Displaying items by tag: Story Rich

While there are some problems with making the player feel truly relevant in influencing the plotline, there are occasions where this does happen, and then you feel taken along for a fascinating ride. Together with the superb voice acting and quality soundtrack, this episode leaves you thirsting for more.

Somewhere between science-fiction and fantasy, portals, magic, and warriors exist in a chaotic junction between existences. Worlds collide, and you're left to forge your own path, and discover more than you had ever realized. Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition is a gem of a game, which brings a long-lost treasure home, rested, refreshed, renewed, and ready for more adventure.

Narborion Saga is a wonderful melding of multiple genres, merging High Fantasy RPGs, Visual Novels á la Choose Your Own Adventure, and Dice Rolling games reminiscent of the good ol’ D&D days. Dungeon crawling, open maps to explore, treasures to find, enemies to fight, skill points to use… The list goes on and on.  Narborion Saga offers something for almost everyone, and it’s easy to lose yourself for hours on end.

The Wild Eternal might be an acquired taste for some players, given its spiritual undertones and mystical themes, but the witty dialog and gripping plot combine with the scenic milieus to make The Wild Eternal a solid recommendation for fans of the genre.

Saucer-Like is a short-form art piece in its genre. Beautiful art is the main focus in the narrative, with over forty hand-drawn backgrounds, each featuring rich contrasts. Saucer-Like is a solid recommendation to classic point-and-click adventure devotees, and to gamers who seek stories that stick in their heads, the sole caveat being the length of the title, which leaves much to be desired.

Visual novel veterans will enjoy The Falconers: Moonlight, as will gamers, of any breed, who seek well-crafted stories. Its aesthetic suits its themes, and its sound plays a key role in the player's process of working out its mystery. Dialogue choices remain meaningful despite their limited impact on the plot. This title delivers an experience that, while short, is more than satisfactory.

The upcoming psychological, narrative-driven RPG Sacred Fire showcased the extended level of character customization that will be made available in the game. Successfully funded via Kickstarter, this level of customization is part of the game’s stretch goal targets, of which the first was also surpassed recently.

A New Frontier Episode 3 leaves you eager for more, delivering compelling, engrossing new details in the unfolding story, with great potential for the next two installments. Without a doubt, the finale of this season of The Walking Dead will be utterly gut-wrenching and satisfying, and players with love for this franchise – or even just Telltale Games on their own, as storytellers – shouldn't hesitate to take the plunge with The Walking Dead: A New Frontier.

Troll and I is unplayable. By all accounts, the game is full of glitches, even on the latest generation of consoles -- let alone all of the victims who bought the game to play on a PC more than a year old. It may work on certain systems to some degree, but the advertised minimum specifications are certainly false, and therefore merit a hefty downgrade. If you manage to get past the game-breaking bugs, the gameplay itself is frustrating and unoriginal, and the story seems to have nothing to offer. Save your money and your sanity, and skip this one.

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Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles, an open-world adventure from a former Activision producer and Rocksteady developers now forming Prideful Sloth, launches for PC on July 18, 2017.

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Waking the Glares - Chapters I & II feels like a good first try, but the soft, soothing music and pleasant voice acting weren't enough. The series could grow, as Wisefool Studios gains more experience and support from the community; sadly, though, these are steep requirements for players that already have a score of immersive, truly fascinating walking simulators from which to choose, not to mention puzzle games that actually require deep contemplation.

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The puzzles are satisfying, if not overly challenging, and although the maneuvering issues and movement speed are a source of frustration, I never had a lapse in gameplay when the momentum stalled because I couldn't figure out a solution. Bear With Me – Episode 2 is polished and sophisticated, with a refreshing take on point-and-click themes, and while Episode 2 is relatively short – it took me less than 3 hours to beat it – I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a quality adventure title.

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Set in an alternative 19th century, Herald follows the journey of Devan Rensburg, a young man who boards a merchant ship in an attempt to return to his place of birth. While onboard the ship, the HLV Herald, you must interact with fellow crew members and passengers – how you treat them is entirely up to you.

We Are Chicago raises real issues that still plague parts of America, and encourages young people to stay away from gang violence, and this goal is praiseworthy – but between the flat graphics, the uninspired characters, and the nausea-inducing camera movement, We Are Chicago isn't an enjoyable gaming experience.

A title that appears to have been a labor of love, but also and unfortunately, that fails to be anything more than that. For fans of visual novels and dating simulations Angels with Scaly Wings might serve to impress you, but if these aren’t a draw, then pass. The art, animation, and music leave something to be desired, while the gameplay and story line are only interesting because of the odd concept that serves as a common denominator: dating dragons.

A House of Many Doors is a terrifying trek through the unknown, a disjointed story with startling descriptions of lost memories and slow declines into madness. It is beautiful, haunting, gripping… and boring. It is simply hard to identify with it, and complicated to understand, which prevents it from truly capitalizing on its amazing elements which would otherwise stand alone so well.

Red Candle Games delivers horror as poignant as it is piercing, showcasing for the international game community the horrors of authoritarian communism. Although Detention has several points which can be improved, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; players will walk away – or run, screaming – with a fresh, thoughtful gaming experience.

Elena is a promising idea cut off too soon. The music is soothing, the gameplay is entertaining, and the mystery is compelling. If the story had a second chapter to look forward to, I would be excited to play it, but as it is, Elena feels too incomplete to live up to its promise.

Telltale Games is back again with yet another chapter in the ongoing The Walking Dead saga, which combines elements of the original graphic novels along with aspects of the hit TV show. The Walking Dead: A New Frontier is another shining example of Telltale’s ability to weave compelling storytelling with an interactive, visual novel type of experience.  One intriguing aspect of A New Frontier is the options players have to either start fresh with a new save or to import previous saves from the other two seasons; importing alters some of the events of Season 3, especially when it comes to the behaviors of returning cast members!

Heroine Anthem Zero’s strength lies in its story and depth of world. If you expect to play a masterpiece ARPG with innovative and intuitive mechanics, character level progression, and/or a high skill cap that requires regular practice, look elsewhere. But if you want an interesting, albeit sometimes by the book, story played out through captivating visuals and don’t mind the occasional moment of "ecchi," then HAZ may be the ARPG for you. Solid gameplay and appealing boss fights help carry the action between story moments, while not forcing a skill wall on the player, and the promise of more content to come help increase the value of its meager $14.99 price tag.

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