Short and rather cute HOG played from a perspective of tiny humans living in a small kingdom hidden deep in the forest. Whole country is being endangered by a spreading drought and ruthless king's tax collectors… but not everything is as it seems. Old grudges from the past are resurfacing and threatening the lives of the kingdom's peaceful citizens. And here we come to save the day!

Really nice HOG with good puzzles and hidden object scenes. There were few moments where I wasn't sure what to do next, but nothing too frustrating. One of the few HOGs where we get to play as man instead of woman.

This was a weird experience. As it would be complicated to describe the story I will just leave a developer summarization here if someone would be interested in it. Or try looking at other reviews on Steam, few are very thorough.

If the author took it a little bit more seriously and created a more consistent world it could be a pretty interesting game. There are some good ideas and apt comments, but most of the time I don't have a clue about what's going on. I like searching for secrets in games and breaking their 4th walls, but I am not fond of constant "insults" pointed at players… the first time it could be laughable, but not again and again.
There are also bugs, almost non-existent menu or settings. You can't save, so if you fail you have to redo the whole chapter - luckily, they are not long and if you don't enjoy exploring the surroundings you can rush quickly through them.

I don't want to totally disgrace it, because it has/had some potential, but for me it's not polished enough.

Final chapter in our hunt for a dangerous cultist who wants to summon ancient demon to our world. This time we are following him to a snowy peaks of Himalaya.

An okay HOG with nice colorful graphics and good puzzles (although one or two were re-used a lot for my taste). As a detective we still have to collect clues for our little deduction mini game, which is nice, just don't expect any deep insights from it. Story is pretty much standard for an Artifex Mundi HOG. Good for casual gaming.

Really short hidden object game where we have to save the world from an evil ruler of the clouds. And as our family blood is filled with magic even our strictly scientific brother will uncover hidden powers! I have enjoyed the first two games in the series, but not so much this one, the story just felt pretty much stupid.

The visuals are yet again nice and colorful. Puzzles and hidden object scenes are very easy and don't offer any challenge. But for killing some time it’s fine, I suppose.

Emily Crandall, owner of the Lilac Inn, needs help from our amateur detective Nancy Drew as inexplicable phenomena are surrounding Emily and she seems to be slowly losing her mind. To help her keep her sanity and the ownership of the inn Nancy has to solve riddles left behind by a wealthy patron who supposedly bequeathed some money for Emily's family in his last will…

We have standard Nancy game here with really clever puzzles requiring a lot of thinking and funny mini games, some of them also challenging (I enjoy making notes on puzzles and Nancy never disappoint me in this). This time we can aslo ride in a car around the city. We have to drive carefully or risk a damage to the car, which then needs costly repairs. Don't forget about fueling the tank regularly. For all of this we need money which can be earned by running errands in the city. They can be done indefinitely, which serves as protection from getting broke. The showdown with the villain happens in the car which was fun! Can recommend. :)

Lori Girard, wealthy and spoiled daughter of a prominent figure, invites bright minds in mystery solving (among them the Hardy boys and Nancy) to a haunted train. We will take the same route as the late owner of the train to hopefully end up in his secret golden mine. But the existence of the mine is believed to be a myth and its location remains to be unknown, but Lori hopes that some of the clever minds could find the map leading to it on the train. Not a difficult task for our Nancy!

Yet again standard Nancy Drew game with many logical puzzles and varied mini games. We have few train wagons to explore and later we will visit old train station and maybe even a gold mine. ;P Working with Hardy boys in person was fun, we usually just call them over the phone. I have felt a little bit lost on the train though as sometimes I knew what I should do, but I didn't have the things required for it - they are hidden pretty well.

In this game we assume the role of a young lady bored to death by her daily routine. To change it she quits her job and moves to a quieter city called Greyfox. It's actually a retirement place for all of the bitter, crazy and hateful old people you can find. First exploration gets her in touch with some of them and shows us their great hospitality. Not discouraged by it at all she rents a room in the hotel and visits a local pub where she meets a mysterious women who ask her what if she could live their lives?
This sets things into motion as we are going to influence the last day in the lives of four miserable old citizens of Greyfox. They all have their own storylines filled with serious problems that haunts many families over the world. We are presented with moral choices which will shape our own life for the better or worse.

So, not really sure what to say about it. It's rather short, you can rush through it in under two hours for sure. I like to explore and click on everything I see, so I took my time. There are many things you can play with, which I liked, because I usually miss it in other RPG maker games. Your "playground" is only the city with a few houses and local buildings - pub, hospital, grocery shop, funeral home, retirement house and hotel. Not all of these places are accessible right away, some will open only in certain stories. Graphics is average, mostly standard RPG maker assets. The story is linear without any deeper development, you can only slightly change the ending outcome. Also we know nothing about our heroine, can’t connect to her properly then (thought it was a guy to be honest).

The idea is interesting, but it needs to get developed some more. I don't know what the message of the game was - that lives are not black and white, that people should talk to each other more, that we should value what we have and enjoy our lives? With some additional work it could be a rather good game, right now it's just like some demo or a teaser for a bigger game.

So this game is basically a younger sibling of Merchants of Kaidan and, even though it was released a year later, there are a lot of its features missing in 16bit Trader, which is strange and sad. I have played Merchants of Kaidan in 2019 and have rather enjoyed it, here is my final report.
The story is pretty much similar to Merchants, your father gets scammed by his trading partner and ends up dead. As you are stripped of money and status you have to slowly rise in ranks to be finally able to exact a revenge on him.

I will first mention the positive things. The visuals are nicely colorful, they are also simplified in comparison to Merchants (which is not a bad thing per se). The music is also very charming. And that's probably it, all other things about the game are bad or very bad.

16bit Trader is a trading game (surprise). You have to ride through the cities and sell low bought stuff for the highest price. But it's almost impossible. You will barely make any profit as the prices are rising with your travels… example: city A - you buy food for 10 coins, you will be able to sell the food for profit in city K, all the other cities in between had the price of the food constantly rising. It works even the other way around, when the prices are dropping they are dropping in line, so for you to make profit of a higher valued stuff you have to travel far far away. Here comes another problem though - you have to pay for your travels. You can't just ride around the map to wait for a good price as you would just go bankrupt. Solution is to not concentrate on trading as your main income in 16bit Trader. This wasn't a problem in Merchants really, each city or village had a different price set and although the prices were developing over the time, you had no problems sustaining your income with trading. Also you could see the price history 7 days back.

Your main income in 16bit Trader is going to be diamonds which you are going to find in old mines. For you to be able to find more than one diamond you need a map. And a lot of mercenaries. You can find both in larger cities. In the tavern you have to find the right guy and buy him a drink, he will then sell you the map (I have noticed that usually only the guy in white had the map for sale, so if he wasn't there upon my arrival I would have just reloaded my save). Mercenaries influence your diamond income, other than that they are good for nothing in comparison to Merchants. So, if you have a map and a lot of mercenaries you can find a true fortune in the mines. It's also random based so you can try your luck with reloading. There is no limit to the number of mercenaries you can have. Only limit is your money, as you pay much more for travels when you have a bigger squad. As the mercenaries are useless and only good for mine searching, it's advisable to hire them in the city before the mine, travel with them there and then kick them out. Important note, you can buy and kick out 5 of them at once, so it's a lot of clicking. Really, a lot of. Also, when I realized that I need only diamonds I thought about going to mine, back to the city and then back to the mine. But even though you spent days on your travels the mine wasn't restored and upon my return nothing was found. You have to be constantly moving and visit different mines regularly.

In Merchants you could enter the mines and let your mercenaries fight with the monsters hiding there, if you were successful, you reestablished the mine and had a stable income. Another possibility was turning an old ruin into a winery, again for a stable profit. Oh and mercenaries were not useless, they were also protecting you on your travels against thieves or angry animals. In 16bit Trader you don't have any protection, even if you have thousands of them, you will still get robbed. The thieves are pretty greedy and when you make some nice profit they will jump on you on your next move, only protection is to load up your previous save until your road is clear.

Another possibility to make some income are side quests, which you can obtain from characters in larger cities. They consist mostly of “go there”, “grab something” and “come back”. Your reward isn't that high though so you can't win the game by doing only the quests. Also, on your travels a lot of things can happen and you can be delayed on your route. The good thing is that the merchandise is not deteriorating so you can go around with the same food you bought on your first day. There are only bad things that can happen to you in 16bit Trader. On the other hand in Merchants there were a lot of good things too, like you could compete or bargain for high valued merchandise and this way you could make a fortune. There was also a luck system which influenced what kind of situations will most likely happen to you.

As you can see you have to save a lot, because the luck based chance is working mostly against you here. There are only four save slots (have seen some discussion that only two of them are working, but I have used all four without any problems). You can save whenever you want, but beware that the game automatically saves your progress on your city (or village, mine, ruins) arrival. The game saves it on your last selected save slot. So, if you don't relocate your save slot, you can't load it up after being robbed, because it will be saved after it. What you have to do is to always save two times in the city you are leaving. One will be your safe spot which you will load up when things turn out badly. The other one will be rewritten upon your arrival to the next city. And like this you have to do it the whole game if you want to win. You could work it out with just two spots, but I found it safer with four, because like this you can try for bigger income from mines. ;)
There are achievements, all of them working. Some are tricky, also beware that if you raise enough money to win the game in one attempt, you will skip all related achievements for rising in ranks. You will then need to reload your progress and make smaller profits (you can't divide your diamonds, so if you have thousands of them you will sell them all. Wait for their lowest price and pray you don't overcome the 1 million mark, that's what I did anyway) or start again.

All in all, 16bit Trader is missing so much content of it's older sibling that one has to wonder why it exists exactly. There are no season changes, no helpers or advisors that can raise your stats, no artifacts or other items you can sell for profit. Story is rushed without any proper progress. There is no point in trading as you can't make any money from it and you can exploit the mines for diamonds…
Merchants of Kaidan is definitely a better choice, because even if it's not perfect, it's not punishing you on your every step and it was rather enjoyable.

Have to say that I was rather disappointed by Shadwen, although the game isn't per se bad. My expectation is to be blamed for it, because I thought it will be something more like my favorite Thief… only similarity is that your main objective is to remain unseen.

Most distinctive part of the game is the time control, when you are able to rewind all your actions. More precisely you are required to use this feature, because you will get in tight spots sooner than later and the only way out of them is gonna be the rewind. Also the time is frozen when you stop moving, if you are waiting for the guard to go away you have to hold a button to make the time run or you need to move. Like this you can freeze even in the air. Ledges too far away from each other for you to jump on them? No worries, just jump, freeze the time and then pull yourself forward with your rope. Need some adjusting to this system as the constant motionless can be somehow frustrating.

Game begins with a little girl Lily making her way through a city full of guards towards an old cemetery where she finally finds something to eat. As she stuffs a few apples inside her pockets she gets accused of thievery by a grumpy guard. Before something terrible can happen to Lily, a mysterious woman rescues her. She has a mission, a vendetta against the king, which now gets more complicated as little Lily decides to accompany her.

So, the game is divided into 15 stages and your main goal is to get to the end of each stage with both of the girls without raising any alarms. You can control only Shadwen, Lily will act on her own. You can select Lily's behavior in the main menu - she will stay on the spot until you command her to move or she will follow you all the time (could be problematic if you aim for everyone dead without letting Lily know). This doesn't have any particular disadvantages, because only Shadwen's presence can make guards suspicious. If some guard gets in Lily's way, she just turns around and runs back to the nearest safe spot, so you don't have to be overprotective of her.
As Shadwen you can sneak around on the ground, hiding behind barrels or staying basically invisible in haystacks or bushes even if the guard is almost standing on your toes. Most sneaking games make hiding rather ridiculous, but this is just too much, see my screenshot. But the best approach is from above, like this you can easily observe moving patterns of the guards and wreak an havoc among them.
You are gonna meet only two types of enemy - a simple unit with the same look all the time and an armored one. Shadwen has two possible ways of dealing with them - kill or let live. Guards can be killed directly only from behind or above. You can also push some boxes on their heads or lure them near an explosive barrel. The other way is more complicated as you can't just stun them, you have to lure them away by making a noise or moving some boxes in their field of view. After their suspicion calms down they return to their previous spot, that means that you can move with Lily only by short sections as she wouldn't be able to run for so long uninterrupted.
Shadwen has only a dagger for her protection and rope with a grapple with which she can attach to any wooden surfaces, like that she can get above guards or use items for distraction. You are able to build deadly traps or decoys from items you find in chests hidden around in each stage, if you want to spice things up. Truth is that I haven't used it, not even once. If you are making a peaceful run most of the things will be useless, when on a killing spree I found it quicker to just jump or drop something on them. There are also no achievements for trap kills that would inspire you to play with them a little… and as you have to make two full playthroughs, which are completely the same… I just wanted it to be quickly over.

As for the story… there is some. There are short spoken intermezzos between each stage, also the guards talk among themselves about the events that were leading towards this night, but it's not enough. Later in the game they also repeat quite a lot. I thought that there would be hidden messages or some lore that we would uncover, sadly not. We won't properly learn Shadwen's background story too, it's all said only in hints. For me it wasn’t really satisfying.

All in all, the game isn't really bad and I liked the scenery, there is just a lot of wasted potential. You basically have 15 logic puzzles of getting an object from point A to point B with the same mechanic all the time. There is no real cooperation between Shadwen and Lily besides the necessity of being together at level checkpoints, where you need to open the door together (only twice will Lily actually help you to progress as she can squeeze through small spaces), this could have been developed so much better. Enemies don’t offer any proper challenge and they move horribly slowly. There are no extra challenges or time limits, no hidden secrets or collectibles, the story is rather shallow. If you aim for 100% achievements you have to play it one more time without any difference except for the fate of the guards. Same stages, same tactic… sadly it can quickly turn into a chore instead of fun.

As Roseangela Blackwell scatters the ashes of her recently deceased aunt Lauren and says her last goodbye, her life loses one of the few certainties she has. She returns to her home, unrecognized by most of her neighbors, where just the broken television and plastic plant are waiting for her. Her mourning has a short duration as she gets commissioned by her chief editor to write an article about a young student who jumped to her death from a dormitory roof. Even though she tries to be strong, all the stressful events of the day resurface as a painful headache. Instead of a well deserved rest upon her home return she is greeted by a ghost. His name is Joey Mallone and he is a spiritual guide of her family.
As Joey isn't going anywhere and is deeply connected to Rosa, she has to quickly find solid ground and start cooperating with him, because there is maybe something more to the suicide of the young girl… and as a medium she has the ability, and duty, to help lost souls to move on.

The Blackwell Legacy is an adventure game focusing on investigation and combination of clues more than on simple item using (there still is some). Rosa makes notes about important facts in the case and to proceed you have to correctly combine these notes which will then open new talking options. Sometimes you can get stuck, because you tried to combine them too soon and later you didn't think about it again. In the end it works the same way as in any other point-and-click adventure when you get stuck - talk with everyone and try everything on everything. ;)
If you want you can learn more about Rosa's family from Joey. He won't share much though, as he has some painful memories on them too. His silence arouses my curiosity even more. :)

Highlights of the game are the well written characters, especially our main duo. I love how Rosa is an introvert, unsocial and somewhat lost when dealing with others. Her little smile when trying to play it nicely is just precious. Joey is more complicated and shows us the many sides of his personality, even the unpleasant one and I have to say that in some moments he gets rather scary. The voice acting is perfect and brings the characters to life.

The game won't take you long to finish, for 100% you have to play it once more with a commentary though. Totally recommend playing it after, because you can spoil yourself (surprise, right?). The commentary was also great fun, especially how the author apologized for many things in the game that he would do now completely differently (long talking sequences without anything happening etc.). I didn't really mind any of it. The only thing that bothered me a little was the loud music at some points where the voices got muffled by it. Sadly, you can’t change it. Anyway, the commentary offers a great insight into the author's mind and shows us what kind of decisions were made in the creation of the game.
I have enjoyed it very much and can't wait to see how the story develops for Rosa and Joey.

Nairi is a small girl from an upper cast of Shirin living in seclusion from the outer world. That comes to an end as her house gets suddenly stormed by city guards and her parents are thrown into prison. For her protection she gets smuggled out of the city. Caravan taking her to a safe place is overrun by bandits though and she ends up as their hostage. As Nairi is a clever girl she manages to escape her captivity, not far mind you, but with this courageous act she earns the respect of the bandit group. They accept her among themselves and although she enjoys their company and new found friendship she is still haunted by the fate of her parents. It's decided then, Nairi has to return to the Shirin!
With the help of Rex, friend of our bandit group leader, she has to find a way back to the upper district. It won't be easy though as there are many obstacles on her way - a poor district full of gangs fighting for territory, guards searching for her, a mysterious masked man hiding in the shadows. And to spice it up some more there is also a dark prophecy about the city and mysterious powers manifesting within Nairi!

Nairi is a cute little game with charming graphics and music, well written characters and interesting lore. The city of Shirin is very lively and you are going to meet a big cast of characters, some minor and some more important. There are both humans and anthropomorphic animals (and they are really cute). It's mostly a visual novel filled with logical puzzles, hidden objects and classic item combinations. Puzzles are of a good difficulty and are pretty straightforward, yet some of them offer a good challenge too. The mood of the game is pretty much cheerful and positive, although some darker themes resurface from time to time (which honestly surprised me a little as one wouldn't expect it from such a game).

It all ends pretty much on a cliffhanger, luckily sequel should be released this year! Can't wait. ;)

It's hard to rate this game as it's definitely not for everyone. You have to be a rather empathetic, open-minded individual with a feeling for modern avant-garde art. And you also need to be on the same imagination and experience line with the creators, otherwise all of the symbolism and hidden meanings will just pass by you. As I am nothing like mentioned above, and apparently not enough clever to connect all the dots, my experience with the game turned out to be pretty much painful.

Whole game is divided into 5 chapters with 4 interludes and an epilogue. Your main goal is to help Conway make a delivery on a mysterious address which isn't showing on any maps. Only way to get there is by Zero, a hidden route running somewhere beneath Kentucky. At first he has only his truck and an old dog accompanying him, but as the story goes on he will join with other strangers searching for Zero. Their route wouldn't be without any problems and a lot of the events will uncover hidden secrets of their past. Nevertheless they have to keep moving on and persevere, after all there is a delivery to be done.

Kentucky Route Zero is basically a text game and there is a lot of it. Really a huge amount and every bit of it is filled with philosophical, rhetorical, hypothetical and existentialist talks that don't offer any kind of outcome. Even though most of the main ideas of the game could have been said clearly and straightforwardly, they are all instead wrapped in tons of meaningless words. All of the mysticism and eerie feeling in the game that fills you at the beginning gets drowned by it and all that remains is the aftertaste of pathos.
Another problem of the game is that these texts are taken out of the context, but context is rather important for you to make an opinion about the problem and then make some decisions. Here are choices tossed at you randomly under the premise of freedom and false player ability to shape the heroes. You are walking on a predefined line and the outcome of your choices is mostly cosmetic and doesn't carry any deep impact. Kentucky Route Zero is most likely meant to be played a few more times as you can select different characters and view some situations from their perspective. But, honestly, I can't imagine playing through it a few more times (it was enough to play the fourth chapter again). After the first chapter it quickly becomes boring and tedious. To tell the truth I don't care about the other characters, I don't even properly know why they are there… it wouldn't make much difference without them there. I was truly interested in Conway and his story, but all you get is a disappointment.

So, the graphic design is pretty interesting and I really liked how they worked with the lights and shadows. Images were also intertwined in some scenes and it was truly imposing. There are few songs and they are pretty good, but most of the time you get silence or static sounds. You can drive your truck on the map and find some events there, the only problem is they don't add anything to the story, so if you miss them you don't lose anything… you actually save some time. In the last chapter you get to play as a cat and she is truly adorable, so I have enjoyed that.
But other than that it was just full of long and painfully boring uninteresting stuff to read. Interludes are also pretty weird and only managed to raise my stress. They say this game is more about you (the player) than the characters in game… if that's true it just prove that I really don't understand an experimental alternative art.

In this sweet short puzzle game we follow an old man on his journey to resolve his past and maybe find a closure to some painful decisions he made during his life. Story is told through charming pictures which are portraying important life events of the old man. Although the story line isn't anyhow surprising and is rather predictable the whole execution of the game is working perfectly and in the end you get emotionally invested. I know I was.

Graphics are beautiful, each screen is filled with many colors. I have also enjoyed those little interactive things you can meet on your journey - window shutters, doors, animals… those small things bring a smile. Music was also very nice, calm and soothing, and corresponded nicely with the graphics. Gameplay wise you have to build a route from the landscape for the old man. He can't jump over the hills so you have to nicely connect them by lowering them or raising them… it's fun to see the landscape moving. Some of the puzzles required a little bit of creativity and few tries to solve them, but they are mostly pretty straightforward.

We have enjoyed it, great for casual gaming after a long day at work. Can only recommend.

In Tiny Echo we play as a little courier Emi and our main duty is to deliver all of the letters that dropped deep down from those living up. Their letters are filled with wishes for a beautiful world as their surroundings are now completely barren. We then take our trusty bag, pick up all the messages and set out on an important mission of finding each of the addressee. Finding them all will be tricky though, some are hiding from us or we first need to clear obstacles on the route to continue. Not all of them take their letter right away, instead they require some action from us first. These puzzles are rather easy (one or two weren't so clear on what to do though) and are solved on the same screen, so you won't get stuck. Also the truth is that some of the puzzles I solved unintentionally by clicking around on things I deemed interesting. XD
Anyway, if you wonder what will happen once all of the letters are delivered, go and check for yourself. ;)

Graphics of Tiny Echo are strange yet appealing, also very detailed and filled with life. Music is very nice and fits the game perfectly. Whole game has an artistic feeling to it. It's rather short and maybe even a little cryptic in storytelling, but I still found it enjoyable and very relaxing. Also it reminds me a little bit of games from Amanita design.

Gone Fireflies is a short game filled with heavy emotions, because the story it tells is sad, cruel and not fair… as our life can be.
We are following two young families at the beginning of their relationships. At some point their lives intertwine and this brief meeting will have a great impact in their future lives.

It's a RPG Maker game with Visual novel aspects, it looks really nice and you can tell that it was made with care. They use varied graphics assets and each screen is pretty detailed (in terms of items and decorations). There is not much of a gameplay to talk about, you get put in a scene where you can explore a little and then make the one thing which will progress the story - be prepared to be thrown in time as the current situation has deep roots in the past and we are going to learn about it.
Through the game you can make a few choices, they are mostly cosmetic and reflect only your approach towards the characters. I have played two times to see if the story can end in some other way, sadly not, the tragic outcome will always be the same. Only thing that can change is how our hero cope with it all… and if he can see a light at the end of a tunnel.

One of the early works from Winter Wolves, it's not perfect, but it still offer some good entertainment. I have played it years ago, it's like those B rated horror movies, you know they are silly, but you still like them. ;)

You play as Luke Black, living in a dystopian London where sun shines only in gardens made by holograms. He has a long lasting relationship with Helen, although they are now going through some problems; he has best friend Tom and he works as a lead programmer in a company that deals in nanotechnology. When a runaway bionic woman seeks shelter at Luke's door his whole life turns around. His work, his relationships, even his bare life are in danger now… can he get out of this mess? Well, there are 24 endings in total, so there are a lot of things that can happen to Luke!

As I said, it's an older visual novel and some aspects are not so great. Main hero is a jerk, the voice acting is of lower quality (but it gave me some good laughs, also you can turn it off), there are some plot holes… Graphics are alright, but no typical event CGs for you, which is a shame.
The story is somehow interesting and you just want to know what will happen next. Also it's fun to see in what ways you can make Luke perish! XD

There is something mystic about this forest, something is calling for the fox. Being too curious it runs into the forest, deep inside. There it finds a mysterious Sanctuary, with Seed awaiting to be reborn. For it to happen it needs to collect every element of the Seasons and for this it needs the help of our brave fox. Seed and fox are connected and they set on a journey through the mysterious forest. But not everything is as clear as it seems and there are secrets hidden in the wind, in the water and deep below the roots.

Season after Fall is a very beautiful 2D platformer and with just puzzles to solve it offers a great relaxing experience. The fox is sooo pretty (I love foxes) and makes cute sounds, it's also fun to just stand and watch it being idle. In the whole game you are basically alone, no other interactable characters or beings, although two voices are guiding you throughout the story. The visuals are charming, colorful and I have enjoyed the changes in each of the Seasons. Music sets a great atmosphere and is very enjoyable.

And now about the Seasons. As you collect them you can use their powers, that means that you can freely switch between them. At first you are limited as you have only one, then two, three and lastly four. To progress you have to make the right use of them. Is there a deep lake and you can't get on the high shore? Just switch to the winter and it freezes down. Do you need to get high up into trees? Switch to autumn and let the wind rise you up. Your path is filled with many "puzzles" where you need to combine the Seasons for you to progress, most of those obstacles are pretty clear although some require a little bit of out of the box thinking. Also sometimes you can get lost in all of the switching and end up in a completely different Season than you wanted. Later in the game shortcuts appear for you, so you can swiftly move through the area without the need of redoing it with the power of Seasons, which is nice.
As a collectible you can find flower patches which you can make blossom, later on when you enter a location you can see how many of them you miss. There is also a true end if you can find four secret spots. Nothing too hard and can be done without a guide.

Can only recommend this pretty game, after all we made two whole runs (it got 100% on the first run).

An okay hidden object game about a young girl, Laura, getting trapped in her dreams by evil Sandman who aims to capture her there forever and come to our world in her stead to wreak a havoc upon it. Only way to help Laura is to succumb to her subconsciousness and fight the nightmares haunting her. Through her dreams we will learn more about her childhood and mystery powers she apparently posses. Sandman seems to be one step ahead of us though, but as we progress and collect bits of broken dream catcher Laura gets stronger. Will it be enough to surpass the Sandman?

So, Dreamscapes is a hidden object game without any hidden object scenes. :D But the mini games and puzzles are actually pretty good. I liked how we went through different dream worlds, they are not too long, although sometimes there’s some backtracking. Bonus story awaits you after the main game, in the same quality.
Graphics are a bit blurred and the voice acting is mediocre, in case of Sandman even horrid. X)

All in all, we have enjoyed it. It was quick and fun.

Dragon clan is yet again planning on ruling the world, this time with the help of dragons from the long lost Buried kingdom. Our friend, who discovered its location, gets kidnapped by the villains. So we follow them deep below the sea to find the entrance to the kingdom, where we uncover their devilish plan. With the help of little dragon and local citizens we have to stop them and free all dragons from the tyranny of Dragon clan leader.

Pretty standard HOG from Artifex Mundi. Story was sometimes pretty wild. When I am thinking about it now I am not exactly sure why they kidnapped that friend of ours, not that they needed her for anything… anyway, puzzles are not too hard and hidden object scenes are varied. There are collectibles and morphing objects to be found - yep, we missed the LAST one, so we had to play through it one more time. And let me tell you that the last morphing object looked like a decoration that belonged on the screen in the first place and its change was very very very subtle. But other than that the morphing objects were easy to spot as they had rather quick changing sequences. As always, the bonus story opens after completing the main game.

This time, our heroine and the best of bests agent of Griffins, Sarah visits her mother in some research facility hidden deep in a jungle. But as it wouldn't be fun without anyone getting kidnapped, voila, mom gets kidnapped! What a horror. In the meantime Sarah learns that the Dragon clan is yet again behind it. They are also doing experiments on the Flower of life, or what was its name, as they plan to turn all people into slave puppets and only Sarah can stop them! She has to cut her way through the wilderness, save incompetent members from Griffin order, save cute little animal helpers from misfortune and for once and for all to deal with the Dragon clan! Honestly, they should really know their limits by now… I don't want to spoil you, but nope.

We have enjoyed the scenery change and the graphics are truly pretty. HO scenes are varied and puzzles are not too hard, with a mysterious artifact at our disposal we have sets of puzzles to perform and they were fun to do. Story is okay with some plot holes, but that's to be expected I guess. Collectibles and morphing objects are again to be found, this time without any problem.

Your guess is right. The Dragon clan is yet again plotting against Griffins. This time they have uncovered a magical book which holds the spirit of a dangerous witch named Odessa. Sarah learns that only particular artifacts can be used against her and that they are scattered around the world, with the first being hidden in her new house, convenient. So Sarah sets on her quest and with all the artifacts she will also uncover hidden secrets from the past of Griffin and Dragon clans!

Yet again a quick HOG from Artifex Mundi with very nice graphics, varied hidden object scenes and good, not so hard puzzles. When using your artifacts you have to solve meta puzzles which are rather nice. Collectibles and morphing objects are also around. This time though I was pretty dissatisfied as the change takes a very long time, it's no fun like that, I want back my quick changes. Oh, the collectibles actually open short info about certain characters, items and animals. But it took far too many clicks to look at it…
In this game I have often felt lost and uncertain on what to do next, not sure why as the other games were rather clear. Maybe my mind just got clouded by playing three of them so close together.

On a mountain trip with your niece you get separated from her when she gets abducted by a mysterious magician. In your search for her you meet residents of a secluded village and learn that the magician is the master of the land. Through a magic mirror he provides villagers a connection with their dead loved ones. The price for this is high though and his intention is not clear. Can you save your niece before it's too late?

An okay HOG from Artifex Mundi. The Graphics are lively and colorful, voice acting is nothing amazing, but can do. Puzzles and hidden object scenes are good, nothing too hard, one of the puzzle types gets a little bit overused though. Through the story you will have to make choices on how to proceed next. Your decisions will be then accounted for in the final showdown with the villain, the ultimate end is unaffected by them though. To get all of the achievements you have to play the game two times.

In Haunted we play as a young girl Mary who is living in the streets of 19th century London. Haunted by guilt and visions of her dead sister she falls into the hands of a creepy duo, Professor Ashcroft and her simplistic assistant Ethan. Mary learns that prof. Ashcroft is doing some experiments with ghosts in the University. She captures them and wants to use them as an energy source for some strange machine. On her run from the University she frees her first ghost helper, captain Oscar. With his help she sets on an adventure through gloomy dark London, Scottish outskirts and deep forests of Transylvania. With the help of ghosts she encounters on her quest she gets closer to saving her sister from the clutches of our devilish duo.

So, the game starts all right. The atmosphere is fine, introduced characters play their role well, and the story is showing some potential. Sadly, this impression didn't last till the end. There are no puzzles, you are just required to combine items between themselves or use your ghosts on them (which I liked), the problem is that you have to do it in the right order or it won't do anything. I got stuck a few times because I tried to do one obvious thing which was pretty clear you have to do, but she declined to do it. And I didn't know why she refused it. She didn't say "That would work, but maybe I should do something else first" as is usual in such games (I believe)… it's maybe my fault for not seeing the other things, but it would made no difference in what order those action happened, trust me…
The humor is focused on bickering between the characters. Some bickers more than the others, but mostly all of them participate in it. What was a little bit amusing at the beginning turns to be annoying at the end. I would say that this kind of partnership works well for two of the ghost group, others are caught in it only because it seemed funny…? Your ghosts are usually on the screen and talks to each other, which seemed as a great idea, but they talk slowly or to better put it, it takes some time until each line begins, so if you want to listen to their whole conversation it turns into a huge time sink, ultimately I have decided to ignore it.
The graphics are not so bad, somewhat cartoonish and colorful, but also blurry and with almost non existent facial expression or lip movement. Music is fine, reminded me little of Fable I think.

Whole game consists of 6 chapters, after you complete the main story you can play a bonus story. The middle of the game lost its breath and I wasn't particularly enjoying it. The last chapter was fun though. Few aspects of the story, especially about Mary's parents, seemed somewhat off. I suppose there was a plan for a sequel, otherwise I don't get it.

I have not encountered any game breaking bugs except for horrible lag. It occurred every time after 20 minutes, not sure why. Simply closing the game wasn't enough as the lag continued even after getting back to the game, deleting saves also didn't help. Also the lag was only in game itself, cutscenes worked without any problem. Only solution was to play in a short session, which just prolonged my agony. Overall disappointment with the game just reminds me of another adventure game with ghosts - Ghost Pirates of Vooju Island, which also showed wasted potential.

Oh, BioShock, one of the best games ever made. It's brilliant. Even though I have played it a few times already, I am still mesmerized by Rapture… the idea, the characters, the story…

This time I have aimed for 100%. It was easier than I feared. You are allowed to save anytime even on the hardest difficulty, so you are pretty safe. Yeah, some of the fights can be pretty frustrating, but all it needs is some clever tactics. It was quite fun to tell the truth.
I didn't have any problems with the Remastered version, not a single fall or anything like that (a lot of discussion about it on forum). Only thing was that after my first death the difficulty got automatically lowered, so I had to restart the game (luckily I died pretty soon) to not lose the achievement… apparently you can play the game on lower settings and then put it on high, but I wanted the challenge. So check your settings properly before you go for the achievements.

In this playthrough I have also watched all of the developer commentaries. And it was pretty interesting. It's fascinating how the final product differs from the beginning idea. How the things that I found totally awesome, are just an outcome of necessity instead of a creative outburst… and many other fascinating facts. It offered another point of view on the series. Watch it after you play through the game (at least once) as there are spoilers (one wouldn't say, right?).

I love games from Supergiant games and Pyre is currently the best of them for me. It just has everything - great lively characters with brilliant voices, charming graphics full of vivid colors, beautiful… sooo beautiful soundtrack! And we can't forget the fights - challenging, ever changing, full of twists. Whole game is filled with so many emotions… I simply love it.

As I am now playing it on Steam again I will write more about it in the next update… maybe.

First game offered three goblins, second just two and in this game we have only one hero - brave young journalist called Blount. He sets on a quest of interviewing rulers of two quarreling kingdoms, queen Xina and king Bodd, and uncovering the roots of their animosity. But as his journey will be rather turbulent and full of obstacles he will need a lot of help... that he will get from three little sidekicks - silly parrot Chump, cute snake Fulbert and old magician Ooya. Even all their help can't prevent Blount from getting into trouble though. One of such situations results in Blount spontaneously turning into werewolf under the moon shine! Nothing stops him on his quest though and as he reconciles two old enemies he also uncovers a mystery about himself!

In addition to classic puzzle solving on screen with a set of items and your helpers there are "handy" mini games. In those you have only your hands to use, but beware, each of the hands can perform only one specific action, i.e. left can open, right can hold. Sometimes it could be pretty confusing and challenging, but it's still quite enjoyable. You also get to play as Blount's love interest, Wynnona. It's fun, even though it's only in one scene.
I liked how your helpers switch through the story, that way you can enjoy more of the funny moments with them as you try out their skills. Were-Blount also brought great laughs.

Third Goblins are probably best from the series, also hardest I would say. Puzzles require more of an actual thinking than mere trying. If you get stuck you can use Jokers, which work as a hint or more like a walkthrough, you will learn all required actions for the scene from them. Used it once on one of the "chessboard" scenes, gah, it was driving me crazy. Nice colorful graphics and good sounds set a great mood. In addition to cutscenes you can read in Blount's newspaper to follow his story.
Humor is still brilliant even after all these years and I have enjoyed it very much.

As a new intern, Allison has to work on each department. Many different challenges await her there. She is going to be confronted with different opinions, she has to learn how to cooperate with her colleagues and the hardest of all, she has to learn how to leave the emotions of her work. All of this in the shadow of growing flu epidemic.

The first installment in the Heart's series. I have no experience with the original game so I can't compare the differences much (during the time I bought and played the sequel it wasn't sold on Steam yet). There was no problem playing it after the sequel, you are at least familiar with all the controls and characters. I found the mini-games varied and fun to do. Also I didn't have a bigger problem to achieve 3 stars on them as with some mini-games in the sequel. Story is not as serious as in the next game, but that's understandable as we are just beginning to know everyone.
I have enjoyed it and can only recommend.

A HOG from SquareEnix! O.O

Japan during the 18th century. One night Irene finds her husband Richard dead. Local police chief evaluated it as a suicide, thanks to the note close to his body. There her husband, an employee of an US Embassy, admits his participation in smuggling precious and valued pieces of Japanese history and that the shame is too much for him to bear any longer. But Irene is convinced that her beloved husband would never do such a thing, so she decides to uncover the culprit of such hideous crime. In her search for truth she will visit many different locations - Embassy, police station, docks, Geisha house etc. As she follows little crumbs left by her husband she can rely on help from Kenzo, Richard's friend, and young detective Fujikawa. With them she will try to clear her husband's name and punish the murderer.

Nice relaxing hidden object game with few short puzzles. There are a lot of hidden object scenes, usually one for each location you visit and they get recycled. There is a huge amount of items in the screens and some of them are really hidden very nicely. You have two forms of hints - first will show you the shape of the item, second will show you the exact location. Only used the shapes, but finding some of the items was pretty hard. Graphic is older with soft colors, hidden object scenes seemed a little bit blurry. There is no voice acting, but the characters are changing their stands and expressions so it's nicely lively. Music is relaxing. To get all the achievements you have to play it twice, but it was enjoyable even for the second run. It's perfect for slow casual playing.

Funny and charming little game about three bearded brothers (I presume) and their adventures on the vast seas!

One day our bearded fishermen find a bottle with a map in it. Each of it anticipates a different thing, but to their surprise it's blank with only their island being marked. They go home to ask about it around the village and they are told that they need to draw in it their own adventures. Adventure it is then! As they once more set sail something happens and what they do after that will shape their future. Many times again!

In each adventure you have three points where you decide how their story will unfold. The skeleton of each storyline (do you even say it in English like this?) is the same with different outcomes. For you to see all of the possibilities you have to revisit them. The parts you have already seen a few times can't be skipped, but they are quite short and our bearded trio even reacts to the fact that they have been there already, so that was a nice aspect. Minimalist art suits the game very well as the great sounds and music, very adorable. Writing is amazing and the game as a whole offers some great laughs.

If the game had some more ending sequences, it would be perfect. Truth is that it can be a little tiresome to go through the similar scene so many times, but we played only a few stories each play session so it wasn't so overwhelming. Otherwise it's a short game that will bring a smile upon your face!

Jane and Mike were enjoying their boat trip when mysterious sign appeared in the sky. In a moment they got washed from their boat in a huge storm. Once Jane wakes up on a small island she realizes that they got separated… What's worse, Mike got kidnapped by some mad man! Could it be the lighthouse keeper? So Jane starts to explore the island which turns out to be some creepy ship graveyard. She has to uncover all mysteries surrounding this forsaken place to save her beloved.

An okay HOG with a lot of backtracking and sometimes unclear things to do. In the bonus chapter we got to play as Mike. Also it reminded me a little of Small Town Terrors Pilgrim's Hook, it had a similar vibe to it.

Good puzzle game about a Seer who opened his eyes in a world that orders them closed. To bring the change to the world the Seer has to come out of the depths and climb up the mountain. There he can let his voice to be heard.

I would describe the game as a Sokoban with sound control system and bit of stealth. There are four chapters, each has a different setting and introduces new enemies and gameplay elements. As your enemies can't see you, you have to lure them out of your way with your voice. But as they lost their sight their hearing became much more sharp. And they are also better runners than you. You also have to stay clear of spikes and firing guns. There is no penalty for getting caught or dying, if you don't aim for the related achievement of course.

The visuals are… strange, but rather suits the game. I liked the music. Voice acting is good, pretty emotional. Difficulty of the levels is constantly rising, although even some of the later ones were easier. Few of them were on the other hand pretty tedious and a pain in the back. The hardest for me would be the 3rd chapter. After completing the game you can play New Game+ in which you revisit the same locations with enemies from higher chapters, with new layout or completely different levels (just few). Here begins the double challenge.

Biggest problem of this game is the broken achievements. Sadly none of the achievements for chapter 3 are working and it seems like it will stay that way. Anyway, I marked it as completed, I am quite sure I would open them as I have opened all other achievements.

Great old adventure game about three goblins on their quest to save the poor king from claws of an evil sorcerer!

Each one of our trio has different skills so you have to figure out the right goblin for the required action - one can carry items, other can smash them and last one can do magic stuff. As they are rather clumsy it's fun to try everything with them and see them busted. Just don't forget about your health, as each wrong action costs you portion of your life. There is no save, so if you die, you get reloaded to the beginning of the current screen with the health you had when you entered the scene. The screens don't take long so it's not a big problem. After successful completion of the screen you get a code which works as a load, so don't forget to write it down.
The sounds were now more comfortable then before, not so ear tearing. X)

It was pretty nostalgic to revisit it again. When I was little and didn't know a word in English it was much harder. ;)

The torments of our dear king never stops! His young son, prince Buffoon, got kidnapped by devilish Amoniak, who overthrew the king of the neighboring kingdom and began his rule of terror. Our two brave heroes, Fingus and Winkle, decide to save the poor child. Their route won't be easy and they have to combine the intelligence of one with the strength of the other.

There is no longer the life bar so you can safely try with the two goblins anything you would like. It's really fun to watch them in miserable situations. XD You have to cooperate well in this game, a few times you have to hit the exact timing in which to perform some actions. Yeah, I got frustrated one or two times…. I hate that cockroach…

The second game in the series offers yet again great humor and puzzles (some beyond imagination). Graphics are nice, colorful. Noises and sounds are still funny. One thing I don't remember were those cutscenes and voiced characters, they were just doing bloop bou bap boo. It's nicely done though and doesn't break your immersion.