January 2025 report

I was prepared to recommend Renoir despite the few problems it has, but after going for the speedrun achievement (yeah, stupid decision) I have to say - stay away from it. I knew that it would be a pain in the ass, but I told myself that if I will first look up each level through a playthrough it will be bearable… I should have uninstalled it right after completing the normal achievements. But when I already had 8/10 levels done in under 15 minutes and three more hours in the game in total I had to keep going… well it wasn't without tears from my total exhaustion.

Detective James Renoir has one last case to solve - his own murder. As a ghost, he needs to navigate through familiar locations in search for his faded memories to uncover the culprit and to be able to rest in peace.

Renoir is a puzzle platformer game with nice Noir visuals and horrible unresponsive controls.
So the visuals are rather nicely done - but you can't go wrong with black&white. There are four locations to walk through - cemetery, police station, city hall, and monument. Although they are different they still feel the same so you actually stop paying any attention to your surroundings and only concentrate on the puzzles. The music, if there is any, is fine, fully in Noir setting. But most of the time there is only silence and the sounds of your footsteps, switches, etc. The voice acting would be good if you could actually hear him. The sound of Renoir's voice seems to be rather sympathetic but has a horrible echo (to make him sound like he speaks from the afterlife) that makes him hard to understand - without the subtitles, you would be pretty much left in the darkness.

The story is… weird and doesn't make much sense honestly - my biggest problem is with the "love story". Our hero is portrayed as at least a 50-year-old tired man with, well, not-so-attractive appearance (but with the voice of a younger man) who gets his hands on the most beautiful and popular woman all around. Yeah, not buying that… but well, maybe Kitty has a thing for older men… who am I to judge, right? It's just very hard to connect with Renoir as a character or to feel any sympathy for him at all.

As for the gameplay - you have to navigate through each level without stepping into the light. As the light switches are usually under some other lights you need some help. Fully programmable phantoms will provide that for you. You need to select them and order them what to do - in the programming phase they can step through the light, but once you start their programming they are gonna stop before the light. So you need to cooperate with them as you will switch off the light for them and they will switch off the lights for you. Sounds fun. Well, in the beginning, I found it rather clever and was proud when I managed to solve some of the puzzles. But as the game progresses you realize that it's still the same, there are no new elements added - just a switch that needs to be held, a switch that can be activated or a valve that will start a timed sequence of light/platform/trapdoor. All you have to do is to solve an even bigger and more hideous puzzle through a few screens that require a lot of trial and error as you often need to precisely time everyone's action/position.
Add to it the most horrible unresponsive and sluggish controls you have ever seen and the whole game quickly turns into a chore without any fun. Forget about any kind of precise movement - the characters stop two steps after you stop, it takes 1 second to turn clockwise, and almost 2.5 seconds to turn anti-clockwise!, positioning yourself on the ladder can be a painful experience… everything is just wrong.

There is also a funny achievement - completing each level in under 15 minutes. Whoever thought it would be a great idea was insane. If they at least made a different time count for each level as some of them are truly big and have very complicated puzzles, but no, all have 15 minutes. During this time you need to navigate the level, program your phantoms, execute the program, and wish that all will be timed right - all it takes to restart the whole level is one little mistake in taking a bad turn. You don't have any timer on the screen nor you can see afterward how much time you spent on it. If you want to be certain you need to track time on your own.
The achievement is not worth the stress and I am angry at myself for trying for it, but I have spent so many hours going for it that when I had only two levels left I had to keep going or it would be a completely wasted time.

So even if I look aside from the stupid achievement, I can't recommend it. It's just not fun even though it had a good potential. If you want a nice puzzle game with a Noir theme go for FRAMED instead, that one is great fun!

Contrast is a short cute game about a young girl Didi on a mission of saving her parent's relationship. Didi isn't alone on this hard task though as she can always rely on her dear imaginary friend Dawn.

Gameplay-wise it's a puzzle platformer where you need to progress by switching from normal 3D to a shadow 2D world. All you need to do is manipulate the light source in the 3D world to create a path from shadows through which you can overcome obstacles or solve different puzzles. The shifting mechanic is rather clever and fun although it can be a little bit frustrating in some moments thanks to clunky movement/camera as you get forcefully expelled from the shadow realm.
The achievements are pretty straightforward and mostly tied to story progression. Any missed collectible can be picked up afterward without the need to collect everything again.

The graphics are very nice, and the mood of the 1920s and Noir theme is dripping from it. In the whole game, we can fully see only Didi and Dawn, others are portrayed by their shadows which creates a peculiar atmosphere. The voice acting is done very well, with the only exception being Dawn who doesn't speak nor show any kind of emotions - she is just an unbiased helper. The soundtrack is beautiful and the main song is simply exceptional.

The game isn't anyhow long and has a good pace. It has a surprisingly serious story that is portrayed through children's eyes. The ending feels slightly abrupt and points to a possible sequel - which would be great, but I don't think it's gonna happen, shame as it's a really enjoyable game and I can safely recommend it.

Invisible, Inc. is a brilliant tactical game heavily concentrated on stealth. You take control of a group of agents (2-4) and lead them on various missions consisting of infiltration, quick and quiet completion of your objective, and finally everyone’s safe extraction. But as your targets are large, wealthy, and most importantly very dangerous corporations, you need to stay vigilant as their grounds are protected by guards, cameras, various security robots, or even firewalls. Your team isn’t powerless and every agent can be equipped with useful items like a chip for instant hacking, a flashlight grenade, a healing pack, a cloaking device, etc. You want to be quick as the time is against you (with each turn security level rises), but proceeding without caution can cost you dearly.

The visuals are untypical but very nice and perfectly fit the game. Both the soundtrack and voice acting are very good. The story is simple yet captivating and has a rather unexpected outcome! I wouldn't mind if it was a little longer though. The campaign consists of exactly timed chapters with main missions at the end of the said times, in between you can choose wherever you wish to go - to gather money, ammo, augmentations or to free prisoners (and maybe hire a new agent). With every successful infiltration, the difficulty rises accordingly so even on easy difficulty you can get into tight spots. It is very important to pay attention to the description of your enemies and choose the right tactic against them. Every level is randomly generated which keeps the encounters fresh and challenging (furthermore, you can choose from 5 different game mods or even customize it to your liking).

The game has some issues with compatibility and it crashed on me right after the tutorial resulting in a corrupted save. I barely started so restarting wasn't a problem, but I have decided to copy my saves as a precaution. Luckily no other crush for me, but better to be safe than sorry (others weren't so lucky).

This one little hiccup can't discourage me from recommending it to every fan of X-COM and other similar games.

Long-anticipated winter vacation must wait as our hotel turns into a crime scene with bodies slowly piling up! Following the traces left behind by the serial killer we are going to uncover a lot of dirty secrets from each victim's past. Apparently, they were not so innocent, and all point to someone taking revenge against them!

Short hidden object game with a modern setting and rather bloody story. Even though the story is grim the visuals are all sparky, colorful, and pretty to look at. The music and voice acting are of standard quality. The puzzles and hidden object scenes are fairly easy - it's a good thing on one hand - you are not frustrated, on the other hand there isn't much of a challenge. Being a private investigator means that we need to analyze the crime scenes - first you need to find evidence of a crime and then put it together in the right order. Backtracking isn't much of a problem, we are usually moving forward.
There are two collectibles to find - origami (every time different) and lilies, but no on-screen indication if they are already collected, so prepare to be nervous till the end! Also, some of the origami are pretty hard to spot.

The story is… stupid. The plot doesn't make much of a sense and the overall development isn't any better. Our heroine isn't suitable to be a private investigator if she can't correctly identify the murderer and save her new suitor!

Close both eyes on the story and you will get an easy, short game with straightforward achievements - a great plan for casual weekend gaming.