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.