Recent reviews by GhostFalcon

And yet another game that was so much more fun than I expected. I was not convinced that this whole "tower offense" concept could work out, and just tried the android version on my smartphone...and it was a lot of fun.

Gameplay wise there is a lot more "action" than in the rather static tower defense games. You need to lead your squad through the tower defense mazes with careful planning and efficient use of abilities, which creates just the same sense of solving a puzzle as is typical for the tower defense genre.

Graphics and sound are very well done, nothing I would complain about here, the story...well it is a strategy game after all. Nothing special, not too cheese, after all it is more about the mechanics and those work brilliantly!

I am very much looking forward to Anomaly 2.

When I got this game, it had one of the highest Metascores I have ever seen, topping the list above several big 3xA titles, so I was quite surprised that it slipped past me without notice.
At first I installed it on my computer, but quite honestly I could not push myself to look beyond the crappy, yet intended pixellook of the game. Let me make one thing clear: I am anything but a graphicsfetishist. Gameplay > graphics anytime, but in all honesty in this day and age I prefer to have something visually more appealing on my screen. It is a statement, yes, as is the whole game.
The game breaks the fourth barrier more than once and was quite intriguing on my smartphone (what it was designed for). Personally I could not quite connect to the humor/underlying messages in much of the dialog.
It is an experiment and I respect it for what it does, as a game it did not grab me enough - story and background were just too cryptic and it is not always clear what is expected of the player.
The music and sounddesign is beyond doubt some of the best of any game that I have played, though and the minimalistic style does have a certain appeal after some time. If in doubt try it out, but do so on the smartphone if you can.
It has a very unique atmosphere to it.

Well, is this a game? If so, is it worth playing?

To be honest: I don't know. Is it groundbreaking...I don't think so.
Yes, it is a very nice way to tell a story, the grafics are very nice, the caverns are astonishingly beautiful, then again we are talking about a static world here, so it should look nice. The audio is spot on most of the time, the music, especially the piano is great.
The narrator is just awesome.

Unfortunately the story he tells is not. Basically Dear Esther is as if someone tells you a story and you can look around in the story he tells you.
It is entirely linear, one has no option of interacting with the world whatsoever.
It is intriguing and creates a nice atmosphere, but the story remains very very vague, nothing is explained, don't expect that some "truth" is unraveled in the end.

Also I did not quite like the poetry-style of the narration, but that is a personal opinion. It does somewhat fit the whole situation though.

Summing it up I would say that Dear Esther would have worked very well as the mod as which it started, but not as a full sized game.

Disclaimer: I have NOT played through this game myself. Normally I play completely through all the games I recommend.
Now, my issue with The Whispere World is its genre. I simply do not have the patience that is necessary for adventures. After playing for 1 hour I decided to watch a Let's Play and it was a good decision.
The great atmosphere, the nice artwork, the very good (if sometimes unnerving) voice-over, all this contributes to a very atmospheric game. The cute sidekick Spot and the likable main character Sadwick pull the player into the story. The drawings for the backgrounds are simply wonderful.
From what I saw throughout the walkthrough the puzzles are quite complex and not always entirely obvious...probably not suited for beginners.
The ending is unexpected and very special, I will not spoil it here!

If you are like me and don't like adventures, but rather awesome stories, go watch the Let's Play of gamehorder on youtube!

I was looking forward to this game after the first one. I have to say that I am quite disappointed.
The atmosphere and story is almost non-existent. The artwork, especially in the cutscenes, doesn't quite cut it (pun intended).

My major issue is the difficulty of the game though. Don't get me wrong, I love it when a game poses a challenge, nothing is worse than a game that is too easy. But if I need to restart 25 times on the 2nd to last boss, while I defeat the final boss in my first try, something is unbalanced. The main problem is that one cannot block anything and often gets hit while trying to chain up atttacks or during some kind of takedown or grap. This throws you out of rythm frequently and due to being stunned in the process one is often hit multiple times.
During boss fights this often means death.
There is not much room for improvement, I didn't feel like getting more proficient during the course of the game.

Overal not as good as the first game (which was hard, too, but fair).

A truly awesome indiegame that is superchallenging. Normally I only recommend games which I have entirely completed but here I am kinda stuck on the "last" boss (I know there is one more level after that). I will come around to playing it eventually, but rest assured that this game is worth playing and definitely part of my top3 indie games.

This game is very true to it's quite unique style. Definitely worth playing, but not groundbraking in my opinion.
Gameplay is smooth except for the fights which often seemed unnecessary to me. Also it is not always clear which way to go thus forcing the player to find the way by trial and error. That breaks the otherwise nice flow of the game.

Oh my god. What a great game! The game's mechanics work really well, kinda plays like an Actionzelda (Perspective, controls, weapons). The grafics are well suited and very diverse.
And in regards to music...just perfect! The adaptive narrator is something I'd like to have in every game. This is the best way of storytelling I have ever experienced.
The story is also very neat and often touching. The final choice one has to make was the toughest of my gaming career I think...especially since it doesn't have this right-wrong, good-evil feel to it, but I'm not gonna spoil any more here!
I finished the game the first time half an hour ago and I'm still emotionally involved.

Now not much more to say, except: Play this game!
Together with World of Goo, Limbo and Super Meat Boy this is the most epic piece of Indiegaming!

One of the best FPS of the last 10 years that is right up there with Half Life 1+2, CoD4 and Bioshock.
Graphics are absolutely awesome, better than Crysis IMO, but require a strong PC.
The weapons, the enemies and the AI are great, but the best part is the awesome atmosphere and story. This game is highly immersive, there are hardly any interface icons on the screen, everything of importance can be found ingame (Wondering what time it is? Take a look at the watch on your arm!), so one never gets distracted or even has time to realise that it is only a game.
I would also recommend reading the book(s) since they explain the 2 different endings a little better.
Overall the most atmospheric FPS I have ever played. Only Bioshock 1 and maybe Stalker (that doesn't have as good of a story) can roughly compare!

My Indie game of the year, only 2nd to World of Goo on my all time favourite Indie games list.

The atmosphere in this game is just so awesome...the minimalistic grafics just add to the package of greatness. The sound design is mega intense, the puzzles are clever and the game gets more difficult than one would think, yet it remains very fair at every point!

This game is best played alone at night with a headset on in one session.

I think the best part is the discrepancy between the childlike papercut grafics, the innocent look of the boy and the brutal world around him. The shocking death traps, many of which can hardly be avoided on first try, gave me a chill!

Pure awesomeness and a MUST PLAY!