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  • Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller – Episode 4: The Cain Killer Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller – Episode 4: The Cain Killer Review

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    The fourth and final episode of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller is finally here! Does the last piece of the puzzle deliver a chillingly satisfying conclusion and live up to the potential that's been growing over the previous three chapters? Well, no, not really - but there's enough to it that it's worth talking about anyway. Read on!If you've been following along, you already know all you need to know about the graphics, sound, voice acting, and mechanics of Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller. (And if you haven't, episode four is definitely not the place to jump in - go back to part one and start from there.) In that regard, The Cain Killer is more of the same, with the addition of a new mechanic: your conversational choices now have an impact on how much other characters like and trust you, and therefore how they react to you - and how the game ultimately plays out. Say the right thing and the ghostly face of your conversational partner in the lower-right corner of the screen will slowly fill up with light; say the wrong thing and it will drain out."It's an interesting idea, and obviously it's smart to be on good terms with everyone, but in a practical sense it really doesn't add anything to the experience. Conversational options are almost always binary - "I agree with you/I disagree you with" kind of thing - and there's never any doubt about which one will score the brownie points, nor pressure (or any reason at all) to opt for the negative choice. By the time the game was over I was effectively BFFs with virtually everyone in the game, including a lunatic serial killer and my boss at the FBI.
  • Flights of Fancy: Two Doves Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    Flights of Fancy: Two Doves Review

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    Having had some development ups and downs over the last year, ERS Game Studio fights its way back to the top of the genre with Flights of Fancy: Two Doves. This high-class, high-fantasy hidden object adventure offers beauty, magic, wonder, and best of all, surprises—all of which (despite one sizeable flaw) remind us why the name ERS is synonymous with adventure game excellence.Two Doves won me over from the start by casting me as a countess: an unusual choice of heroine that veers from the usual princess/detective/reporter/psychic idea. The narrative ball gets rolling when the countess is away from home, attending an engagement party for the king. She gets back and finds that her castle's been violated by persons unknown. It appears they've stolen a magical dove (a twin to one owned by the king) necessary to protect the kingdom, and have turned her vassals into shiny little figurines. With the help of her last remaining servant, she combs the castle for clues and what she uncovers is deeply unsettling.Considering the doom hanging over the countess and the kingdom, Two Doves' astonishing beauty is something of a paradox. It's clear thatERS let the art team go full throttle here and gave them free rein to add as much creativity, color, and detail as their hearts desired. Amazing attention is paid to the game's interface (the animated inventory items and unique scroll journal for instance) and overused fantasy themes are freshened up by extraordinary inventiveness (two words -"Viking plant"). Playing Two Doves brings to mind the magic you felt as a kid reading fairy tales for the first time: the feeling that around every corner will be something new, strange, and possibly dangerous.
  • Card Hunter Review
    Reviews
    • PC
    Card Hunter Review

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    Time is precious. Especially gaming time, which means video games, collectible card games, and tabletop games are all vying against each other for yours. Happily, Blue Manchu has a solution to this modern dilemma. Card Hunter manages to combine elements from all three into one fun package that also happens to be free-to-play and run right in your browser window. Sound too good to be true? Then read on adventurer - your new favorite game awaits.In classic meta fashion, Card Hunter is not only the game you play, but also the game within the game, administered to you by an eager but relatively novice GM named Gary. He manages to use big brother Melvin's card set to teach you some of the basics of battling and questing in the land of, ahem, Cardhuntria, before he's discovered and you have to start over with just one lowly Level 1 Warrior. You'll eventually form a party of three from pretty basic archetypes: Warrior, Wizard and Priest, all of whom can be Elf for greater movement, Dwarf for more durability or Human for a happy medium.That simplicity is alright though, because there's a lot more to absorb. Every adventure - which look like old school D&D modules, down to the retro art style and flavor text - contains two or more battles. That's where the magic happens, figuratively and somewhat literally, as each battle takes place on a unique board with a square-shaped grid. The board is 2D but has artwork that depicts terrain, structures and other obstacles, whereas your characters and any enemies are represented by 3D figures.
  • Polycraft Review
    Reviews
    • PC
    Polycraft Review

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    Polycraft combines the simplicity of browser-based gaming with the depth of a persistent strategy world.  While the game is entirely controllable by mouse, actions are not limited: players will gather resources, build bases, and take direct part in fast-paced battles that require both forethought and a twitchy trigger finger.  After a lengthy and productive beta period, Polycraft is now openly free-to-play via Turbulenz on the Chrome Apps Store.  A few rough edges remain, but its world has been highly polished, providing players a beautiful—yet dangerous—island habitat to play with.
  • Memoria Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    Memoria Review

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    As one of Germany's top-selling D&D-style board games and an RPG series in its own right, The Dark Eye is ripe with lore and potential for fantastical expansion.  Daedalic Entertainment tapped into that rich world with last year's The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav, transforming it into their signature point-and-click adventure style wrapped in sumptuous hand-drawn visuals.  The direct sequel to that excursion, The Dark Eye: Memoria,draws on what made Satinav great and pushes it further, earning a rightful place as one of Daedalic's greatest creations to date.
  • The Raven: Episode 2 – Ancestry of Lies Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    The Raven: Episode 2 – Ancestry of Lies Review

    By

    The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief: Episode 2 - Ancestry of Lies has arrived - and The Raven is unmasked! This is a big chapter, folks, with lots of secrets revealed and some surprising twists and turns, but it's also something of a letdown compared to the first part, as it lacks a little bit of the quirky charm and a lot of the characters that made the opening act so much fun.
  • Joining Hands 2 Review
    Reviews
    • Android
    • iOS
    • PC
    Joining Hands 2 Review

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    Joining Hands 2 is a cute little logic-based puzzle game that will keep small hands busy with Peablins and their many cousins, who are only happy when they're holding hands. Adult hands, however, might find it a little too simplistic and two-dimensional to stay interesting for very long.
  • Shelter Review
    Reviews
    • iOS
    • PC
    Shelter Review

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    I don't know a lot about badgers. I remember there was one in Wind in the Willows, and he was sort of wise and a bit grumpy, but otherwise I've had zero education on where badgers live, what they eat, and how they live their lives. I'd use Shelter as a learning aid, given that you play through the life of a badger - but the team behind it told me recently that they have no clue about badgers, and they just sort of made up the experience as they went along.