Her Story is an interesting, game-like narrative experience. You find yourself staring at a somewhat dated looking computer desktop, showing a video of a woman who is testifying to the police. What she is testifying about is not immediately clear. Your job is to piece together who she is and what happened to bring her into the interview room.… Read the rest
There are games that get the pejorative label ‘walking simulator’ slapped on them. These are interactive storytelling experiences in which the actual game elements are relatively light. Dear Esther would be a perfect example of this group, as well as the slightly more gamey Gone Home and The Sailor’s Dream.… Read the rest
Framed is a noir-flavored puzzle game for iDevices. You play as a spy – as multiple spies, even – who are on the run with a mysterious briefcase and have to get past various police officers without getting caught. That is about as much as there is to the story.… Read the rest
Jazzpunk is odd, and this is in no way accidental. In fact, the game tries a bit too hard to be odd and strains something in the process. Being free-form is to be expected from a game with the word ‘jazz’ in its title, but with a little more focus and a bit more restraint, the oddness could have been put to better use.… Read the rest
Virtue’s Last Reward is the sequel to 999, and is a visual novel which features ‘escape the room’ puzzles. Again, nine people awaken to find themselves trapped and forced to take part in an experiment called ‘the nonary game’. This time, things seem to take place in the future and the ringleader is a psychotic A.I.… Read the rest
This is not a review of 999: The Novel, which has only just appeared for iOs devices. Instead, this is a review of the DS game from 2010 that this ‘interactive novel’ was based on, called 999 – Nine Persons, Nine Hours, Nine Doors.… Read the rest
I just finished Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, which follows the original Phoenix Wright trilogy (which I review here). I can’t think of another game franchise of which I have finished four entries, so something about the Ace Attorney series must really appeal to me.… Read the rest
In Gone Home, you play a girl who comes home to the new house that her sister and parents moved into, while she was touring Europe for a year. It’s a little after midnight, there is a thunderstorm and no one is around.… Read the rest
