Recent reviews by Bitter Twig

Top-notch atmospheric horror, cleverly difficult puzzles, and an incredibly gripping, well-written story. I was really invested in this one, it was an excellent ride.

Very enjoyable 30+ hours. It was everything I hoped it would be. My favorite game of 2024 thus far

Just about everything in this recommended game appealed to me, so needless to say I was disappointed when it all turned out to be a miss. My biggest gripe is that it appears more interactive than it actually is. What I thought would be an open world small town, with interesting slice-of-life interactions and exploration possibilities turned out to be a lifeless world with absolutely no content other than point A-to-B deliveries and one dimensional character cutscenes.

The gameplay itself is entirely a chore, and while driving around you’re stuck with an incredibly limited radio station that plays the same seemingly 3 songs over and over and over again. It became hellishly boring, and I just wanted it to be done with already. Maybe it just wasn’t for me, can’t win ‘em all.

this game and this mod are what video games are all about

This is a very tenative recommendation. First off, do not go into the game thinking you're getting a classic cRPG experience. I know it's inspired by them, but It lacks the expansive world, lore, and length of such games. The only thing it has in common are the mechanics, which are undoubtedly the star of the show here. Space Wreck's gameplay is lovingly crafted for you to tackle situations and quests in MANY different ways. There's a lot of thought put into this, and veterans of this genre will be surprised at what you're able to do and what affects your skills and actions. However, the lack of just about everything else makes these replays more and more uninteresting. Ultimately, the game just feels like a bite-sized sandbox to try different builds. It's fun while it lasts.

Great co-op premise that lived up to the hype. Can't wait to see how much is added and where it goes from here.

A great, moody noir-ish point-and-click that was pretty revolutionary with its procedural generation and player choices having consequences for 1997 (there's 12 possible endings). Very faithful to the tone of the movie, with great detective gameplay. The game could no longer run on modern hardware, so this "enhanced" edition is worth it just for making that possible. Many of visual improvements in this edition aren't improvements at all. Thankfully, the original version is also included and you can choose which features to be enhanced or not.

One of the best interactive film games I've played. To me, it's a worthy spiritual successor to Sam Barlow's game, "Her Story" (a critically acclaimed success). I found it to be deeply immersive, with a heavy voyeuristic angle since the majority of content is private video calls. I grew attached to these characters quickly and wanted to understand this world and it's story.

There is one specific flaw that people point out about this game: the private video calls are split, you can't see who the person is speaking to or hear the responses. So there's long pauses and lots of rewinding/fast-forwarding you have to do. I didn't find it too annoying as it allows the story to unravel at different paces for the players as there's more scattered and overlapping conversations. As this is a spiritual successor, it's clear they wanted to make the game have a wider scope with more characters and less linearity. And as for the long pauses themselves, I enjoyed trying to imagine the other sides of the conversations. I think it was the right creative call. When you eventually do piece the conversations together, figure out the chronological order and unravel the lies, you're left with a very satisfying, emotional story that's very much worth experiencing.

the future does not look bright in southern louisiana. my favorite game of 2022.

a hidden gem that combines adventure games and dungeon crawlers, two of my favorite genres. I love the gloomy, harsh atmosphere of the medieval czech town and outskirts you explore, and I like the protagonist with his simple task that turns into something much darker and dangerous, totally out of his league. The game has some difficult puzzles and english translation issues but I think it just adds to the experience. It takes about 5ish hours and is highly worth it for the price. Oh, and it goes great with beer.