Recent reviews by droqen

a small puzzle adventure :) it's fun playing with all the little machines to discover the endings!

i love playing ynglet. the levels are all full of joy. i feel as though every step of the way i'm empowered to solve a weird bouncy problem in any clever way i like. that's not always true, of course. there's lots of places where i am solving a weird bouncy problem in basically the exact clever way i was supposed to. but there's so much freedom.

anyway this is my favourite style of level design and it feels rare to play a game made like this.

There is no reason to play any of the vignettes past the first few minutes of each, unless you've fallen in love with the systems for their own sake. To me, this is a game design dream come true. Everything is laid bare, and in a few cases I can feel the game outright mocking the idea that you might want to 'complete' a vignette or be rewarded for doing so.

Not recommended if you're looking for a nice fun videogame experience, but I truly love Rooftop Cop and recommend it with my entire heart if you're interested in... well, whatever the hell it is. It speaks to me about the nature of videogames, so it's not "for people who don't like videogames." Maybe it's for people who are acutely aware that they like videogames TOO much.

A single playthrough of The Quiet Sleep years ago was enough to cement it in my mind as a powerful metaphor for human thought processes. I guess I can't say if it will resonate with everyone, but this is one of very, very few games that describe a system through playable mechanics in a way I can't put words to.

It resonates deeply with my own desire to analyze and systemically understand the world.

I also enjoy the game; it's compelling enough and challenging and interesting; but it's not the joy of gameplay that brings me back to The Quiet Sleep, it's the way that through playing it and engaging with the gameplay brings me in tune to some indescribable perspective that I already recognize within myself. I feel seen.

The writing in Little Red Lie grows on me.
Like a really good book, the characters and the events that unfold dig their hooks into my heart until I care deeply about what happens to these people in these places, and it does it with very difficult characters.

It takes place in Toronto, where I live, which I appreciate more than I thought I would. It reminds me that stories can be about places that feel real to me. It hits home when the characters talk about their parents, about living in condos, about going to coffee shops when I think that these parents, condos, and coffee shops are rooted in the place where I grew up.

If you want to play a game wherein you make risk-reward decisions or solve puzzles or make numbers go up or react quickly to sensory stimulus, this decidedly isn't the game for you. But if you feel like sinking your teeth into a great story about "debt, family, and the truth about honesty", then hell yes, Little Red Lie is for you.