Recent reviews by Narayan

It's Spring Again is a very short narrated story about the seasons. It features beautiful & colorful folk art with minor interactive elements (like clicking on trees so they bloom). After going through spring, summer, fall & winter it loops back to spring. Single playthrough takes about 10 minutes. There is also an autoplay option - no clicking required, just listening and watching.

I would only recommend this game to very small children and unusual art enthusiasts like myself. Although be aware that there is only an English and a Russian narrator. A rather regrettable decision not to record more languages, especially how short the whole thing is.

Reveal The Deep is a creepy exploration game with minor puzzle and platforming elements. It takes place underwater in a huge derelict ship, and right of the bat player notices that something is not quite right ... Visuals are dark & atmospheric with only your headlamp to guide you. But what really makes the mood are the amazing environmental sounds (especially the metal affected by the water pressure) and various sudden effects (gave me nearly a heart attack, twice).

You learn what happened by reading scattered journal pages from the point of view of 3 passengers/ expedition members, and by examining some objects (flavor mainly). There are areas that seem to be some sort of an echo of the past, that you get to phase into when turning off your headlamp. It not only allows you to read into the events, but also affects the platforming part, as the environment shifts its layout a bit sometimes. The story itself gives off a mild Lovecraftian vibe. It seems interesting, so there is a motivation to pursue it, but in the end there is something a bit lacking & it "ends" abruptly (although it makes sense). While it's nice to discover who you are and roughly what transpired, I wouldn't mind more details and depth with other plot points covered.

The platforming itself is easy, and requires just a handful of precise jumps. The difficulty comes from the exploration part. The area seems huge, and there is no map. You have to remember by yourself all the passageways, what might opened what, which paths to take in order to maybe get where you want, etc. I caught myself running in circles a couple of times. But on the upside it seems like you can't get stuck (there is always a way to back out or push further) and you're able to open up some shortcuts, so people with good orientation won't have to run around so much.

One major flaw is no saving from inside a chapter. There are 3 chapters, roughly 1 hour each, and the game only saves in between chapters. If you quit in the middle of one, you have to start over from the beginning of that chapter, which frankly stressed me out the wrong way: what if my computer resets? what if the application malfunctions? how much more till chapter ends? - I wanna go to sleep XD <- that last thought from when I started the game late at night for the first time not knowing what I'm getting myself into & I felt compelled to sit it out, in order not to repeat quite lengthy chunk of my gameplay. Getting lost in the game's huge environment and missing a vital element for the n-th time is particularly frustrating when you're trying to push through to the next chapter to finally get the game saved.

Saving issue aside, I've quite enjoyed the game. :) The mood is really nice, and setting fairly uncommon. Many of the game design elements mesh well together.

Neat minimalistic puzzle that looks like a tech diagram. The goal is to remove all hooks & nails elements in certain order (that the player needs to figure out), so that they don't interlock with one another while retracting. The majority of attention is spent on analyzing & setting the correct pathways.

It's very short. It took me 80 minutes to beat all the 50 puzzles. New elements are introduced gradually throughout first 40 levels, and only the last 10 stages feel like a real test to one's skill. It's not overly hard, still the solutions are not so obvious either - even the last puzzles present nice middle ground. The sounds in this game are quite relaxing, which just reinforces the overall pleasant experience.

Although I like the concept and the atmosphere of Noct, I don't recommend it at this point of time. Mainly due to lack of content - 28 minutes that I've played is all there is. It basically feels a little like tutorial, and after you finish it you can explore and survive on your own, but there is no point really. Same looking buildings, with the same items in them (ammo, food, water) and lots of walking and doing nothing. Sometimes a monster shows up, but they are easy to deal with and killing them results in nothing (you might as well ignore them). So the only thing you can actually do is to walk around.

The game has potential. It's presented as a top-down surveillance view. There are 2 people interacting with each other - person behind cct cameras and a survivor (that the player controls). When you die as the survivor, the surveillance person searches out another human and you take over. All you get to learn is that the hostile creatures are called Nocturnals and there may have been some sort of catastrophe. Not much else to it for now. Each survivor you get to control wants to be saved, but the surveillance person actually tries to save everyone, so he/she persuades people to do some vital tasks first, which in turn may end up badly for the select individuals. This concept is amazing and could pair really well if for example the overseer had some ulterior motive ;) But for now there are just some few short menial tasks, without any consequences or follow up. Accomplishing them doesn't result in anything meaningful.

My verdict is - wait till release.
I will be revisiting the game after launch myself (and rewriting the review, because I always evaluate current state of the game, not the potential of what might/ might not be). The game certainly has piqued my interest. I'm curious about the underlying lore/history and how it all progresses. I enjoy the presentation & general feel. I can easily imagine Noct turning into something really neat when it gets more fleshed out & more contents is added. But for now there is just not enough substance.

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EDIT (Nov 6, 2018 - almost 3 years since writing this review):
I don't think the game will ever fully launch. The development is nigh non existent, if it progresses at all. I'm removing this unfinished product from my library, so I won't be revisiting it or rewriting anything anymore. I've completely lost interest in it.

I only played GRAV during the free weekend, but since I found it to be clunky, convoluted and tedious, I don't plan on buying the game. It only piqued my interest, because it was compared to No Man's Sky. Since NMS is not out yet, I can't really comment on that, but what I'm looking for in those types of games is a sense of wonder & discovery, freedom of exploration and a really good illusion of a living, breathing world. GRAV exhibits none of those things. You're basically greeted with limitations and what awaits you is a long and painfully exhausting grind just to make the experience bearable.

GRAV features slow movement, fast rate of fatigue/hunger, ultra fast day/night cycle (and the night is annoyingly & overly dark, thus barely playable), awful uncustomizable avatar, animations with too few frames, which makes every action & combat look twitchy/jerky. The virtual world is flat & boring, also feels gamey - sprinkled with repeated objects & mobs of even lower variety dropped randomly here and there, moving awkwardly in small radius. It lacks a lot of basic game & UI functions. It's littered with tiny issues, that may feel insignificant and be easily dismissed each on they own, but combined together they just overwhelmed me and successfully killed any sense of wonder and the will to proceed.

Trove isn't bad per se, it just gets boring and repetitive really fast.

Yes, it's quirky, humorous, colorful & generally oozing a positive vibe. Yes, there is strong community aspect & some user created content can be awe inspiring. Yes, there are certain really nice game mechanics, like for example your cornerstone - a house of your own that you build & that you can place & relocate everywhere you want with a single button press. Also the music can be dreamy (Neon City <3).

Basically it's good to goof around for a bit, log in daily for a short while and log off. But as far as progression goes it requires a lot of time and repetition. Whether it's crafting, building, unlocking new classes or raising your mastery level - it all takes insane amounts of mats/currency & grind.

Sure the maps and dungeons are randomly generated. Sure, the dungeon design is quite fresh and can be very imaginative (or confusing ;). Sure, there are plenty of funny classes to choose from. But most dungeons are short (find boss, kill boss, take loot, get out) and sooner rather than later you learn all the design patterns and the novelty that came with it wears off (especially when you need to farm bajilion of them). Classes are very basic: main attacks - left click & right click, and 2 additional skills only. And they also take long to unlock, so if you happen to pick one that doesn't suit you, you'll struggle on your way to unlocking the next. And even if you pick a fun one, after a while you'll get bored with it, because there is only one way to play a certain class, and you'll be repeating the same combat pattern over and over.

Crafting is done via stations. Each station contains a list of items/things/portals/mounts/stuff you can make. To be able to craft other things, you need to craft other stations. You end up with several of them placed in your cornerstone and have to remember which allows you to make what (or go through them & all the lists top to bottom, every single time you're trying to make a specific item). Not the most elegant of solutions. Anyway, for some things you'll need hundreds (if not thousands) of materials, that you can obtain by harvesting in the world (right click in build mode, that you can switch to anytime) or by killing stuff, completing dungeons and disassembling loot in via the loot collector. Also some crafting branches you have to level up by making hundreds of items, before you're allowed to make anything decent.

Building requires a lot of blocks as well (especially larger guild projects), but actually the building part is the least obnoxious aspect of Trove and doesn't take any extra effort than say Minecraft.

Because of all the things mentioned above you'll find yourself either running around & right clicking (=collecting) materials from the game world for prolonged periods of time or doing those fast dungeons ad infinitum. Once in a while you'll place your cornerstone in order to maybe craft or build something, just to be reminded of how much stuff you still need to obtain.

Like I said, Trove is good to log in once in a while, play around & log out (especially if you don't care about achieving anything specific). It's a pretty neat time waster if you have no games to play or just don't feel like doing anything else. Unfortunately I have a whole backlog of games I'd rather be playing over this and I'm not blessed with overabundance of time to kill, so I won't be playing Trove anymore.

Tengami is like a 3D pop-up book I never had, enhanced with serene music background & outstanding Japanese themed visuals. It really feels like a book - you can turn the pages, slide little pieces of "paper", flip the decorations to modify the scene, etc.

Gamewise it's an exploration/adventure with minor puzzle elements (although no puzzle is repeated, so it constantly feels fresh). There is quite a lot of walking (and backtracking if you wont figure out things right away), but due to its soothing soundtrack & beautiful art, I find Tengami to be contemplative in nature - meant to be played when one wants to slow down, tune out and relax. :)

Unfortunately it's very short. It took me a little under 90 mins to complete the game. Other than that, I enjoyed it. I may even replay it someday when I'm in a mood for this kind of experience :)

Belladonna is a point & click adventure game, featuring subtle horror/ Frankenstein-esque atmosphere, beautifully painted backdrops and a sweet, likable protagonist. She wakes up in a laboratory, not knowing who she is or what she is, but exhibits joy of discovery & curiosity rather than fear. Her character traits quickly emerge, like the urge to name things (suit of armor? must be Roland the Poet:) making her the more fleshed out.

The story is quite simple, but still graceful & interesting. We learn most of it by reading torn out journal pages, which are well written & well paced out. Some additional information comes from interacting with objects or looking at things. Her commentaries about the surroundings are quite enjoyable, even if they have nothing to do with the plot itself.

I liked it myself, hence the thumbs up, but it has one major flaw - length. This is very short game. If you read everything carefully and listen to the protagonist's every comment on every subject, you still will finish it under an hour. It's is also quite easy, especially if you pay attention to what is said (the main character will often hint herself as what to do next), so you basically breeze through it, which just intensifies the length problem.
Also personal & really minor gripe - card settings. I basically finished game 3 times when I hit 2 hour mark and first card dropped, and then I left it idle, but cards seem to be set do drop every half an hour or more, so I had to idle over 5 hour mark to obtain them all, in a game that takes under 1 hour to complete (and that's only if you try hard to prolong the experience).

Overall I liked the atmosphere, the story and the characters. Belladonna is an enjoyable and definitely memorable, albeit short game :)

Chains is a game about linking 3+ bubbles of the same colour. It features 20 puzzles, each different from one another. Rules, objectives, layout change from one puzzle to the next, sometimes even the gravity is modified.

Basically though there are two types: puzzles that make you think a little, and puzzles where you have to act fast. Unfortunately there is much more of the "act fast" ones. When I got this game I thought it will be relaxing & laid-back. It wasn't most of the time. Chains require focus, reflex and speed, which makes it rather tense experience, stressful even. Hey, I'm old ^^>

I finished the game, although that turned out to be a test of patience. The progress I made was wiped a couple of times or rolled back (I had severe saving issues for some reason), so I was forced to repeat each puzzle at least a couple of times. Without all that repetition the game is very short.

I'm recommending this because "on fence" or "so-so" is not an option. Plus Chains isn't bad, so thumbs down would be unfair. Also, I like the music/ambiance, the art style/ design choice and the variety. I appreciate each puzzle being different (even though not my speed), as I'm often tired with games that have hundreds of carbon copy puzzles with barely any modifications. Ideas for some puzzles/ level design are neat as well :)

edit:
This review was written long ago in the past, when only Act 1 (half of the game) was available & I didn't know when (or if) I will be able to play the rest of it. Act 1 was released on January 2014 and Act 2 just now (April 28, 2015), so as you can see it was a long wait for many people. I will rewrite this review as soon as I'll complete the second part of the game. :)

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Broken Age is a classical in nature point & click adventure game, that focuses mostly on the story, characters & dialogue. Puzzles themselves aren't challenging, although they are logical and support the narration nicely. Visuals are really charming - a distinct painted 2D art style. The setting (or settings, as there are two protagonists) is fresh and manages to grasp and keep the interest up.

Too bad this is just Act 1, or in other words - it's half a game, and ends with a cliffhanger. Certain parts of the plot are explained by the end, but not nearly enough & the ending scene just made me want to immediately play Act 2, which is unfortunately unavailable at this point.

The game itself is quite short. It took me 4h 20min to beat it and I certainly didn't rush it. I visited every location, talked with everyone about everything and tried to interact with every object.

Even though I would prefer to play both Acts at once & not wait indefinitely for 2nd half of the game, I'm still recommending this game :) It's charming, intriguing and enjoyable, provided one likes story focused adventures.