A short, free game set (apparently) in the universe of Life is Strange, meant to be a demo/teaser of the sequel of the aforementioned game. The story revolves around a boy, living alone with his father somewhere in a remote forest area. 9-year old Chris, an avid reader of superhero comics, created his own alter ego, Captain Spirit, and uses his vivid imagination to make both chores and (quite serious) life issues more manageable. Gameplay is similar to LiS, though with no time rewinding, of course.
It's a short and sweet appetiser for the main course that is LiS2 - from what I've gathered, Chris is meant to be and important character there. Worth playing if you like this kind of games - and it's free, so what not to like :)

Status: completed - no side content whatsoever.

ICY: Frostbite edition - interactive novel set in a post-nuclear ice wasteland. This game resembles Banner Saga, but with more freedom of exploration, inventory and crafting system. Our character is a part of a group of nomads, travelling through the icy plains, scavenging and hunting to get by. When the "family" is attacked by unusually well armed group of mercenaries and some of its members kidnapped, it is our task to track them down and come to the rescue.

The game offers quite a lot of freedom - there is no time limit nor any forced line of events. We have a map of the area and can just travel around, gathering resources and doing some sidequests for a couple of hours without having to worry about the main story line. Every now and then we are faced with choices that have no obvious good or bad answer - e.g. witnessing a conflict between two individuals or groups, who shall our family help? Or perhaps the best resolution is to leave them be and resolve the issue among themselves?

The art style is really pleasing and the locations diverse. Combat system is quite novel - it's turn based, each turn we get some action tokens (melee, bow or gun attack, precision, stealth, defence, taunt etc.) depending on party's equipment and main character's skills. Putting up to three of those tokens together results in more damaging attack or additional bonuses.

The biggest fault of the title in my opinion is the same as for Banner Saga - the characters, including our party, are shallow and it is hard to identify with them. It's the same for NPCs and the world in general - I just didn't care about them or their fate. Apart from that, marking objective locations is not the best around - a small question mark that is really hard to notice, forcing the player to scroll the whole map and try to spot it. Inventory system could really use a clear distinguish between crafting components and vendor trash - more than once I've sold items that could be useful later.

Other than that - the title is an interesting and quite novel experience. Definitely worth picking up on some sale (or even full price, it's not expensive) if you are not opposed to a lot of reading and lack of typical action.

Status: completed - most achievements can be obtained during the course of the playthrough, some are related to endings (of which the game has several, but the choice is made right at the end, so there is no problem with creating a save data and seeing them all).