The Cat Lady - Halloween Special Review (PC game)

Susan is no longer with us; she’s gone to the world and, even before her suicide, she’s been gone a long time from society’s apathetic eye. But even after taking copious amount of sleeping pills Susan is still unable to escape her miserable existence as she awakens in a field, unsure of whether this is life, death, or somewhere in between you take control of her life and guide her staggering footsteps through the world, searching for a way out; of where, neither you nor Susan truly knows. Whereas death is supposed to be the end of a story for Susan Ashworth, it’s the beginning.

Developer: Harvester Games

Genre: Adventure/Horror/Point and Click
Release date: December 1st 2012
Platforms: Microsoft Windows
ESRB: M - Mature

‘The Cat Lady’ follows Susan’s journey back to life after she meets an old woman who wants to strike a deal with Susan to allow her the peace she longs for. Susan is instructed to seek out and destroy several monsters that lurk in the world of the living on behalf of the old woman. Despite Susan’s misgivings she finds herself powerless to resist and, after a brutal and bloody way of sealing the deal, finds herself transported back to ‘life’ but with a catch; she’s now temporarily immortal. For many, this would be a wondrous gift but for an exhausted, suicidal woman it’s an ironic curse that points and laughs in Susan’s face as she treks on with her journey and seeks to complete her task just so she can rest her weary soul and finally be allowed to die. 

It’s a cryptic, surreal and often disturbing journey that encourages you to lose yourself in the darkness of depression before guiding you out of it again. This is a game where the monsters are not aliens with guns or gloomy figures lurking down the other end of a corridor, this is a game where you are the monster in the dark as Susan is flung between anger, doubt, regret, fear and anxiety as she longing for death yet craves revenge. The creatures you encounter are reflective of the demons of Susan’s soul that, as anybody who has suffered from depression will tell you, are not easily vanquished. There will be a blood, and not just a little bit, the game is unashamedly macabre and Susan is forced to undergo several brutal deaths only to be cruelly resurrected again. The imagery of the game is morbid as well and at least every single chapter has a way in which the player may allow, or actively encourage, Susan to kill herself. There’s plenty of black humour in the game as well which I found appealing as, though this game touches on very serious subjects, it’s easy to become jaded to the horrific nature of things when you’ve lived with them for so long. Whilst the game has some extreme scenes of gore these tend to be offset by slower, storyline focused cutscenes so it’s not just a blood-fest, it’s a very well written and intelligently explored blood-fest. If anything, I would describe this as a game that is beautifully horrific. 

Whilst the narrative is by far its strongest point the puzzles are actually fairly good, though not extremely difficult, if anything they are there to provide you with a means to an end rather than as something to frustrate you and slow your progression. Since the game is mostly about atmosphere and storyline I didn’t mind that the puzzles were a little easy but, saying that, they were no walk in the park either and I had several moments of backtracking and getting confused as to what I had to do next. Importantly, the puzzles didn’t feel repetitive and the constant switching of environments helped in this aspect as nothing ever felt like a chore to proceed and it was all very much necessary and interesting. Some puzzles feature some obscure clues about how to complete them that are not just restricted to visual ones, there’s a fair few aural cues which are great for the atmosphere of the game. Generally, I found the audio very good even though the voice acting came across as a little stiff now and then and there’s a very irritating sort of static noise that’s quite loud and intrusive yet entirely intentional. I would have preferred that to have been either non-existent or with the option of turning it off as it was distracting and often made the characters hard to hear. The musical score is brilliant and I have no complaints there and, whilst I said the voice acting could be a little wooden at times, it occasionally did suit the atmosphere and I get the feeling that the developers wanted everything to be very drab and unemotional. Unfortunately at times this style did not suit the on-screen events. 

The beautiful horror of this game is wrapped up in its storyline but enhanced by the unique art style that is a cross between animated newspaper cuttings and old Polaroid photographs giving the entire game a gloomy yet striking appearance. Just like Susan’s life, everything feels a little pasted together but despite this the animations are smooth, the facial expressions are detailed and everything just flows so perfectly. Visually, the game feels very much like a 1990s game which for a point and click puzzle game is just the perfect era for me, especially with it being a horror game as it reminds me strongly of much beloved games such as ‘I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream’, ‘Sanitarium’ and ‘Phantasmagoria’. Amusingly, the game also feels quite 1990s due to the very low resolution that it plays in but this doesn’t bother me so much. There are a couple more problems with ‘The Cat Lady’ though that does tend to spoil the experience a little; the controls for instance are fairly unresponsive, especially during dialogue when you’re trying to skip lines you’ve already read. Susan also does walk incredibly slowly and at one point I was quite sure I had time to go make a cup of coffee in the time she walked from one side of the screen to the other. When you’re lost and backtracking to find things, this is extremely irritating though it may just be my own impatience. Simply, a ‘double clicking to skip to the next screen you clicked on’ feature may be good as I recall several point and clicks doing this in the past. 

Complaints aside, I was utterly entranced by this game and it’s by far one of my favourite point and click adventure games, even with the huge spattering of horror and gore that’s been slapped all over the place. It’s a brilliant example of mature themes that have been done right in a way which is thoughtful, sensitive and intelligently where it doesn’t shy away from controversial issues yet doesn’t make a mockery of them either. If themes such as suicide, mental illness, depression and death offend you then this is not a game you’re going to get on well with as it is utterly unashamed in its approach to the reality of how some people want to die and will go to any length to do so. Whilst the gore side of things can be sometimes a little over the top I found it shocking yet, oddly, refreshing as there have been plenty of these sorts of games that never go too far and tend to pull back before things go too far. ‘The Cat Lady’ never pulls back, it’s in it to win it and I love that about it. The story is fantastic, full of emotion, suspense and drama that will keep you on the edge of your seat and second guessing yourself the entire way through. Susan herself is a brilliant character with genuine character development as you see her go from shy, meek and weary to a woman with a purpose, confidence and strength and quite simply it’s a pleasure to guide her through these changes. If there’s one game you play this Halloweeen, make it ‘The Cat Lady’, you won’t regret it.

The Good: 

• Strong character development
• Interesting, captivating storyline that keeps you guessing
• Mature themes done right
• Striking yet low-key appearance is very appealing
• Decent inventory/dialogue puzzles that challenge but don't frustrate
• Very surreal and disturbing atmosphere

The Bad:

• Some audio issues such as hit and miss voice acting/distracting static
• Some may find the use of gore over the top
• Controls can sometimes be unresponsive, Susan walks too slowly

The Score: 9/10 

Final thoughts: "This has definitely become one of my most beloved point and click games, everything about it feels a bit 90s adventure game which I love and frankly it's been too long since I played something this surreal and this creepy."

Lovely Planet - Review (PC game)

Who said twitch shooters had to be set in grisly wartime settings or cerulean alien worlds? Lovely Planet may look incredibly sweet in its 'Katamari', chibi style dressings but underneath it all is a game that will beat you mercilessly into the ground with its rainbow encrusted, spiked, bouncing apple type, addictive thing that will quite literally drive you to madness. Let’s try this again. Lovely Planet is an FPS that’s set in a rather cute looking world where you must have a stunning set of reactions and the ability to memorize pathways to perfection in order to get through the extremely challenging levels. Sounds easy? It’s not, it’s far from it, it’s quite possibly the first twitch based FPS that’s genuinely addictive and also so punishing and cruel that it doesn’t mind coming across as a bit airy fairy and cutesy because it knows it could totally have you if it wanted to. You will lose at this game, many many times, you will become so familiar with the game over screen that you’ll be able to recite it from memory years after putting away this game for good. Quite simply, this game is a lying bastard that tries to convince you it’s totally approachable and easy to get into then floors you with the first punch. Now that you know how difficult it is, let’s examine it in a bit more detail. 

Developer: QUICKTEQUILA 
Publisher: tinyBuild
Genre: First-Person Shooter, Action
Release date: 31st July 2014
Platforms: Windows, Linux and Mac
ESRB: Unrated (involves shooting enemies but the bullets are cubes)

Lovely Planet is a first person shooter where you must complete a series of short levels that are no longer than one minute long and which typically last about 30 seconds. There are initially over 80 levels but there are more once you complete all of them; typically this serves as an additional stab to the side considering how long it takes to complete those ones in the first place. In order to complete each short level you must navigate platforms, avoid hazards and defeat all of the enemies presented to you and by missing just one you will have to restart that level. The courses are extremely challenging and this is partially due to the constraint of having to hit certain things before you hit the ground which results in a great deal of trying and failing to aim in mid-air. Thankfully you’re granted an infinite number of ‘bullets’ with your one and only weapon but there’s little use just spraying the screen with the purple cubes that you shoot. The key to mastering this game is to know the course by heart and to act with speed and precision which is not an easy task due to the sheer number of levels and the seemingly impossible situations the game puts you in. The slightest mistake will kill you whether that’s being hit by a single bullet, falling out of the world or touching anything that’s red there are so many ways to end up restarting the level. It’s basically one of those games where you master a small part of it, then get stuck on another bit, then creep a bit further along as you overcome that particular challenge, and then get stuck on another bit… and so on. 

To ramp up the pressure the game encourages a healthy dose of competitiveness among its players through leaderboards and record times which serve to constantly remind you at how much you suck compared to the rest of the world. Not that that’s a bad thing, in fact it’s a very appropriate feature because part of what makes this game so addictive is seeing yourself improve, whether that’s in comparison to others or not. Critically, the controls of the game can sometimes be a little ‘off’ where inputs aren’t always recognized but this is a fairly rare occurrence and is not frequent enough to impact on the overall game. Strangely there’s no actual aiming cross-hair either so firing shots is harder than in a usual FPS game but, after some practice, you’ll find yourself firing with accuracy you didn’t even know you could manage as everything becomes almost instinctual. Besides, at a mere £3.50 you can excuse a couple of blips on what is otherwise a fantastic game. 

Considering I don’t usually enjoy anything of an FPS nature this is genuinely a fun, albeit frustrating, little game that may attract all sorts of gamers to try it out either for a quick blast about or for some seriously dedicated gaming to get through all of the courses. Either way, it looks and sounds great, with adjustable sensitivity in the controls and plenty of features to keep you occupied for hours. Whilst the sound effects aren't exactly the best they're overwhelmed by a very upbeat music track that reminds you that everything's going to be ok, even when you die for the 100th time. If you fancy a challenge, check this game out now by purchasing it on Steam here.

The Good: 

• Fast and crazy funtimes
• Good for those who enjoy a challenge
• Nice escalating level of difficulty
• Unique art style for this genre
• Decent soundtrack that's surprisingly not annoying
• Simple mechanics

The Bad:

• Lacks some variety in terms of gameplay
• Occasional lag with the controls
• Incredibly frustrating game that may put off many people
• Unable to compare yourself directly to friends is disappointing
• Sound effects aren't very good particularly enemies 'dying' noise

The Score: 8/10

Final thoughts: "I suck so much at this genre of games that I'll likely never get to see the ending or the later levels. I tried, I failed, I moved on with my life. That doesn't stop it from being an amazing game, I'm just awful at rote memorization of levels." 

Depression Quest – Quick Review

This rather solemn sounding game attempts to bring players into the world of somebody living with depression and which does so, but not in the way it’s intended. I would struggle to call this a game and would instead agree with the ‘interactive fiction’ part of their description as the game consists almost entirely of text. The premise of the game is that you play as somebody with depression and must struggle through those everyday realities of life that tend to feel like momentous tasks for those suffering from depression such as going to work, managing your relationships, accepting the reality of being alive, deciding on potential treatment and handling the depression itself. Unfortunately the overall gameplay experience is painfully dominated by its origin as a set of interactive webpages that link to one another via hyperlinks when you make a choice and, though I appreciate the painfully personal nature of this game, it is unfortunately just too dull to call enjoyable.

The game boasts over 40,000 words of interactive fiction as though this is a positive aspect but if I were to play a game about living through depression I would prefer something that drew me in through artistic means rather than having to climb a seemingly unending mountain of paragraphs and written dialogue. The actual quality of the writing is very good, a little bland but it's mostly descriptive rather than creative and tends to set the scene nicely. What the game primarily suffers from however is way in which the player interacts with the story by making decisions. Decisions appear at the bottom of the screen and, as time goes on and your character’s depression worsens or improves, some of these options may be greyed out as you lack motivation or are in other ways simply not able to be picked. What this is supposed to simulate is the feeling that your life will never get any better and to emulate how much of a struggle it is to cope with the debilitating condition but what it actually rendered was a game where, even if you were supposedly getting better, your decisions and choices at improving your life went unrecognized. Rarely you would be told that you were getting better or your mood was briefly lifted but the writing never reflected this and the frustration of being unable to pursue treatments like therapy or medication later on down the line make your optimistic choices feel fairly pointless. Even though I tended to pick things in an attempt to make my guy feel better I found myself clicking through pages of dialogue with only one option to choose from; the depressing one. Unsurprisingly I ended up getting a rather negative ending and I felt like I'd been backed into a corner; good imagery for feel life but not a great feature of a 'choose your own path' interactive fiction game.

As I just said, the choices do eventually have an effect in the way of alternative endings. Usually this feature would have me all excited and intrigue to play through them all but something about this game just left me too fatigued to even try. Maybe it was the depression. Maybe it was the fact that after an hour that felt like three of carefully selected choices I was still left with a conclusion that felt watery, unresolved and unsatisfying. It seemed that no matter what I chose I was always going to end up in some undesirable rut that wouldn’t change anything anyway so what was the point of trying again. I realize the irony that this is exactly what depression feels like so on a positive note the game stirs up in you a very accurate portrayal of depression, the fact that this is a positive note does nothing to recommend this game to others. From a gamers perspective, unless you are either too happy to function and need bringing down or want to try and experience the unending torment of somebody living with depression then I wouldn't recommend you play this game. From a personal level however I would suggest you play a little bit of it so you at least take part in the awareness raising that the developer is attempting to perform.

The Good:

• Well written
• Insightful and educational 
• Application of choices enhances connection to character 
• Brilliant portrayal of the illness 
• Donation of charity and awareness raising is always a good thing
• The five alternative endings allows for some re-playability

The Bad:

• Generally, rather boring
• Lack of visuals makes it feel like a book, not a game 
• The cross from webpage to Steam should have included significant gameplay changes 
• The music is repetitive, gets a little glitchy if you’re depressed but that’s it 
• An hour of play felt like an eternity
• Seems to have become popular on the back of controversy
• Surprisingly lacking in emotion

The Score: 5/10 
 
Final thoughts: “It’s clear this game is for a good cause, it promotes awareness and donates to charity, but that still doesn’t make the game fun or interesting. This is not really a game and it shouldn’t really be on Steam.

You can play Depression Quest for free here via the developers website.

ÆRENA: Clash of Champions - Guest Review (Online Multiplayer Game)

ÆRENA is a free to play, turn based combat strategy game based in a rather unique and beautifully designed steampunk world. Developed by Cliffhanger Productions the game is hero-centric and revolves around your team versus another aboard an airship, sailing through the skies and battling out your differences along the way. The game is primarily intended for multiplayer matches and these matches tend to last between ten to fifteen minutes rather than long winded rounds that test your staying power over strategic prowess. Whilst ÆRENA is by no means shaking up the genre of turn based strategy games, that’s not to say it’s not a good game. In fact, the depth of strategy and the intensity of the game are both incredibly addictive.

To read more of my review, check it out on DarkStation here. This is a genuinely good game and I'm pretty amazed that it's free, for those of you who love a challenging strategy game then this is the game for you. Plus, no Pay-To-Win features! Can't say fairer than that.

The Last Door: Collector's Edition - Full Review (Free game/Collector's Edition PC game)

‘The Last Door’ is a door worth opening as what you’ll find on the other side is a solid, spooky and extremely well crafted game that manages to be both horribly unsettling and wonderfully enthralling. 

Developer: The Game Kitchen
Genre: Horror adventure 
Release date: May 20th 2014
Platforms: PC, Mac and Linux
ESRB: Rating pending

Created by the indie company, The Game Kitchen, ‘The Last Door’ is a point and click horror game that borders somewhere between quietly creepy and in your face horrifying. This compelling game will have you intrigued from the start as the beautifully orchestrated music plays and the sharp graphics drop down into a pixelated art style that makes you wonder why the developers have opted for this low resolution feel. Discard any initial reservations you had about its appearances as this is an extremely well made, well-polished game that is more than worthy of worldwide recognition.

Story and gameplay

The game is set in Victorian England and, after an incredibly morbid prologue, your character receives a letter from an old friend with a rather cryptic message on it. Prompted by the potentially serious implications from the letter you set out to Sussex to the lavish manor house that your friend owns but upon arrival it appears empty and abandoned. As you search the estate for clues you’ll uncover dark secrets, skeletons in the closets and a mystery that will only be explained by travelling across the country in subsequent chapters. The four chapters of this game were initially released separately and they still feel like very short standalone games that all follow on from one another, though that’s not a bad thing. If anything the use of cliff-hangers is very appealing as it builds up your anticipation to continue playing and makes the game feel even more riveting. 

The use of episodes splits the game into nicely manageable segments as it will take several hours to complete the entire thing though the quality of the chapters does vary and, whilst each episode has its own strengths and weaknesses, the inconsistency makes the problems glaringly apparent. The first chapter for instance excels in atmosphere and emotion whilst being the shortest and easiest of all the chapters. In the second episode there is a greater depth of experience but some of the descriptions of items have been watered down to either simple statements or overly explanatory ones which, compared to those of the first chapter, hinders the feel of the environment. That said, these are very minor issues and as a whole  the game plays fantastically with a strong focus on suspense and anticipation rather than gore and violence. 

As is standard in point and click games your advancement is dependent on solving puzzles and, in this case, the puzzles are inventory based. This means that you’ll be frequently be searching for things you can pick up before using them on objects in the environment or combining them into something new. Often, things can be difficult to locate as the pixelated surroundings conceal things wonderfully but by scrolling over objects that can be examined a magnifying glass does appear so you’re not left helplessly confused at what something is. Overall the game gets harder as you progress which eases you very nicely into the game though there’s nothing agonizingly difficult about any of the puzzles. Though you’ll likely get stuck now and then the puzzles are all fairly logical and not in the least bit obscure so, once you figure it out, it becomes painfully clear what you had to do all along. That said, the puzzles are varied and interesting and usually revolve around trying to access some place or another as you’re generally being led on a journey to constantly discover a secret that is hidden. 

Something that is particularly appealing is the game’s tendency to change the perspective that you’re playing through by quick insights into other characters or, most importantly, dreams and flashbacks that Devitt experiences himself. This continual shifting results in a richer and deeper understanding of the storyline and also the chance to do something a little different. I imagine that a constant focus on Devitt in the present time could have easily become restrictive and monotonous so it’s a welcomed addition to an already captivating game. Breaking up the gameplay experience through the employment of these dreams, flashbacks and briefly controlling other characters is not the only trick that the developers have up their sleeve as each chapter brings something new to the table. Whilst the first game is just you on your own subsequent chapters add in other character to talk to and the introduction of conversations is surprisingly powerful. Every chapter beginning starts with something shocking or disturbing that’s entirely different to the start of the last chapter so, whilst the game is short, you do cover a lot of ground and are treated to some intimately haunting scenes. The characters are well introduced, have interesting dialogue and talk in a manner fitting of the era. There are a lot of letters and diaries present in the game that you read for backstory and they’re very manageable in length and not in the least bit dull. Often, letters contain clues for puzzles and I enjoy how they not only had an atmospheric purpose but a practical one too.

A final critic I have is to do with the controls as in order to pick up items you must first examine them using the magnifying glass. I’m still somewhat undecided about this but the constant need to examine an object with one click then pick it up with another does become fairly irksome and, at the start of the game, it tended to result in me skipping over items thinking I had already obtained them. Of course this error went away as I adjusted but I prefer the option to both examine and immediately pick up things to not necessarily make the game simpler but rather make it less irritating. Other than this the controls are very easy to operate, the camera is perfect and the inclusion of skipping to areas you have already visited by double clicking on the exit saves a few long and boring walks. In a game where you may be stomping up and down the same corridor numerous times, this can only be a good thing.

Graphics and environments

The most important aspect of a horror game is its ability to scare you, or at least make you feel uneasy and apprehensive, and ‘The Last Door’ manages this fantastically partially due to how well the environments are portrayed. Walking through a pitch black corridor with nothing but a tiny light is as terrifying as it would be in any well-made horror game and whilst it could have been easy for it to lag behind its competition it is far from doing so. The environments are extremely detailed, spooky in some places and quite lovely in others. There’s plenty to look at and interact with and great care has been taken to flesh each individual room or area with enough decorational items that simply exist to add to the overall feel of the place.

Though you are initially restricted to the manor and its grounds you’ll travel to different places throughout the subsequent episodes and not once will you feel boxed in by limiting environments. Despite the low res quality of the game there are some truly beautiful scenes that are perfectly detailed and perfectly executed. The views of distant rolling landscapes and the layered, overcast skies remind me in turn of an obscure Van Gogh painting in that there’s such little information but the balance of hues and shades still results in a near perfect representation of what it is depicting. History buffs will also appreciate the many nods to the typical Victorian lifestyle and everything from Devitt’s travelling gear to the adornments of the interiors is perfectly in tune with the era it is illustrating. 

Low resolution pixelated art styles are definitely taking more precedence in games and it goes to show that graphics simply aren’t everything. If anything I found the retro graphics to enhance the experience of this game as it played on the notion that there was something there, in the dark, something that you couldn’t quite see. The game manages to limit how much you can see, not only through actual darkness but by also removing that customary clearness and crispness of graphics that we’ve come to rely on so much. What this results in is your imagination running a little wild and the game is fully aware of this with as it applies very delicate, subtle graphical shifts that impact the atmosphere in huge ways. For a game to be able to produce a constant unsettling unease whilst not falling back on gore and high definition monsters is, for me, very impressive.

Music and audio

In a game that provides no spoken dialogue it was imperative that all remaining audio was done to perfection, and it has been. The music is strong and intense and, especially during the opening credits, it has this inexplicable ability to instil the feeling that you’re embarking on some dangerous and mysterious journey. During gameplay there are periods of complete and utter silence that may occur when entering a room or between music tracks and, when the music stops, a great sense of danger instantly washes over you. I remember one occasion where, standing in the back of an old school room the music stopped entirely leaving me alone in a silent, dead room. Then came a noise; a noise I’d not heard before in that room despite having visited there several times, it was muffled and distant but sounded distinctly like some trapped animal or cry for help. Without the ability to explore further I left immediately, even after returning to the same spot, never heard that noise again. It’s moments like this that build you up and make you feel like there’s something waiting for you in the dark, behind a corner, something that may jump out at you. It’s extremely atmospheric and these odd little sounds that come out of nowhere, like the tapping on a window, are profoundly powerful.

Overall

This is one of my favourite modern point and click game’s and I thoroughly enjoyed the care and attention that has been poured into it. The variety of environments and perspectives that the game gives you adds an additional layer of detail and stops the game from being repetitive and boring. The story itself is curious with a mixture of themes bordering strongly on the occult but mingled in with the subjects of insanity and madness which is very nineteenth century. You can tell the game is strongly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s works not only from the presence of crows who consistently feature in his works but of little details like the bird tapping on the glass in a home owned by a man who’s descended into madness whereas, in ‘The Raven’ the tapping of the raven sent the narrator into insanity. Likewise, the presence of blind black cat in one part of the story is a direct reference to another of Poe’s work; the Black Cat and there are plenty of other bits and pieces in there too, considering Poe was active during the same century the game was set it feels even more appropriate. History aside, this is an indie game with a difference and is well worth a play as it is beautifully orchestrated, wonderfully written and very well designed. You may or may not find it easy and I imagine it depends entirely on how much of the genre you play and how intuitive you are. The Game Kitchen is currently fundraising so they can complete Season 2 of ‘The Last Door’ so there’s plenty more in the pipeline if you enjoyed this fantastic game. 

The Good:

• Very atmospheric with lots of suspense. 
• Beautiful music, flawless audio.
• Decent, logical puzzles.
• Appealing graphical style.
• Nice range of environments.
• Layered, interesting storyline.

The Bad:

• A little too easy in places.
• Some chapters are weaker than others.
• Controls can be annoying.

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: I love, love love love, this game and cannot wait for the next season. It would be better had it been longer but they're bringing more out so it's all good.

‘The Last Door’ is currently available to be played free. If you want the game with additional scenes and achievements you should pick up the Collector’s Edition of the game instead for just £7 from Steam, here. More details, including where to play it, can be found on their website here.

Lilly Looking Through - Quick Review (PC game)

Initially I was looking forward to playing this game due to its charming appearance but all I was met with was a short, shallow and extremely simplistic game more suited to young children than adventure gamers. 

Developer: Geeta Games

Genre: Puzzle adventure

Release date: November 1st 2013

Platforms: PC and Mac

ESRB: E - Everyone
For a game that looks and sounds so beautiful it’s quite simply just not up to par and should be avoided by anybody wanting a game with even a smidgen of substance. There's very little character development, which is a shame, and the story itself is in no way complex or fleshed out. There are no conversations, very little speech and generally the game consists of solving puzzles with Lilly and, sometimes, Row to advance through the game. ‘Lilly Looking Through’ is supposedly a point and click adventure game, meaning it will have some puzzles to be solved that may be inventory based as is typical of the genre but for me it failed to live up to the genre.

To begin with, there’s no inventory, much to my disappointment as it meant they’d be no finding and collecting items for later item combination. The puzzles are instead performed by clicking on a very limited set of locations on the screen before watching Lilly solve the obtuse puzzle herself. In that sense, that you click on things, it's a point and click in the very literal understanding of the phrase but it lacks what makes point and clicks interesting; storyline and substance. There are only a few things you can click on and very few areas in the game leading to what is a very easy and very short game. The solutions to the puzzles tended to be obscure in nature rather than challenging and there were times where, even after finding the solution to the area, I was completely taken aback by the actions that Lilly proceeded to perform. Worse still, the puzzles are extremely repetitive with one particular colour puzzle being repeated three times which results in an increasing frustration of having to repeat the same, mostly guessed, puzzle combination you completed just twenty minutes ago. 

In case everything is just too damn confusing for you there's also a hint system you can use to highlight objects in the area that tell you what else you can click on. The game itself is incredibly short and the ending is little more than an unsatisfying cliffhanger that I would care more about if I’d found the story interesting, which I did not. Disappointingly, despite the game starting to show potential it felt as though I'd paid for half of a game rather than a full one and that its potential to get better was prematurely cut short. After a brief and unexplained appearance from another character all you'll be left with is confusion over whether the game is now over, and then a credits scene that confirms you just wasted a couple of hours of your life.

Maybe if the developers had spent more time on fleshing out the gameplay rather than focusing on the pretty pictures and ethereal soundtrack then maybe I’d be more interested, but despite raising double what they asked for on Kickstarter it’s clear that for this game beauty is only skin deep. The animations of Lilly are very well done, the environments are varied and beautifully illustrated with real attention to detail and the music is a lovely, mystical and much grander than the game itself. It’s such a shame to say this but this is quite simply not a very good game and I’m actually disappointed that I was fooled into buying it due to positive reviews and deceptive screenshots. You’ll get about an hour or two out of this game depending on how well you are at guessing your way through the puzzles but, despite there being the essence of something greater, I doubt it will be a very enjoyable couple of hours for you. On a positive note, this is a game that young children will love to play provided you are there to help them through some of the more confusing puzzles.

The Good:

• Looks fantastic.
• Very charming.
• Storyline is pleasant.
• Perfect for children.

The Bad:

• Far too easy, just plain weird rather than difficult in places.  
• Few environments.
• Repetitive puzzles.
• Extremely short game.

The Score: 4/10 

Last thoughts: "Disappointing, it didn't feel at all like a real point and click but I guess it's alright for children."

If you don’t mind short and shallow romps through lovely environments, pick up the game for $10/£7 from the developers website here or on Steam here.

Outlast DLC: Whistleblower - Full Review (+ Trailer) (PS4, Xbox One and PC game)

I thought that Outlast was already as bone-chilling, nightmare fuelling, panic inducing scary as it could get; I was wrong, I was so, so wrong. Outlast’s DLC ‘Whistleblower’ is more than just your standard DLC; it’s not one of those enjoyable but ineffectual additions that rides in on the back of an already successful game, oh no, ‘Whistleblower’ is by and large a whole new chapter in Red Barrel’s manifesto of fear.

Developer: Red Barrels

Genre: Survival Horror
Release date: September 4, 2013 (PC), Feburary 5th 2014 (PS4), June 18th 2014 (Xbox one)
Platforms: PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One

ESRB: M - Mature

Outlast is a game that sets out to test how far it can push the boundaries of the horror genre with some incredibly disturbing scenes that may have bypassed some due to the hidden nature. ‘Whistleblower’ hides nothing and just in case you haven’t yet realized how twisted Mount Massive Asylum has become then you’ll be reminded that immature descriptions like ‘scary’ and ‘gore’ have no place here, this is true, uncensored horror.  

Warning: The game contains M rated blood, gore, nudity and sexual content. As such, the screenshots below also contain such themes though with minimal spoilers and without representing the worst that this game has to offer.

‘Whistleblower’ has you step into the shoes of Waylon Park, a software developer for Mount Massive Asylum who, uncomfortable with the practices at the asylum, has been leaking information to outside sources one of whom is Miles Upshurr, the protagonist of the original game. Poor Waylon doesn’t get away with it for long however as, just as he sends the anonymous tip off to Miles, he’s caught and locked away in the asylum he was so desperately trying to draw attention to. I originally thought ‘Whistleblower’ was a prequel but as it turns out it’s much more than that. The experiences of Waylon Parks are wrapped snugly around the original storyline, taking place before, during and after the events of Outlast though in an entirely different region of the hospital.

Gameplay and environment

My previous complaints of a world that felt too linear and enemies whose AI was predictable and easy to outwit have been abolished leaving nowhere else to hide but plenty of places to run to in the blood drenched institute. Whilst the familiar sight of locked doors that progressively abolish any hope you have of escaping are still present there are now vast areas with interconnecting passageways and tiny rooms that leave you running in circles whilst a maniac relentlessly tracks you down. The enemies in this game are faster and even after sprinting for some time I would often turn to see them almost on top of me, leaving me no other option but to keep on running in the hope of losing them behind the next door, the next turn, the next table. The hiding spots too have been severely cut down and whilst the previous game had an abundance of beds and lockers to take refuge in I had a hard time finding anywhere to hide for the majority of the game. More often than not I’d simply crouch in a corner of a dark room, barely concealed by a table or a chair, and hope that they didn’t move close enough to spot me. Rather than a continual shifting of enemies to run from ‘Whistleblower’ essentially has one main threat but there are still approximately five different characters who will, at some point, try to kill you with a couple of them being familiar faces from the first game.

What makes this game so brilliant is how much emotion it draws out of you. I felt vulnerable at every step and, whereas previously wandering outside was a welcome breath of fresh air to be out of the corpse strewn halls, in ‘Whistleblower’ I was instead beset by further waves of anxiety as fog completely obscured my senses. This feeling of vulnerability that is essential to the survival horror atmosphere is completely accentuated when, at one point, you are left physically limping. As you can imagine, this does not work in your favour when trying to not be captured and killed. If you are spotted then there is quite simply no possible way of outrunning your pursuers so you just have to accept the inevitable reload as you blunder desperately on through the darkness.

The environments are thankfully different from the base game and though you do revisit certain locations it’s not in the least bit repetitive. Whilst ‘Outlast’ simply dipped its toes into exploring the grounds of the hospital ‘Whistleblower ’is more than happy to let you stretch your legs outside and, rather than confine you to rooms and corridors, frequently invites you to blunder about outside. As though it were any safer out there. Now and then you’ll find yourself bursting out through a window or a door to find yourself surrounded by the thick, impenetrable fog of the gardens or venturing through the maze of chain link fences that border the basketball courts. The worst thing about being outside is that there is quite literally no way of telling where your hunters are lurking as the fog is so thick you can barely see where you’re going, never mind whether somebody is hiding within it or not. Whilst the puzzles remain unchallenging the sheer pressure of completing them under duress is enough to make you have to replay certain portions of the game as it is inevitable you’ll get caught at least once. This is one of those games that is incredibly hard to play all in one playthrough without descending into a full blown panic attack. Unless, of course, you’re one of those people who are extremely desensitized to fear and carnage and play games like this to top up your macho-nerves-of-steel persona, if this is the case, what on Earth have you been doing to have become so unflinching? I shudder to think. 

 
Conclusion

I’m not sure how they managed it but ‘Whistleblower’ is arguably scarier than 'Outlast' though significantly shorter due to it being a DLC, not a standalone game. The shortage of batteries, lack of hiding places, twisting nature of the environments and extreme nature of the carnage encountered is the perfect recipe to foster a paranoid terror known only by the deeply immersed. ‘Whistleblower’ is a solid addition to 'Outlast' and it is quite simply an incredibly haunting game that looks, sounds and plays as brilliantly as the original. ‘Whistleblower’ has achieved what it set out to do and that is to terrify the living daylights out of you. It not only manages to do that but it does so brutal confidence; slapping you about the face with its controversial scenes without apology and without remorse. With its open ending there is also great room for a sequel and I can only hope, and dread, that Red Barrels continues to make such amazing survival horror games. I can only warn you now though, that there are things in this game you can never be unseen.

The Good:

• Very controversial
• Some brilliant twists
• Terrifying and disturbing
• Solid continuation of a fantastic game
• Strong characters, likeable protagonist
• Fantastic voice acting
• Storyline builds suspense very well
• Good length for a DLC
• The Groom.

The Bad

• Would have preferred varied antagonists
• NPCs have a tendency to all look the same
• The Groom.

The Score: 9/10 

Last thoughts: "Oh... My... Good... God. That was messed up."

Not played the original yet? Check out my review for Outlast here.

Serena - Quick Review (Free Steam game)

How long has it been? A man sits alone in a worn out cabin somewhere deep in the woods, waiting for his wife Serena. Where is she, and why can't he remember her face? Serena is surprisingly powerful for a free game that you can complete in less than an hour. The game’s realistic and subdued appearance is enhanced by the area you’re in; an open plan wooden cabin that was once home to two people, the man you’re playing and a woman called Serena who’s not present. It’s eerie from the moment you start playing; the photograph on the table leaves the woman’s face completely blank, just a white smear, as the man cannot remember what she looks like. The cabin looks as though nobody’s been there for weeks and as you point and click your way around the cabin you’ll get the man’s remarks that revolve around his memories of Serena. He’ll comment on her cooking, their love for one another, the books she read curled up in the armchair by the window and things of that assortment. The controls are very simple; you click the edges of the screen to move to different parts of the room, open drawers and look at objects.

You’ll guide this man to remember something best left forgotten and his memories will gradually return as you find things of Serena’s or things which remind him of her. The tone changes midway through the game and the remarks he makes about the few objects and pieces of furniture in the cabin changes as well. The build up to the ending is incredible and, though you see the ending coming from a mile away, it’s the emotion in his voice which is so memorable. It’s beautifully voice acted and looks the part; dirty, dusty but cosy and confined. The atmosphere is chilling and the creeping sensations that build up as you piece together the lost memories are the work of an undeniably emotional tale. Serena is a game you won’t soon forget, even if it is just a free game on Steam I highly recommend it. Check out the link below if you want to try this game and find out what makes it worth the experience. 

Score: 8/10

Serena - Free Indie game on Steam website.

The Novelist - Full Review (PC game)

How do you balance the pressures of your struggling career with the responsibilities that come with family life? A marriage that's falling apart, a child who's failing at school, a writer who needs time to finish his book before it's too late and an artist who's trying to reignite her career. The Novelist puts you in the role of a guide as you try and steer a family that's fraying at the seams to make the right decisions but, ultimately, can you live with the consequences of your decisions? 

The Novelist is a dynamic indie title whose storyline develops around the decisions made by the player and which strongly encourages empathy, compromise and living with the consequences of your decisions. The game is confined to a holiday home in a scenic area of beaches and woodlands though the time of day and year changes as the storyline progresses. The story is centred on the family who is current staying in this holiday home; a father, Dan, mother, Linda, and their son, Tommy. Dan is a struggling novelist, Linda is trying to reignite her painting career and Tommy needs help with his reading and writing. But things are never that simple as, in the short week they have together, tough decisions will need to be made about who gets priority and what the consequences of neglecting the needs of others may be. Dan and Linda are not only having trouble with their careers; they’re having trouble with their marriage too, by focusing too much on his book Dan risks cutting off his family but, by ignoring it, can we count on Linda to bring money to the table? You play a spirit who has lived in this house for quite a long time and, watching the Kaplans, you have the power to read their minds, visit their memories and encourage them to act on their desires. If anything it’s a curious game that is slow paced, a little tedious but which manages to feel incredibly meaningful as you guide the family through this life changing excursion.  

Story

This game is so heavily focused on the story of the Kaplan’s family that I feel that I should write a separate category just for this. It’s a nice touch that though the title seems to indicate it’s talking about Dan it’s actually referring to you since it is you who will be writing this story and guiding what happens. Regardless, the game does seem extremely focused on Dan and his career as a writer, though it can just as easily be focused on Linda and, less so, Tommy who each have their own problems to deal with. I won’t go into the fact that it’s the father’s career the game focuses on and not the mother’s though I did notice the rather dramatic slant. Sadly, Dan’s pretty self-absorbed since all of his needs and desires are focused on his novel whereas Linda divides her interests equally between her career and her family. 

The message of this game appears to be that, in real life, it’s impossible to please everybody and that family life is all about compromise and working through difficulties together. In every chapter it’s your task to find clues around the house, 3 for each character, and then read their mind to see what it is they currently want. Tommy, for example, often feels lonely and neglected so would like to go play with his Dad at the beach whereas Dan is struggling to get any work done because people keep interrupting him. Dan would like to enforce a ‘do not open my office door when it is shut’ rule. On the other hand, Linda is considering how distant he’s already become and is thinking of enforcing her own rule where everybody must sit at the dinner table together for some quality family conversation. Who do you side with? It’s not easy if you can emphasize with everybody but, at the end of the day, somebody has to get their way and the other two are left out in the cold. Thankfully if you know what each of the three family members want you can pick one other person for a compromise option so, say, instead of going with Tommy to the beach you can stick him in front of a nature documentary whilst you get on with your damn work.

The characters of Dan and Linda are quite good, if a little stereotypical, and it’s really their relationship and their interactions that make the game substantial. Tommy’s character though is extremely under-developed and it’s as though he’s just there to be stuck in the middle of his parents problems. He only communicates through drawn pictures and what he wants is completely unimportant in the long run despite the natural inclination being to make sure he feels supported and loved. All in all, it’s turned out that Tommy’s just a third wheel in his parents’ drama story.

On a positive note the game is very dynamic and responsive to player decision. The story develops and changes around the choices you make and it is quite emotionally enriching since it makes you feel personally responsible for everything that happens. The choices are very genuine, realistic and honest so you do take care when deciding because, depending on who you sympathize with the most, you don’t want to upset anybody. It’s a powerful addition to artistic indie titles and though that may not be everybody’s bag it is mine since it puts games in a light of greater importance and meaning than shooting a thousand aliens dead in the fastest time possible. I particularly love how each chapter ends and details to you the consequences of your decisions and it’s saddening to view silent, black and white scenes of a neglected family member as the chapter’s conclusion is typed below in traditional, type writer text. Watching Linda sitting alone in the living room at night, drinking wine when she wanted to go out for dinner with her husband so she can see that he still loves her really did make me regret my decision to put Dan’s book first. It genuinely made me want to go back and try again, knowing I’d only be watching Dan pull his hair out and cry himself to sleep at night instead and the fact it can pull out that kind of commitment to the family is appreciable. 

It is admittedly unusual that over the course of three months the entire fate of the family is decided and, extensive as it may be, I’d have preferred decisions that carried on over a number of years and which shaped the family more organically. Unfortunately, the ending is awful as the final decision is extremely unfair and devastating to the individuals who don’t get ‘picked’ and that’s just not how life works. The ability to enforce a balance of interests isn’t really in the game and it’s very much one person gets what they want, someone gets a bit of what they want and the last person gets sod all whilst the ending makes all previous decisions totally irrelevant. This is a family that lives life dramatically it seems with very little conversation and no amount of actual compromise.

Gameplay

The gameplay has a fairly interesting concept as its stealth based but, since you’re a spirit, you possess lights to hide rather than duck behind counters and curtains. The game has two gameplay modes; Story and Stealth. Stealth is where you can be spotted and thus need to utilize the lights whereas Story mode adds no stealth element meaning you can waltz up to the Kaplans without any problems. Stealth mode ultimately results in lots of zipping about between lampshades and ceiling fittings so you can spy on what the Kaplan’s are doing and sneak up behind them to possess their memories. You can make the light flitter which encourages whomever is near to stop what they’re doing and walk over to the light and examine it whilst commenting on it being broken. This then gives you the opportunity to go into another light fitting and jump out into the room to slip up behind them or back out the door to go somewhere else. If they spot you walking about in broad daylight then they get spooked and you can’t pick their resolution at the end of the chapter but, despite having some very near misses, I was never spotted for long enough to spook them. The most I got was a sleepy and confused ‘huh?’ before I’d high-tailed it into the table lamp and they’d continued on their way to look out the window. Maybe I’m just incredibly fast or maybe the game just hasn’t made it hard enough but by the end of the game I was walking around quite brazenly through the corridors knowing that, even if one of them turned a corner, there was always a bulb close by. 

The character interaction of the game is awful and the entire atmosphere of the house is sterile and bland. It’s an unavoidable flaw in the game is a great shame since it ruins everything. As the family move around the house they’ll often make a soulless passing comment to one another which indicates where they currently are and I believe this is so you know that somebody’s on the way. What it results in instead is a house that feels lifeless and cold, maybe that’s the point if the family is at breaking point but when you watch one family sit in the living room only for the other one to get up and leave, you do start to feel as though the family members are far too robotic and less ‘family life’ than they should be. There’s an attempt at having the family talk to one another here and there but it’s so forced and vapid there’s not much point, though it does explain why communication is so bad between them all.

That said, the actual storyline is well written and it’s a really great concept at balancing professions with family life because it’s a problem so many people experience but that nobody ever really digs into, not in games at any rate. The fact that you can go into the memories of the family is interesting though still a little hollow feeling as, in each memory, you just have to find a frozen image of whomever memories it is and click them to get a spoken line of dialogue then to click whomever they are with to get another spoken line of dialogue. This is supposedly revealing hugely important plot details but it’s more like ‘…don’t you want to play with your rocket ship?...’ and ‘…I already played with it…’ that’s spoken in ghostly tones, showing that Tommy’s more obsessed with television nowadays than playing with his toys. It’s a creative spin on family life and family problems but it just lacks interactivity and life to make it feel real and to engage its audience.

I’m ashamed to admit it since it’s such a great concept but I found this game tedious. In order to put up with a lot of what the game had to offer I had to be a very specific mood; somewhere between self-motivating and extremely empathetic. There are a lot of in-game notes and letters to read and this is primarily the source of monotony found in ‘The Novelist’. Letters are fine when they’re a few sentences but when you bring up the fifth page long whinge it’s hard to not just skip past it and get back on with the action of deciding people’s fates. Of course, by skipping through all the pages and notes you miss out on the storyline and you’re then not entirely sure about what’s going on in the Kaplan household. This essentially makes playing the game entirely pointless because you’re supposed to care about what’s going on and each little additional bit of information that arises. Some of the notes are read aloud but the voice acting isn’t fantastic and it comes across as a slow drawl that runs the risk of sending you straight to sleep.  Now, I understand there are plenty of people who won’t mind reading so many things in game but I would have preferred a lot more talking and a lot more interactivity because, like Tommy, I’m a bit of a visual learner.

Graphics

The game has a sketchy, painted look that’s very simplistic and quite downplayed which keeps the focus on the storyline. There’s nothing particularly ugly about it but the family members don’t look realistic and have extremely undetailed faces but, truthfully, they do fit in great with their surroundings. I'm kind of of the opinion that by having extremely high definition people with lifelike features and expressions would have actually made this game less artistic than it originally came across as.

The colours are lovely and the memories put everything in muted, black and white tones to differentiate between the present and the past. Oddly, going into a light puts a muted tone on everything too so you’re often looking out at a great landscape but in a way that doesn’t give it enough credit. Of course you can bypass those restrictions by playing in story mode but it’s just a shame nipping out a light to possess somebody then being all, ‘wow this game is incredibly colourful and attractive, back into black and white I go.’ Overall, you won’t be disappointed by the graphics because they’re there to portray a nice, painting backdrop to a storyline and it’s all done very well with plenty of detail in an interesting but vibrant style. It's just a shame about all the muted tones that you're forced to view the world through because there are some lovely scenic moments in the game.

Conclusion

Sadly, I think The Novelist fell a little short of where it was aiming. There’s too much reading and not enough talking to make this game feel alive and the over simplified nature of communication in the family is exasperating and unrealistic. The ending of the game is extremely disappointing because you spend a lot of time juggling the family’s needs and wants throughout the chapters then, at the end, you’re forced to make an impossible decision between two options which renders all previous choices irrelevant. The stealth element of the game doesn’t really add any challenge as the Kaplans are very slow on the uptake even if you’re seen running about in front of them. The ability to enter their memories is, in theory, interesting but when you get there it’s just more sterile, lifeless scenes and a few soundbites of their opinions and problems. Overall, this game is worth your time because I did enjoy it and the difficult decisions that had to be made, graphically it looks pleasant and it all feels very modern and very slick. Unfortunately the game lacks what it needed to make it a fantastic title but it’s not a disaster and there are some lovely experiences to be had in The Novelist.

Score – 7/10