Let me start off by saying I really wanted to like this game. I had high hopes for it, and even contributed to its Kickstarter, because of the contribution of Alec Holowka (respects), having played and loved Aquaria. And I suppose I did enjoy his part in this game's development. The music was charming, as were the artwork and the general overall aesthetic.

That's where the enjoyment stops for me, however. If I had to tell a friend about this game, I would describe it as a constant depressive existential crisis, about a group of constant depressive existential crises. That is to say, that is the identity of the game, its story, and every character in it. And even speaking as a person who's had plenty of depressive existential experiences, I found it to be too much so to be relatable. Every single character (of all ages) in this game has a distinct juvenile overly-edgy randomness, well past the point of cringe; the sort you typically see only among preteens. The story and progression itself is a directionless slog through pointless activities and empty conversations, the likes of which you'd see as filler in an RPG. I kept waiting for the plot to go somewhere, or for the characters to arc in any meaningful way, but both developments were horribly disappointing and lackluster, right up to the drawn-out, anticlimactic ending.

Now, even on cursory research about the game's achievements, it seems that it's only possible to get them all via multiple playthroughs. That's a tough sell, because in order for the game to have replay value, it would need to have play value in the first place. But even your decisions in the game seem to make so little difference to anything, that by the end you've basically seen everything, or at the very least you've seen enough. Because of my own neurosis, I'm likely to try to get the rest of the achievements some day, at which point I'll be reminded why I didn't enjoy it the first time.

What can be said that isn't painfully obvious?

Avernum: Escape from the Pit. A remake of a remake of Exile: Escape from the Pit, which I can only assume was a pretty solid game back in the day. I enjoyed the original remake (Avernum I) well enough. That is to say it was clunky, poorly balanced, and devoid of direction. But for its many faults, it was still quaint, nostalgic, and diverting.

That is not the case with this rendition. Somehow, Vogel managed to take his clunky, unbalanced design, and make both of those aspects immeasurably worse. For example, tell me how it is that 98% of your enemies (which always outnumber your party) can, with every basic attack, manage to hit multiple party members, and/or cause one or more debuffs that prevent any action at all for at least one turn. Meanwhile, when you do manage to get an attack in, it misses half the time, no matter how much combat skill your character has. Furthermore, best I can tell, the additional clunkiness was caused exclusively to add some half-assed animations, for the additional cost of graphical detail and distinctiveness (presumably because such features would be more effort to animate). The result is just remarkably bland. Certainly not worth the remake.

If you're curious about this game, my best recommendation is to not waste your resources, and instead go with an earlier rendition for cheaper. GOG.com makes it easy.

Will I finish this game? Probably. Through countless tedious, frustrating hours, I probably will. But only out of sheer obnoxious stubbornness and utter self-loathing.

As far as space exploration and trade games go, I haven't found one that's more true to the genre (not to mention more similar to Escape Velocity, the allfather of space trade). Sprite-based, but beautiful, elegant, realistic, and 3D-rendered sprites. The soundtrack isn't my thing (I prefer listening to ambient djent music while I play), but it's cool that it has one. A wide variety of missions that progresses somewhat with the story. A vast universe to explore. The ship customization mechanics can be a bit complex, but not too much of a hindrance when you get used to them. And you can keep as many ships as you want and swap them out, as well as the outfits - nice touch. And the coolest part? It's open source, under active development. NAEV is well worth the no money and dozens of hours I've spent on it.

I'm surprised how much I enjoyed this game. As a person who typically doesn't stray too far from turn-based RPGs, I figured it'd be a good way to break the monotony of always playing the same things, but not much beyond that. Although it was regrettably shorter than I would have liked, I thoroughly enjoyed attempting different play styles at each level, shooting for speed runs, coming up with Rube Goldberg-esque electronics systems, stealthing through, or kicking in doors to beat the crap out of the bad guys. Great replayability, and the workshop is a great touch; I only wish there was officially more of it.

What can be said about walking simulators? Well, they'd better make up for that gameplay somehow, that's what. And I dare say, Dear Esther does. Beautiful, imaginitive scenery and a haunting soundtrack. Also, the symbolism in the story is intriguing, if a bit cryptic. I'd say this is a good one to play if you're looking to zone out.

I was so ashamed of my first review that I just decided to redo it from scratch.

This game has a lot of potential. Beautiful retro-styled visuals and a delightful soundtrack. The mechanics make for a lot of enjoyable 2D sandbox gameplay and exploring. But what the devs did with it was disappointing, to say the least. The story is garbage, and the quests are mostly just tedious errand-running.

The saving grace to this game is modding. Of course with that we're at the mercy of the creativity and ingenuity of the modding community, which is a mixed bag. Fortunately that's not an exclusive club, so anyone can learn how to do it.

In conclusion, this game is enjoyable for the most part, and even after growing tired of it, it still doesn't have to suck. Just know that by itself it feels underdeveloped.

This is a game that claims "minimalism." I'd like to point out that there's a distinction between minimalism and sheer laziness and uncreativity. This game has actually discovered the latter.

It does have ambiance. In that light, the concepts might be great as background material for an actual game. But as a game itself, it's nothing but filler.

There is a small crowd of people who seem to like it. Those are the same sorts of people who delight in mediocrity and applaud children for receiving participant ribbons.

A very easy old school RPG-styled point and click adventure game. There are some puzzles throughout, but it's mostly an interactive movie, very linear. But it has a great, tear-jerking story, with decently developed characters. Not to mention a beautiful, piano-heavy soundtrack that is worth buying. The game itself is good for at least one playthrough.

A fun, addictive sidescrolling RPG reminiscent of Castlevania, with liberal tinges of Dark Castle. Definitely well worth buying and spending an unholy amount of hours playing.

Here's a neat little puzzle/sidescroller. Very dark, macabre, and abstract, with a nicely creepy vibe.