Recent reviews by markerOne

A short kinetic VN with a story that has a good potential for further developments. The art was good though I wish there were more nuances added in the character's face drawings. The **x scenes do require a DLC but it wasn't too pricey - so get it!

Once again these additional scenes could have expanded more. The story itself feels like something that started midway (which isn't bad by any means). However, things take a decent development but looks like they didn't want to expand the story too much.

Being a Kinetic VN, you literally don't need too many saves (the Save screen had 4+ different folders for saves!). If you're in the mood for a good game, don't pick this up. If you wish to pass close to 30 mins on decent art, story and few xxx scenes - do hit this up.

- 5/10

P.S: The last card drop didn't happen until I had 4+ hrs on the game! It was a bit infuriating and thankfully on my last try to get it (or uninstall it anyways), I got it. I had gotten really bored at just hitting "Skip" every single time after completing the game.

In a nutshell - A simple puzzle game that hides a lot of more complex puzzles. Though the premise is quite simple, there's a lot of things to try out and get the different endings.

I did get sort of bored after a while and resorted to a guide since I wasn't too bored to drop it. I did enjoy the ones I was able to find out and probably would have taken a while to figure everything out.

I'd say this is a fine game to teach kids about having to experiment with different things and learn to go through multiple playthoughs. Of course if they aren't interested in a pixelated game with retro sounds and graphics, that's another matter entirely.

- 7/10

A retro themed 1 min adventure that I believed would be uninteresting. I feel relieved that I didn't take too long to try it out anyways. There's silly graphics, text and effects and they're charming!

I used to play something with similar visuals long back and I didn't know I still enjoyed them. Keeping the adventures to 1 min only ensured that there's always the time element you have to keep in mind while solving puzzles. There's dececnt amount of achievements of which you can collect most in a normal playthrough.

If you like solving puzzles and fast-paced minimalist gameplay, give this a shot. Although I might eventually get bored of it, I'm happy that I was able to complete the game before I got to that point.

- 8/10

I had heard a fair bit about "Gone Home" from around the time it was released. Sadly, it lay in my library dormant for a long time.

Having played it, I enjoyed it immensely and got absorbed very well into the story in a very short while. Adding a touch of horror like element without actually adding them is very well thought out. The object designs and renderings are done very detailed for such a game - especially the books and other objects you interact with.

I would have appreciated if there was a toggle for "running" after you have completed the game at least once. Granted, the game can still be finished in under 10 minutes as part of the achievement, walking at a set pace within the house can be a bit of bore after numerous runs.

The level design is done very well and makes you appreciate the vastness of the house from within. The voice actors have done an amazing job and listening to the commentary post the game expands more on it.

The story is quite simple, but the story unfurls slowly with the PC getting to know of their sibling's hardship, turmoil, discovery and decisions through a span of multipe years in different artifacts.

In all, don't miss out this game.

- 9/10

This game is currently not available in steam. I had bought this a long time ago and completed it recently. This game provides an extension into the story if you had chosen Kaori as your partner.

Playing this brought me nostalgia from the previous game and I enjoyed it well. The visuals are the same along with the narrative style. Nothing much has changed and thankfully not gotten worse too.

There are no steam cards nor achievements but that's fine for a VN. If you enjoyed the previous title and have this in your library, you might have already completed it.

A mostly text based detective game that requires to think and connect different clues before accusing someone. My only gripe? This game is short!

The visual style fits this genre and the setting during the Prohibition years is a nice touch. The sound design is amazing and the Jazz music in the background - fits just right in. There's no voiceover and I believe proper voiceover would elevate the experience to a higher level, although it does come with it fair share of production costs.

My other gripe is that you need to erase the existing save data before starting a new game, which I found as irrelevant. Adding tidbits of those yesteryear stories as part of Taxi ride conversations was an unexpected bonus!

Though there might not be much replayability, it still delivers an awesome gameplay.

- 9/10

I was expecting the game to turn out more like a visual novel. But the game does require you to "clean" up parts of the "notebook" for the story to progress. There are several disjointed stories whose connection will become evident at the end after you view through all the after story items.

The LGBT theme has been excellently woven into a story while showcasing the turmoil of the characters themselves. The other story elements leave some questions unanswered and feels like it was added more as an afterthought rather to focus on the central theme.

In all, I did enjoy the game and the soundtrack is great as well. The way the game allows you to decide the design of your character's self sketch at the end is very well thought out!

- 7/10

The next game in the Blackwell series. Didn't expect it to be a prequel though

It's got the same asthetics as the previous game, plus it lets you control the second character as well. The puzzles are minimal and you can finish the game in a very decent time. The voice acting and bonus content are good extras.

The game felt a tad longer than the prevoius one which is good, but there was not much investigating per se comapred to the first one. It showcases Lauren's personality very well, in line with what was mentioned in the first game.

- 7.5/10

A short game with 2 play modes (such as New game and New game+) with the latter getting unlocked once you finish the a fresh playthrough.

The game's visuals are pleasing, calming and you should definitely play this when you are looking to relax. The puzzle elements are very well done and require you to think geometrically more than times that you'd expect. The levels are neither too short nor too long except for the first two which serve as introductory ones.

The controls on the other hand worked about okay (probably because I'm using a Keyboard and the game reocmmends a gamepad). The camera anges are something that definitely needs improvement. There were not too many times that I wished I could swivel the PoV but the camera angles are stuck. Fortunately, they don't impede the gameplay [99% of the time :) ]

Since the camera angles are a bit stuck, the Player character doesn't run in a straight line (althought this might be a Keyboard only problem). It was a bit irksome but not game breaking for me.

The achievements are well placed and you will get them if you go through both game modes. The story narration is another thing I felt could have been done better. The narration appears to start well but it doesn't stick nor does it make you think deep (at least for me - and I usually get analogies and deep storylines).

in all, a nice game with soothing visuals and music. Though short, it perfectly fits the bill here.

- 8/10

A normal puzzle solving game but with better visuals though I wouldn't classify them as great. The visuals represented during gameplay are indeed better than what I came to expect in a puzzle solving game. However, the character animations leave a lot to be desired.

I haven't tried the other titles in this series yet, but the story sort of abruptly came to stop after building up to a good point. One irksome detail I found is the inventory system. The puzzle solving elements are decently fleshed out and you can complete it very quickly.

The trouble with character model animations cropped up at the last part - specifically during the close ups with the protag and the professor. In spite of appearing to be decently designed, the animations were not.

Adding achievements could be a bonus, Alas they don't exist for this game (as of writing this review).

- 7/10