Recent reviews by Almeister

The House in Fata Morgana is a masterful piece of storytelling.

The game demands a lot from its reader, but rewards perseverance tenfold with an incredibly compelling and rich narrative. To say the story 'has layers' is a vast understatement, and yet to get much more specific would risk spoiling the effect for first time players. Suffice it to say that the game revels in challenging your perceptions and turning assumptions upside down as events unfold.

What begins as a seemingly straightforward and clichéd setup is soon unravelled and spun out into a kaleidoscopic exploration of themes and characters across various time periods and settings, framed by the oppressive Mansion that your character finds themselves in. As I mentioned, the tale is not always an easy read and takes some extremely dark, intense and uncomfortable turns, but the characters are so well fleshed-out that you come to feel truly invested in their trials and triumphs. So yeah; perseverance required, and moments of levity are well-earned.

I do have some minor reservations about the writing - the decision to represent laughter phonetically (such as 'Hehehe') detracts from the atmosphere on occasion by invoking more a feeling of online messenger chat than character dialogue, but I got used to it. Most of my other complaints turned out to be the game messing with me.

Finally, the music and overall sound design is fantastic and adds a lot to the atmosphere. So if you enjoy dark, character-driven story-based games, The House in Fata Morgana delivers in spades and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It will haunt me for a long time.