Score: 8.5
Ages: 12+
2016
Oxenfree feels very nostalgic, like jumping into an old school supernatural thriller movie, the ones with a bunch of teenagers. The protagonist is going on an island trip with some friends and her new stepbrother. Everyone has their own issues, which start to culminate as the island begins revealing its eerie mystery.
Score: 9.0
Ages: 12+
2017
The Sexy Brutale is a brilliant little adventure with tons of charm despite all the brutal deaths in it. The protagonist lives the same day over and over again in a mansion, trying to save all the guests from their horrible fates. Continue reading
Score: 9.0
(17+)
2014
Penny Dreadful already finished its second season last summer but I’ve only seen the first. I’m terribly behind in most of the TV series but I’ll try to put a word or two for some of the better shows anyway. This show is wonderfully bleak and gritty compared to the many beautiful, almost fairy tale like stories out there. There’s sex and blood and death. Continue reading
Score: 6.0
2012
This game was another Adventure Gamers casual community playthrough title, and it was well worth the play, though its ending really watered down the otherwise promising title. The Noise She Couldn’t Make is a story about an unconscious girl found with a bloody knife. She doesn’t wake up, so the hospital hires a psychic (the player) to travel into her mind. That’s kind of a silly start but the whole concept of entering someone’s mind is intriguing and it works well in this game. Continue reading
The last year. Sorry about being lazier the further I got with the decade. But aren’t we going out with a bang? So much good stuff that I just want to weep. Fight Club and The Matrix are in the IMDb top20. Sixth Sense, The Green Mile and American Beauty a bit further down. Even skipping all these, I have a lot of issues limiting things down to 5. And I shouldn’t skip them really, they’re all great psychological movies, albeit from very different angles. Continue reading
Score: 6.5
(13+)
2011
F.A.C.E.S. is one of those hidden object games, where you get a screen cluttered with all kinds of weird stuff and a list of items to find. It’s not really my favourite gameplay mechanic but I don’t hate it either, especially if it’s used with a twist or rarely among variety of puzzles. Unfortunately in F.A.C.E.S. it is overused, which forces me to give it a less than good score, even though the atmosphere of the game made it a worthwhile play. Continue reading
Score: 10
(18+)
2012
I used to be a much bigger horror enthusiast when I was younger. In the last decade or so I had turned into a scaredy-cat really. The pop culture representing horror mostly with unnecessary gore and jump scares and the horrible overuse of zombies just made me less drawn to the genre. But recently I’ve found horror again with the help of some surreal and aesthetically interesting experiences, focusing on the psychological dread rather than running away from axe-murderers. And I find things like the TV show Hannibal and this indie game something very artistic and beautiful even in their more grotesque parts. Continue reading
Score: 9.0
(17+)
2015 PC (2014 Xbox One)
I already wrote about this Xbox One exclusive adventure by Swery65 finally being released for PC. Now I grabbed the game from the Steam summer sale, eager to play as David – the ex Boston Police detective and a handsome devil – who lost his wife a couple of years ago, and is now working as a PI, diving (in more senses than one) into the past to solve the most important case of his life.
David is somewhat a cliche with the scruffy looks, a lost love and a personal case to obsess over. But that’s really where the familiar ground ends. Continue reading
Score: 7.0
2013
The Novelist is an interesting little game about life choices, mainly between one’s family and career. The Kaplan family of three (the writer Dan, his artist wife Linda and their son Tommy) moves into a remote location for the summer, mainly so that the father could work on his new novel. The player is an outside force that observes and even influences the decisions of the father. At the end of the summer the consequences of the player’s actions are revealed. Continue reading
So there’s this huge battle going on… who am I kidding? There’s no battle. I just hadn’t noticed how hard it was to categorize a piece of art and/or entertainment (that’s another issue altogether – and perhaps even a battle) to these genres. What are they exactly? I’m sure the wondrous world is full of great definitions but I’m going to be blissfully ignorant about them and just think about what they mean to me. Because that’s more important, to me.
Now that my self centered nature has been dealt with, I’ll start my chatter slightly more on topic. Continue reading
Lux Atarnia 