Recent reviews by Tiamonster

I'm not sure what to say about this game. A few times I found it frustrating. A few times I was bored. 100% of the time I was amazed at how unique it is. So I didn't enjoy it, but I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys puzzle games, indie games, or games where the devil wants your soul in exchange for a playthrough.

First things first: I counted three horror elements in the game, and they were all jump scares. So, if you're avoiding this because you're concerned about the horror tag, please don't let it deter you. I find myself paralyzed in most horror games, but I never felt that way with Year Walk.

I love point-and-click adventures, but I particularly enjoyed this game because the mythology behind the plot and mechanics wasn't just dressing. If you want to solve puzzles, you read the encyclopedia. And not in the Witcher-sense of the idea: you don't read it to automatically unlock something else. You have to find things, and the encyclopedia entries help with that.

I also loved the art. As I said, I'm not big on horror games, but I love it nearly every where else. The surreal style mixes with muted colors to create an eerie atmosphere for the game. (Man, I adored that damn horse.) The puzzles serve the atmosphere, as well. They're each their own representation of the creature you're working with (or challenging, depending on your interpretation, I guess). They don't require intense brain power, firing off all of your neurons or anything, but I found them sufficiently challenging and appropriate for what the game is.

My biggest issue was with the movement. You can't turn around or look to the side, but you move as if you should be able to do those things. But the map is so small it didn't end up as frustrating as I thought it would be.

I'm not sure Year Walk is for everyone, but I'd say it's a must if you enjoy atmospheric and/or point-and-click adventure games.

It's a point-and-click adventure that makes no sense until you start clicking things. You can't go wrong with this one. I promise.

I can't believe I forgot to recommend this game! Stupid title. Wonderful experience.

I love interactive fiction, but I couldn't get into this game. The dialogue was stilted, and, as a result, the characters weren't very interesting. It seemed to be traversing toward a tear-jerking story based heavily on cliche. I could be wrong! I just didn't stick around long enough to find out.

If you like puzzle platformers and snarky British narrators, I cannot recommend this enough. Each shape has a special ability (except Chris, poor Chris): Thomas jumps high; Claire swims; Laura is a trampoline; etc. The level organization does a near-perfect job of introducing the shapes, letting you use them, and familiarizing you with their abilities with the group. The group completes a puzzle when each one reaches their goal: a white portal specific to each shape. The variability with the portal locations and the shape mechanics creates interesting and challenging puzzles.

Did I mention the narrator? Other than quotes shown at the beginning of each chapter that explain a major AI malfunction, he's responsible for progressing the story. And he's wonderful. He shares the shapes' thoughts as they meet each other, judge each other, fall in love, pretend to be superheroes, and everything in between. These shapes have better character development than I've seen in AAA games.

I do have a few quibbles. Alternating between the shapes isn't consistent. Some of the cooperative mechanics between shapes were cumbersome, which is fine for one puzzle. When you require that solution for multiple puzzles, it gets repetitive and frustrating. Such small critiques. Go play the game and enjoy its charming and simple nature.

I like everything in this game. You use phrases and words to question yourself in order to progress a puzzle. You manipulate pieces of locks in order to open them. You have to talk to multiple people in order to open new dialogue options with other people. It's a murder mystery involving an amusement park in a swamp!

But it wasn't challenging at all. I'm not saying that in a I'm-smarter-than-you-and-all-other-gamers way. I mean that the puzzles seem like they were made for kids: you match shapes of objects with shapes of holes; you mix blue and yellow liquid to get green liquid; all important words are in a different color font. I loved the animation style and Detective Grimoire, so I'd be willing to give a sequel another shot; but I can't recommend this game to adults. If you're under the age of 13 and enjoy point-and-click adventures: (1) you're awesome and (2) you SHOULD play this game.

This game is so weird and fun.

This little action RPG looks great and is a fun hack-and-slash game. It's perfectly okay--not amazing, not awful--so I don't understand the critical praise. The Kid (that's his name, so don't expect a plot or story that makes sense) walks around killing monsters while platforms raise up around him, creating a beautiful and engaging fantasy world. Then there's the narrator, who's in the completely wrong game. He describes everything you do in excruciating detail and in a manner that sounds like he belongs in a historical western. It's mismatched and distracting, so I muted it while I played.

You get a limited arsenal of weapons with upgrades, which controls the difficulty in an interesting way. You can complete goals with each weapon or add to the monster difficulty by activating different items you find. The fighting is limited to a few buttons, though, which gets a bit repetitive. It's enough complexity to keep me interested for a few hours but not enough to keep me engaged for days on end.

Like the The Stanely Parable, the game isn't perfect. It's interactive fiction, so there's little to be said about mechanics, and it's hard to write about the story without spoiling the message--but I'll try. The narrator (voiced by the game creator) guides you through incomplete games made by his friend Coda, who, from the outset, looms ominously over the narrative. Davey tells you Coda stopped making games but doesn't explain why, and he refers to Coda in the past tense, even when talking about the present. As you interact with the places Coda created, Davey shares his interpretations, which often involve over-the-top social and philosophical ideas. The game guides you through their relationship, and who they are (or who they might be, if you interpret it a certain way). Its conclusion asks you to look at your own relationships and what purpose they serve. I really enjoyed experiencing that in a game. It's rare, and it's different. That's the awesome part and why I recommend it.

I realized what was happening early on, but I didn't find that it negatively affected my experience. However, once the story turned, Davey (both the narrator version and the the creator) got a little too on the nose. His last few scenes basically tell you what to think and how to feel. That cheapened it for me. The kind of people that play interactive fiction games are smart enough to understand what's happening to a character without it explicitely being told to them. As a result, the ending didn't have the effect it should (or could) have had. He overplayed it, and the game suffers a bit as a result.