Feb'24: precious indie gems

I think Mutazione is the most memorable game from February. It just made me feel a lot. It’s more of a slow meditative experience than a game to me, therapeutic and healing, and I fell in love with it from the first minutes. It’s beautiful, heartwarming and it feels alive. Its magic in its simplicity. You play as a girl who gets a letter from her sick granddad, he’s close to dying and thus needs to see her as soon as possible. That is the reason we end up in a mysterious village that is trying to keep living after a global cataclysm. The fall of a meteorite took lots of lives, and those who survived turned into mutants. Because of that the rest of the world prefered to ignore their existence, and this small community was forced to manage on its own. Even though their appearance is far from the "norm", they still remained who they were before – humans.

That is why I loved Mutazione a lot. Because it’s about humans and their stories. They love, they suffer, they have dreams, doubts and secrets, they are tormented by guilt, sorrow, they make mistakes and try their best to forgive themselves for them. They fall and they rise after falling. I think I enjoyed side stories much more than the main storyline of the game. So if you don’t like talking to every single NPC, you’re gonna miss literally 80% of the content. All characters are so engaging, emotional, each with their own charm that makes it worth getting to know them and listening to their drama. I also loved the gameplay of growing little gardens by using music. Its easy and more of intuitive: you collect, plant seeds and grow gardens by playing ritual melodies to them. Such a meditative experience.

It's also worth mentioning that the game is visually stunning. You walk around the remains of a once flourishing civilization, but even though the world suffered its end once, sprouts of flowering plants make their way through the ground, giving life a chance to start over. The colors, the textures, the characters design and the whole mood of the world just clicks so well. Just look at this, this and this. Absolutely stunning. And the music is just... chill and relaxing. Every aspect of the game works so good together, creating a beautiful complete story that is just addicting to dive into.

If you love story rich games and wanna take a break from the rush of the world or games that drain you, Mutazione deserves a chance. I still think of some scenes and dialogues from the game, it just touched me so deeply it's gonna be hard to move on. Now on a sad note I recently found out that the studio that developed the game, Die Gute Fabrik, is closing due to the lack of funds for games they wanna make. So yeah. I'll just give their other projects a shot, but it's definitely sad we probably not gonna see any new games from them.

Coincidentally I played another game that has to do with apocalypse and oh man how beautiful it was, but there are a lot of but's. Well, maybe the story wasn't as touching as I was hoping it's gonna be, but I still enjoyed it.

Minute of Islands puzzle platformer hand-drawn post-apocalyptic finished in 2024 won on steamgifts

The world is going to collapse. It's doomed, but everything can be fixed. You are the chosen hero that must do all they can to prevent horrible things from happening. But can you do it if you're all alone, especially if the clock is ticking?... Honestly, I wasn't really hooked by the story of Minute of Islands. It doesn't mean it is not good. Our character is a mechanic on a journey to fix ancient bio-mecha machines that for some reason stopped working. They were the only things that kept the world going. And if we don't do anything, the polluted air is going to kill everything alive. So we grab our special tool, jump on the boat and travel between islands to help the doomed world. That's it. We go from one island to another, fixing machines, finding remains of life and meeting people who are not really happy to talk to us. The struggle and trauma of our main character are well written, the reasons of her actions are well explained, but it was not enough to make me care for her, I am not even sure why. On top of that the ending really ruined it all for me. I loved the way the story was told, especially remembering absolutely incredible narrator's voice, I just didn't like how the story ended.

There is not much to say about gameplay and what made me like this game was its melancholic mood, the whole atmosphere and the beauty of the world that's falling apart. The gameplay is just walking around, getting from A to B, solving easy puzzles. I didn't mind the slow gameplay at all, I appreciate games that do not rush me and let me enjoy the experience, but sometimes it was too much. I was sitting in my chair, petting my cat and asking myself when the cutscene of traveling on the boat gonna end. But maybe it's just me, I was playing it right before going to bed so probably I was just tired and annoyed I can't speed things up.

It is definitely not polished to perfection, but it doesn't make it bad. Minute of Islands is unique in terms of artstyle and mood, but gameplay and story wise there was no chemistry between us.

BUT oh boy what a chemistry happened between me and Beacon Pines. I am impatiently waiting for part 2 if they give life to it, because ohhhh what a nice little game it was!

Beacon Pines visual novel exploration mystery finished in 2024

Strange things are happening in Beacon Pines and it's hard not to notice them! Something is going on at the old abandoned warehouse, because why would there be any lights and weird people walking around? As we go somewhere we are not supposed to, it gives a start to a crazy adventure that is going to change the world. I absolutely love mystery, I love cute animals and games about them, I love time travel, and Beacon Pines has it all, so it was love from the first click. We play as little Luka, who is curious, adventurous and smart. His loving granny begs him never get into trouble... Of course she's worried, because she's the only parent our Luka has, since he tragically lost his father years ago, and his mother disappeared under mysterious circumstances. But Luka is just a little kid, so no, granny, it's our job to FIND TROUBLE!

Beacon Pines feels like childhood. Like those days at the end of May when school is almost over and summer is just around the corner, you're ready to throw away all the books and play at the lake with your friends until the evening. It also reminded me of those fantastic tales I was reading at school's library where my granny was working. However while the game might seem really easy going, bright and cute, its story is much deeper than you think. Everything in it works so well together, the plot, the characters, the world, the TWISTS! On our journey we discover our town's most horrible secrets, find new friends and risk our lives to save them. My jaw literally dropped a few times for sure, and a few times I was crying.

Luka is literally the main character of a tale, and the story is told by the narrator who is reading the book. And we have a power to change everything. Through the story we can collect little "charms", and using them gonna help us choose a different route for our tale. Instead of "running away" we can use the word "fight", doesn't it change the whole situation to our benefit, huh? I loved that we can see many timelines, even though there is only one "true" way.

I really don't want to talk much about Beacon Pines, I just wanna say that it is such a masterpiece, such a little gem that is definitely worth checking, after all it's only 5 hours of gameplay, but each hour is gonna be unforgettable. I WANT MORE!

february completed

• Tomb Raider
  

  42 hours playtime

  50 of 50 achievements

• Police Stories
  

  12 hours playtime

  39 of 39 achievements

• Our World Is Ended.
  

  15 hours playtime

  40 of 40 achievements

• Mutazione
  

  6.6 hours playtime

  20 of 20 achievements

• Beacon Pines
  

  7.1 hours playtime

  11 of 11 achievements

• Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery
  

  2.6 hours playtime

  19 of 19 achievements

• HIVESWAP: ACT 2
  

  12.1 hours playtime

  49 of 49 achievements

• SIMULACRA 3
  

  10.8 hours playtime

  24 of 24 achievements

• Minute of Islands
  

  6.3 hours playtime

  17 of 17 achievements

• The Invisible Hand
  

  9.9 hours playtime

  20 of 31 achievements