BigBlueWolf
3 hours, 8/10
10 of 10 achievements
6 hours, 7/10
19 of 19 achievements
Batch 30
… the walking simulator batch.
Hope everyone is staying safe.
Dear Esther Landmark Edition
Mar '20 ThemeCompleted
3 hours, 8/10
10 of 10 achievements
THE walking sim
Beaten: 13-Mar-2020
This game needs no introduction as it was the original walking simulator -- or at least the game that inspired the label.
The game has been remade here with the Unity game engine, re-scored music and director commentary that has the team recounting the experience of making both the original and this edition. If you haven't played before, it's probably better to turn that off so you can enjoy it as it was meant to be played. For people returning to the game the commentary has some nice insights. Also, this time around you get achievements.
This game needs no introduction as it was the original walking simulator -- or at least the game that inspired the label.
The game has been remade here with the Unity game engine, re-scored music and director commentary that has the team recounting the experience of making both the original and this edition. If you haven't played before, it's probably better to turn that off so you can enjoy it as it was meant to be played. For people returning to the game the commentary has some nice insights. Also, this time around you get achievements.
Beaten: 15-Mar-2020
Some walking sims fall short in some respects. It's a bit sad that is the case with The Fidelio Incident, which follows the aftermath of a light airplane crashing in a remote area of Iceland. From the get-go you are introduced to Stanley and Leonore as they banter in the cabin. Post-crash you play Stanley and get a desperate message from her over their hand-held walkie-talkies and set out to find her in the frozen landscape. The game is eerily beautiful. There's unusual bunkers and heating pipes dotting the landscape. As Stanley makes his way closer to the smoke plume that indicates Leonore's location, you find journal notes scattered from the crash and suffer from dream-like reveries that fill in the story.
But it's the story that falls flat here. Our couple has a checkered past they are trying to escape, but the manner in which it is told isn't terribly compelling. The story is deeply personal on many levels, but exploration of the details is limited and the game often seems to fight against connecting with the characters on anything other than surface level. By the end I shrugged my shoulders because I didn't really feel that much for them. Good voice-acting though.
Some walking sims fall short in some respects. It's a bit sad that is the case with The Fidelio Incident, which follows the aftermath of a light airplane crashing in a remote area of Iceland. From the get-go you are introduced to Stanley and Leonore as they banter in the cabin. Post-crash you play Stanley and get a desperate message from her over their hand-held walkie-talkies and set out to find her in the frozen landscape. The game is eerily beautiful. There's unusual bunkers and heating pipes dotting the landscape. As Stanley makes his way closer to the smoke plume that indicates Leonore's location, you find journal notes scattered from the crash and suffer from dream-like reveries that fill in the story.
But it's the story that falls flat here. Our couple has a checkered past they are trying to escape, but the manner in which it is told isn't terribly compelling. The story is deeply personal on many levels, but exploration of the details is limited and the game often seems to fight against connecting with the characters on anything other than surface level. By the end I shrugged my shoulders because I didn't really feel that much for them. Good voice-acting though.
Lethe Episode One
Mar '20 ThemeCompleted
6 hours, 7/10
19 of 19 achievements
Terror and telekinesis
Beaten: 20-Mar-2020
This is horror walking sim in the tradition of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA. It oozes atmosphere. You start out the survivor of a boat wreck of the coast of an island. You start exploring and quickly get caught in the twisting caves, corridors and rooms of a vast underground complex while being stalked as you try to find answers and a way out. You are limited to running and/or hiding when confronted with an enemy.
There's not a lot else here to comment on except for the story. Unfortunately that's where the game falters because the letters and notes found imply human activity levels not supported by the visuals.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
You are not given a lot to start with -- namely that you discover a letter after your father's death indicating you weren't his biological child. This puts you on a boat to the aforementioned island, searching for your true family. Starting at the shore you are confronted with a rotting pier, a single rustic run-down cottage, a few utility buildings and a mine entrance. Being the survivor of a shipwreck you'd think set out trying to find a town to look for help, but of course there are no roads going anywhere. The mine is your only option. So, onward!
From that point you are uncovering clues about what happened to the island residents, who apparently hung out in the mine a lot. Some kind of disease hit. People went mad. A doctor arrived with his team and were researching properties of a substance he found on the island. There's a cult who think something from beyond Earth landed there. But whatever happened either killed everyone or made people kill each other. Based on the number of human remains you see the death toll had to be in the tens of thousands. How all that could have happened without anyone outside the island ever hearing about it is ... well, hard to imagine. And of course weird experiments on living people had to happen in a set up like this, leading to the horrific monsters that stalk your progression.
There's also these "resonator" figurines with faces that emit weird blue energy. And for reasons not explained, at the start of chapter four you gain telekinetic powers that allow you to manipulate objects you can't reach. (Throwing barrels at your pursuers doesn't help.) I can only assume the lack of answers at the end of the game is because of the "Episode One" billing. But since there doesn't seem to be a second installment coming, I'm guessing we aren't going to know the whys and hows.
In the end it's a fun game purely for tension and jump scares. Just go with it and don't make the mistake of trying to figure out what's actually happening.
This is horror walking sim in the tradition of Amnesia: The Dark Descent and SOMA. It oozes atmosphere. You start out the survivor of a boat wreck of the coast of an island. You start exploring and quickly get caught in the twisting caves, corridors and rooms of a vast underground complex while being stalked as you try to find answers and a way out. You are limited to running and/or hiding when confronted with an enemy.
There's not a lot else here to comment on except for the story. Unfortunately that's where the game falters because the letters and notes found imply human activity levels not supported by the visuals.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
You are not given a lot to start with -- namely that you discover a letter after your father's death indicating you weren't his biological child. This puts you on a boat to the aforementioned island, searching for your true family. Starting at the shore you are confronted with a rotting pier, a single rustic run-down cottage, a few utility buildings and a mine entrance. Being the survivor of a shipwreck you'd think set out trying to find a town to look for help, but of course there are no roads going anywhere. The mine is your only option. So, onward!
From that point you are uncovering clues about what happened to the island residents, who apparently hung out in the mine a lot. Some kind of disease hit. People went mad. A doctor arrived with his team and were researching properties of a substance he found on the island. There's a cult who think something from beyond Earth landed there. But whatever happened either killed everyone or made people kill each other. Based on the number of human remains you see the death toll had to be in the tens of thousands. How all that could have happened without anyone outside the island ever hearing about it is ... well, hard to imagine. And of course weird experiments on living people had to happen in a set up like this, leading to the horrific monsters that stalk your progression.
There's also these "resonator" figurines with faces that emit weird blue energy. And for reasons not explained, at the start of chapter four you gain telekinetic powers that allow you to manipulate objects you can't reach. (Throwing barrels at your pursuers doesn't help.) I can only assume the lack of answers at the end of the game is because of the "Episode One" billing. But since there doesn't seem to be a second installment coming, I'm guessing we aren't going to know the whys and hows.
In the end it's a fun game purely for tension and jump scares. Just go with it and don't make the mistake of trying to figure out what's actually happening.
Beaten: 27-Mar-2020
A beautiful game that has no dialogue while telling three different stories through the on-screen action and collectibles you pick up. Despite the fact that it looks like it has platformer elements, this really is a third-person walking sim. Directional key commands take care of jumping and climbing for you, so the game is 100% exploration with no possibility of missing a jump or dying by misadventure. The maturity level is great for young children, but older players might get bored with it.
A beautiful game that has no dialogue while telling three different stories through the on-screen action and collectibles you pick up. Despite the fact that it looks like it has platformer elements, this really is a third-person walking sim. Directional key commands take care of jumping and climbing for you, so the game is 100% exploration with no possibility of missing a jump or dying by misadventure. The maturity level is great for young children, but older players might get bored with it.
Beaten: 19-Mar-2020
This is beautiful and short third-person walking sim that is presented as a Japanese pop-up story book. You guide your paper character through various settings in search of cherry blossoms to adorn the barren tree at the start of the game. The navigation leads you to hot spots where the book page can be "flipped" to reveal another beautifully stylized setting to navigate.
With some light puzzle mechanics to keep things interesting, the entire thing can be completed in about an hour. However the puzzles involved a little too much back-tracking. The whole experience came off as a great concept piece that I wished was larger, longer and more complex.
This is beautiful and short third-person walking sim that is presented as a Japanese pop-up story book. You guide your paper character through various settings in search of cherry blossoms to adorn the barren tree at the start of the game. The navigation leads you to hot spots where the book page can be "flipped" to reveal another beautifully stylized setting to navigate.
With some light puzzle mechanics to keep things interesting, the entire thing can be completed in about an hour. However the puzzles involved a little too much back-tracking. The whole experience came off as a great concept piece that I wished was larger, longer and more complex.