Recent reviews by offpath

All this game does is repeatedly present you with a false dichotomy and then try to snarkily criticize you regardless of which choice you made. This got pretty old after the first couple of questions, which were pretty standard variants of the Trolley problem used to get you to think about your level of agency in the outcome and how that affects your view of the morality of your choice. Past that point, all of the questions are simply zanier versions of the same.

On the whole I would recommend this game for the intriguing story, the general atmosphere/vibe, and quite honestly, its brevity. As many walking sims before it, it tells a neat little story through found objects and exploration, all while it keeps you pretty much on rails so that you can neither jump ahead nor miss a key moment. The companion character, Lissie, really sets the mood of the game and is what distinguishes this from other walking sims. By having a companion to talk to, Draugen can engage in a lot more exposition and draw out details of the protagonist, such as his history, the type of person he is, and what he is doing in a remote village in Norway, as well as the broader setting and period of the game (1923). The interaction with Lissie otherwise does such a good job at this that I visibly winced at the anachronism the moment I heard her call the protagonist a "Debbie Downer". If you have a few hours to spend and want to go through the story in a novel walking sim, I'd recommend Draugen.

This is an innovative game that tickled my brain in all of the right ways! Piecing together a language through contextual clues is such a fun way to go about things. There were a few spots where I really struggled to make sense of things and got to feel so smart when I finally had the necessary breakthrough. And like many of the best puzzle games, Chants of Sennaar does not overstay its welcome. Once you figure something out, it moves on and doesn't beat you over the head with the same mechanic for the next few hours. The art and music are wonderful as well and contribute to the overall style of the game.

If you liked this game when it came out, it definitely holds up 15+ years on and is a great hit of nostalgia. If you're used to Skyrim and are wondering what the older Elder Scrolls games are like, this one is certainly more accessible than the others, but the UI affordances are definitely quite dated.

Wales Interactive has definitely improved on their general gameplay with this one, letting you skip things you've already seen on subsequent playthroughs. A lot of the choices still feel a little arbitrary, though. There's often a "correct" choice but it's not always clued, and often the best dialogue happens when you make the "incorrect" choice.

This game is basically Fallout in space, with the 40s/50s/atomic motif replaced with a corporate motif. The story is about what you'd expect, and the companions are great with Parvati (voiced by Ashly Burch of Horizon fame) being a real standout. Blessedly, this is not an open world game, so I was able to complete the entire main quest and pretty much all side quests in 36 hours, and I'd argue that this is a real improvement on Fallout's formula. Instead of wandering the ruins of DC/Vegas/Boston for hours on end stumbling into interesting locations, everything is packed in together giving more of a "highlights reel" than an endlessly playable open experience.

On the list of bizarre/absurdist walking sims that break the fourth wall (now there's a niche genre!), I'd rate this one solidly below both The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide.

This game is astoundingly cute, but unfortunately I just didn't feel there was enough gameplay or replayability there for anything more than a single play through with one monster. I really wanted to like this much more than I did.

Before purchasing this game, I would recommend starting with Her Story. If you like that game but felt it was too short, had too few characters, or would be greatly improved with better production values, then you'll definitely like Telling L!es. Otherwise, I'd recommend taking a pass on this game.

Florence is a short narrative experience that uses mini-games to convey what is happening, as well as the feelings of the characters. I really appreciate the attention to ludonarrative synergy and the way that the mini-games are able to convey emotion without the use of any words.