Solid stealth game that takes place in a beautifully detailed, frequently dark and gritty medieval environment. The plot puts a creative fantasy spin on the black plague and alchemical lore. There are some scenes that just look fantastic, and the final boss fight looks amazingly crazy. It grows increasingly challenging such that many scenarios won't see you live through them on the first try (or several). But seeing what comes next is the real motivation - the story and the look do the work to imbue this with quality throughout. I bought the sequel about halfway through this one (which I got in one of Epic Games' giveaways).
This game further fills out the fascinating universe and characters of Citizen Sleeper, and intuitively evolves its mechanics. Everything I said in my review of the first one applies to this one too. But I forgot to mention that the soundtrack is great, just like it is here too. While it's a standalone entry, the various references to the previous story evoke a warm sense of familiarity. It all fits together seamlessly while being at the same time more expansive. If you have any interest in the series just get them both and play them in order, you won't regret it. I sincerely hope this series continues. The universe they've built is filled with potential and I think there are a lot of options on how to keep moving it forward.
One of the best indie RPGs I've played. The mechanics are fresh and do a good job at keeping progress engaging, but this is first and foremost a storytelling game that gradually reveals the world and the colorful characters that inhabit it. And it's great at it. The way things unfold & the vibrant character art reminds me of reading a graphic novel in a way. It's not a "visual novel" type of game, but people who don't like reading should just move along and find something else. For the rest, the story is top tier and effectively infuses a lot of emotional warmth into a dark, futuristic dystopia of expansive and ruthless corporations. It's filled with unique concepts, fed by roots that reach deep into the fertile cyberpunk soil it grows from. Easy recommend for anybody who enjoys a new science fiction universe to explore.
This feels like a natural evolution of Kingdom of Loathing, which is what I was hoping. But it's also a bit of a mixed bag and gets a little too drawn out to stay engaging the whole way. I got the impression less effort was put into the writing quality than KoL had, and it seems like there's a lot of mediocre filler. Like someone had to rush to fill in all the slots they created for text. My guess is they wanted to make a longer game but ended up too overstretched to give each part its creative due. Also the simple gameplay, aside from the traditionally weird and convoluted KoL-style quest steps, sometimes makes me think it's more of a kids game. And it would actually be good game for kids, except they probably wouldn't get a lot of the references.
With a pleasing look and a thoughtful, well-written story, it's worth it for fans of these devs or anyone who likes playing detective. They did a good job portraying a potential generation ship social environment. There actually are a few sufficiently different endings that qualify as "big" to me, but most choices don't make much impact. Later runs can be very quick as you can solve cases as soon as they're assigned with your magic knowledge (though this limits your in-game info). It's not that long, but you could squeeze a good 10 - 15 hours out of it if you like to go back to try new things. I encountered some bugs that force a quit/reload, always with Stella auto-running until reaching a wall, passing the scripted stopping point of a scene. The game locks up, but at least didn't result in much repetition after reload due to frequent autosaves. Another "bug" is that achievements didn't work at all for me. Maybe GOG's fault, no idea. The overall tone is serious and solemn with no humor. My main gripe is related to that. I didn't feel humor was necessary, but they left open humorous options without taking advantage of them. On one run I blamed my dog for everything and set up an absurd situation where it was bugged for a sting operation against itself. Nobody commented on this, they just went along and then said nothing came of it. I feel like if you allow this type of setup, you should really respond to that somehow. My real issue is all the clutter in your talk/solution options, as if your mind had no way of categorizing concepts or associating objects with contexts. It came off as a cheap illusion of choice since most options are obviously wrong, and generically so (no custom content). It just makes finding what you're looking for more tedious and gives off a lazy vibe, even though I don't feel like this is a lazy game. Just don't bother doing silly things expecting a joke (or anything at all), because it's not that type of game.
A pretty clever detective adventure with a short runtime and some decent (albeit simplistic) investigative mechanics. In many ways it reminded me of the play style and attractive retro look of Tales Noir (fka Backbone), which was released around the same time. The choices you're presented with here do actually have effects on the rest of the game and the story, with some areas and interactions only available if you do things one way or another. It's interesting enough to warrant at least one replay. There's a lot of running around, but the nice pixel look (and ability to sprint) makes the repetition less tedious. Saves are strictly automatic and they overwrite each other. They tend to happen after you've made decisions, so there's not a lot of opportunity to quit and reload just to "see what would happen" without having to do a full replay. That's a little unfortunate, but in a way it makes sense since you may not know the effects of something until further down the line. You can rush through a replay in probably 3.5 hours, but after that you'll probably just accept that there are some things you'll never know.
A cute, witty, generally well-written point and clicker with a pretty lighthearted take on a cyberpunk mystery. It's basically 98% puzzle-less and linear, which doesn't detract from the experience (unless solving puzzles is what you're after). It's also surprisingly long, at least when you like to "try everything with everything". That's where a lot of the clever writing comes out, as do occasional parts where you just kind of have to roll your eyes at how pandering your robot companion can be. Regardless, it's an enjoyable indie with its own undeniably unique flavor. Neo-SF will be pretty familiar to anyone who's spent time in the bay area, and it makes sense that a game with these types of cultural references and themes would originate there. I think that anyone scared off or rubbed the wrong way by the queer factor, especially if they consider themselves fans of cyberpunk, is either naive or just stubborn. There's just no way in hell any real-world cyberpunk future won't be queer in some way.
The look, the music, and the atmosphere are all great. The story is interesting and gritty. While parts could be considered a bit disjointed I just went along for the ride. With a couple exceptions, the gameplay is mostly just moving the story along linearly, but I like interactive, visually appealing stories so no problem there. It's definitely got some creative writing. Dialogue options give you a few personalities to adopt, but I discovered after starting a second playthrough that what you choose only sometimes elicits different NPC responses. Expanding on that could have increased replay value. I got this game under the name Backbone as part of a bundle on Itch.io. It was a nice surprise and the perfect way to come across it. It's pretty short. I didn't expect it to end when it did and was kind of wondering if I missed something. For a few bucks I'd buy it on its own, but since I already own it I'll probably get the prequel if it gets a GOG release. Oh and the dual language quick-switch is awesome, something I've never seen in a game before but wish was standard. Excellent feature for non-native speakers or people who like to use games to help learn another language.
This an atmospheric, unsettling trip into a young woman's abusive home life and both the mundane and supernatural horror that arises from it. The writing and voice acting is good, the scenarios are interesting and dark. The main character is sympathetic, her "normal life" sadly thwarted by ugly circumstances which she is forced to deal with. Remember this is solidly in the horror genre, so expectations about the pleasantness of its themes should be tempered by that knowledge. Specific trigger warnings have been adequately covered by other reviewers. As for gameplay, it's essentially a playable short story that barely makes you work at all to keep things moving. If it's approached as more of a story told via game tools than a "game" so to speak, it'll be easier to appreciate what it's going for. And that isn't exactly unprecedented. Some people won't like the vision or the style, but for what it is, it's unique and well-executed. I'll be looking up the others by this studio/author.
