September/October 2018 Update

In my previous update I mentioned the fact that I was looking forward to going back to finishing The Red Strings Club, and boy it did not disappoint.
I could talk about the gorgeous pixel graphics or the amazing soundtrack, but what absolutely steal the show are the storytelling and the themes.

The vast majority of the game's mechanics pivot around its dialogue system, and your choices definitely do matter in shaping the narrative. I don't think I've ever found myself stuck so many times at a dialogue choice, carefully weighting the possible options and comparing them to my own ethical and moral stances.

If you're into narrative-driven games this is an absolute gem, definitely recommended.

I won Life Is Strange: Before the Storm on SG so it was the perfect time to go play the original :3

After playing it I can say I'm surprised that it stood up to all the hype and raving reviews I saw coming into it, and I'm actually excited to play other games from the developers.

I didn't like many of the younger characters at first, but then it dawned on me that it meant they were well-written and I'm just an old fart :v

The game was a rollercoaster of emotions and unexpected twists, all compressed in a package that while a bit clunky at times still puts to shame the tired Telltale (RIP) formula seen in so many games from this particular "choices matter" genre.

I hope Before the Storm will be a worthwhile game to play next, although the reviews and the first impact I got by playing the first 20ish minutes do not bode well :/

I don't mind horror games. I like "found phone" games. Games with cheesy FMVs are my guilty pleasure.

Based on those 3 sentences and on the fact that I replayed the game multiple times to 100% it you might guess I liked the game, but I can't say I did.

The main reason for that is the overuse of jumpscare attempts, with the seeming intent to make you drop your phone on the floor by startling you with sudden blaring noises, strong vibrations and fullscreen creepy images.

Needless to say most of those effects are lost in the PC adaptation I played, with the vibration replaced by sound and the "fullscreen" images only appearing on the small portion of your screen taken by the virtual phone you interact with.

I don't find jumpscares scary as much as I find them annoying, and there were so many of them in this game that I felt pulled out what could have been an otherwise engrossing experience. It's a shame, as I genuinely did like some of the mechanics of the game and as I said I don't mind the bad acting in the video clips. Oh well :v

Mike Bithell's Thomas Was Alone was a critically-acclaimed mix of narrative and platforming gameplay.

A few years later, Bithell does away with gameplay completely, presenting a dialogue-driven narrative that is short and straight to the point, only taking 1 to 2 hours to paint an interesting world without having your character ever leave its seat in a subway car.

The ending was maybe a little bit disappointing, but the journey there was still worth it if you're into narrative games.

After the disappointment I had with SIMULACRA, here's a Spooktober game that does horror right, with hardly any reliance on jumpscares and a focus on creating a creepy and disturbing atmosphere.

The game has a nice mix of platforming, puzzling and exploration though a set of 5 long levels each inhabited by a monster.
While I didn't love the controls which were occasionally unresponsive - especially trying to grab stuff - the issue didn't detract too much from the experience, which was engrossing all the way to the end.

It doesn't rely on trial and error but you're still expected to die quite a bit. Checkpoints are plentiful but sometimes a little too spaced apart, meaning that I had to replay some 2ish minutes-long sections several times because I was messing up right before the next checkpoint.

Definitely recommended if you liked games like INSIDE or Black the Fall, or even if you disliked the latter due to it being infuriatingly trial-and-error. It's not as bad, I promise :p

I feel like this should have been right up my alley but instead, at least for me, Burly Men at Sea fell right on its face.

Burly Men at Sea is a choose-your-own-adventure game with just 3 "choices" to make during each story, which at the end loops you back to the start, expecting you to embark on a new journey.

After the first couple of rounds you realize that you're mostly going to have to sit through the same few scenes over and over just to reach the point where you can make a different choice. Many multiple-paths games do that, but they usually include a skip or fast-forward option. That feature is missing, and sorely missed, in BMAS, making it a chore to experience it fully.

Everything feels sluggish, with glacial walking speed, unresponsive interactions and so on; I'm not sure if I should blame an incompetent adaptation from a clearly touch-oriented interface or a willing attempt to mask the fact the game doesn't have much to offer besides the neat aesthetics and the occasionally humorous dialogues.

I don't know if I'm being too harsh but I kinda regret having spent the time replaying the game to completion, expecting a payoff that didn't really come.