One of the main elements distinguishing the Gothic genre is the ghostly presence of the past, which returns to haunt the characters and remind them of the things they want to forget. The setting in What Remains of Edith Finch is a house built on memories, which hide the key to understanding the curse that plagues the Finch family. The game’s gothic narrative is enveloped by a melancholic atmosphere marked by grief and loss, with stories that are impactful because of the inevitability of their tragic outcomes and the unique way in which they are presented.
The player controls the young Edith Finch in the first person, observing the world through her eyes while reading the [...]
Tacoma is a science fiction game that explores an (awfully close) dystopian future, in which our society is fully dominated by large corporations, while telling a story about a crew of a space station in crisis. Transforming audio diaries into something new and refreshing, the title just slips up at the very end, when a single plot twist changes the development of one of its main characters.
Tacoma is a first-person adventure game in which the player controls Amy, a woman recently hired by the company Venturis to retrieve data from the abandoned Tacoma space station, alongside the artificial intelligence that used to control it, called ODIN. Upon arriving at the station, [...]
Observer is a first-person cyberpunk game with a horror twist: its protagonist can hack people’s minds, but they are nightmare-inducing places. Although initially interesting, Observer is a game that quickly loses its appeal: its main horror scenes drag on for too long, repeating the same tricks over and over, while its story is terribly structured, struggling to find a theme to focus on until the climax.
The game’s protagonist is a Polish police detective called Daniel Lazarski – played by Blade Runner’s Rutger Hauer – who, after receiving a mysterious call from his son Adam, goes to his tenement building to find out what is happening to Adam. There, instead of his son, the [...]
Without battles, experience points, choices, jumps, and weapons, Dear Esther is an unusual game. Its story is told by enigmatic voice messages that eventually contradict themselves, causing disorientation and confusion. It’s a strange game not only for its unique structure, but also for its eerie setting that, with a dreamlike atmosphere, suggests that logic does not belong there at all.
The gameplay in Dear Esther could not be simpler. The player’s character is stuck on an island and the only possible action is to walk and observe the scenery, moving the camera – it is not even allowed to pick up objects. All this means that, at the beginning of the game, the player is forced [...]