The Medium

"You see dead people" the game.

The Medium was a third person game billed as psychological horror, the really felt more like a walking sim at times - navigating room to room to find hotspots for some unexplained "reason", really just to propel the dialog.   

The puzzles were such that you are split between two realities, and have to work with yourself to bypass obstacles.

It might have had an interesting story, but a game should not put you to sleep looking for hot spots as a rule.  DNF - probably stopped at 10% TBH.

Meltopia

 The world has frozen, and you've got a flamethrower.

That's effectively it in a single line.  Things you uncover in the snow might be upgrades or artifacts or reasons to dig further.   There is a "coldness" you have to contend with that adds a bit of a timer to your missions and the mazes are a bit chaotic to figure out because you traverse them a few times as they transform before you've melted all of the snow.

I found myself getting lost - it was fun but the last few artifacts I needed I didn't care to hunt through areas I had already scoured.

Indika

Indika feels more like a contemplation than a "game".  You slow walk as a nun who is having some hallucinations, questioning your faith and contemplating evil.

Through this and the bizarre 8-bit interludes (a realism based game with pac-man sections for exposition between levels (it was weird) we learn that Indika became a nun based on a situation where she felt guilt for a friend that was killed by her father.

The finale has her tracking down some religious artifacts to try and free herself of the demon she feels is haunting her, only to find the "kudets" empty.   She sees a demon in the mirror - but when she sees the kudets do not exist, it disproves her belief in both god and demons so she sees herself in the mirror.

Fade to black.

What?

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.