Finished in November (6-10)

Second part of the month had some really decent games

• El Hijo
  

  8 hours playtime

  14 of 22 achievements

El Hijo

5/10

Basic stealth game, with nice artstyle and confusing story. There are some weird design choices, like lack of the map, and the fact, thet you can only see enemies’ field of view when you are standing still, but the main problem are finnicky controls - I got caught
many times, because game decided to ignore my attempt to hide. Besides those problems, I had fun, although I don’t think I will really recomend it.

• BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION
  

  15 hours playtime

  15 of 28 achievements

BEAUTIFUL DESOLATION

6/10

This game is weird - it’s a 100% adventure game, but it looks and feels like and old RPG - like someone took the first Fallout game, delete all the fights and just let you roam the map. The world is a postapo future where people returned to living in tribes, and is quite detailed and complicated, with a lot of hidden connections between people you are meeting. It is also happening in South Africa, but to be honest this part is completely wasted, and I cannot see anything that is showing this, beside maybe a few antilopes in the background. Which is a shame, because the opportunity to make something other than “american wasteland” was completely missed. Beneath all this problems is a decent and unique game, so I had my share of fun.

• Grotto
  

  4 hours playtime

  17 of 21 achievements

Grotto

8/10

How do you call a game with dating sim mechanics, but without any romance? Whatever - in this little game you are a shaman, who can read stars and is telling people what to do. Of course, people being people they will interpret your reading in the way it suits them, and that’s half of the fun in this game. Everything is going on in a small cave, where you are meeting your tribe members, listen to their stories, then pick a constellation and give it to them to guide them. Every constellation has specific meaning, but your tribe fellows can be quite creative in understanding them, and sometimes you want to kill them for doing exact opposite thing, you wanted. In the background there is a grand story your people are telling you about and you try to fiddle your friends to not get completely smashed in the process.

• Kena: Bridge of Spirits
  

  16 hours playtime

  29 of 41 achievements

Kena: Bridge of Spirits

8/10

Beautiful action adventure game about a girl who is guiding spirits to the after life. Everything is happening in the small village in the valley surounded by wilderness, and you slowly discover, why the village is completely abandonded, and and help some ghosts that cannot find peace. Gameplay involves standard mix of fighting and platforming, the unique mechanic are little forest creatures called Rota, who you can command, are helping you with riddles and fight, and work as a collectibles. The game looks almost like a disney movie, and is extremely pleasant and I almost give it a 9, but the last bossfight is a completely unnecessary difficulty spike, and was quite annoying.

• Slice of Sea
  

  4 hours playtime

  9 of 18 achievements

Slice of Sea

8/10

Long time ago when I was young and beautiful, I was playing a lot of games on Kongregate side. And guy who made Slice of Sea was one of the top game makers there. So naturally I needed to check what he did on Steam. This is very specyfic and old school adventure game, and by oldschool I mean, you need an eagle eye to spot everything and not to get stuck. The story is non existent (honestly, I understood what my goal was when I saw ending cutscene), there are no clues, no map, no journal, you need to remember what to do and where everything is. But the main stuff - art and atmosphere, are completely gorgeous. All in all - I needed a guide, but I had great fun playing.