Inside: Return of the Obra Dinn, Case of the Golden Idol, Inspector Waffles, Murder Is Game Over, Tangle Tower (Det Grimoire #2), Subsurface Circular, The Samaritan Paradox
Only Tangle Tower is a rec, lol.
Author Archives: Act
The Blackwell Series
It’s such a treat to see a writer improve. It’s what I love about teaching stupid freshman, and it’s one of the reasons I also go through developer catalogues chronologically; it just makes me warm and fuzzy.
The remainder of the Blackwell games are pretty good. I’d actually rec just skipping the first one (or reading a plot summary) and playing the rest. The puzzle design is golden, the characters are compelling, and it’s just a great supernatural mystery series. I didn’t love the final conclusion which marred it a bit for me, but there’s definitely a lot of good stuff here.
CW, both in games and below reviews, for depression/suicide.
Spoilers abound inside, though I’ve tried to black out the more severe ones. I care less as time goes on though, sorry!
Detective Games, Part 5
A real eclectic bunch this time.
Inside: Inspector Schmidt: A Bavarian Tale, Overboard!, Detective Case and Clown Bot in: Murder in the Hotel Lisbon, On Your Tail, Little Locked Rooms, Emerald City Confidential
The recs are Inspector Schmidt and Emerald City
CW: One of the games uses a homophobic slur and I briefly talk about it.
Detective Games, Pt 4
Inside: Brok the Investigator, Song of Farca, Chicken Police: Paint It Red
CW for alcoholism and depression/suicide in the Chicken Police review — I talk a bit about how Chandler died, largely because I don’t like how the game treats drinking as a character quirk.
The Seance of Blake Manor
This game is a masterpiece. I put 15 hours into it over the course of two days staying up til like 3 AM each time because I just couldn’t put it down. There’s really nothing better than a good ghost story.
Detective Games, Pt 3: Lacuna
Good detective fiction, as we’ve seen, can use the genre to make meaningful critique of the socially constructed nature of the law and the unstable identity of crime and the criminal.
Bad detective fiction is a vigorous defense of the status quo, a reification of the mandate that the Institution in every form must be protected at all costs.
Detective Games, Pt 2
Big big rec for Paws of Coal. Absolutely amazing.
Inside: Blackwell Legacy, Fayburrow, Paws of Coal, Detective Grimoire, The Last Express (kind of)
Detective Games, Pt 1
Detective Penguin sent me down a detective game rabbit hole.
(The intro to this got long, but oh well.)
Inside: The Darkside Detective, A Case of Distrust, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, Nut City Blues, Shivah
QuickPans: Extremely Quick Edition
I play so many bad games, but the sins of the bad games I’ve played over the past 6 months are largely of the boring and bland variety and don’t seem any more interesting to review than they were to play. Nonetheless, here they are with a sentence or two about why I disliked them.
I originally thought this post would be far longer but it turns out there’s a good deal of games I marked as disliked that I just straight up don’t remember.
Inside: Little Wings Deliveries, Newt One, Planet of Lana, Bugtopia, Grapple Dog, Spells and Secrets, Flooded, Jusant, Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles, One Lonely Outpost, Kamaeru: Frog Refuge
Another Crab’s Treasure
I’m curious if anyone else has played this game. It was on my wishlist forever, has stellar reviews, and I ended up DNFing it. I just found it deeply unfun but can’t shake the feeling I’m like, missing something.
QuickRecs: Surgery Edition: Part 3
Dungeons of Hinterburg, Against the Storm, Sumire
QuickRecs: Surgery Edition: Part 2
Inside: Lil Gator Game, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara, Dredge, Dadish
go play lil gator game
Crashlands
I did not expect to like this game. I found the visuals ugly and usually find “topical” humor to be juvenile and an excuse to not write real jokes. At first the world felt open and empty, and I worried it was yet another survival crafter with no thought given to plot or gameplay.
Slowly but surely, Crashlands won me over. It visual design was consistent and thoughtful, clearly purposeful and tone-consistent. The writing was good and often quite entertaining, with a self-aware tongue-in-cheekiness. The scale of the plot slowly ramps up in a way that feels natural and engaging. And more than anything else, the attention and care it put into its worldbuilding and characters was above and beyond any game I’ve played in a while.
QuickRecs: Surgery Edition: Part 1
I had the fortune to have to undergo a bilateral masectomy in June, so I’ve spent months barely able to do anything at all. I’ve played a lot of video games. Enjoy the forthcoming waves of game recs. Not a lot of pans though — the bad ones I played were mostly just boring and bland, not really bad in a way that was interesting (with one notable exception, which I may get to later). I may put up blurbs on the curator page later just to remind myself what they were. Anyway.
Also these got long and aren’t really “quick” anymore but whatever I’m not splitting them now.
Inside: Unholy Heights, Deiland, Wavetale, A Monster’s Expedition
Ooze Keeper
Continuing the trend of very janky indies that I’m weirdly fond of, Oooze Keeper! Even though they are slimes. In all the game text, they’re slimes. What are oozes. Someone help.