For the past few weeks, when doing reviews, I’ve been doing two games in the same article—thanks to the new concise review format. But sometimes, you gotta give a game the attention it deserves, by making it the star of its own review, make it memorable. As it happens, this game is all about that, Forgotton Anne (and no, that’s not a typo!). Continue reading Review: Forgotton Anne
Tag: puzzle
Twinned Reviews: Without Escape & The Thin Silence
So yeah, doing this again, having a couple of games in the same review article. The format is here to stay! This time’s it’s Without Escape and The Thin Silence, a couple of puzzling adventure games, the former dealing with surreal situations and disturbing imagery and the second with depression, suicide and other sensitive subjects and both out on PC right now! Continue reading Twinned Reviews: Without Escape & The Thin Silence
Nancy Drew – That’s all Folks!
Last time I wrote about the Nancy Drew series, I had said it was the end of the road for me, at least until the release of the now almost mythical Midnight in Salem. Continue reading Nancy Drew – That’s all Folks!
Review: The Room: Old Sins
A new house, a new investigator and a brand-new complex set of puzzles to reach the Null element and discover the tale of those who fell to it. This is The Room: Old Sins.
Continue reading Review: The Room: Old Sins
Preview – Felix the Reaper
Being DEATH must be an interesting line of business. Making sure people meet their maker, or you, at their appointed time to keep the cosmic wheels turning properly. We’re used to seeing DEATH as this grim figure, as serious in his demeanour as his task entails, though if Terry Pratchett is to be taken as a guide, DEATH will have a biting wit and a knack for sarcasm.
But what if DEATH enjoyed his job, put a little soul into it and danced his way to your grave? That’s exactly what the in-development Felix the Reaper has for us, a boogieing, pumping Grim Reaper, enjoying some sweet tunes while he arranges the cosmic forces to make sure someone bites the dust! Continue reading Preview – Felix the Reaper
Review: The House of Da Vinci
Master Leonardo is in trouble, his latest experiment has drawn unwanted attention. He trusts you, his lowly apprentice to retrace his steps and aid him. To do so, you first must find a key and enter The House of Da Vinci.
Continue reading Review: The House of Da Vinci
Review: Semispheres
Most puzzle games have you controlling a single character or object, but what happens when you must control two of them, in parallel rooms identical to each other but need “cooperation” while still being single player? That’s the question and the core of Semispheres.
Continue reading Review: Semispheres
7 Things you Need to Accept to Enjoy the Nancy Drew Series
I promise, this will be one of the last Nancy Drew articles I write…maybe. Ok, it’s not likely. I like the games and there’s lots of them to talk about.
But what I want to talk about today is not about my experience. Instead, for those who haven’t played a single game in the series and don’t know how or when to jump in, I’d like to help you out. These are the things you need to know and accept before you jump into HeR Interactive’s long-running Nancy Drew series. Continue reading 7 Things you Need to Accept to Enjoy the Nancy Drew Series
Puzzle Games – Open vs Sequential
Last week I spoke of the two categories I separate puzzle design into, those being the story driven ones, the ones with a close tie to the game’s narrative and game universe common sense, and the challenge driven, those placed in the game just to give players something meaty to bite into, often tied to the game’s plot by theme rather than adhering to the plot, the locations, the character’s common sense, etc.
With those two in mind, I’d like to talk to you today about two other categories, but these are the ones in which I separate the games that feature these puzzles. Despite the article’s title, I don’t like to call them puzzle games, as puzzles in both categories can be in a variety of genres, with the puzzles being just another challenge offered to players, without them being the core of the experience—take the Resident Evil franchise for example, the first and latest titles heavy on complex puzzles but not their defining feature.
I base these two categories on how the players interacts with the puzzles in the world. They can be Sequential or Open.
Nancy Drew Series – The Road so Far
I said it on Twitter a few days ago, that this week I was going to name-drop or speak of HeR Interactive‘s Nancy Drew series quite a bit, because it’s the only thing I’ve been playing lately. I wrote last week’s article on how some Nancy Drew games surprised me with their fantastic handling of horror material and someone dropped a lovely comment and said I should have waited until playing Nancy Drew: The Ghost at Thornton Hall, the scariest game in the series apparently.
The truth is I’d have loved doing just that but monetary restrictions prohibited that. In other words, too broke to buy that game. So, instead I decided to go back to the first games in the series, as I began with The White Wolf at Icicle Creek, the 16th entry in the Nancy Drew series, and which, as I’ve mentioned several times now, I had seen on the YouTube channel Game Grumps.
Around Christmas I bought most of the Nancy Drew games in a bundle, missing only a fair few, and with Wikipedia offering a handy list of earlier entries in the series, I tracked down the earliest possible title—that I owned—and picked it up from there. That title is the remastered version of Nancy Drew: Secrets can Kill. Continue reading Nancy Drew Series – The Road so Far