In ALTER EGO, step into the shoes of Reese the rat as you learn the dreadful news - your girlfriend, Winona, has just been murdered. This shatters your world to pieces, but what's worse is, you're presumed guilty. Now, it's up to you to find out what really happened.
The art style and music are fantastic, and the artistic choice to deliver most of the story in the form of simple, looping animations reminiscent of comic book panels is interesting, if a little confusing. Sadly, the whole thing only takes about 20 minutes to play through.
Assuming the devs would be interested in working together on something more, I think a more detailed glimpse into Reese and Winona's past could help flesh the characters out, but as it stands, this is more-or-less a complete experience.

Colorless Life follows Vince, a man who gave up creating art due to a lack of self-confidence. Shortly after we first meet him, he gets a call about his mother passing away at a hospital, which leads him to spiral. He encounters a small demon creature - the personification of his depression - and goes along with it through multiple metaphorical worlds within his head.
This is the absolute bottom of the barrel. I've only played it now because on some devices - including my laptop - it just refuses to launch. If it does launch, though, you're treated to one of the worst Russian to English translations to ever exist. Considering that the game is essentially driven by the narrative, English-speaking players are forced to "go along with the vibe", for a lack of better description. Then again, Russian-speaking players may not have a much better time either, since the Cyrillic refuses to display properly within the game, too. Or, at least, that's the only possible explanation for some text showing up as a garbled mess of nothing but diacritics.
The game uses WASD to move and E to interact… and LMB to interact, also. You just can't close the pop-ups without using the mouse. Oh, and the dialogues are advanced using Space. It does and doesn't make sense at the same time.
There are at least two endings, determined by the last thing you say to "Depression". With any other game, my complaint would probably be that I had to replay the whole thing to see the other ending, but here… it is impossible to see the good ending. While the bad ending plays out as normal, the choice leading to the good ending gives the player nothing but a black screen and a looping SFX, which should eventually transition into the final sequence proper, but… it just doesn't.
Most of Colorless Life was done by only one guy, which is always admirable, but this… this just ain't it. I'm surprised it's still available for purchase despite the state it's in.

I was expecting something like Papers, Please… or, since this is about deciding who lives and who dies, maybe something akin to Peace, Death!… but ultimately, this was very slow and boring. Rather than let you assess who should live or die on your own terms, Death and Taxes forces you to read people's profiles and decide who seems like a positive or negative force in the world, or, more often - who does or doesn't fit the criteria your boss came up with for the day. There's no thrill of the arcade-style gameplay of Peace, Death! and you're definitely not a part of the narrative like in Papers, Please. Going off of the demo's contents, you're just one of many Grim Reapers, isolated from the outside world, only able to deduce your impact on the human world from the in-game Twitter equivalent. Kind of disappointing, but I don't want to say "no" to this game yet.

In this N64-style game with a dark twist, you're Hamster Chef, the only resident of an animal village with a designated job. Over the course of a few days, your cooking business takes off despite the limited amount of customers… and then you accidentally end up bringing hell down onto the village by getting too close to a mysterious monster dwelling in the nearby forest. Totally normal stuff.
The art style is adorable and reminiscent of the original Animal Crossing and Super Mario 64. The cooking aspect is simple and lacking, which makes sense since it's not the point of the game, but remains disappointing.
3 of 7 available achievements require you to fail the final chase sequence in different ways, which is considerably harder than just completing the game. If I were to treat it like a retro game, I'd say those achievement requirements border on what RetroAchievements calls "unwelcome concepts"; that is, going out of one's way to play the game badly for no significant payoff.
On the bright side, though, and I can't believe this needs to be said - Go! Go! Hamster Chef saves the progress you made in stressful scenarios, letting you pick up from where you died.
To sum it up, I think Go! Go! Hamster Chef nails the N64 aesthetic and respects the player's time, but it could have allowed more creative freedom with the cooking mechanic and explained its horror twist better. The only other game from its devs is currently limited to mobile platforms, so I'd be interested to see a PC port or whatever else they might come up with next.

Originally released between July 2008 and April 2009, Grimm is an action-adventure game in which you control… well, Grimm, the small hairy dwarf with a perpetually full bladder, who's tired of how beautiful and perfect fairy tales have become, and now, it's your time to help him change them back by entering their worlds and running around to turn everything dark and stinky. It's reminiscent of Katamari Damacy in that way, only you're not rolling around a growing ball of stuff.
Though the reduction of these fairy tales to worlds of doom and gloom is where the comedy derives from, the overbearing darkness and constant toilet humor just feel "2edgy4u". In the first chapter alone (which is all that's available on Steam, now that the game's been delisted), there are crowds of hanging bodies and gravestones popping up everywhere you run. And even that isn't enough to reach the end of Grimm's sullying scale.
Despite being an American McGee creation, this is nowhere near the likes of Alice… but because it seems to be fully available on GOG… if it's ever on a deep discount and I feel like it's a good time to try it out, I might just buy it.

These cats could not have been more in plain sight. This is what I've been waiting to play all year?!

Originally watched this one on YouTube and liked it enough that when I spotted it in a bundle, I didn't think twice about getting it. Imagine my surprise when I learned the ending had been fleshed out since then.
The seemingly ridiculous gimmick - shaking and squeezing a cartoony rat with no front paws - is but a glimmer of comedy in this disturbing and bloody experience, which has (in my opinion) been most faithfully interpreted as a vision of a man suffering from crushing guilt tied to a masturbation addiction.
In this context, the extended ending seems tone-deaf, implying a grander narrative that simply isn't there. That, and the existence of an official DIY rat cut-out and plushie seems… disgusting.
I like me a properly scary/gory horror game without extremely loud jumpscares or chase sequences, but I don't know that I would have enjoyed this one as much if other players hadn't already analyzed the story. That being said, it's apparent that the devs are invested in the performance of their game, so I'm curious to see what they'll do next.

…aaand we're back!
This time around, you're Rook, an intern at the Stonecreek Citizen, randomly chosen by your coworker, Ruby Myers, to help uncover the mystery of a curse plaguing Stonecreek. The phone you're to investigate belonged to Paul Castillo, who was doing independent research into the curse before disappearing off the face of the Earth.
I've been itching to play this one ever since I learned it was going to be a thing… and now I know the reviews were right.
Most importantly, this installment takes itself so damn seriously. For me, personally, anything that belongs under the "FMV" umbrella in some way (SIMULACRA 3 includes live-action scenes, as did all the previous games) has a sort of obligation to include comic relief as a way of keeping the original spirit alive. SIMULACRA 3 is so serious and grim, I just want it to apologize to all the funny characters from 1, 2 and Pipe Dreams.
Speaking of characters, Ruby is unlikeable. She's headstrong and she can get to the bottom of everything, sure… but unless you deliberately play the game badly, there aren't any stakes to what she does or what you do to her. The way she muses on about the hypothetical article she could write about the victims of the curse just left a bad taste in my mouth. Even the couple or so times you can say something vaguely mean to her don't actually affect your relationship or the outcome of the major story beats. When the text-only side characters are more interesting than the one supposed to be your sidekick, you know something's not right.
And on the topic of story beats: I don't know what possessed (no pun intended) the devs to switch the focus to a mythical being and imbue it with "the spirit of the simulacra" or whatever, but it does not work. 1, 2 and Pipe Dreams were solid commentary on online dating, influencer culture and mobile games, which are just some of the things we're all trying to make sense of on a daily basis in this weird internet age we currently live in. Opting for a change, presumably to "spice things up" in 3 just muddies the message, if there even is one. This also influences the scares: there's no more changing backgrounds like in 1 or 2 that could truly creep you out and, even more regrettably, there is no final conversation/face-off with the simulacra itself. The design of the simulacra in the previous games as an entity with no discernible form, a constantly shifting voice (not in Pipe Dreams) and, most importantly, a complete disregard for human life was perhaps the most thrilling thing about this whole series… and in 3 it's gone, just like that. I get that with the introduction of the Beldam this isn't so much a cyberhorror anymore, but come on, man! I thought this was the series that wanted to make me afraid of checking the notifications on my real phone!
Besides these big gripes, SIMULACRA 3 simply… isn't challenging. I can vaguely remember the good ending to 2 being locked behind an entirely missable scenario and if you're not great at Flappy Bird, Pipe Dreams would have given you a hard time, so lowering the difficulty doesn't seem like a bad idea… except that in 3, everything is pretty much handed to you on a silver platter (and the couple of things that may not be, you'll be able to glean from the guides). Just read everything you can once, gathering all the clues along the way and you'll be good to go. No looking up secret websites, no calling Paul's contacts, nothing. There aren't even any easter eggs, as far as I'm aware. It's all just a sad, dull, grey mess with the cutscenes that include choices having awkward cuts between shots and actors standing in front of incredibly obvious greenscreens half the time. Even the damn ending doesn't have a cool BGM like the previous games did; you just have to read a few paragraphs in silence to learn what the hell ended up happening to Ruby and the town afterwards. NG+ doesn't let you speed up or skip text, so even as a VN, SIMULACRA 3 is kind of a flop (but on the bright side, it's so short you can replay it in about a hour and a half). The only advantage it's still got over other FMVs is the majority of the cast being Asian.
To sum it up: this was sad, disappointing and so serious it almost hurt. Do yourself a favor and stick to the first three games.

In H City (A district of Tokyo, apparently? What, you mean Harajuku?), rumor has it that a mysterious mark has been appearing on certain people's bodies… and anyone who receives it will die of unknown causes. One such person, Yashiki Kazuo, finds his way to a mansion said to provide protection to bearers of the Mark. In spite of his memory loss, circumstance dictates he aids fellow Mark bearers.
As Yashiki, you have to hear out the Mark bearers who come to the mansion, learning about the many spirits that roam the land of the living, team up with them to investigate areas of interest, collect key items and finally, face off against the spirits to help them return where they belong.
The exploration part of the game plays out like a dungeon crawler - emblematic of EXPERIENCE, as their earlier titles seem to be mostly comprised of those - which felt fresh while also bringing me back. (I miss you oh so dearly, Corpse Party: Book of Shadows…)
That being said, I think this explains a bunch of issues I have with the game. I've read comments about how ridiculous the final face-offs look… let's say YMMV. In a pure VN, this would have been left up to the writer, a moment for their style to shine as the story reaches a climax. Then again, judging by the storytelling present here, I don't know that I would trust the EXPERIENCE writers to create a full-fledged narrative that demands all of the player's attention. (I had to check while writing this and sure enough, none of the writers credited for Death Mark have written for any other VN than the ones published by EXPERIENCE. Y'all gotta let me know if their non-VN games are known for good stories or not.)
I found most - if not all - characters hard to like, and even though they're supposed to have undergone a traumatic event alongside Yashiki, I didn't feel like I got to know them any better than he did (which is to say, barely.)
And don't even get me started on the weird attempts at eroticism that don't fit in at all within the context. There are multiple instances of CGs depicting female characters being half- or barenaked, possibly in a suggestive pose; this is neither scary nor titillating, it's just annoying and distracting. (But for the record, you know no male characters get the same treatment.)
My experience (no pun intended) was also hampered by the Steam port being faulty. From what I understand, there seems to be some kind of memory leak that has never been addressed and so, despite Death Mark being Verified on the Deck, it's bound to crash every 20-40 minutes. If you're lucky, you'll be tipped off by missing textures. Save early, save often!
This is another thing the devs decided to make harder on the players for no apparent reason; as opposed to most other VNs, you can't save at any point during dialogue. No, you have to wait until you're at the mansion with the choice of what to do next or in the middle of investigating a location. Unsurprisingly, this will also lead to numerous times when the game might crap out on you right before you're able to save; hell, even the exact moment you click the "Save" button! These are the things that sour my enjoyment and make me turn to a guide immediately. I'm glad I did, though, as I would've been in for a bunch more replaying if I hadn't.
To sum it up, it's one of those games that look great (seriously, the painterly art style is wonderful) but don't amaze with their story… and in fact, as mentioned earlier, it made me want to play a different game entirely. I'm hoping there aren't many more of those out there and that the sequel will be better.

I have no words. I've seen a playthrough of FROG LEGS from the same dev, and I thought that had a nice sense of humor. This… there's nothing to it. It's just a weird "story" featuring a couple of old school-style jumpscares.
As ridiculous as this sounds… reviews seem more favorable towards the sequel.

This one technically has more of a story… but still, all the "horror" is contained within a handful of jumpscares. Some of them don't even have an image to scare you with, just the same soundbite every time something bad happens. Here's to me playing FROG LEGS in the future.

Toilet Chronicles is one of those games where you need to do everything step-by-step to get to the end, with any and all deviations from the plan netting you all kinds of bad endings. According to the initial premise, you just walked into the bathroom while at a party in 2008. It's established that there's some sort of mystery lurking within and you should try to solve it.
I knew I wanted to get this game for myself because I watched multiple playthroughs of it and it was fun seeing people find the different endings, so I still remembered about half of the game. I like this kind of randomness, but reading other people's reviews reminded me that there are longer, more fleshed out games in this vein, like The Stanley Parable or Jazzpunk.
In comparison, Toilet Chronicles is… fine, although it ends with no real fanfare or anything. In fact, you don't get to learn shit about why everything is the way it is.
The DLC is much worse, though. I've not seen that part of the game at all before, so I got excited seeing it's free… and then I had to spend time creating makeshift stairs out of a camera and toilet paper roll to climb as a mouse so I can fall into the backrooms and get jumpscared by Squidward. I get it, dev, you're a SpongeBob fan. Please try something more original/generic next time! 'Cause that was just a handful of unrelated references to other properties loosely strung together…

Finished the 21 question game with $29.500 and the 7 question game with $11.500. I was doing perfectly in the 21 question game until the Dis or Dat came up.
I wanted to say something about how because this one came out later, maybe I know more about the stuff they're asking about here, but, uh… it came out in 1996, so only a year after vol. 1.
I've not experienced much of the game (I haven't answered a single Celebrity Collect Call question, for example), but given the questions I got, it feels like Jellyvision were huge fans of The Brady Bunch.
What's most important to me, however, is that these games are so much fun. My vol. 2 scores are so much better than my vol. 1 scores, I was as excited about them as if I'd won actual money. Definitely gonna play more sooner rather than later.

A 48 hour game jam creation, You Will (Not) Remain tells the story of an unnamed protagonist who's stuck in their apartment as the outside world falls to an Eldritch horror. The gameplay boils down to interacting with things marked with a purple outline in more-or-less the same order every in-game day. Everything about the story is purposefully left ambiguous and the ending is neither surprising nor satisfying. The "horror" aspect largely takes a backseat to the protagonist's mental health issues, and so, in the end, I feel like I got more of a chill from reading the discussions where other players shared their thoughts regarding the symbolism. Unless you think you'd arrive at a similar explanation for the plot yourself, I can't rightfully recommend this one.