Hidden Folks

 Hidden Folks was a game that might have a lot of promise in a different form.

It is a Where's Waldo sort of game where you try to find people in a busy town, but there is no ... rhyme or reason or puzzle or ?? to do other than calling it done.

It also appears that some of the levels must have randomized elements because I'm about 90% positive there was a perfectly matched person that did not match for me. 

This game will put you to sleep ... 

Dave the Diver

 Dave the Diver has you scuba dive (shocking I know) to hunt for fish to support a sushi restaurant.  It's a great game with obvious upgrades to allow you to withstand greater pressure depth and collect/hunt more fantastic fish for your restaurant.

But this game suffers a bit from .. over production?  Not only am I managing a sushi restaurant, but I have a farm, a water farm, a fish farm, a mermaid plant farm, a second restaurant, a social media account, I'm taking photos, collecting playing cards for some reason, doing "green ocean" missions, hunting rare fish, racing seahorses, playing cards, I'm researching for a scientist,... oh, I'm doing missions.

Maybe if these additional features had been rolled out after I was done with the game as other ways to play, or just presented in a way that left them as less urgent than the main quests ... as it was, it was a bit overwhelming.  DNF.

The Beginner's Guide

From the maker of Stanley's Parable .. kind of thought it was going to be something more than a short story to walk through, or at least more .. of a story?

You walk through some early video game environments learning about this genius that narrator is big fan of, this is a collection that he's gathered together to tell the story about how this guy stopped creating, but I guess the reason he stopped creating was this guy's relentless pursuit ... and ... dramatic music ensues. 

This game wanted to be more than it was, the story was decidedly not epic enough for the visuals and the visuals were decidedly not epic enough for the story.

Doors: Paradox

Doors: Paradox is the next in a series of "puzzle box" adventure games.  This had some things that worked but much of it felt ... on rails, which at times had me looking for the one thing I missed.

Still is fun to make it all happen, but could use a more unified purpose to why things are what they are.

 

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Banishers is a game with a lot of promise and a good story, but falls a little bit short in the execution. 

You are the surviving part of a ghost-banishing duo, and are given the option through your helping of New Eden whether you want to "Ascend" the ghost or "Banish" and steal it's life force.  If you banish enough people you will be able to bring Aentea back to life using the life force you steal - but the agonized screams of the first I banished (he deserved it) made me rethink the plan.

The ghost stories were intriguing, but the process of retrieving every clue and getting a nice bow tied around the story didn't make me feel like I was making the tough moral choice with 80% of the facts.  Everything is laid out before you so you can make that final judgement - so you question your brutality with the result vs. questioning your moral judgement.   

Great game I suppose in the end -- I was feeling it when I had to say farewell and immediately went to look at the alternate endings to see if I messed up with my choices.

Little Nightmares

 This game was received free when purchasing Little Nightmares II, so I figured it appropriate to play first.   You're a side scrolling little dude in a house full of creepy things that eat little dudes.

It's quick and thankfully the puzzles are not difficult to execute or understand, so it was really a matter of wandering and running through a house trying to escape and not be caught by the giant gangly residents.

My favorite part was trying to escape a horde of corpulent eaters falling over each other and flopping on the floor after me.   They really dressed the set ... wonderfully gross?   Quick play - 5 hours total without purchasing DLC.

Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown

I was pretty jazzed about the idea of this game, making decisions as captain of a Star Fleet vessel and the potential moral compromising you must do when your choices affect the galaxy and your crew being able to get home.

This was an independent developer, so it did not have a lot of depth for the breadth that it covered - you adventure across 12 different sectors for a total of 7 years in a loop of harvesting resources to repair/upgrade your ship while surviving these encounters in an attempt to get home.

Pretty well done, though the game play loop got boring at times - there were good decision loops, oftentimes it's somewhat impulsive to choose the most viable result as far as % success, but you had to weigh each option - because it IS easier to nuke the station and create a black hole, but then ... black hole.