission is to kill him. Along the way you will fight monsters and creatures. This game's pretty great in making you forgot you play a villain protagonist, as the "good guys" don't seem really good, but the "bad guys" can be friendly and funny to you. The game has 6 levels, each can take about 30 mins to an hour to beat. And those 6 levels are unique. While most of the gameplay are the classic jump-and-fight, there are variations. Like in these levels there are vehicle sections, and each are different. Like in one you just make your cart jump, but in another you are in race with knights. And the minigames are too, one level you must push a bomb using Jack's head, and another using his head to match tombstones (with pop culture references). That combination alone is done well enough to make this simple game don't feel to repetitive. Not to mention you unlock new weapons after defeating each boss, allowing you to try out new combat skills on enemies. But I'd have to admit, sometimes the game can be a bit hard. Like in some later vehicle sections and the final boss, but maybe that's understandable. If you're looking to play a thematic game during the Halloween or Christmas seasons, Pumpkin Jack is a game you should try. It's simple and straightforward, yet could be unique enough to not be boring. If you enjoy platformer games, you'd enjoy this title.
The Coma: Recut is a remaster of The Coma: Cutting Class, where you play as Youngho, a student who fell asleep during a test and suddenly woke up in a messed-up version of his high school. There, he must find a way out, while being hunted by a ghost taking the appearance of his favorite teacher. It plays like a side-scroller, and you must find items to progress. Personally, I love the comic-like artstyle this game has. Kinda like a dark Korean manhwa. Atmosphere-wise the game is pretty cool. Being in a spooky version of a familiar environment is a trope I quite like. There are corpses and mysterious vines all about, as well as random ghosts who attack you. But being set in a school has its downsides. You remember in your school where many hallways look identical? It's like that too. Worse, some pathways are blocked so you must find another way around. Imagine that happening while you're being chased. You can dodge, but doing it drains a lot of stamina. Not very fun, getting lost and tired. But if you like side-scrolling horror and comic artstyle, The Coma: Recut as well as its sequels may be worth a try. I heard the later ones are better, this one feels kinda simplistic, clunky, and sorta repetitive at times.
The Gunk is an adventure game where you play as Rani, a scavenger who discovers an energy signal in a seemingly desolate planet. With her partner Becks and robot CuRT, they discovered the planet has been overwhelmed by a mysterious substance known as Gunk. Your main objective will be to cleanse areas infested with Gunk, which will restore life to the surrounding area and open new paths. The game world is open, and you can fast travel/backtrack to pretty much every visited area. As you clean the planet, you will be presented with platforming and puzzles as well. Most are pretty simple, like just carry the right plant to the right spot, but some may be kinda hidden. There's also combat, you fight creatures created by the Gunk. Nothing too difficult, just make sure you don't get overwhelmed. It's actually pretty fun to have some combat here. Another mechanic is crafting, some plants, rocks, and enemies will yield resources you can use to upgrade your Power Glove and its features. There's more than enough resources, but very, very slightly. Like after getting all upgrades, I only have 1 metal left. Be sure to pay attention and try to collect everything, as these resources don't respawn. In conclusion, The Gunk is a pretty good adventure game worth trying, especially if you like to explore colorful alien worlds and puzzle-platforming. It's not very long, but it's one memorable experience. Who knew cleaning giant piles of gunk would be fun and satisfying?
Strange Horticulture plays like a puzzle game combined with visual novel. You play as a shop owner who inherited a plant shop from her late uncle. There's a guide book, but the it's not obvious. Like rarely there's a full picture of the plant, only parts like leaves or flowers, as well as how it feels or smells. With these clues, your objective is to identify which plants a customer needs. Some of them are affiliated with cults, which you can help or hinder. And a map allows you to travel to surrounding areas, taking home new plants or more pages for the book. As expected, you will see a lot of beautiful plants here. Other than the usual medicine or poison, some of these have strange functions. Like there's a lockpick plant, one that snares people, and one that allows you to read hidden text. There are choice elements when giving a plant, like sometimes you can choose between several plants with different results. And there are multiple endings, if you want to get as many paths as possible it's recommended to follow a guide, since you can be locked out. You can turn on auto-labelling so that a correctly identified plant will be given a tag. But there's a small issue, you cannot add the plant's picture to the book. So if you correctly identify a plant one day and someone asks for it on another day, you'll have to reread the clue and comb through your plants to find the correct one again. It would be better if identified plants have their image drawn on the book, besides making it easier it's also what a normal person would do rather than finding it again. If you're looking for games to chill without being overly difficult, Strange Horticulture is a title that you should try, especially if you like puzzles and mystery. It has a lovely artstyle and atmosphere, plus you can pet Hellebore the cat as many times as you like!
Dishonored is a stealth game where you play as Corvo Attano, the bodyguard of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin who was framed for her murder by the Regent. After being rescued by some conspirators, Corvo must take revenge on the Regent and his allies, either lethally, or non-lethal. The game rewards you with less enemies and a good ending if you decide to eliminate them non-lethally, and knocking out enemies instead of killing them. What initially drew me into this game was its steampunk aesthetic setting and oil painting-like graphics. But other than the art direction, the gameplay is very well-done as well. Corvo has many powers, but if you're playing stealthily the most useful power is Blink, a teleportation power. It also opens many pathways such as rooftops and ventilation ducts. Honestly, it's not that hard if you consider the alternate paths. And sometimes there's also sidequests you can do, by helping friendly characters or information about loot. The version sold on GOG is the Definitive Edition, which contains all DLCs. There's the Void Walker’s Arsenal, a collection of bone charms with their extra slots and some loot you get early in the game. There's Dunwall City Trials, challenging score stages where you are tasked to either sneak, fight, or solve puzzles. It's pretty fun, but does get in the way of achievement completion with how difficult the achievements are. But the best DLCs are The Knife of Dunwall and The Brigmore Witches, where you play as the assassin Daud on a redemptive path investigating someone named Delilah. In total it's almost as long as the main game itself, and offers a different perspective. Daud's Blink also freezes time, allowing you to take even more unusual paths mid-jump. If you enjoy stealth games, then Dishonored is a title you must play. It's the peak of the genre, with great gameplay and art direction. Plus there's some celebrity talent in here, like Chloe Moretz and Michael Madsen.
Close to the Sun is a horror walking sim where you play as journalist Rose Archer, as she travels to find her sister in the massive ship Helios, created by famed scientist Nikola Tesla as a utopia for researchers, scientists, and like-minded people away from the world. As you'd expect, the ship has fallen into ruin, and she must avoid dangerous beings and solve some puzzles to reach her goal. What caught my interest in this game is because of another game: BioShock. Other than the Art Deco aesthetics on a ruined city with dangerous creatures, some story elements are similar, like the reasoning for Tesla's and Ryan's creation for their utopia in the middle of the sea, you being assisted by a man with a heavy European accent. The level design is beautiful and really screenshot material, with cool areas such as a theater and a Tesla museum. Collectibles are also unique and thematic, changing types depending on the level. Like in one chapter it's passports, then masks, notes, blueprints, etc. Puzzles aren't that hard as well if you're worried. However, CttS has some flaws as well. The most important one being the story. The big mystery teased in the beginning isn't even solved, only lightly referenced and touched upon. It's been almost 3 years since their initial release, and no signs of a sequel. The second issue is the FOV, it's too narrow, and even if you change it to a slightly wider value (I use 70) everything looks a bit stretched. Lastly, I don't really mind the game being too dark, but it also continues a feature I don't really like in BioShock 1 where the characters are almost never seen clearly, usually only from far away. Close to the Sun is a pretty great walking sim, although I wish it was longer and with the big mystery solved. Get it if you like horror walking sims or simply just a BioShock fan looking to fill that Art Deco hole in your heart. I will absolutely play the sequel if they made one, and hopefully it remedies the issues I addressed.
Remothered: Broken Porcelain serves as both a prequel and sequel to Remothered: Tormented Fathers, and follows the journey of 2 characters. In the past you play as Celeste Felton, aka Jennifer, a runaway girl with moth-controlling powers. In the present, Reed Rosemary (who strangely had her first and last names swapped?) continues her investigation to Celeste/Jennifer's disappearance. However, most of the time we'll be in control of Jennifer and follows her timeline. Like I said, this game improves quite a lot from its predecessor. Visually, the graphics, models, and animations are better. From a gameplay perspective, it's more smooth and less clunky. Characters don't move so sluggish anymore, the crouch-sprint is a great way to move fast while making almost no noise. Jennifer can upgrade her skills by collecting moth keys, making items and abilities more effective. And upgrades carry over saves and playthroughs for some reason. The story is great, and provides more lore on the characters and their backgrounds, but I can understand why some people say its confusing. There are too many aliases (not only Celeste/Jennifer, by the way) and the story's timelines can be back-and-forth too much. It's not just Reed and Jen, there's also Jen's flashbacks, Madame Svenska's retelling of the events, and even her own flashbacks. The story feels a bit too rushed near the end, though it's understandable since the devs probably tried to cram the story and ending for the sadly cancelled 3rd game into here. I love this franchise's bittersweet story, though it would be better if there's a 3rd game to better develop these characters. If you like horror games with stealth, you'd enjoy the Remothered games.
BioShock is a horror FPS where you play as a man who was trapped in a ruined underwater city following a plane crash. Used to be a utopia, it's now overrun by murderous, insane people. You'll have access to plenty of weapons, but the unique thing is that you have access to Plasmids as well. These are potions that allow you to have powers, like telekinesis, fire, electricity, enraging enemies, and many others, but you can only equip 6 at maximum. The underwater city of Rapture is also one of the most iconic locations in gaming. It has beautiful Art Deco aesthetics, and many weapons, items, and decorations also have that retro style. The setting is definitely the highlight of the series, and a pretty unique place for a FPS. It manages to catch that unsettling feeling of a beautiful place fallen to ruin, and its messed-up inhabitants. This version of BioShock is the remastered version, which have better graphics and more options such as field of view. But the highlight of this version is actually the extra content, you have access to a museum of abandoned concepts, and 3 challenge rooms, 2 of them puzzle and 1 combat. There's also achievements if you play through Galaxy. These extra content are not available in the original version. Many people seem to have complains about the game crashing, but personally I only experienced in once in this version, and maybe 2 or 3 times in Steam. I'm not sure what's really causing this, I played both versions on the same Windows 10 laptop. Just save often to be safe. That aside, if you're a fan of horror shooters BioShock is an iconic title you must play. Whether the more stable original version, or the probably unstable remaster but with extra content, give it a try!
Apocalipsis: Wormwood Edition is a point-and-click game with a unique artstyle, inspired by medieval art. This contains the base game, Harry at the End of the World and the DLC, One Night in the Woods. The base game contains 23 levels, each of them are pretty short. The story is about a young man's journey to bring back his lover who was executed for being a witch. Meanwhile in the DLC you play as Harry's lover, Zula, who is indeed a witch as she tries to do a demonic ritual. During Harry's journey you will encounter puzzles. Many are just simple finding and using items, but some are more complicated minigames. While most of the levels are quite easy, some puzzles are just confusing. And there's no hint system, you must figure it out yourself or use a walkthrough. Zula's DLC only has 3 levels, but they are bigger and better-designed. I personally prefer the DLC, the puzzles are a lot more clearer, too. Both can be finished in around 3 hours. While I think Apocalipsis is a pretty great point-and-click game with memorable artstyle, the story honestly feels kinda unclear. There are no dialogue between the characters, only narration by Behemoth band's Nergal in several cutscenes. It would be better if it has more dialogue and clearer puzzles, but it's still worth a try. Just hope you don't run into a strange save-wiping bug like I did.
