Toem is a short, cute game about going on a trip to see a sight, and taking pictures along the way. Lots of little quests to do, and funny characters to meet along the way

So many little touches of care, but a few that i particularly liked: in-game music is entirely controllable by a "hikelady" in your inventory, that you find tapes for; and completing quests gives you a literal stamp on a completion card, which is really satisfying in a very tactile way.

Short game, short review, but good fun

40-70+ hours to complete, Clair Obscur is a fantasy exploration story-based game with turn-based combat and quick time events (which can be adjusted through accessibility settings.) You play as Gustav, a member of Expedition 33, soon to set out of the city of Lumiere and it’s barrier into unknown territory in order to stop the Gommage – an event, a countdown, that happens every single year, without fail, that erases people from existence starting from the oldest, to the youngest. Sail out into the unknown to do what no expedition has done before – defeat the paintress… For those that come after!

I thought it was wild that Clair Obscur swept the game awards and won GOTY, but after playing, I understand. Without singing it’s praises too much, there are a ton of wonderful and unexpected twists and conversations you are present for, but not involved in enough to fully understand them, that make a second playthrough worth it since you would be replaying with knowledge of the context. The worldbuilding is very thorough, immersive, and has one of the most well developed and interesting storylines I’ve ever heard of. Exploration is lovely and rewarding, you can play and battle in a lot of different playstyles due to the very flexible pictos system, and I found combat and parrying to still be fun 80 hours in, even though initially I was anxious at the QTE system. The music especially a stand out, as I’m writing this review an entire month after I 100% Expedition 33, and still fondly remember “Linen and Cotton” and listen to it on occasion. The only real gripe I can name, is that it’s easy to trip into a fight with an enemy that’s a much higher level than you; but since that’s the only negative point in the entire game I can think of, I can only highly recommend playing Clair Obscur. If the QTE’s make you nervous, please try out the demo – this game is too amazing to miss out on.

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The Darkside Detective is one of those games that, technically, do not do anything wrong, but that are so mid and unoriginal and unfun that I think I would be doing you, the reader, a disservice by recomending it.

Gameplay wise, this is as basic as a point and click gets. It reminds me a lot of point and click games I got on CD-ROMs bough with magazines in the mid-90s. Absolutely run of the mill. Drag an object to another object, either in the inventory or on your screen, and advance. Do that enough times and you beat the game. While I like the minigames, it's hard to justify a purchase just for them.

Graphically, this is what I call lazy pixel art, since the pixels are so big that one would be better off working with vector graphics at this point. For a 2017 game, either you go for detailed pixel art, or you abandon the pretense and work with vector graphics. Blocky pixels like this are just lazy. The screens are usually either static or have small animations that make the lazy label even more warranted.

There's music, but little to nothing SFX and no VA, so yeah, what else did you except?

I could live with all these limitations if dialogue was solid and the game was fun and well-written. But guess what, I saved the worst for last. The dialogue is literally the weakest link in this experience. Like RESTLESS SOUL, The Darkside Detective is one of these games where every interaction prompts a dialogue, and every dialogue tries to be fun. When you're bombarded with your ninth joke in the span of 60 seconds, things stop being funny and start being grating. I literally played the first two chapters normally (I considered writing "enjoyed the first two chapters", but that would be a stretch), then kind of rushed through chapters 3 and 4, and literally speedrun chapter 5 and 6 with a guide because at that point I was so sick of the dialogue that I just wanted to see credits roll, uninstall it and never look back. This is the level of bad writing we're presented here.

And sure, a lot of people could argue that no individual aspect of this game is bad enough to warrant a thumbs down, but I argue that writing is. And even if it wasn't, the other legs of this stool are wobbly enough to make the whole thing crumble.

Is this a bad game or the worst game of the year? No. But in an universe where we have Wadjet Eye P&C games, and literally thousands of other games, recommending this one feels morally wrong