The premise of the game is simple - organize cats of different shapes into square grid, and in its simpleness it works well.

There are 80 levels for you to crack with a slowly escalating difficulty. Some of the levels can be pretty challenging, I would say even hard, as some of them took me a lot of time. My biggest problem in such cases was that I have unknowingly tried the same solution again and again, even though I believed that I haven't tried this particular combination yet. ^^ Later in the game the square grid gets larger with a lot of cats to fill in and you can easily lose track of which one exactly you should try to position elsewhere.

Even though I became stuck like this a few times, it's rather relaxing and I have really enjoyed it. The cats are very cute, both in design and their sounds. Their descriptions fits my cats in many aspects. =^_^=

Second game in Blackwell series, but this time we are gonna experience the life of a Medium destined to helping the lost ghosts from a perspective of Lauren Blackwell, aunt of Roseangela Blackwell the heroine of the first part.

Our main duo, Lauren Blackwell and Joey Mallone, can't surprise us much, because we got solid background on them in the first game, but to see them actually working together is a joy. Although a little bit bittersweet.
Lauren is pushing through her life without any certain goal or purpose out of helping the lost ghosts, which is a never ending work. We can say that she is undergoing a burnout. Joey is trying his best to make it easy for her, to support her, but what can he do exactly when he is only an immaterial entity? Lauren's current job of solving mysterious murders will present before her serious questions about her future life and in the end the decision is made. And as we already know, it's not gonna be for the better.

Gameplay wise it's an adventure game focusing on investigation and combination of clues more than on simple item using (there still is some). Sometimes you can become a little bit stuck, but simply trying everything on everything will save the day (as always). This time we can even switch between our main duo, which offers new perspectives and possibilities in the investigation.
The highlights of the game are yet again greatly written characters and their voice actors! The interaction between Lauren and Joey works really nicely and especially Joey gets shown in a more carefree mood, which is a welcome change from the first game where he is more bitter.
Oh and the music is awesome, one could just sit and listen to all that jazz!

The game isn't long, but for getting 100% you need to play through it two times. If you are lucky. Yet again you have to experience the whole game with a developer commentary, which sheds an insight upon the creative process in making the game and other interesting stuff. I really enjoyed that, my only complain goes to the missing subtitles, because sometimes it was hard to understand them and I didn't caught their every word. More problematic proved to be the achievements for Lauren’s smoking - one time you need to smoke as little as possible, the other way too much. But as there is no counter you will get to know after the end. The high count isn't a big problem as you will just load it up, but you can't lower the count exactly… so if she smokes too much you have to replay the game again. Word of advice, be quick and don't linger anywhere, because when you play as Joey she is gonna light up her cigar. So you really want to do a speed run. Little counter for us in the notebook or some notification would have been helpful for sure. But other than that I don't have any issues with the game. Blackwell Unbound offers a great compelling story and further builds upon the Legacy, can only recommend it. <3

Not sure if it's needed to somehow introduce Wolfenstein and B.J. Blazkowicz character, so just a few quick words… The year is 1960, alternate reality where Nazis won the II. world war and rule the world now, last remnants of resistance are still trying to fight back with more or less luck. And although Blazkowicz spent the last 14 years in a vegetative state he is the one who's gonna hunt the Nazis down one by one!

I will say it right away, this game is awesome! Killing the Nazis is such great fun and so satisfying! Also, there are so many ways to take them down - silently from behind with just your knife or two; from a cover with a silenced handgun; or you can close up at them with a fully loaded shotgun and let their heads blow up; or you can ambush them with two-handed assault rifles… So many possibilities for you to pick from! Good thing is that most of the chapters can be done in a subtle stealthy approach if you don't fancy a heated up firefight and even then there is usually a spot that offers you some kind of an advantage (have to say that for me the most hardest chapter was the Return to London Nautica, my heart still hurts when I remember it).
The pace of the game is great with just a short time for Blazkowicz to catch his breath before his next action, it's nice to connect with other members of the resistance. Level designs are pretty good, nicely varied and offer some pretty challenging (boss) fights. In addition to collecting Nazi's scalps we can search the locations for enigma codes, golden items, letters which will uncover more about the lives of the people, upgrades for armor and health. Throughout the game we will also open descriptions of visited places and every important character. As for the enigma codes - once you collect them you need to crack them and trust me that it's easier than it looks, the solution is right inside the game. Just keep your eyes open. Prize for solving those numbers are new playing modes for some additional challenge - like Ironman with no saving or checkpoints, only one life for a whole game. I have tried one of them (999 mode), because I am no masochist, and it was fun… for a while. As I have played through the game before, going right away through the same old story turned out to be slightly off-putting.

I really liked the story, some moments were truly unsettling (Camp Belica), but it was fun. The characters are great, very likeable and believable. Voice acting is just superb! I really enjoyed all the German, Polish, English… voices, they do a great work at creating fitting atmosphere. <3 Graphics are pretty good looking and I loved how Blazkowicz plays with his weapons when he is idle! I have really expected that he will stab himself with the knife once. XD Music is also very good and you can tell when some serious fight is gonna happen by it.
Through my three playthroughs I haven't encountered any bugs or some kind of problems, which is usually rare.

So, soldier, what are you waiting for? There are Nazis out there that need to be killed!

I both adore and hate this game. We took turns with my soulmate in playing Airscape, because sooner than later your head is gonna be dizzy from it.

We are playing as Orange octopus on a quest of saving its family from a clutches of some mean alien abductors! As we go through the levels in 18 zones we have to save sea critters as they are needed for our progression. Good thing is that we don't have to collect every one of them in the respective zone as the next one opens with a lesser number. Pretty convenient with harder levels.
We will slowly save our octopus siblings one by one. Once they are saved, they can be used and some levels require their specific abilities (although it should be possible to complete each level with every octopus, I am not gonna test it for sure). Mind you, the last ultimate Boss fight will be Orange's duty which doesn't have any special skills.

The game description doesn't lie - ultra-challenging. Yes. It's very, VERY MUCH challenging. I can't possibly stress enough how challenging it really is. Don't be fooled by its colorful and cute graphics, because you are gonna get smashed, squashed, blasted, minced, disintegrated, eaten or drowned in acid on a regular basis. It's fast-paced. Yes, you need to be quick, because most of the hazardous things around actively seek to destroy you. You are left with only a fragment of a second to make a jump or slide or run and most of the time you are not gonna make it. Majority of the levels can't be done on a first try, because you are going blindly ahead and you are gonna meet some nasty surprises on the run. Practice makes perfect.

With a high probability you will get motion sickness from Airscape, because of the frantic rotation that happens all the time. There isn't much you can do with it. You can lower the screen rotation rate, which will seem like a good idea at the beginning, but later in the game you will get in some tight spots because of it. What is mandatory to know when controlling your octopus is that you move where you "look". So as the screen rotates you can suddenly move the other way and die. You can center your view by a dedicated keyboard button, but realizing where exactly you are will just rob you of a precious time. Also the rotation actually helps your octopus to gain momentum in quicker sequences. In the end we set it back to normal.

As for the difficulty, I will repeat yet again, it's high. Each level has usually two or three checkpoints from which you are gonna start when you die. Sometimes it doesn't seem enough though and some sequences are quite punishing, frustrating even. In such a case it is best to take a break from the game. After all, we were playing through it with combined powers since 2020.

I think Airscape deserves a recommendation although it's certainly not for everyone and those who decide to play it can feel pretty miserable from time to time. But all of it will be forgotten once you clear some hard levels and then you will strive for more. You have been warned.

In DISTRAINT we play as a young man called Price who longs for a better life, one where he is successful and can afford a higher standard of living - because with wealth comes happiness, right? To obtain the desired recognition from his bosses Price has to work hard and complete given tasks of property seizure without asking, doubting, disobeying, showing compassion… but as Price isn't a heartless individual his first assignment shakes him to the core. Questions concerning ethics and morality of his work resurfaces with a growing urgency and his conscience gets exposed to horrid hallucinations. Each step he takes brings him closer to his desired future life… the question is - does he still long for it for such a price?

DISTRAINT is a pretty good little game. It's a little bit weird to say that I had fun with it, when we consider that it's a psychological horror, but I have enjoyed my two playthroughs and even had a few laughs. The graphic design is rather strange but very appealing, especially the color tinting in different scenes. Music is also fine and helps to create the right mood when you explore, run for your life or just wander drugged up through halls.
Everything in the game is rather simple and yet it manages to deliver disturbing and unpleasant feelings that are closely tied up to our society. Through the character of Price the game holds a mirror to our greedy souls and shows ugly things in it. Whole atmosphere of the game is heavy, unhappy and every time a flicker of hope shows up it gets stamped by an elephant to the ground. So, if you are not feeling well, wait a bit before playing it and go find some cute kittens instead. Otherwise I can recommend it to anyone who's not afraid of taking a glance in the mirror.

When the world find itself at the crossroad and the tension is slowly growing among the people, it's a high time for its divine protector to appear. Celestial elephant Yono is sent upon this world to help the people find balance and lead them into a peaceful and prosperous times. But as Yono is just a small, young elephant it's hard for him to see how he could help anyone. With newfound friends he travels around the world, meets its inhabitants, learns about their hardships and dreams… after all, it's not about solving their problems for them, but more about accompanying them through their life. And Yono has still time to search for his purpose on this word before he becomes a full fledged celestial protector.

Yono and the Celestial Elephants is very charming, relaxing game. Playing as this small blue elephant is probably one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Running around or splashing water from my trunk always brought me a big smile! Also can't forget about the fact that Yono doesn't have hands, so if you take some items you carry it on your head and as you move the item jumps on your head. :D Money that you collect can be spent on changing your appearance and there are a lot of possibilities!

There are three main locations with sub-locations that connect them. You open a quick travel after you successfully go through, so you don't have to walk through them again. But if you have missed a collectible core (that raises your health) you can of course explore some more, but I have usually collected everything without any problem. Another thing you will collect are letters. With enough letters you can restore ancient tomes and learn about your celestial predecessors and their deeds on this world. I have enjoyed reading about them!

Graphics are cute and colorful, the music is cheerful and fits the game well. As for gameplay I'd say it's a 3D sokoban. Most of the time you are required to push some box on a specific place for you to be able to proceed. Every location adds something new - like ice cubes, balloons, chili peppers etc. Most of the puzzles were pretty straightforward, some required a little bit of trying, but the overall difficulty is easy, which is fine as it doesn't disturb the relaxing atmosphere. There is also a little bit of fighting with simple enemies (snakes, rat bandits) and a Boss fight awaits you at the end of each location - you always need a right tactic on them which can be hard to realize (I look at you Dog), but they are overall fun.
I had some problems with controls (played on keyboard) and sometimes it was hard to position yourself on the exact spot required in some moments (when splashing water etc.), but it wasn't any serious game breaking element. I have encountered a bug (?) when I have solved a puzzle in the wrong way and leaving the screen didn’t reset it. Loading up solved it.

I have really liked Yono and the Celestial Elephants. It's cute, funny and heartwarming, if you want to cheer up then this is the perfect game for you. I'd say it's great for the younger audience, but even if you are far beyond this age range you can quite enjoy it. I know I did. :)

As is pretty clear from the game's name, this time we will follow Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to the dangerous moorland in an attempt to save Henry Baskerville from a family curse which haunts them in a form of devilish dog for several generations! In the old Baskerville manor we have to visit long abandoned rooms of Henry's predecessors in a search for clues about the curse and how to break it.

This is truly excellent HOG! I have really enjoyed the setting which is pretty dark with a few scary moments. Graphics are very nice and detailed, music creates a rather ominous atmosphere and suits the game. Whole game is dubbed, so we can enjoy our familiar duo from the main games, which is a big plus!
Game is taking place mostly inside of the manor and its many rooms and we are gonna visit some of them even in the past (yep, time travel)! We have a map so we can see in which room an action is required or which was completed. We can also fast-forward through it. That the room is completed is also shown right on the screen once inside (even on hard difficulty), so no searching for missing objects or hidden object scenes there.

Hidden object scenes are of good quality and with mostly easy finds, although few items required a bit of searching. There is also a huge amount of puzzles and I simply loved it! They were nicely varied, clever and of good difficulty spanning from easy to normal. But two or three puzzles were actually extremely hard and solving them on my own was a real challenge!
To get all achievements you have to play the game two times, because Completing the game in hard mode won't open achievement for Completing the game… yeah, silly. XD When selecting the difficulty at the beginning you are told that on hard are the puzzles and HO scenes harder than on easy difficulty. And let me tell you that it isn't true. I didn't see any change in any of them, the extremely hard puzzles were still extremely hard. But this time I could use the skip button as I already got the corresponding achievements, so no harm done. ;)

I wholeheartedly recommend this game to lovers of HOGs and detective stories with hints of the supernatural. Just beware that the standard rational explanation from Sherlock Holmes doesn't happen this time!

Postmortem: one must die feels more like a demo or a teaser for a bigger game. The concept alone is rather interesting - you are an agent of Death visiting a benefit banquet and one of the persons present is your target. Which life you are gonna claim is completely your decision. You can spend the night roaming around the house (one floor), searching the rooms for clues about this world and talking with the people. Like that you can learn more about the conflict that is currently happening in the country, about their opinions on it, about their future desires or hopes. By talking to them you can also influence them for the better or worse, you will know for certain after your task is done though. With this knowledge you may decide whose death would be most beneficial for the country and then take him. Or you can just enter the banquet and kill the first person you meet. That also works.

So I liked it, but it's over so quickly… there isn't any particular replayability, only if you want to see what impact on the conflict has the death of each person at the party. At the end you are given an article in the newspaper which summarizes what happened at the party and then final words about the conflict and its development. That's all. Maybe if there would be more stages? Like helping to shape the country in the long term through this supernatural selection? As I say, like this it's just a demo.

I liked both the graphics and music. It's also very well written, the lore of the world is interesting with many possibilities on how it could continue. But it's so short, and when I say short I mean like 10 seconds to be done with the game. There are no secrets to uncover, no different future (it all ends almost the same way with only small differences). After you are done you are given an option to compare your results with other players, sadly it didn't work for me. I don't know, if it catches your interest grab it during a high sale.

Starfighter: Eclipse is a BL visual novel game set in the same universe as Starfighter comics of the same orientation. Because of that it's highly advisable to first read the comics, as most of the characters in the game have made their appearance there. The comics are short and completely free on the web, from them you can also decide if you like this particular setting and if yes, you are safe to go with the game.

We play as Helios (code name, everyone has one), a fighter, who is newly assigned to an Alliance starship Kepler. As he barely connects with his navigator, Selene, they are tasked with exploring an alien derelict ship. Simple recon mission turns bad when a member of another team gets hurt by a short circuit. Everyone pulls off from the derelict to the safety of the Kepler, but before long weird things begin to happen on the ship. Could one of them be a saboteur? Well, that's what Helios has to find out. ;)

It's basically a standard visual novel game with many choices and five romantic/just for sex pursuable characters (Cain, Abel, Deimos, Selene, Hayden). The game spans in a horizon of four days, so there is no time for usual dating and most of the time the boys go quickly down to business… if you get my point. ;) Only true everlasting happy end can be achieved with Selene as Cain and Abel are main heroes from the comics and a pair. So even if you end up with one of them (or both) it's only for a brief moment, so enjoy it. ;)
I liked the story, it was nice to revisit the Starfighter universe again. The game is rather short and you can be quickly done with it (there is skip). But to say the truth getting on Deimos's route was pretty painful.

I really like the monochrome graphics with slight hues of other (mainly light blue) colors, in this the game stays true to the comics. Also even if the graphics are slightly different from that in the comics it's still pretty great and most of the CGs are exceptional and very erotic. Music is normal, nothing extra, but the opening and ending themes are pretty awesome and I have enjoyed listening to them very much. There is no voice-acting, but I don't take it as a problem.
My only complaint goes to the lack of save slots, for the amount of choices it’s just not enough… Also more often than I would like the menu interface stopped working - I couldn't get into the save/load menu, to settings, to main menu. Only way to make it work again was to restart the game.

But even with these little flaws I can recommend it to any lover of BL visual novels, you won't be disappointed. Also there are no hard fetish practices or non-consensual sex so it's perfect for newcomers to the genre.

This is without a doubt the worst Sherlock Holmes game in the whole series for me. I hate it. I hate Arséne Lupin from the bottom of my heart and I want to never ever see him again!

Visuals are fine, but filled with a few graphic glitches like walking through a closed door. Music is of a classical genre, but as there repeat only a few tracks it can get tiresome in the long run. Voice acting remains varied between good and bad. Gameplay is still the same, now for the first time the game begins with a tutorial and most of the game elements get introduced. You can again choose to play from first or 3rd person view (and yet again I have found the first person view more appealing). Big improvement is that when you are required to answer one of the many questions you can freely access Sherlock's diary and check the notes! What hasn't improved much is that sometimes you can answer very vaguely and sometimes you have to answer in precise wording. This inconsistency usually leads to a big confusion and later frustration.
If you ever become stuck you can use the in-game guide which is pretty neat. It won't spoil you right away on the puzzle as it will offer you hints and by them you can try to solve it. Sadly the answer doesn't offer an insight on how exactly you should have realized such a solution (and I would love to know in some cases).

Main focus of the game is puzzles and there are a lot of them. You will spend all the time going from one puzzle to another without a proper break. There is a huge amount of backtracking in every location you visit (Tower of London and Museum are the most ridiculous) and after the second location I just wished for it to be over soon… seemed to me like an eternity.

The beginning is quite promising. During breakfast Sherlock and Doctor Watson are going through new mail, when they stumble upon a letter by famous French thief, Arséne Lupin. In it he states that in a few days he is going to rob England of its five most valued items and by doing so he will utterly shame the Englishmen. As Sherlock can't stand such impudence, he accepts this challenge and promises to catch Lupin before he can fulfill his threat! Hints hidden in the letter lead our duo into the National gallery. There we have to deduce which one of the paintings is gonna get stolen. Even though we run around the gallery like idiots it's fun. We get to learn some facts about the presented arts and the riddles are quite reasonable.
The second area, Tower of London, stops being fun and instead turns into despair. Our main objective is to search for birds in the location, but the area is so insanely large that discovering them is almost a miracle. I thought that they would be making some sounds that would lead us to them… yeah, they do, but only if you step on the right but utterly tiny spot! The bird is on the ramparts, you search underneath them, but nothing happens so you go to search elsewhere… though luck, you just missed that spot! I have spent soooooo much time there running like stupid… it was really frustrating.
But don't worry, the next area is even better. British Museum turns into a torture. Lupin leaves behind notes with poems which should point yet again on his target. I liked the poems… at the beginning, but there is no end to them and I started to really hate them. You will find dozens of them in the museum. You will be yet again running around like crazy, doing one puzzle after another without a real sense of joy upon their solving. On one good clever puzzle there are three more stupid ones which mostly don't make any sense!!! I have really tried to solve most of it on my own, but with a few puzzles I had to consult a guide. Maybe if I tried to think about it for a few days… weeks… months… I could have done it, but to be honest I couldn't be bothered and just wanted it to be over already.

The rest of the game continues in the same vein and looks like a satire to the whole franchise. Doctor Watson probably underwent a lobotomy, because he is acting so stupidly that every time he is on screen you want to give him the final blow of mercy!
I haven't enjoyed this one. If you decide to try out Nemesis beware of the huge number of puzzles and riddles and their overall unbalanced difficulty.

This isn't typical Sherlock's point-and-click adventure game as it's basically a hidden object game, even though we got to investigate a murder. Although there is no voice acting, the scenes are mainly "stolen" from their previous games (especially from The Secret of the Silver Earring), music is on loop and it has mostly negative reviews on Steam I have enjoyed it in the end much more than the full-fledged Nemesis.

Highlights of this game would be for me the investigation of the suspects, where we searched for clues right on them, and the final deduction where we have to connect all the dots. Most of the puzzles are enjoyable and of good quality, nothing you'd get stuck at for too long.
Sadly you can't change game resolution and it's rather small. Biggest problem of the game are the hidden object scenes, which are usually crammed with items. Our search is based upon shadows of the required items and their position corresponds with their position on the screen, so that can give you a hint where to search for them. Some of the items are just ridiculously small or blending with the background… casual game can turn into frustration in a moment.
You can play with a timer on for a challenge or at your own pace without it. At each location you can see what items to collect and if there are any puzzles to be made.

It's far from perfect and you can definitely find better HOGs out there, but I found it enjoyable. Don't buy it on its own though and grab it in the Sherlock bundle.

Rather nice Matching 3 game with an ancient Japan setting. Story is simple, you have to help geisha and samurai with rebuilding a destroyed village and protecting its citizens. Visual are nicely colorful and music sets the right relaxing atmosphere.
There are 100 levels in total, nicely varied and with different shapes. You can play in three different styles - classic swap, chain and pop. To win the level you have to collect the acquired number of items, when playing in challenge mode you have to make it in a set number of steps. To make it harder there are a lot of obstacles to break through like boxes, stones, chains or ice. Luckily you have at your disposal four kinds of power ups that can help you with a stalemate. You can also shuffle the board and even rotate it, which proved to be pretty helpful.

My only complaint goes to the "Complete 200 levels!" achievement, as it's tedious to obtain. You have to play through the whole game again… the only change is that you can select a different playing style. I have come back for the achievement after 5 years, so it wasn't that bad, but doing it right after the first playthrough must be tiring. Otherwise it's a pretty and very relaxing game.

Finally a closure to the Secret Order series or I at least hope so. XD

Standard hidden object game with nice visuals and story full of loopholes. Puzzles were nice and of good difficulty, just the hidden object scenes were lacking as they were mostly consisting of collecting items by shapes and not standard searching by names, which I missed to be honest.
Good for killing some time.

Rather short hidden object game with a darker visuals and almost horror story - ship that disappeared many years ago returns mysteriously back to the port, but without any signs of the crew or the cargo. During our investigation we are gonna uncover dark secrets and an old curse!

Story was okay, sometimes I felt a little lost in it though… pretty common with HOGs, I know. Some of the scenes rather surprised me as it's not common for HOGs to be so brutal. Puzzles and hidden object scenes were okay with a good difficulty. There were parts that required some backtracking though. Good for casual gaming.

Simple looking disappearance of a foreign manservant leads Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson deep into darkness where old mysteries far beyond human imagination are lurking. Search for answers will lead our brave duo through London's docks, Switzerland Asylum, swamps in the New world and an old abandoned lighthouse. Would Sherlock's bright mind be powerful enough to overcome the growing insanity?

Sherlock meets with Cthulhu created by H.P. Lovecraft and it's a rather good experience, although some problems are still present. Visuals are old, but otherwise okay. Most of the graphic bugs of its predecessor are corrected or at least not so disturbing. Music is fine, but sometimes a dramatic music was playing in otherwise calm situations. Overall atmosphere is unsettling and creepy, which works well. Voice acting is again quite varied from pretty good to pretty bad.
This time we have two different points-of-view to choose from - first person and 3rd person. I have mostly played in the first person view as I found it more convenient, but the 3rd person view was good when searching for some missing interactions. Big help was the ability to highlight such interaction as some of the items are barely visible and without it we would be left with just the popular pixel hunting. We will spent most of the time in the shoes of our dear Sherlock, but Watson will also shine in some story parts.

Same as with the previous game (The Secret of the Silver Earring) we have at our disposal Sherlock's diary full of important information - dialogs, books, letters, observations… one big flaw though is that we can't consult it when it is most needed. Sometimes Sherlock asks Watson a question about the story (like where to proceed etc.) and we are required to actually write down the answer. Although I really liked this aspect it can turn to be a little frustrating… I am not a native English speaker and even with the subtitles it was sometimes hard to catch all of the information as Sherlock talks rather quickly, so you are left just with your memory, intuition, guessing or walkthrough. Not the best design.
Another important accessories of our great detective are tweezers, magnifying glass and meter. With them we can take a closer look at some of the evidence. This really suits the game.

It wouldn't be a detective adventure game without proper logical puzzles. Sadly their difficulty varies from easy / normal towards ridiculously hard. I have to admit, yet again, that I am not as clever as our greatest detective of them all and need some kind of help. Usually it would be in the form of a book or some hint (I love Nancy Drew)… no, we have a book that tells us that to keep away hungry mosquitos we have to use a lemon… really? REALLY? For that we get advice and for a horribly long sequence of numbers all we get is Sherlock's statement that it's easy to solve… no it isn't when I don't have the slightest clue on how to even begin!!! Argh.
Also I have found myself quite lost and uncertain of what to do next more often than I would like. We are yet again closed in the location until we find all things needed there, but sometimes I wasn't sure what else exactly he wanted. Another problem for me was that Sherlock often stated that something is uninteresting, so I ignored it, just for him to later need it without any obvious connection.

I can recommend Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened to lovers of adventure games with mysterious almost horror stories. Just be prepared for some unbalanced difficulty and few bad game design choices.

United States of America is making a standard military drill when it turns out into unexpected defensive mission. The year is 1983 and the enemy is appearing right next to them. The Soviet army is the first that comes to their mind, but it’s soon revealed that the truth is more difficult as the attackers are "Americans", just from a different universe! Their push is desperate and pretty aggressive. To stand a chance the Americans have to pass the barrier and enter enemy's reality, but they are gonna find there another enemy even more dangerous than the alternate army.

I really liked the graphic design and interface, it's rather simple, but it suits the overall atmosphere of the game. Although it's true that the individual maps could be a little more varied. I enjoyed the visuals of the units, be it on the map or in the closer look in the interface, but sometimes they could be hard to distinguish among themselves and especially at the beginning I choose the wrong unit because of it (always pay a proper attention to description).
Between missions are cutscenes that uncover little about the story, but mostly shows the mood of the soldiers. The voice acting is top notch! Overall the cutscenes do a great job in setting the right mood. The story is somewhat uncertain though.

Gameplay wise it's a tactical turn-based strategy game where you have to meet certain winning conditions - capture all points in order, capture all points (indifferently of order) or escort mission. The difficulty is slowly rising, but sometimes there are hardcore spikes which end up with multiple mission restarts; on the other hand there also rather easy levels even in the last chapter.
Every level begins with a selection of your units. You have limited points for them so you have to choose wisely, most of the time you can after a certain number of turns call for reinforcements and that can be what saves you in the end… or not. Each unit has a different movement speed and some of them even require a setting up before taking an action. Also most of the units can't move and fire in the same turn. This is crucial as you can get destroyed even before properly positioning yourself against the enemy.
When I started I was worried for my soldiers and even restarted the level if I lost someone. I have quickly realized that this isn't going to work in the long run as the enemy has a larger force against me and also quite an unfair advantage… The enemy always plays as second so it is you who has to move into the unknown. You can't scout ahead safely, because once you move you can't turn back and most of the time you end up right before an enemy unit which is gonna destroy you in the next turn. As you are mostly required to capture points in a certain order, you can't leave them unprotected as the enemy will push on you pretty hard… once you leave some route open be sure to get invaded by it. So the offensive approach is a no go then. Okay, you learn from this and prepare a trap for him. You position yourself carefully and create a protected perimeter and he just stands right on the border to never cross it, because he knows that you are gonna destroy him. He will cross it only under one condition - he is certain that he will overpower you and destroy you instead. And in most cases the luck works in his favor. Oh and don't forget his mortar that is set up on the other end of the map and can hit you anywhere where his troops are… and even though you know from where he is shooting exactly as it shows up on the map, you can't attack him with your mortar because he is hidden by a fog of war!!! So he is slowly killing you and you can't do anything against it… except for a suicidal mission.
This is all so stupid, because you can't create any proper tactic, he is always one step ahead. You are then left with sacrificing your units in a hope of luring him to your trap and gaining some breaking point by it. I also forgot to say that soldiers and vehicles can only attack just some of the units - like simple infantry can attack other infantry and not armored vehicles; infantry carrying anti-tanks missiles can attack even armored vehicles, but they have limited shots and so on and on. Now imagine yourself creating a trap against tanks when an enemy helicopter comes in and starts to kill your units one by one, because you have nothing to fend it off… Another thing that pretty much didn't make any sense for me was the inability of the infantry to move and shoot in the same turn, because like this they turn into sitting ducks (to add salt into my wounds - enemy has an infantry unit that can move and attack). Even more absurd is that they can't perform any action after leaving from a transport vehicle… really?

In addition to a strategy game there are two other mini games - cribbage solitaire and signals intelligence puzzle. This was my first time playing cribbage solitaire so it took me a little while to get accustomed to it, but it's quite enjoyable. Although the 100 wins achievement is simply ridiculous. In the intelligence puzzle you have to hack the radio console by connecting circuit. Some of them were pretty hard, but I have really liked it!

Even though I'm grumbling about Möbius I have enjoyed the whole game. It was challenging, hard, mind breaking, but also pretty satisfying upon the victory. Some of the elements could be more balanced and developed, but it wasn't a disappointment. If you are not afraid of being pushed over your limits then feel free to cross over the Möbius front.

Fat, lazy Wum is kicked out from his room in Wumhouse because of his unhealthy love for ice cream. He keeps ordering it to his room, but as the transport tubes get clogged because of it, he needs to pick it up himself down in the lobby. As Wums hold items on their heads he leaves a huge mess behind him! That's enough for the Wumhouse manager and our little hero is thrown out from his balcony! Out in the wilderness begins his search for a new home. And maybe he will even solve a few mysteries from the past and save the world before an unexpected destruction.

Wuppo is a charming game full of funny characters and silly moments. Both hand-drawn graphics and catchy soundtrack suit the game well. Wearing items on your head is a great feature and I have enjoyed changing my appearance through the game. The items are also nicely varied (purely cosmetic, weapons, food, for stealth…) and it was fun to try them out. Lore of the world is interesting and you can uncover it even more by collecting filmstrips which record the most important historic events, basic information about the world or some mysterious writings from the long forgotten past.
Gameplay wise it's a metroidvania. There are no basic enemies, except for some pests in one location, but a lot of bosses! Some of them are mandatory for a story progression, others are optional. Few of them are rather hard even on lower difficulty, but luckily there is no penalisation for dying, you just start the fight again. Playing on hardest was quite a challenge, but still fun.
Whole game can be experienced in co-op as the second player can assume the role of our sidekick, a talkative bird Denksnavel. Sadly his possibilities are quite limited - he can fly around and attack (some of the enemies can't be hurt by him, but he can at least protect our Wum by blocking some of the projectiles - that was pretty handy actually). And that’s all for the second player. Also he is bound to us as there is no split screen - he can't leave the screen on his own. This part is lacking, would be even a lot more fun if there could be two Wums together. Quite disappointing is the fact that your friend can't help you in Boss rush… yeah, I suck in it on my own. XP
All in all we have rather enjoyed the Wuppo and can recommend it.

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson are both invited to big reception organized by Melvyn Bromsby, a rich fellow, who is about to make an important statement concerning his daughter. But just at the moment he is about to announce it he dies of a gunshot right before everyone's eyes. Finding the culprit among the big audience will be a challenge and the case is gonna get more complicated on the way, but there is nothing that Sherlock wouldn't solve!

Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of the Silver Earring isn't a bad game per se, but it suffers from a horrible game design. The overall graphics look fine, especially the rooms are very detailed, but there are a lot of graphical bugs that break the immersion and bring a lot of unintended laughing moments. The most common problems are characters falling through furniture, levitating or growing so big they can't get into a door (check my screenshots)… I understand the problem with the perspective of a moving character, but I don't understand why they didn't correct the positions of the static characters… Well, maybe it's because the game was made on a certain screen resolution? Those are mostly cosmetic problems, but there is one stealth part where you have to stay out of the sight of a guard with two dogs which is almost impossible to do without a walkthrough and even with it it took me a few tries as it requires a precise and quick action. I blame the bad perspective as one of the dogs is completely out of the screen therefore out of your sight and there is no way to tell where he is until it's late… This was a rather frustrating part.
The soundtrack is classical with few looping melodies, it was louder than the voices in some scenes. Also dramatic music was sometimes played in completely normal situations. Voice acting is okay for Sherlock, mediocre and even bad for others.

Gameplay wise it's a point and click adventure game where we go through different locations in a search for evidence and clues to our case. Sometimes it turns into horrible pixel hunting as the items are hidden very well and you can’t highlight them. Also we can’t leave the location until all is done there, which is good on one hand as we know that we miss something, on the other hand we can spend time by going in circles in frustration as we miss that last little pixel to move on. Some of the found items we can later analyze with the help of Sherlock's chemical table and the results will shed more light on our suspects.
As we are the greatest detective of them all we are equipped with a great journal which holds every information we meet with be it dialogs, notes, evidence or Sherlock's own conclusions. At the end of each chapter a little quiz is prepared for us and we have to assign the right answers to every question. Sherlock will state if there is a mistake, but will not tell which one it is so it can turn into a little trial and error method. Some of the questions are rather vague and even though I wasn't able to connect all of the murders at the end, I have enjoyed connecting all the dots.
Being in the shoes of an ingenious detective can be pretty challenging in some moments. Especially if we don't receive any outside help… We are required to open a safe, Sherlock just states that it should be easy and that's all. All we see are just some lines of numbers and that's it. No book on safe cracking to read for us or some starting hint as from where to begin… this was frustrating for me. I tried to solve it on my own, but I am not as clever as our Sherlock star so I had to check the walkthrough. There I have learnt that I was completely off with my assumptions… I really like Nancy Drew games as there we always have something that will tell us how we should proceed with the puzzle. That way I can learn something new and be happy that I managed to solve it on my own.
Another part I really hated was a time-limited sequence in woods, where we have to extinguish a fire which threatens to destroy important evidence (Sherlock is pretty adamant about it). After a horrid navigation through the maze of trees, we quench the fire to only learn that all of it is destroyed… amazing, if you fail it’s a bad end mind you. Garh.

If you decide to go for it, be prepared for some unbalanced difficulty, buggy graphics and nonsensical development.

Richard Nolan awakens in a hospital bed after a car accident… or was he actually in a building that got sabotaged by a bomb explosion? Quick check up doesn't reveal any serious injuries except for a slight memory loss and confusion so he is released to home. There he searches for his wife and son. At first he believes they are at his wife's parents place, but as they don't come back the next day, he begins to truly worry. Where are they? What happened to them? Are they safe? His search for his family will lead him through a rabbit hole where he's gonna face unpleasant memories and facts about his life so far. To make things worse he finds himself in the middle of struggle for power over the future world between the global tech corporation and the regime's opponents / terrorists.

I don't want to spoil the story much, but the fitting description would be a futuristic slice of life - the topics are serious as the whole atmosphere, dystopia and utopia clashes against each other in an extreme depiction of both opposites. First playthrough of State of Mind was really intriguing and I wanted to know more as the story twisted with its progression and there were a lot of questions laid down before us. The tension of what is exactly going to happen was built well, even though you can guess some of the story development soon. The final climax though was rather weak and without a proper closure. Also neither of the two endings is a happy end, which was pretty sad as you are left without some kind of optimism. I don't know, but I expected something more from it.

I liked the graphic design of the game as it really suited it, and the soundtrack was also fitting. Except for our main hero, Richard, you are gonna play as four other characters and see the present, past or future world from their perspective. It works well for creating your own opinion of the world, sadly you can't influence / change it much. All you can do is select how you are gonna react in conversations which will influence what achievements you are gonna open, but the end will remain the same (except for the two three choices on which depends what kind of ending you get). This influencing impossibility is best seen on our main protagonist Richard. I have once said that the main character of Someday You'll Return is the most unappealing hero I have ever seen. Well, Richard actually wins the prize. The worst part about him is that he doesn't undergo any real development even if you willingly try for it. Nothing moves with him and it was hard to connect with him because of it. Playing as Richard wasn't very enjoyable...

State of Mind has interesting design and is dealing with difficult moral questions concerning the future of humankind. Although it can lose its breath in some moments, the story is interesting till the end. I recommend it to fans of sci-fi, dystopian / utopian stories with a touch of existentialism.

In Jotun we assume the role of Thora, a Viking warrior, who lost her life when her ship got sunken during a stormy night. As this was an inglorious death unworthy of a warrior, she is given a second chance to prove herself to the Gods and earn her place in Valhalla. From Ginnungagap, the Void, she has to venture into five different worlds and collect their respective Runes. Each Rune is protected by a mighty Jotun though and fights with them will put her fighting skills to some serious test. If she wishes to stand before Odin himself she has to endure and fight bravely to the end!

Even though Jotun is basically a game about fighting with Bosses filled with short intermezzos of exploration and story, it can be quite enjoyable. Each world offers a different setting (snow, grassland, magma etc.) with specific challenges to overcome on our search for the runes. The route isn't always straightforward and we are required to perform certain actions to open it. As we explore the surroundings we can stumble upon God shrines - bestow godly powers on Thora, trees bearing Ithunn's Apples - permanently boost Thora's life, Mimir's Wells - refreshes health and skills, or uncover secrets from Norse mythology.

All of this is wrapped in beautiful hand-drawn graphics and accompanied by a fitting soundtrack. Icelandic voices create an awesome atmosphere and listening to them was absolutely amazing. Jotun also does a great job in portraying Thora's smallness and overall insignificance as everything around her is so big (especially bosses), that she is sometimes even barely visible. ^^
Biggest flaw of the game is sadly in the fights. Thora moves around rather slowly, which is intensified even more by her smallness. There is no run option (only with a God skill and only for a moment), the illusion of a quicker movement offers a dodge roll. Sadly it's not very useful even during fighting. After the roll Thora doesn't continue in her movement (even if you hold the button), instead she stops for a tiny moment, which is enough to get hit. Also, when she rolls, she just pushes the enemies before her instead of smashing them around. So when she is getting up then the enemy is free to attack her. Not very helpful. Thora has only one weapon, her trustworthy axe, with two kinds of attacks - basic and powerful. Both of them feel slow and the powerful will even hold Thora on the spot until she releases it. Sooner or later one will get used to it… my biggest issue was with godly powers. There are six of them and they have limited charges, which is fine. What isn't fine, is that they are all set on (basically) one key! You scroll through them with Q and E, from the front or from the behind. In the heat of battle it can get pretty confusing and I have selected the wrong skill like that many times. When I was trying for the timed or no hit achievements it felt almost like a typing game as I have prepared a clear sequence to navigate through the skills.

Playing through the game doesn't take long (it depends heavily on your skills), so luckily those small problems don't overgrow into a bigger frustration. It was rather fun. Some of the achievements are pretty crazy, so kudos to all who manage to get them.

Little Nightmares is what would Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi by Hayao Miyazaki look like if Tim Burton decided to film it.
That's how I feel about it. I didn't know much about Little Nightmares when I started and after finishing it I still don't know much.

The visual design is truly creepy and unsettling. Similarly soundtrack helps to create the right atmosphere, which is really well done in the game. You spent your time crawling around or running away from your chasers and that can get pretty intense. Controls were okay, in some moments a little clunky, but worse was the camera angle in some jumping parts - I just couldn't see if I was in the line or not, so I usually died. This can be a problem when doing the no death run.
The game uses an autosave and only in certain locations, so it's better to leave the game after you are certain it was saved (I have sometimes mistaken flashing icon for save when it was just for a found collectible). When you die in a chase or you are caught when sneaking you are usually respawned right before that part, but when you leave and come back you can find yourself at the start of the area. The game isn't long and the chases are mostly doable on the first try, even though some parts require pretty tight timing for succeeding. Luckily re-doing my failures didn't turn into a chore and I have quite enjoyed it.

Story is… well there is something. Not really clear though. I still miss the DLC's, so I don't know if there is something more said about it, but I highly doubt it. I have read through official materials, different player's thoughts and many hypotheses, but nothing from it creates the right image (for me).

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.