Recent reviews by TiredOracle

This throwback isn't nostalgia just for the sake of nostalgia. It's actually a fun and engaging narrative that's a lot of fun to play. Will be forcing all my friends to give it a go.

Stories Untold explores multiple "retro" gaming styles in this four part narrative - text-based adventure, point and click, text-based puzzle, and interactive walking simulator. It's great, but each part flies by quickly (so you'll be in and out in a few hours at most).

The epilepsy warning is no joke though.

Play it.

This short, hilarious puzzle game has great dialogue. (It's especially funny when you're asking life advice of your lady-friends.)

Be warned that the game style drastically changes in the final level, migrating into an arcade-style death-trap of aggravation. The boss battle is only four phases though, so as long as you work to be wherever the chains of death are NOT then you will be fine.

Skill is not the deciding factor for completing this game. The deciding factor is luck.

I get how this is probably part of the narrative, as we are reconciling gambling debts. I just don’t enjoy that kind of nonsense. I hate every minute of this, but if you like games of chance, then this is pretty coolio. It’s got great art and a nice concept, but the game mechanics are not awesome - and you already know how I feel about playing a game in which you don’t necessarily get “better” but instead get “more lucky.”

(I’m definitely removing this game from my account now though, because I’ve had it for two years and never once actually wanted to play it.)

Lovecraftian horror - but you're the protagonist.

I was 100% here for the whole monster narrative. Even if everything after the final-boss was a bit of a letdown, it was still a good story.

(Hated the consequences for getting caught - bright flashing lights and violently superimposed flashing images straight from The Ring. Some levels definitely left me with a migraine. That was the main reason it took me so long to finish the game - I stopped playing it all together twice before picking it back up a third time to finally complete the final leg.)

The perspective and anxiety of the game was fantastic.

You play as a toddler looking for their mother, hiding from monsters and solving puzzles. Your only ally is a strangely nefarious-seeming plush animal. Despite the strangeness of it, the game is very much a survival-horror.

While I liked the overall story, it was super sad (but that was sort of the point). I wouldn't give this any trigger warnings, but it may not be for people who had ♥♥♥♥ parents growing up.

It's more of an aesthetic than a game, if that makes sense?

The game is absolutely beautiful, and I wanted to touch everything. It's super short and very simple. You can't ♥♥♥♥ up (except when you're supposed to). Achievements are easy to master. The atmosphere, graphics, and sounds are amazing. Would like to watch the movie adaptation now, please.

Here for it.

To be fair, this game is free. If you are a casual, neurotypical gamer who can play a game without trying to get all the achievements, then this is a fun little interactive novel with low stakes. Give it a go.

I would not recommend this game, however, and will probably have to remove it from my library. This is only because two of the achievements are more-or-less unwinnable.

While a new patch has been released to cut the time it takes to beat it in half, the final level of the game involves leaving your computer to idle for just over 23 hours without any user interaction. Unlike in real life, you cannot "save" this conversation and go play another game (or answer a work email or something) and come back to it. Your computer just has to sit there, open to the game, for 23 hours with no interaction. If you cannot "respond" to the texts instantaneously - say you have to go to sleep or something - you will be playing the final level for even longer.

Even after completing the final level though, you will have to embark on a Gunther-esque quest for the final achievement, and no one has found it yet. This has literally made me sick, because (though I like working for achievements) I need to know how to get them - like the steps to do so. I cannot play an unwinnable game. (I literally haven't slept and have had that weird hand-jitter thing at work today.)

Again, this is a personal issue. I just wish I had known the last two achievements were more-or-less unattainable before I started, because I would have found another game. I hope this helps anyone else who has the same problem as me.

This is a short game, but it has a great story. One of my favorite aspects of Through the Woods is that, after running through it the first time, it is easy to clean up your achievements via the "chapter select" option - which easily allows you to access any save point you have previously reached. (This lets you focus on the story and worry about the other stuff later, which is exactly what I look for in a game.)

While extremely linear, this is a fun, story-driven game with an interesting narrative. I liked it, and it's certainly worth a run-through.


Addendum: Getting all the achievements for this game was super annoying. I played this game six or seven times back-to-back in order to finish it in its entirety because each ending is a different achievement. By the time I could finally retire the game, I kind of hated it a little.

You're the protagonist in this quick, puzzle game. I love post-apocalyptic trash and storylines that are open to interpretation. This has both in spades. I wish I had played it back in middle-school when everyone was going on about it, but better a decade late than never.