This game needs a serious injection of soul and personality. All of the quests, dialogue and voice acting feel like bland placeholder.

The game's scope is an admirable undertaking for a solo developer - but that doesn't mean anything for the player.

I see no reason to recommend this over the many far more creatively compelling games out there.

I'd advise anyone to give this a try as it's an interesting experience.

Kowloon's Curse is a very good game for a free game, I would've happily paid money for it. It's packed full of witty writing, interesting worldbuilding, unique visuals and a variety of atmospheres from relaxing to disconcerting.

Having said that, the "New Game +" portion of the story completely just fell apart in my hands, on day 2 I managed to skip past meeting up with Sergio, use the Mahjong tile gotten from Amane to go into the parlor, and then had Sergio randomly appear in some cutscenes, but be missing from the game world? also the game days felt very pared down on replay by the absence of the dream sequence in the maze where you're given the choice to specialize in a skill and ask a question . I was still able to finish the game and enjoyed the new segments of the story, but I was disappointed and felt I'd missed something.

'The Hex' is a genre hopping exploration of the gaming industry tied together by a cryptic narrative, which gradually descends into psychological horror. I'm emphasizing that last part, as I feel like if you overlook the tags it may not be immediately evident what you're signing up for.

I got this game as part of a humble bundle and put off playing it for a long time.

I'll start by addressing what was a pretty obvious deterrent for me: This game isn't the prettiest. The developer has gone on to create the far more visually appealing "Inscryption", so I don't mean that as any kind of slight against them. That said, the game's ugliness does create a constant unease which helps the building of tension once eerier elements take hold. Moreover, there a variety of styles within the game, one for each of the different genres we encounter in the story, which you can't see much of just from looking at the store page.

Many of the characters in the game aren't all that likable, but that's befitting of the purpose of a murder-mystery; everyone is a suspect and all that. The cast is varied enough and each character well fleshed out enough that everyone feels believable and we somewhat understand their archetype though, so credit where it's due.

I'm not a huge game mechanics guy but I will say that if that's your kind of thing, there are some pretty interesting and solid puzzles.

Plot is where this game really stood out for me. Playing as each individual cast member slowly uncovers more of the big picture. It also uncovers further mysteries and you'll slowly find yourself wondering how deep it all goes. The sense of something insidious building in the plot definitely adds to the intrigue; I found it very hard to put this game down! Having said that, more meta plot points slowly creep into the narrative throughout the first 3/4 of the game, after which point things get dark and unnerving very fast. The wrap-up leaves you with quite a few mysteries still to unravel.

This is definitely much darker and a worse vibe than anything I'd usually recommend. Whats more, having finished this I'm no longer all that sure I still like it; but it was definitely an interesting play that took me by surprise so here's the thumbs up.

Visually interesting, but flat characters, weak narrative and dialogue about as exciting as unsalted pasta really make this game a pass for me.

Personally I also found the overall feel of the game to be a little alienating or... other(?) in a way that I didn't enjoy.