Recent reviews by Deisophia

[EDITED 17 OCT 2021 post patch 1.7.0.4 (removal of GFWL) Nope still crashing on launch]

Doesn't work on modern systems. There is a guide that purports to help you run it and others have had success using it but although it actually got me to the main menu of the game (not just the launcher which is where i was initially stuck), the game still crashes immediately as I try to launch into a new game.
To be fair the game does note it isn't optimised for Windows 7 and later. However this can often be worked around with community patches and fixes. In this case they do not work. Save your money! Or purchase elsewhere which does come with support for modern systems and retrogaming.

Art is considered to be synonymous with creativity, and as the emergence of something new out of nothing, that centres around inspiration as though it were from some mysterious internal wellspring. Yet this is not entirely true, art is more often the consequence of drawing from and interpreting ones surroundings, & uniqueness comes from the idiosyncratic viewpoint of the artist and the way they weave their observations and experiences into the pieces they create.

Mipumi have tackled precisely this issue in their debut game “The Lion’s Song”. At a surface level it’s a point n click adventure delivered in an episodic style that was popularised by Telltale Games. The first episode of “The Lion’s Song” is free on both Steam and itch.io and concerns itself with Wilma’s attempt to compose a new piece for an upcoming concert. Struggling with artists block, she retreats to the Alps to compose amidst the “Silence” of the mountains and allow the music within her mind to emerge once again, despite her personal troubles and tensions that distract her from her work. It’s at this point that “The Lion’s Song” takes the formulaic methods of a point n click game and transforms them. There’s nothing mechanically new that the game is doing, you search, hover and point with the mouse, interacting with the background to reveal new information. If anything The Lion’s Song is actually reductive in its mechanics. There’s no menu to combine items, you can’t pick things up and make them interact with others. Instead where The Lion’s Song manages its interactivity, is within the symbolic function of the things you interact with. Where most games focus purely on the physical aspects of their world, Lion Song’s focus on the metaphorical and psychological focus leads you to pursuing the issues of the mind.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2065341733
The very first quest with Wilma Doerfl, is simply to block out annoyances, and pursue aspects of the environment that she can weave into her music. The Alpine setting lends itself to a consideration of Wilma’s music as essentially romantic, however as much as she can listen to the sounds of wind, rain and thunder, Wilma is not a romantic, despite the game hinting at her work being contemporaneous with luminaries of the movement such as Mahler. The romantic movement ended roughly at the start of the 20th century with a few composers drifting into the 20th (some notable Russians composed quite late) but Wilma represents the shift to modern music. Simply using the symbolism of nature to compose her music will not be enough. And this is where the games writing begins to emerge, creating its own harmonies between player, character, mechanics, imagery and symbolism. The skill the player is asked to engage with here is in fact empathy, understanding and listening. Not listening as an auditory skill, but listening to the imagery of the game, Wilma’s unfolding narrative, through her own reflections on her circumstances, the letters she uncovers and the dialogue she engages in.

This exploration of people and their dimensions is a natural follow through in the second part that looks at a young artist Franz Markert. He is introduced at a high level of Viennese society despite not being particularly wealthy. Our first encounter and introduction to him, is as he is on his way to unveil his new art at a private gathering held by Gustav Klimt. And here the game introduces one new mechanic to differentiate the new episode. Franz is able to see people’s layers. These emerge from people as you approach them in the game world, and if you engage in tete-a-tete with them in private, the layers shift depending on what that person seeks to portray of themselves. It’s a visual representation of the concepts of id, ego and superego, that had been codified by Freud in his 1923 paper The Ego and the Id. Of course, the fantastical element here is that Franz is capable of seeing all these things, whereas the player is not. In terms of perception these are characteristics that they highly empathic and sensitive Markert would be able to sense. For the player, we are given visual clues as to what aspect of the character is being evoked, represented by the ghosts that are superimposed over the actual character. To elicit these ghosts during the portrait painting sequences… you ask questions.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1529174599
Questions and dialogue are what expose our psyche to psychoanalysis. Something Franz actually undergoes underneath Freud himself. Markert’s neurosis, is what drives him there, and its from Freud that he engages in dialogue to begin his self-portrait. This is the central piece of Markert’s tale, the uncovering of his own layers of identity, by asking questions of himself and the player responding to the questions, in a form of self-dialogue. Markert’s revelation of his own identity is dependent on how much attention the player has actually paid to his identity, as revealed in his reactions and relationships to others. Here the role of the traditional psychoanalyst is transferred between player and Markert, with the player as analyst acting to supply the answers in a process known as countertransference, which attacks the patient’s pathological defenses in order for him to gain insight. If the player is giving the wrong information to Markert, he is unable to gain insight into himself.

There’s nothing new mechanically to this approach. Dialogues with varied options is a stable in multiple genres, what is new is the context of the dialogue. That it is framed and styled as a therapy session, and that the focus is not to garner information regarding a plot, or to force a romance subplot -in the horrendous nightmare of relationship manipulations that are Bioware games- but as a means to discover someone’s psychological state.

Yet how is the player to gain such insight? Here the normal exploration mechanics of the point n click genre come to the fore. Information can be gleaned from environments, and from dialogue. What is unique here is again, not how you gather said psychological insight but how the game presents it. All the characters in “The Lion’s Song” are interconnected, in only the way that serendipitous stories may take. Exploration here is not simply moving through screens and clicking on everything in sight, but moving through the thoughts of the characters.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2065343097
The third episode does mark a number of changes. Firstly, the previous chapters had focused on a more historical approach which complemented the stylised pixel graphs and choice of a heavily muted colour palette. The previous chapters also focused quite exclusively on the internal state of the characters rather than external states or society, when other people were concerned, the focus was on their direct relationship to the other characters. Emma (or Emil’s chapter) focus on more modern concerns of progressivism. The game, in a rather clever pun attempts to declare Emma non-binary, and there’s a very subtle homosexual relationship alluded to. Emma’s nonbinary status as a result of her crossdressing seems to simply be there to score points, rather than as a truly considered inclusion of her character. Emma is by no means non-binary, nor did such a concept exist for people to identify with, the closest would be the hermaphrodite, but the game steers away from any allusions to Tiresias. Emma is only crossdressing as a means to an end rather than as an expression of identity. This pragmatic context has very little to do with the modern concern with gender expression which is not pragmatic at all.

Review contines below

If you enjoyed this review please follow my curator Virtual Visions for more recommendations.

Conflict is the beginning of consciousness
~M. Esther Harding

Quarantine Circular is at its most fundamental level a game about conflict. Not by waging armed warfare, though that is present in the background story to the game, but rather waging war against a super bacteria that has decimated the worlds human population, & is leading towards an extinction event. In addition it is about the conflict that occurs between individuals of different personality types and/or the issues that arise between ideologies & beliefs. Quarantine Circular's message about this is ultimately a negative one. Differences of opinion are so fundamental to the characters roles that they inevitably lead to greater conflicts. There is no resolution that can be acquired once ones position to others is formulated. For a game that bases itself on dialogue, this is an interesting position to take.
Linguistically dialogue performs two major roles, the first is transactional, the ability to communicate information, the second is interactional, or to establish personal connections and convey empathy or sympathy to others which also ties into languages social purposes.
For a game that focuses on these things, & does them surprisingly well, the fact that it ultimately looks at the failure of these methods is somewhat disheartening, & though the game can be fairly cynical in some of its writing at times, it is at the very least realistic in its conveyance of the types of conflict that can arise.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2070154365
The characters in Quarantine Circular truly take central stage. Each chapter of the story centres on a specific character. The large extraterrestrial Gabriel acting as the cornerstone of the entire plot. Each encounter with him is then undertaken by a new character, and viewed solely from the perspective of one player at a time. The game itself uses the 1st person perspective for each character in order to limit your awareness of others ideas, requiring you to formulate opinions on the basis of what they say. Sadly the game doesn't really explore the concept of lying much, so you have to assume that they are truthful for the most part. The game does in its later stages look at omission of information, or the difficulty of interpreting others words purely on the basis of your own understanding without the value of greater awareness of situations. This is again most notable with Gabriel's various revelations & how it makes your opinion switch due to new information & insights. However, because the game chooses to address these new insights in the shoes of specific characters rather than one individual character, there is no room for that character to realise the fallacy in their own understanding. Only the player, externally to the game can come to such revelations. This sadly does diminish individual character arcs, most particularly those characters that act as general antagonists. The antagonist here being someone who would halt or interrupt dialogue to prevent the dissemination of knowledge.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2070156585
Another quality of the dialogue is that it is purposeful whether rhyming to rap, to establish rapport, or seeking to establish a basis of syntax (grammar) for language. Mechanically the game indicates this purpose to the player by assigning them a task that needs to be accomplished, & then placing a progress bar to track how far the player has achieved this. In one instance, during the first contact scene, you are required to gain the trust of Gabriel (the alien). Your dialogue choices either win or lose you trust, the trust that is essential to accurately calibrating the communication device. Interestingly the game does hint at actions needing to be conversant with words. And a few significant choices actually do coincide with actions you can have that character make.
Another mission requires you to investigate and acquire a set of information. This needs to be done by communicating with multiple people in the dialogue & again is tracked by a progress bar at the top of the screen. Like in the prior game Subsurface Circular, aims & goals are listed to the side of the screen, so a returning player can continue with the appropriate task. The difficulty in accomplishing this second task is caused largely by the conflicting and competing viewpoints of the various actors in the dialogue. Acquiring & then cross-referencing of information, forms a key activity in this dialogue. In this Quarantine Circular seems to have borrowed from the point n click genre, that often uses similar procedures before items will be activated but in the case of Quarantine Circular before branches of dialogue are activated. It’s a key point that the questions we are able to ask are dependent on the information we already possess. In order to fully understand the dimensions of a problem, you need to seek out multiple perspectives, & its at this point that mechanically the games focus on co-operative dialogue is revealed. Whilst at times you are able to block your peers from speaking, (fairly notably near the end of the game) you lose access to valuable information, no matter how offensive that individual may be. Blocking conversation ultimately penalises you the player, as it limits what information is available to you.

Whilst this all so far covers the pragmatic issues of language, it doesn’t truly cover what semantic issues might lie in wait within the labyrinths of words. And Quarantine Circular does have a number of issues and themes it decides to address. The central theme is of course conflict and the pursuit to resolve it, in this the game does sympathetically handle its opposing sides, however it does focus on the less violent solutions slightly more, within the context of the game this is most noticeable with Gabriel’s cure, his development and transmission of a cure to epidemiologist Prof Alla Zima that ties directly into the central title of the game. Quarantine here, is due to the status of the bacteria on earth and its rapid water-borne spread. Yet there is more to the concept of Quarantine than merely this as is eventually revealed during play.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2070156240
The overall narrative is structured as a play, with the acts and scenes progressing towards a final climax, slowly building the tension. Whilst the game does take some time to establish the stakes and characters the tension does manage to rise consistently throughout due to the mechanics and objectives the player must reach. Narratively though the game is slightly weak as a result. In addition a lot of the psychological tension is removed since it largely manifests itself as ideological conflicts rather than personal ones. The singular personal conflict that does emerge between Gabriel & Teng is not well realised. Much of the information is delivered during the fight, leaving the player bemused rather than invested into one side or the other. In addition none of the characters can truly lie, to obfuscate their motivations and desires. This is caused by the fact the player takes on various roles throughout the drama, & the dialogue of characters themselves are devoid of idiosyncratic language use.

Quarantine Circular is an incredible story despite its flaws, and it successfully attempts to deal with its thematic concerns. Like many text based games since the 60s and 70s its going to be either a hit or miss, those who dislike reading or ignore the history of games as text will likely scorn the title, however those who do accept text adventures will likely enjoy it for its mature handling of its issues.

If you enjoyed this review please follow my curator Virtual Visions for more recommendations.

Thank you to Sigmar's Sausage who gifted me a copy

曹植 《七步诗》

煮豆燃豆萁，

豆在釜中泣。

本是同� �生，

相煎何太急？

Fable of the Sword is heavily influenced by Wuxia (Chinese sword & sorcery). From the spiritual energy, to pursue divinity, to magical swords, to errant priests and mystical shifu (masters). All the elements of the genre are included together here. The cast of characters is quite large with many to follow, and depending on your choices varied endings to uncover depending on who you meet during your excursions. The dao(way) here clearly plays into the end results of the story in a fairly literal sense.
At the centre of the story is the tale of two brothers, their familial bond fueling their devotion to each other. Fable of the Sword is not shy in representing idealistic Confucian values, though its tragic ends clearly lead to loss and breaking of relationship ties in the pursuit of individual power, whereas its harmonious endings clearly showcase the restoration of such ties, in addition to other values such as compassion towards ones enemies whilst retaining loyalty towards ones guan(school).
The story itself is fairly complicated weaving multiple characters motivations into the plot, of which most will remain mysterious unless you replay the game using alternative paths. Whilst this does lend the game mystery and a sense of discovery its also frustrating on early playthroughs where the game will introduce new characters with fairly little information then drop them again only for them to play a climactic role again later. Limiting knowledge on individual playthroughs leads to a situation of confusion for the player, not encouraging successive playthroughs for new endings and further understanding.
The characters themselves are not particularly innovative in anyway, even if the do perform their roles in the story admirably. The stoicism of Lin and the vivacity of Yuu form a distinct counterpart to each other, with Bai fulfilling the role of the stranger with unknown motivations (if you follow his path you discover them, if you don't then they remain unknown) and Steve who is also vivacious though more naive than Yuu.

The greatest issue with Fable of the Sword is the presentation of its writing. Whilst the text is visually appealing, makes distinction between characters and descriptions it isn't consistent. The text changes font dramatically at times for long periods before switching back, and the other issue is that it clearly hasn't been formatted for western languages. Western characters if split will break words, requiring word wrapping, whereas Chinese text doesn't require this since it uses ideograms. The constant breaking of words, sometimes across textboxes was highly frustrating and made it difficult to read.
Another major issue was the machine translation. At times the machine would translate the characters names literally at other times not. The same was done for places in the story, making for a confused mishmash of actual Chinese names and fully translated names. In addition to this the actual grammar of the game is terribly offputting and makes the story incredibly opaque at times, due to the difficulty in attempting to understand it. That the quality is inconsistent is frustrating as well, especially since some effort seems to have been made on earlier stages of the game as well as certain character routes.

It's a pity the translation is so flawed as the story is otherwise quite enjoyable, with some good twists and unexpected revelations. The inclusion of small match-3 minigames and memory games make the game slightly more interactive as well, with story outcomes even based on how well you perform. That the minigames are fairly easy as well, makes them a welcome addition to break the monotony of reading poorly translated text.

The visuals of the game are quite lovely as well, the background art is sometimes inconsistent but the character art is always superb. Fabric and weaponry is wonderfully detailed, and the expressions capture each character quite well, with broad beaming smiles from the more energetic characters and quieter demure smiles from the more reserved characters. The characters do have limited sprites though, which meant in some scenes they were less able to effectively convey emotion, and the sprites aren't animated (i.e. by moving across the scenes as paper dolls) which led to an overall static feel, instead of dynamic scenes, which was particularly noticeable during descriptions of combat.

There is some merit to Fable of the Sword it's not an outright bad visual novel, however the lack of proper localization has seriously hurt the title, both in how the text itself is displayed, and in making the story unnecessarily difficult to understand.

If you enjoyed this review please follow my curator Virtual Visions for more recommendations.

Pros
• Incredibly well written with lots of nuance
  
• Companion dialogues and stat system is intriguing
  
• Character builds are highly customisable
  
  
  Cons
• Weak narrative that de-emphasises the players role
  
• Naval combat is underdeveloped
  
• Exploration feels too limited, and ends up just being hunts for encounters

The first Pillars of Eternity was an immense disappointment when I played it. The world building and overall story were interesting, yet the companions felt stilted and the narrative was continuously interrupted by kickstarter self inserts.

Deadfire was thus an incredibly welcome surprise. The graphics are slightly overhauled with additional lighting & spell effects. This is noticeable in the very first area where a rainbow dances over a waterfall concealing a cavern. And was further validated by the delicate animations that bring each character to vivid life, whether it be flexing their water shaping skills, or scratching an itch in an... unmentionable area. The landscapes themselves evoke the Carribean, but with just enough innovation to still feel exotic, with Adra taking the place of coral to form reefs and shoals. Whilst exotic fruits & berries form the basis of various local cuisines. These little hints of the fantastical were present in the first game as well, but with the unusual setting they are even more apparent, & create an environment of discovery.

As tropical as the environments are, the game doesn't shy away from more graphical effects in combat as well. Spells are the most gorgeous to see, with bright neon colours dancing about the screen, whilst insidious cloud effects partially obscure the combatants. Even the fighters are well realised as they steady themselves before a dash attack, & launch themselves on their enemies. Critical hits have a kill cam feature where the game momentarily slows down time, before zooming in on the action further. The slow down however was rather frustrating as the combat wouldn't flow as smoothly after, and the loss of framerates at such times was immensely frustrating.

At times when the action on screen was particularly frenetic, the UI certainly came to the fore. Most information is readily available and many of the pop up menus are contextual which is helpful. The game does highlight figures if you linger over them with the mouse and an information screen will also pop up giving general details such as resistances, current effects and a generalised statement of health.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1963618136
Narratively the game attempts to wear many hats, it wants to be a postcolonial deconstruction of colonial economics, a rollicking marine adventure ala Robert Louis Stevenson, by way of Pirates of Penzance and a high fantasy RPG that delves into existentialism, the nature of the divine & at times even ecological terrorism. This kaleidoscope of influences collide into a mess of genres and tropes. A cohesive theme is lost in favour of attempting to straddle various genres and their requisite themes. Whilst this slew of influences lends the game it's diversity it also lessons the impact of any particular message the game might have.

The faction quests form the backbone to the God's secular question, of whether humanity itself is able to overcome its differences and act in unison to confront a global crisis. Eothas, in the aspect of Gaun, is simply the progenitor of this crisis and Woedica who is the most antagonistic and cynical about the nature of the kith, seems to be the most vindicated by the results of your actions at the end of the game. This is largely due to the fact that the game offers no true resolution to the factions. There is no armistice, in fact it fails rather dismally, sometimes as a direct result of the players intervention.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1558504805
Gods, even the artificial gods of Eora, are clearly considered too much for the protagonist to handle. The game steers directly away from the power inherit within a protagonist to indicate, despite being a Watcher, that your abilities are mundane. This is done repeatedly; from tête-� -têtes with the 'Prevailing Powers That Be' to encounters with archmagi that reveal their superiority over the player character. Even the trials against gods take place as gauntlets to be overcome rather than climactic confrontations, which is all the more obvious in the DLC content. It's a realism that is surprising in such a game, and has been the source of many complaints, not least amongst them the inability to duel Eothas at the finale, which many felt robbed players of a final boss fight.

The combat in Deadfire is immense fun. Breaking away from min-maxing elements, leaves room for experimentation with builds. Many things are still the same, a dexterous wizard is viable but might (physical strength) is a positive boon as well, because it directly translates to the damage output of spells. Likewise unconventional melee builds are possible as well, with fighters being able to include intelligence as a stat for Defensive fighters due to its bonuses to AoE. As much as the game does allow for such unconventionality though on harder difficulties it still favours more traditional builds.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1962718990
With its nautical theme, it's unsurprising that the player is given a ship to steer about the sea. This is where factional alliances come into play. Depending on the colours you fly various ships will either ignore or attack you. Managing and outfitting your ship takes the place of usual keep management. In addition Deadfire also has you manage the crew for your ship. The larger the ships and the more crew you have, the more food and water they will require. The game also introduces morale, & preventing them from mutinying will require either victories at sea or more expensive rations, usually of an alcoholic nature. Yet it never really feels like it amounts to that much. The travel distances of the Deadfire Archipelago are so small as to make most of the rationing and strategical planning to be redundant, & by the late stages of the game, the ships are easy money sinks, since the loot has improved immeasurably making it easy to simply purchase up the rations required.

The other important aspects to ships is of course exploration. The ships crew gains experience in an additional levelling system, as they encounter new regions, sights & survive encounters. The islands themselves are marked on the map for you and a subquest encourages you to "colonise" the lands. However main quest locations are marked & can be sailed to directly without exploration. Since the islands are discrete landmasses, they don't offer a feeling of scale when adventuring. They inevitably end up feeling more like once off encounters rather than integrated parts of a world. As such the wonder of discovery is inevitably lost to a list of check marks, something that the game tries to prevent with its detailed and inventive locales but never quite achieves.

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is overall an exceptional game, with sound combat, an incredible interfactional storyline, but is let down by some very serious issues, such as the lack of intriguing exploration, poorly developed ship combat & a story that places you in a passive role. It is however still one of the finest RPGs ever made, despite the passive role and weaknesses in the narrative but is held aloft by its own inventiveness & creativity

If you enjoyed this review please follow my curator Virtual Visions for more recommendations.

Thank you to Hopanda from Hopandas Curator who generously donated a copy of the game

Ghost Files: The Face of Guilt doesn't have the most interesting premise, and neither does its gameplay offer anything revolutionary to entice you into playing it. It is simply a comfortable way to while away some time relaxing without actually straining the mind.

Pros
• Easy to follow story that is fairly standard
  
• Puzzles are intuitive
  
• Forensic system adds something unique
  
  
  Cons
• Hidden Object Puzzles don't always reflect the mouse clicks
  
• Story isn't that compelling or gripping with lack of character development
  
• Forensic puzzles are underutilised.

Ghost Files: The Face of Guilt is somewhat odd as it plays down its supernatural elements and attempts to foreground its general investigation. For a title developed by Brave Giant it sits somewhere between the relatively good Queen's Quest series and the miserable failure that is the Demon Hunters series.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2022264156
The characters are relatively uncompelling. Emily Hunter begins off well enough; Dedicated to her job, rejecting supernatural issues, even the psychic Julie is turned down by her initially. Most of her investigations proceed independently without a partner though the reasons for this are dealt with later. Everything that happens is just too convenient. Close encounters and escapes, trips to dreamworlds that reveal a latent psychic ability within Emily. There's nothing to really make the story compelling. No mysteries are built up, the characters fates don't give motivations because you're not emotionally invested in them. When it does try to create tension which it builds in the late game, rushing itself to a climax, after the slow interrupted progression of the main case, it can't deliver on it, as the game mechanics themselves don't lend themselves to life or death struggles. It's generally poorly thought out seemingly not entirely sure what it wants to be.

Gameplay wise there are some rather effective moments. The small forensic puzzles are neat, and reminiscent of the CSI games. They are sadly underutilised though, since most are used perhaps only once or twice. Even saying that, there are some issues with it, since the blood identification isn't quite realistic, but it does work well as a puzzle.
Other puzzles and investigations are standard fare. Of particular note was the investigation of a crime scene just after a murder had occured. It leant a sense of stake and scale that was otherwise missing in the rest of the game, and left the rest of it seemingly dull as a result. In addition the game liked to rush through areas quickly not giving the player time to take in the environments. Much atmosphere is lost as a result of this, and the already poor story felt indistinct as a result.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2022265047
The hidden object scenes are repeated but with variations so on one occasion you may encounter it as a silhouette puzzle and on another occasion as a word list. The interactions were slow, and often it wouldn't register my clicks. This was particularly obvious after opening an interactive object where the game would hang slightly before resuming. The wordlists also had a few odd words that didn't completely match up to their meanings as well as one or two misspelt words.

Another weakness was the sound, with the music being heavy and repetitive, with one particular track that played in nearly every area which made it horrifically grating. Other interactions were rather satisfying though, however one object did give off "lightsaber" like sounds, which made me wonder if they had purchased sounds through an audio database.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2022264747
Graphically the game is fairly pleasant, with a natural feel to it, that is surprising from Artifex Mundi and Brave Giant but not unwelcome. It does showcase the lower resolutions that the game was originally made at though which is a pity as it's otherwise quite pleasant to look at, however does avoid the grime and dirt that would better reflect an urban environment.

There really isn't too much to say about Ghost Files: The Face of Guilt it's not very strong in any aspect, and is so mediocre as to be utterly forgettable. It's probably not worth a purchase unless it's bundled with other games and even then more likely to sit languishing in a backlog than to be played since there are many other titles far more worth the time and effort to play. In it's favour, it is quite short... though this is more often seen as a negative. It is however a competent enough game to just earn a thumbs even though it's not really worth a full purchase.

If you enjoyed this review please follow my curator Virtual Visions for more recommendations.

Thank you to 🍒 Lilly (🌸� ‿� ) of Hidden Object Gamers who gifted a copy of the game to me.

Nightmares from the Deep 3: Davy Jones finally confronts the Sea Devil himself. And as is to be expected by Artifex Mundi titles, there is something to be redeemed in the unredeemable. The setpieces are as piratical as they come, from danger on the high seas to the exploration of a fortified island, and hidden treasures, both literal and figurative. It is a fitting ending to the series, that fully leans into the supernatural aspects the other games hinted at, and focusing less on the adventure aspects.

Pros
• Lavish artwork that brings the island to life
  
• Leaning away from an adventure tale actually works as suspense is not needed
  
• All areas interlink, there is no blocking off of previous areas
  
  
  Cons
• Story is as melodramatic as they come
  
• Formulaic presentation is fully evident, very little to distinguish this from it's predecessors
  
• No real difference in difficulty other than to increase assistance cooldowns

In the previous titles, Davy Jones was always an enigmatic figure, tantalised but never encountered. However he comes fully to the fore in the third and final title of the Nightmares of the Deep trilogy. Once again Sarah has to confront the supernatural, a far cry away from her ordered existence as a museum curator. The story will play out in a manner similar to that of the first title. For once again Cory, Sarah's daughter is abducted and as a mother who is fiercely protective of her child Sarah pursues. Cory for her part is generally as helpless as before, foolishly signing onto Davy Jones's pact then fulfilling a position on the island. Sarah's newjob is now to break the curse, but in order to do so she must first find the cause. It's through this that the game begins to establish Davy Jones as an analogue to Sarah. As a villain he must mirror her in someways and by writing this into the tale, the story unwittingly makes him a far more sympathetic character. As schmaltzy as his fall from grace inevitably ends up being, it's sure to win at least some appreciation from the audience. Especially as it combines a particularly 90's blend of family values and fathers learning to reduce their work, irrespective of whether this allows them to continue paying the bills. Davy Jones's inhumanity, as such, is that indifference to his family and pursuit of greed and wealth that would effectively characterise any pirate.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2010437574
The plotting is well paced and the game does allow Sarah to encounter Cory at various points, reminding you of the purpose of your quest and relating all the actions the player takes back to the theme of parental protection. What it does negate however is the self-agency that the children have. They are not given the possibility to lift themselves or learn from their situations rather waiting for their saviour from the player. When they are given the possibility of choice it comes as a mistake, placing them in dire circumstances from which you need to make additional effort to distract them from. So whilst the game is good at evoking part of the emotions of parenthood it does not offer up a way to show parents how to teach children to be independent or self-reliant. Instead they are simply the tools for the plot to play out.

In a previous review I had lamented that the game had leaned into the supernatural aspect rather than emphasising pirates as products of adventurous tales. However in this title, the shift to the supernatural focus makes more sense. Not only does it create a better mystery but Hidden Object games are not good at conveying tension due to the slow playstyle, a tension that the adventure genre would require. It makes for a better tone and sense of discovery even whilst it does lean away from the pirate aspects of the tale.

The gameplay itself has not progressed or changed in any meaningful way. The puzzles will be largely familiar to anyone who has played the previous titles. The point n click adventure gameplay is also not too difficult, with most objects becoming available before you encounter the passageway through them, except in a few circumstances, usually also if you've missed a hidden object scene that will grant you the item. This leads to a slight headscratching, how does Susan know that she needs that particular item from the rubbish piles and clutter of other peoples homes. And in so doing it also robs the player of some strategic thinking of planning what objects they might possibly need. The game also never overclutters the inventory, with objects being used up quickly for tasks.
There's also the usual array of tasks such as collecting objects about the scenes, with the morphing objects being slightly unique as they entirely warp in and out of existence as opposed to something changing shape.
These items are not too much of a chore to collect as the game will have you backtracking to areas, though never to far. The map also assists with such travel, and new maps are also earned at points in the story as the later stages open up.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2010437754
The puzzles themselves are the standard variety, from logic to spatial reasoning the usual base set of puzzles the Spark engine can perform are represented. Most have been used in the previous games, and this is what most noticeably shows the formulaic tendencies of the title. Whereas areas and Hidden Object scenes can be comfortably created anew, the puzzle mechanics are left the same despite the new graphical overlays.
The Hidden Object scenes switch between silhouettes, lists as well as fragmented object scenes. Most of the objects are reasonably visible with little attempts to create further difficulty by changing object sizes, or partially obscuring them. There is some camouflaging though to make it more difficult and of course some of the Hidden Object puzzles require various interactions in order to complete an item or open a new area of the scene in which more items are concealed.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2010437348
The artwork is the high quality that Artifex is renowned for. With lush visual that teem with attention to detail. The characters themselves are slightly stereotypical in design, but then with the pulp story type the stereotypes are not entirely unwelcome, since they add to the overall feel of the game. The animation has taken a slight step back from the previous title, with some odd distortion of faces which the previous game managed to overcome and the cut-scenes are noticeably lower res than the ingame graphics. This loss of quality is also noticeable when tools are animated when being used.

Nightmares from the Deep 3: Davy Jones is a solid title. The shift to a supernatural focus works really well at building up the mystery, and Davy Jones works well as Susan's foil. There are various hints back to the previous games, and it caused the narrative to close nicely. Although it does sadly convey the fact that Artifex Mundi was already slipping into formulaic approaches with their work, something that stood a few years until their most recent titles like Brother Rabbit.

If you enjoyed this review please follow my curator Virtual Visions for more recommendations.

Thank you to SalzStange of Original Curator's Group who gifted a copy of the game to me.

Nightmares from the Deep: The Siren's Call is a loosely based sequel to the first game The Cursed Heart. Just as in the first game, the pirate aspect is only vaguely explored. Where the first game was more concerned with the "appearance" of pirates, the second game does focus a little bit more on motivations towards piracy but with little reflection to the economic and political situation in which privateering arose. Again the emphasis lies more on the supernatural, & whilst it does make for an amusing visual gimmick, it leaves little for the story to latch on to, which prevaricates between whether it wants to be a romance or a supernatural thriller.

Pros
• Well paced gameplay with excellent balance between adventuring and puzzling
  
• Some very good facial animations
  
• Like many Artifex Mundi titles is on the shorter side
  
  
  Cons
• Repetitive music that is aggravating and out of touch with the tone
  
• Cut scenes are only available in low resolutions
  
• Story is cliched and dull, with little thought given to worldbuilding

Story
Sarah Black once again stands as the protagonist of the story. This time she has even less motivation to pursue the quest having been abducted after being attacked whilst opening a mysterious package in her museum. She gives little to no reaction to her circumstances, instead stoically and silently taking all the supernatural shenanigans for granted without once expressing credulity. That much of what she encounters is fairly horrific including hybridized fishmen that would be at home in Dunwich never even makes her bat an eyelash.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2005247447
Nor as a museum curator and someone concerned with ancient artifacts does she ever pursue or express specific interest in some of the most magical artefacts of the game. The secondary characters are given as little motivation as she is. The mayor, who is responsible for the crisis the village is in, has the most mundane motivation for his villainy, and the secondary support characters are tied into a romantic subplot that echoes the same Stockholm Syndrome of the first game. The plot again does move at a good pace but is so tied to the formulaic storytelling elements of Artifex Mundi that even then it fails to be engaging. Without developing characters Hidden Object Games are going to largely be kept to superficial plots mired in tedium and cliche.

Gameplay
Like the previous title The Cursed Heart, The Siren's Call does very well when it comes to gameplay. The puzzles are well balanced, ranging from easy to medium difficulty, and only a few will take awhile to solve, which keeps the game moving along at a steady pace. The Hidden Object scenes are as diverse as the first title, including an enjoyable range of word list, silhouette and fragmented object types. In addition there are interactive elements in the Hidden Object scenes requiring you to open additional compartments or perform a series of interactions to acquire an object in the correct state (such as a brushed wig). The word lists are largely irrelevant to the overall plot and many scenes will have you hunting through a scene to find an object that is unrelated to the overall setting, but the game does largely try to keep this to a minimum. The difficulty is also lowered by the fact that most objects required make sense to use. There's no bizarre object use that many point n click games are rather famed as being absurd for.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2005247366
Like it's predecessor the sequel largely compartmentalizes the areas you are working in on the basis of the chapter you are in, reducing backtracking. And thankfully like many of the early Artifex Mundi games the entire map remains open without cutting of previous areas. This is largely important as many of the collectible and morphing items are easy to return to collect. The morphing items here morph into and out of reality, so can be difficult to spot at times, since they appear into blank spaces, this caused me no end of confusion as I had to adjust to looking at clear or negative spaces that changed rather than existing objects.
Tracking back and forth across the map is easy as once again the fast travel is available as well as the easy to use HUD that makes objects easily accessible. Once again objects are simply used as is rather than combined as is normal for classic adventure games, which led to slightly duller environmental puzzles.

Graphics
Somewhat to my surprise the facial animations in this title were very well done. Normally when playing a HoG the facial expressions are cringeworthy as they morph the faces into grotesque expressions. Perhaps the issue wasn't so blatant here as the faces were already rather misshapen due to the curse but even more humane faces moved in a more natural manner.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2005248497
The environmental art was quite lovely and showcase the quality of artwork that Artifex Mundi is famous for. As an earlier game, there are less experimental angles and the game usually adopts a viewpoint synonymous with Sarah's position. There is an over reliance on purples and blues with contrasting greens and yellows to create a subdued feel yet still retain brightness. It became slightly overwhelming at times, and detracted from a more sinister feel, that would have suited the tone of the games story, which does include murder, conspiracy and subterfuge. Despite that loss of atmosphere it is a delight to view and some of the monster designs are quite gorgeous. The villains appearance however places him firmly in the category of a clown, and despite his association with the dangerous shark, he appears more as a buffoon than anything intimidating.

Audio
The music is familiar to players of the first game, as many of the audio tracks are repeated. Coming from the first game the music is often ill suited to the more tragic circumstances of the village. Often the game will use strident drums to create a sense of urgent action, but the slow investigation of the village has no urgency and the fast paced music detracts from the slower nature of solving puzzles and mysteries.
The voice acting is as mediocre as the first game. Some of the characters correctly convey urgency and tension in their speech, but others again appear simply to be whining at the player to help them. With their lack of characterization and development the overly querulous tones do not further incite sympathy for their predicaments but only irritation and a wonder that they are so incapable of even attempting to assist themselves.

Conclusion
Nightmares from the Deep: The Siren's Call doesn't dramatically improve over it's predecessor in any way, instead largely building upon what it had already established. The same strengths and flaws are visible in this title as are visible in the original game. Considering how short the games are this offers more of the same format for players looking for a similar experience but as a sequel that should enhance and develop on its predecessor there is not much here other than the improvement of facial animations. Despite being a puzzle game it offers no real intellectual challenge but is a title that will let you while away a few hours of enjoyment without demanding any further engagement.

If you enjoyed this review please follow my curator Virtual Visions for more recommendations.

At first glance Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart, is a stock standard and formulaic Hidden Object Game (HoG) that primarily stands out because of it's familiarity to the Pirates of the Carribean film franchise. It doesn't delve into larger piratical themes: there's no similiarity to Treasure Island or Captain Blood and swashbuckling on the high seas but there is some similarity to legends such as Der Vliegende Hollander and it's conflation to the English idiom "Davy Jones's locker". As such the pirate elements become superficial, with the larger narrative being focused upon the supernatural, curses and Davy Jones as the sea devil.

Pros
• Average yet challenging puzzles
  
• Variety of Hidden object games, from collectables on screens to Fragmented and listed hidden objects
  
• Decent pacing of plot and game
  
  
  Cons
• Graphics don't hold up well on modern display resolutions (HD and higher)
  
• Story switches genres from mystery to adventure to romance without developing any fully
  
• Animations are pretty terrible and display at a lower resolution than the main game

The Cursed Heart isn't quite sure what genre it wants to be, switching itself from an initial mystery tale, with requisite investigative heroine (a museum curator and archaeologist) to an adventure that has you chasing a ghost, to finally ending as a macabre romance riddled with a secondary character suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Despite this being an Artifex Mundi tale, the relationships are as one dimensional and cloyingly written as any pulp fiction romance novel. This being one of developer Artifex Mundi's earlier titles it is similar in tone to the Big Fish published games which established the genre.
That is to say, narrative holds very little of importance other than to give the players protagonist the bare minimum of motivation and to provide some light elements of context for the locales you visit. The story is not quite as bad as I'm making it sound, its just incredibly formulaic and cliched. A common issue with many HoGs that don't really focus on story as an important element. It's bare boned enough however to be middlingly entertaining, purely through the B-movie nature of its plot.

The gameplay however is fantastic. As one of Artifex Mundi's earlier titles it's one of the games that established them as masters of making HoGs. There is a little backtracking but generally the game opens up new areas in Chapters allowing you to focus on those new areas to solve current quests, and wraps up the side-missions before you unlock the big puzzle to the next area. Movement is incredibly easy between areas as a map indicates which areas you need to travel to, and clicking on it takes you to them instantaneously. The HUD is non-invasive and simplistic (although I would have enjoyed some puzzles which allowed you to combine items), and there are enough environmental clues and hints to assist you through. The objects you need are fairly obvious not obscured or buried in 3 layers of pop up pictures. If anything was to define the gameplay here its how accessible everything is.
The Hidden Object scenes themselves are lavishly illustrated and are varied to prevent tedium. From word lists to silhouettes to the occasional fragmented object, they're nicely varied. Of course the Object scenes can be switched out for a Mahjong minigame. Personally I found this of little use, as I'm playing the game for its Hidden Object scenes so found it strange it included something that allowed you to skip the primary determination of the games genre.
The collectibles made hunting through the overall game world more entertaining and definitely lengthened the playtime, however it was sad that only one type of collectible actually added to the background tale of the game. This perhaps limited a lot of narrative potential, as even the environmental storytelling is limited. With the responsiveness of the Object scenes, the variety of puzzles with clear hints and instructions its easy to see how Artifex Mundi rapidly developed a positive reputation despite the story. The gameplay is executed well in all areas and offered various improvements over older games that drastically improved the experience of play.

That the Cursed Heart is a 2011 game does show. Whilst the graphics in HoGs can generally withstand time, due to their static nature and stylistic images the cutscenes are painful to watch. Not only are they only available in a low resolution (lower than the resolution of the main game) the computer animation is tellingly old. Animations in scenes are also rather painful to watch. Characters faces distort horrifically when they talk as the image itself is bent to convey motion, making them look grotesque when they speak.
The game itself does offer some upscaling to HD systems, and whilst there is the occasional pixellation, a blur effect removes the worst of it, however it was strongly reminiscent of an old CRT monitor even whilst playing on my digital monitor.

The game does have some lovely background music, however mine seemed to keep reverting to one particular track which eventually made it fairly tedious to play through. But the larger issue was the voice acting. The voices fail to convey emotion accurately. The daughter constantly sounded nasal and whiny, even though she was meant to be afraid, and the Dread Pirate hardly sounded fearsome perhaps as a result that his baritone performance kept wavering at odd times.

Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart is an exemplary title for the genre from a gameplay perspective. It's fun, intuitive and easy to navigate. From a storytelling perspective its rather disappointing, as it ultimately ends up as a supernatural adventure game rather than a horror or romance which it attempts to be at times. The characters are terribly uncompeling, and never have much investment from the player.
For all that though it presents itself well despite the camp elements, and is a worthwhile game for those who enjoy the genre and those who might want to have a first time attempt at playing Hogs.

If you enjoyed this review please follow my curator Virtual Visions for more recommendations.

If you enjoy this review please follow my curator Virtual Visions for more recommendations.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker, much as the rather unimaginative title indicates, is a game about the establishment of a kingdom. Yours. From the political machinations of a nearby Duchy that wishes to create a buffer kingdom between themselves and their threats they aid in not only granting you the land but also in financing its establishment. From there, in true fantasy style a new threat emerges. An old curse exists upon the lands that gathers the remains of previous empires, atoning for a mistake from the past.

Pros
• Incredible and lengthy narrative that has multiple plot twists
  
• Well fleshed companions
  
• Engaging combat system that offers tactical depth
  
• Lush and colourful graphics
  
  
  Cons
• Rather generic in its medieval fantasy setting
  
• Time management on quests creates sense of pressure and reduces willingness to explore
  
• An area at the ending is rather prohibitive if you haven't fully explored the side-quests from earlier in the game

Pathfinder: Kingmaker is truly epic in scope, not only does it span multiple playing hours but in terms of the game world it explores millennia. In doing so it can elaborate on its theme of civilization and barbarity, the transient nature of empire and the various ways they rise and fall. This is done most notably through the various chapters of the main campaign, each of which focus on one or more kingdoms. Not only is internal strife and decadence explored but also external threats, and natural disasters, whether it be plague or climate change. Accompanying these hints from the past for the discerning loremaster, the actual campaign itself integrates these, with each chapter of the campaign unfolding a new threat to the governance of your fiefdom and must be thwarted by your advisors (who are selected from the companions).
The choices here are unprecedented, you can recruit erstwhile enemies to assist you, (provided they have a similar ethos to governance as you), shape and change the fates of your companions due to your influence over them, and in some cases might just roleplay their influence on your character as well. And they are an interesting lot, from the grandiose compensation of Nok-nok the goblin, to the stalwart Valerie, and erudite Jubilost, there's a lot to discover about each one.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1915909166
Of course they do have accompanying side-quests to expand upon their choices and influence them, as well as the option to romance some of them. Many of the options taken in these side-quests also have additional impacts upon the fate of the kingdom later on, though they aren't realised mechanically.
The kingdom itself shares the story with you, changing significantly based on the decisions you make, whether its populated with monsters, a mercantile success, or a generic tyranny there's multiple ways to craft its story. This is realised in short excerpts from the kingdom management screen, and are known as "problems" and "opportunities", choosing different advisors (with different traits) will have varying outcomes, not only can they fail or succeed but different individuals handle matters differently. Some of these permutations can be seen as many of the "opportunity" events are recycled (which leads to some story fatigue) but they also shape the alignment of the kingdom, having distinct outcomes for how the people are governed.
The main story itself has a fairly generic ultimate villain, but the secondary villain is the main antagonist for most of the game, and she is rather unique, however its up to the player whether she will be viewed sympathetically or not. The main story is also imperative in forcing and encouraging exploration. Most of the narrative structure winds itself around a mystery, that first must be uncovered, then investigated and finally confronted. This pattern unfolds for each chapter. The greatest crticism I can level is that after a while this feels uninspired, but the mysteries themselves are intriguing enough and pull the player to explore the world further, which is after all one of the great joys of playing a cRPG, adventuring to uncover new dangers and treasures.

Kingmaker truly excels in gameplay. The combat mechanics are robust and adaptive to varied playstyles. Characters can be built in various ways though, on harder difficulties tried and tested builds will need to be used in order to min max stats. The mechanics will be familiar to any person whose encountered a cRPG game before. From elemental to phyiscal damage types and their relation to damage resistances, the need to create a party with multiple ability types, to work in concert together. All the normal roles apply.
Nothing is really innovative here, wizards can work as heavy damage dealers or crowd controllers, rogues can provide debuffs and concentrated damage, fighters work as tanks, bards as buffers/debuffers. It's all familiar and comforting terrain to veterans of the genre, but not overly complicated for newcomers to work out.
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1915908651
Exploration occurs across a world map with isolated encounter areas (as well as random encounters when travelling between locations). At first most of the map is unavailable with higher difficulty levels being locked until you've expanded your power enough to access them, that is not to say that difficult encounters are not hiding tucked away in caves in earlier areas though... discretion is the better part of valour. In addition some areas will require repeat visits, as new quests will be linked to that area. Encumbrance impedes exploration and acts as a serious hindrance, slowing travel time which affects the games overall time pressure. It's not a huge role but is something to be aware of, if a quest timer is close to ending.
Each encounter area is filled with various side-quests or unique enemies to fight (and loot) however the major dungeons are reserved for areas associated with the main campaign. Many of these dungeons have multiple levels and distinct puzzles associated with them as well as some rather difficult challenges. The game does not shy away from splitting your party on more than one occasion. The dungeons themselves are generally well crafted experiences, with challenging encounters as well as various puzzles to solve. In some dungeons these puzzles take precedence and can be rather obtuse in their riddling, however compared to games like Pillars of Eternity and its sequel Deadfire which had very few puzzles its pleasant to encounter them again. Sadly one of the dungeons has some rather complex coding associated with its puzzle and it can be quite buggy, its also exceptionally late in the game so multiple saves are mandatory... of course.

The other important aspect is the Kingdom itself. The kingdom is assigned various stats, such as loyalty, espionage, military, arcane and culture that link to various domains of society. These stats are boosted by assigning the appropriate ministers to events and granting them time to complete them. In addition you can construct villages with various buildings that provide boosts to said stats, and some buildings even decrease the difficulty for the encounters by providing bonuses. Your companions may be assigned as advisors in a vaguely nepotistic faction however there are other advisors you can assign and complete tasks to enhance their governing abilities. Who you assign is important as it shifts the alignment of your kingdom, which further determines what buildings you can include, not to mention their own allegiances, that just may result in a betrayal.

Review continues in the comment section below