Recent reviews by Mz Cookies

Lern Island Letters is a short 20-30 minute game where you are a temporary postman, sorting the mail. Being such a short game, my review will also be much shorter than usual.

Snoop through the town inhabitants mail and learn a bit about them. What goodies are they buying, who is sending who love letters and learn all of their private business to help you be the best postman to exist!

Being such a shortlived game, you can't delve too deep into the lives of the letter recipients, but it's just enough to be fun. There's also a few different endings to enjoy if you wish to replay.

The main gameplay is trying to deduce who the letter belongs to before sorting it into the right cabinet. Often you have to remember who is usually getting sent things from a specific sender, remember their different names and so forth.

Overall, I thought this was a cute little game. I always like games centred around post/mail so this was right up my alley. For only $AU4.50 I've got no complaints!

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

Review copy kindly provided by IndieGems

Neon Blood, a cyberpunk adventure with absolutely gorgeous animated retro art, highlighted by beautiful lighting and detailed environments…. But I can’t recommend it. I really loved the aesthetics, the vibrant world... but other elements left me loathing the thought of even loading up the game and the more it went on, the worse it got. Sadly, pretty looks just aren’t everything.


Pros

• Stunning animated retro-pixel art set in a cyberpunk universe

Cons

• Extremely boring, repetitive gameplay
  
• Braindead combat

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

Set in 2053, the streets are filled with people addicted to Spark, corruption is rife, and it is up to our protagonist, Axel McCoin, a police detective to overthrow the evil corporations and being peace to the Cyberpunk city.

The story starts off interesting with some mystery but quickly diverts into a very monotone one-way adventure. The writing just feels…off? It’s difficult to explain but the pacing feels unusual and even though there are some deaths on screen (or a corpses at least), the feeling of the game feels very junior? Add this to the gameplay and overall I was beginning to feel quite sleepy.


Warning: Negative influx incoming.
I love stories. I love cyberpunk/futuristic themes. I love the art.. but I do not love this game’s gameplay. At roughly 3 hour runtime, I don’t think I have ever felt so bored in such a short game. Let me tell you why.

Repetitive gameplay & exploration

Entire settings of towns are reused constantly so you have to back track through them. Gametime is dragged out by the most obnoxious and tedious quests such as search all over the map to look in all dumpsters, now… do this again! Repeat. Talk to X. He says I should talk to Y. He says I should go inspect something right beside him. Walk one step, do that. Character dialogue says I should now go back and report my findings to X. SORRY WHAT? Combine this with the dialogue only taking a few seconds and it not really telling anything of substance and this formula starts becoming very cumbersome.

Ok, a bit of pointless runaround quests is pretty normal, that’s ok, I can forgive that. But no, that is the entire game. Barely anything during exploration can be interacted with besides some notes (and cats which I did like). Meaning that you are really just fulfilling the main “quests” and going from A to B and back again. There really doesn’t seem to be any depth to any of your characters actions. Nothing to engage players in the absolutely gorgeous world around them. What a damn shame.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3418612171

There is a sewer section which I suppose is like a puzzle, but it is infuriating. Not because the puzzle is hard, but because running all over the place to slowly open a dialogue to flip a switch and then run all the way back x 10 is just not my idea of fun. To make matters worse, they reuse the exact same area, the exact same puzzle TWICE. I was around 20 minutes from the games finale, and I just had to call it quits, I couldn’t do it anymore. My gametime is also much higher than it should be because I just wasn’t having fun but was determined to finish the game, so I kept leaving to do some other task to distract me.

Combat

Now, the combat. Well, it’s turn-based and you have items and skills to deploy. You can attack, defend etc. Except, none of this really matters because you can do whatever you want and you likely won’t die. You have unlimited heals that can heal 50% of your health. Your skills can also be used to unlimited amounts and do not have any cooldown. Items have a cooldown but you’re so OP that it doesn’t matter. If in doubt, just heal practically all of your HP back in 1 turn.

QTE's

The last gameplay feature, QTE’s. I don’t mind QTE’s actually, contrary to popular opinion. However, the QTE’s here usually happen at the end of boss fights and cue some really cool fighting animations that I want to enjoy in a cutscene (without stress), yet I have to pay full attention to make sure to hit the right button and not watch what’s actually happening. Also, sometimes the background is far too bright that I couldn’t even read the prompt, which was a problem.

This barrage of criticisms actually saddens me. The game has so much going for it but the gameplay itself just killed any smidge of fun to be had.


Neon Blood’s saving feature is definitely its gorgeous visuals. The vibrant city. The animated cutscenes, although they are too short to properly enjoy. The game is beautiful. But beauty really isn’t everything and this experience was a testament to that. At least for me.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3418061524

There is no voice acting but the soundtrack was perfect at bringing the universe to life and giving that vibrant cyberpunk feel.

This game was played using a mouse & keyboard, and with the following PC specs.:
AMD Ryzen R5 7600x 5.4 GHz
32GB DDR5 5200 CL36 RAM
Radeon RX 6800 XT
2560x1440 resolution
NVMe 3.0 SSD
Windows 10

Neon Blood is a short game that lacks in almost every element besides its visuals and soundtrack. It’s an odd game to talk about as I think of it as “well-made”, I didn’t experience any glitches and the project is quite ambitious, but I just did not find it fun. The art is extremely detailed and there’s lots of different elements to it, but if the gameplay is just repetitive and overly simple, it can really bring down the entire experience, which it did for me.

Follow our curator page, IndieGems if you enjoyed this review and wish to see more like it

Things Too Ugly is a little mystery puzzle game reminiscent of Stories Untold with its psychological horror retro themes. It’s only a few hours long with straight-forward, but fun puzzles. Although there’s not much of a story or many characters to follow, I enjoyed my playthrough, even if I don’t quite understand the title!


Pros

• Eerie psychological horror vibe, very similar to Stories Untold.
  
• Fun puzzles that are logical but are fun to solve with many steps
  
• Self-explanatory gameplay with no real introduction or tutorial needed

Cons

• No saves
  
• Handwriting is hard to read

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

You take on the role of a worker at Terebro Inc, 1986. You’re a risk assessment data processor who is responsible for delving into the archives of history, deducing encrypted messages and finding hidden files. What fun!

With only the aid of your Supervisor, you must answer questions set out on the computer. All answers can be located within the files provided, and some nifty tools and gadgets on your desk. Read between the lines of the documents to piece together a narrative that is meant to stay covered.

Things Too Ugly plays very similarly to Stories Untold. Sifting through cryptic documents, radio stations, decoding puzzles all to come up with the answers the assignment is seeking. Some answers take a few steps such as using the GPS system or radio. I didn’t find the puzzles too difficult nor too easy and I really enjoyed the flow this provided. Sometimes I’d get a bit stuck but as there’s not too many options to pick from, I was always able to deduce the next step without getting frustrated or bored.

Only the Supervisor speaks to you intermittently through the intercom and I wish there were some other characters involved that could help tell the story. Of course, the developer is on a budget but it would have been nice to have the story fleshed out a little bit more, either with more characters or flashbacks etc.

One small element that I did not like is that there’s some handwritten notes that you need to read to solve puzzles but I could not comprehend the messy, cursive handwriting and there was no option to “read” or convert it into typed text. This had me stumped a few times as cursive messy handwriting is not what I am used to. I’d like to see an option to “read” these notes, rather than just zooming in. Another con (at least for me) that there is no option to save. In fairness, the game does warn you at the beginning that it’s designed to be played in one sitting, but I didn’t realise it wouldn’t save at all! The game takes about 2 hours I’d say but unfortunately I had to stop just before the ending and was forced to keep the game running to avoid losing all progress.

***Editing as per Dev request/ to remove potential spoilers** There is a flashing light segment which may impact photosensitive players

There’s next to no sound, except for the dull static over the radio, or if you choose to play some radio stations for background music. The Supervisor is voiced but dialogue is very minimal, keeping up the isolation and eerie atmosphere


Playtime: 2 hours but note my playtime is higher as there is no save option and I had to stop partway through.

Replayability value: For some achievements as without saves, full replays are needed.


Things Too Ugly is a short puzzler with a psychological horror theme. I really enjoyed the puzzles in the game as they are logical but still challenging enough that they are fun to solve. I feel that there was much more to explore but with such a short game (likely due to various budget/time constraints) a lot was left uncovered. Still, I enjoyed my time and would recommend it to those looking for a smart puzzle game with a creepy backstory!

Follow our curator page, IndieGems if you enjoyed this review and wish to see more like it

Tiny Echo is a wordless point & click game set in an ethereal realm. Your job is simple – deliver messages to the spirits. The art is absolutely gorgeous and I can see an ode to the Shelter series, which was also a project of the Might and Delight developers. However… the pace is just too slow. The only story is what you make of it as there is no dialogue or reading to give you any hints. This was not the game for me, but if you like very slow-paced, easy and ambiguous narratives with a gorgeous setting, you may think differently.


Pros

• Gorgeous backgrounds & art

Cons

• Extremely slow pace with walking, animations etc
  
• Ambiguous story where everything is obtuse
  
• Clunky controls, difficult to see where to go and control the camera
  
• Price is quite high for a roughly 1-2 hour game ($AU21.95)

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

The narrative in Tiny Echo is wordless and is very much up to each player to deduce. Personally, I do not prefer these titles so I may have a slight bias already, however there are many in the past that I’ve still been able to enjoy. Yet, Tiny Echo was not one of them and really just drops you into the game and you have no idea what’s going on, where you are, what you are, what are the letters for that you need to deliver etc etc.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3413999930

The ambience is peaceful and calming but I was just confused, looking, hoping for some form of context that just never came. As stated in the introduction, if you like these types of “unknown” games, where you get to craft the story and do not mind a story without explicit context, this may not be an issue for you.


You explore a small, maze-like area to deliver letters to spirits (I think they’re spirits). A few puzzles here and there but they’re mostly solved by just clicking on everything.

You cannot fast-walk anywhere by double clicking and the walking speed felt extremely slow. Animations overstay their welcome and linger for much longer than seemingly needed. My cursor would often disappear when I would hover it over anything but the designated path. I do not believe there is a button that highlights hotspots so I resulted in just clicking on everything. Holding right click to move the camera was met with annoyance, as often the camera would keep panning back to where my character was, or I couldn’t pan further away. Moving the camera around was also the only way that exits were highlighted and it was a bit tricky to locate these without the arrows, only adding to my frustrations.

The background art is absolutely stunning, just like the Shelter series and was by far, the most enjoyable element of the game for me.

Audio is minimal, with a few ambient sounds and little chirps from the characters.

This game was played using a mouse only, and with the following PC specs.:
AMD Ryzen R5 7600x 5.4 GHz
32GB DDR5 5200 CL36 RAM
Radeon RX 6800 XT
2560x1440 resolution
NVMe 3.0 SSD
Windows 10

Tiny Echo’s world appears lovingly crafted with impeccable artistic skill, however the narrative and gameplay itself was far too boring and slow to be enjoyable for me. The environmental storytelling was also not as fleshed out as I would have liked, with most concepts still keeping players in the dark. However, with the game being at such a slow pace and on the more expensive side for what it offers, I cannot recommend this game.

Follow our curator page, IndieGems if you enjoyed this review and wish to see more like it

A Winter Haunting is a short point & click game with some tricky puzzles and an interesting artstyle. Whilst the blank faces and narrative didn’t resonate that well with me, the attention to detail in this game is clear, and it's sure to leave you scratching your head at least once!


Pros

• Challenging & diverse escape-room style puzzles
  
• A few choices that impact the ending of the game
  
• Simple interface

Cons

• Story is much more wholesome than it is “haunting”
  
• Blank faces is an artistic choice, but not one that resonated with me

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

You play as Everlyn, a young woman who is struggling to find a job, but with the help of her grandmother, she’s placed as a temporary caretaker in a seemingly abandoned (and dusty) mansion.

Everlyn begins to find odd things around the place and is lead to some sort of spirit who seems to want to communicate with her. But who are they? What do they want? And why is it only appearing for her?

Without reaching spoiler territory, I was expecting something a bit more spooky, but being on the lighter side of the scale. However, this has a much more wholesome, kid-friendly atmosphere (but with kid-unfriendly puzzles).

There are only a handful of explorable areas which you can click to go to (there’s no map/fast travel). Most of the game is divided into escape-style rooms where you have a room you need to solve a bunch of puzzles in before moving to the next. The game is also very well polished and I never encountered any bugs or issues while playing.

Solve inventory based puzzles, maths equations (yes, that’s right), riddles etc etc. The puzzles really are quite well done and I did have to refer to a walkthrough sometimes. Sometimes you could ask a character for a hint but I found these very vague and not useful at all, usually only telling me something I already know, but I just don’t know how actually to perform the action.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3407846804&tscn=1736928358

The choices in the game are nice, although there is only a few of them but they do impact the ending which is good for replayability.

Navigation is a bit odd, you click to walk which is fine, but if you double click, you don’t run. You teleport? This was so immersion breaking and just plain strange to me. It was also quite jarring to pop out all the time.

I liked the colours and backgrounds, although I must admit I am not a fan of the character art. The block legs and blank face (no eyes, mouth etc) was not great for storytelling. I know it’s an artistic choice and also actually relates to the story in a way I suppose, but to me it makes the game feel quite cheap. This is a personal preference for me and I am sure many others disagree, but it’s something that stood out, just not in a good way.

There's no voice acting (except for one puzzle) and the audio is very much just ambient noise in the background, page turn sounds, wind whooshing etc.

This game was played using a mouse and keyboard, and with the following PC specs.:
AMD Ryzen R5 7600x 5.4 GHz
32GB DDR5 5200 CL36 RAM
Radeon RX 6800 XT
2560x1440 resolution
NVMe 3.0 SSD
Windows 10

A Winter Haunting is a short point & click puzzler that is more on the challenging side, despite its cutesy appearance. It’s not scary nor spooky, but instead gravitates to a more feel-good theme. I recommend this for those looking for a light story to go with their puzzle solving, and to wait for a sale.

Follow our curator page, IndieGems if you enjoyed this review and wish to see more like it

Puppet House is a horror game with ample puzzles, albeit simple ones. It’s nothing amazing, nor did I find it awful, just… mediocre. I get nervous each time I play an Indie horror on Steam as there’s many unfinished, asset flips titles, and so Puppet House was a pleasant surprise in this regard.


Pros

• Straightforward game with simple puzzles (could be a con if you’re looking for something more complicated)
  
• Few areas to explore with notes to find

Cons

• The protagonists voice & voice acting…
  
• Predictable story

You play as a Detective named Rick who also has a hobby of investigating the paranormal. He heads to a ventriloquists house after learning abut many people in the area mysteriously disappearing. Shortly after, a demonic puppet begins to hunt Rick, carefully watching his every move, readying to strike.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3405879774

Unfortunately the entire plot is extremely predictable from my above paragraph with absolutely zero creativity to try and spice things up.

Thankfully, there are no long chase sequences or overly cheap jumpscares and the gameplay is mainly exploring and solving some fairly simple puzzles. Although there are a few jumpscares and even QTE’s, they’re done sparingly, which I appreciated.

There are ample puzzles but almost all of which can be practically immediately solved. Need a code to enter a room? Turn the corner to photograph a paper with the code handily written on it. Once you do a few of these “puzzles”, you quickly learn how the game operates and if you’re missing something, just look around that area and you’ll find it, as there’s not really a need for backtracking.
Personally, I didn’t mind the easy puzzles but its best to keep this in mind prior to playing so you know what you’re getting into.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3405879720

As you’re going about your merry business around the decrepit house and surrounds, the evil puppet jumps out at you, makes things fall and sometimes even attacks you. I wouldn’t say that this game is “scary” but it is obvious the Developers tried to create high tension in these moments but the actual puppet itself was…. Kinda funny. At least to me, his small stature scurrying around the place and his innocent look didn’t really evoke fear in me. Even when he was holding a little knife it was just kind of, funny? Comparing him to Chucky, Chucky was evil in every facet, especially with his taunts and evil grin. Our demonic puppet here just… didn’t really have any of that.

Nevertheless, I wanted to see what else this puppet had in store for me and I was compelled to continue in my journey of puzzle solving and exploration.


Default FPS was set to 30 for some reason… thankfully there’s an option to change it. The game is also very dark and I could barely see inside the house. I had to turn my ingame brightness to nearly max to make out some vague figures. Otherwise, the visuals are decent and do a good job at conveying the eerie surroundings.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3405879854

Audio… on the other hand. Well, the protagonist Rick’s VA was awful. He is like the stereotype of video game /old movie detectives. The husky, cancer-filled lungs of some old white guy who is trying to do his job but is secretly tormented by his own demons, usually an alcoholic. I am sure you know the type. His lines are delivered poorly and his tone, non-existent. I would have much preferred a mute protagonist.

This game was played using mouse & keyboard, and with the following PC specs.:
AMD Ryzen R5 7600x 5.4 GHz
32GB DDR5 5200 CL36 RAM
Radeon RX 6800 XT
2560x1440 resolution
NVMe 3.0 SSD
Windows 10

Playtime: Almost two hours, only missing two achievements and reading/collecting all notes
Replayability value: None. There is no chapter select either.


Puppet House is almost exactly what I expected from it. A horror game filled with puzzles that is neither memorable in a good or bad way. At no point in the game was I wanting to quit, yet after I finished, I had already forgot what happened at the start of the game (when it only took me 108 minutes to finish). If you’re looking for some easy puzzles with a wicked little demon-puppet, I recommend this on a heavy sale, but also know that you’re not missing out on too much if you choose to give this a miss.

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

Review copy kindly provided by IndieGems

Banishers: Ghost of New Eden is an emotional, semi open-world game with a heavy focus on story-telling. Adding to developer studio DON’T NOD’s already impressive catalogue, it is no surprise that Banishers has a focus on its narrative, with their other games being Life is Strange, Jusant, Twin Mirror, and many, many more. I have played all of their titles and Banishers is by far, their most ambitious and lengthy title yet. Many of this game’s aspects are impressive, but others are just mediocre. Combine this with a lengthy 40 hour runtime (or more) and the cracks in Banishers framework begin to become a little more apparent.


Pros

• Immense world-building lore with both environmental storytelling and notes galore
  
• Exceptional voice-acting for every line of dialogue
  
• Abundance of side quests & activities to do (note that this can also be a con)
  
• Well-developed and realistic characters
  
• Diverse skilltree

Cons

• Traversal system becomes slow and clunky
  
• Non-skippable combat segments when just trying to go from A to B (you cannot run past them)
  
• Bad pacing towards the latter half of the game

Firstly to make it clear, this game is really a love story. If you do not care for love stories, this may not have the same emotional impact as intended.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3393172024

It’s 1695 and Banishers Red mac Raith and Antea Duarte set sail to New Eden to unveil a curse that is plaguing the settlers. Just another day in the job for the two, except this time, it proves more powerful than they’ve ever seen. The pair of Banishers are also lovers, from different walks of life. Their differences and their connection felt raw, believable and imperfect. I absolutely loved hearing their little bits of dialogue on everything. The jabs they give each other. Especially when the game tells you what the ending will be right from the very start of the game (dependent on your choice). Can you live with your oath to your partner? Can you go through with it, knowing what it will entail?

A Banishers role is essentially a spirit hunter, to assist the living by performing rituals to ascend or banish the dead, or to blame the living (if they choose). You, as the player, get to choose from these options. This creates for a very interesting experience and why the side quests (hauntings) were so important. Test your morality with unique situations that I cannot describe due to fear of spoilers. But these hauntings, alongside the main story, is where the game shines the most.

Now to the somewhat mediocre sections.

The first 30 hours of the game, I was enamoured. I absolutely loved every scrap the game gave me and I was determined to 100% my way to the end, to collect all bits and bobs, do everything the game threw at me. Yet, after slowly slugging away at the main story, more and more side options will start opening up. Ok, no problem, I’ll do those too. But… the pacing of the game proves difficult. You are running all over the large open map, with sparse fast travel points and to make matters worse, you will be slowed down by random combat encounters that you cannot skip. I was extremely overpowered by this point and did not need to fight, it just felt like a waste of time. Combine this with unintuitive gameplay sections like the ivy, where you must track down specific hotspots within a short time frame to unveil an area. It all started to feel cumbersome. The gameplay formula began to feel lacklustre and I was itching to get to the next area, despite the stories themselves feeling so rewarding, the journey thouugh, was not.

If you just stick to the main story, you will miss out on most of the content of the game. The haunting quests were by far the highlight, and are also the only way to level up Antea’s abilities. Even parts of the main story felt like a slog, particularly the “Love Finds a Way” quest that just seems to exist to drag out the ending.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3395626183

Combat I found similar to God of War with very simple light and heavy attacks, but you can switch to the other character to perform spiritual attacks and do different types of damage. I see many comments on this aspect being the most cumbersome, and yes, things are a bit finicky in terms of selecting targets, but I actually liked the overall simplicity. What I didn’t like, was that many combat sections were forced, due to random encounters and were completely unavoidable when travelling.

Overall, the gameplay loop is good. At least for the first 30 or so hours. Then it becomes a bit of a drag, held down by pacing issues. Want to inspect something? Then you must wait for the characters to finish talking about that item until you can inspect the next. Forced to be idle and just wait for them to finish before you click on the next item (or to leave). Repeat, for 40-60 hours. The dialogue itself is GOOD but with an overabundance of quests, it starts to take its toll. In other games, these dialogue sections can be paused, skipped or are saved for areas where the player is forced to wait like elevators or rowing between locations. Many times, when taking an elevator in Banishers, there is just complete silence, or the dialogue exchange ends too early, leaving you just standing there. These pacing issues are minor, but with a beefy game, they start to become glaringly obvious


Banishers is beautiful. The cloudy open fields, pristine waterways combined with the squalor of many of the settlers camps was done so well. I was surprised at the facial detail on characters faces, making their anguish known when tough decisions had to be made.

Voice acting was also spectacular. Reds light Scottish accent with some banter here and there helped lighten the tone, but his despair was also prominent in more emotional scenes. Not only Red, but the entire cast was fantastic, with every line of dialogue being fantastically voiced.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3398760579

This game was played using a controller, and with the following PC specs.:
AMD Ryzen R5 7600x 5.4 GHz
32GB DDR5 5200 CL36 RAM
Radeon RX 6800 XT
2560x1440 resolution
NVMe 3.0 SSD
Windows 10

Playtime: 40 hours – I had about 4 haunting quests left remaining when I finished.

Replayability value: Yes, to receive other endings or to mop up remaining quests, combat challenges etc. There is an overabundance to do.


Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a title I did not expect from DON’T NOD. Perhaps most similar in style to their game, Vampyr, but with a whole new take. What DON’T NOD are best at, is their story-telling. Banishers, is no different. Its thought-provoking, evocative and heart-wrenching stories were brilliantly done, and this is perhaps their best work yet, at least in my opinion. Yet, similar to the critiques of Vampyr, the gameplay loop is still not on the same level as the narrative. It’s good, it’s simple, but the pacing is off, things begin to feel like a drag and too many things are thrown at the player, seemingly just trying to expand game time. DON’T NOD are one of my favourite studios and I love that they are ambitious and are not afraid of trying something new. Despite my critiques, I am looking forward to their next project and hope these criticisms will be improved upon, for their narratives are always worth it.

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

Find All 5: Vikings is the latest in the FIND ALL series from Very Very LITTLE Studio. With multiple levels and rather challenging objects to find. This is one of my favourite Hidden Object series.

Pros

• Variety of objects to find
  
• Animations come to life after finding all objects
  
• Lengthy gameplay

Similar to the others in the series, you must find select objects from a list. After you find all of one type of object, you get to choose from 3 options for your next object to locate. There are three types of objects that you can be hunting for simultaneously, all with different quantities of that object to find. This can prove quite difficult as some of the objects are very small. However, with a good zoom (and use of the hint button if you need it), it’s all very manageable, but may last longer than the average HOG you’re used to.

After you locate all of the objects in a particular area, that scene will begin coming to life with colour and animations. I loved finishing the level and seeing the Viking theme spark to life.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3389326131

Playtime: 5 hours to 100% but note I did heavily use the hint option (after the first 100 without hint)

Very Very LITTLE Studio continues to develop this series, each with a different theme. If you’re a fan of the other games, this one will not disappoint!

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

Review copy kindly provided by IndieGems

Apples Busy Day is a short, cute and cozy game about helping others. Perform some basic fetch quests and sit back and enjoy some quirky humour whilst helping out your fellow fruit and vegetable folk.

Pros

• Cute, quirky & cozy
  
• Silly but wholesome humour & dialogue
  
• Easy 100% achievements

Cons

• Repetitive vocal sounds became off-putting

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

There’s not much of a story, but you, an unemployed apple … aptly named Apple, wake up and summon the courage to touch some grass (this is actually a quest title). Upon doing so, you start interacting with your fruit & vegetable neighbours to help them out with their problems.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3370475318

Find a special ticket for Radish, catch all the butterflies for Kiwi, locate some fries for Potato and get Tomato’s ball back! These quests are just a few of many, but essentially it works like most of these similar games. Finish a fetch quest with one character, to be given an item that finishes another quest for different character and so on. You are mostly running around the smallish item to collect things and speak to various characters. There's no difficulty or anywhere you'll get stuck. It's just a nice, calm way to spend a cozy afternoon.

Characters have silly, witty dialogue that is sure to put a smile on your face if you liked games such as A Short Hike, Smushi Come Home, Lil Gator Game etc then you will most likely like this one too, but just keep in mind that it is much shorter and less established.

Visuals are cutesy and very simple, whilst dialogue isn’t completely voiced, there are many sound effects like “ohh” “hmm” “ahh” “ooh” etc. They’re mostly voiced by the same character but if you’re a quick reader and speeding through the text, the symphony of these repeated sounds gets old very quickly.


Playtime: Around one hour

Replayability value: No, I received 100% achievements upon finishing the game after doing all quests

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3370475414

Apples Busy Day is a cutesy and simple game where you help your vegetable and fruit folk with some item collecting and fetch quests. It is only around an hour long, but well worth it for fans of Lil Gator Game, A Short Hike & Smushi Come Home.

Review copy kindly provided by IndieGems

The Night is Grey is a point & click game with a heavy psychological theme. Its story is dark and mixed in with self-depreciating and dark humour. The ending can leave a lot to be desired and much is left open to interpretation, but I enjoyed my time with the game and found it a very thought-provoking experience that was much deeper than I first anticipated it to be.


Pros

• Gorgeous, hand-painted, animated backgrounds
  
• Imperfect protagonist
  
• Cinematic, immersive thriller with many twists and turns
  

Cons

• Some puzzles are a bit too obtuse
  
• Crude ending that is left wide open to interpretation and can make the overall games message a bit murky

I tend to review wholesome, puzzle, horror and narrative-driven games. If that sounds up your alley, please feel free to check out my curator page Cookie Reviews.

Note: I will try and remain as spoiler free as possible, but I will go into light-spoiler territory further on as it is imperative to my view of the game. This will be appropriately spoiler tagged.

So, here we have Graham, a presumably middle aged man, lost in the woods, surrounded by vicious wolves. Eep! In his attempt at escape, he comes across a young girl named Hannah. She’s alone in a cabin, quite literally in the middle of nowhere. She says her mother has just gone to fix the generator and will be back in no time. Graham questions whether he should leave this little girl alone, in the middle of woods, without power and completely isolated? She is a bit annoying, she’s demanding…… she’s a child, yuck! Does Graham really want this responsibility? Not really, but nevertheless, off he goes, on his mission to escort her to the safety of her grandparents in the not-so-nearby village.

Majority of the game you will have Hannah as your companion as she watches you complete puzzles and scavenge the ground for useful goodies. Sometimes Graham is nice to her. Sometimes he shows that he cares and that he feels responsible for her as the only adult around. But sometimes, he hates her, he loses his temper and can’t stand her childish behaviour. Even so, he continues on his quest to deliver her safely to her extended family members. Of course, this plot would be a bit too barren to call it a “slow-burn thriller”, no, it’s quite a bit more than that, and the next paragraph will venture into slight spoiler territory (consider this your warning)

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363358526

Story: Slight spoilers ahead
OK, well, the thing is, Graham is in imperfect protagonist. He's practically homeless and is surrounded by a world of people who treat him cruelly, who berate him in every conversation, who don’t take him seriously. Not only this, but he grew up in an abusive household and still harbours those awful memories and feelings about himself (hence his self-depreciating humour). What has this got to do with Hannah? Well, this little escapade of getting her back to safety is merely a cover, for something much, much worse.

The games ending is crude and feels quite rushed. I had so many questions and felt things were purposefully left unanswered. I wasn’t a big fan of this, but from reading the developers comment on another review, it seemed the main message that they wanted to arouse within players, was to show kindness to others, and perhaps, things could have turned out differently. However, Graham was just not a very likeable character, nor did I feel bad for him. I didn’t really have any feelings for him besides curiosity on his story and wanting to find out what the heck is going on. The clues to the real context are so opaque and confusing that they’re easy to glaze over... until you’re met with THAT ending. I think this was an oversight in the delivery of the narrative. Perhaps if this was different, or more focused, the ending punch could have been much for impactful, even if it didn’t have a happy arc for Graham.


The Night is Grey is a modern point & click game with ample dialogue. Explore the scene, get Graham’s witty comments on things (and Hannah’s) and solve puzzles. Combine random bits and bobs, read journals and slowly uncover the story. One thing to note is that the pace of this game is slooow. Dialogue comes across a bit slowly, moving from area to area is not super snappy, you start the game and will have a lot of dialogue before you really get into it. I have no qualms with this, it didn’t feel painstaking, but if you’re used to the P&C’s were you fast travel around via a map and autoskip dialogue, this is certainly not that type of game.

I was a bit lost in some puzzles but most of the time I could work it out myself, without the use of any guides. I wouldn’t say the difficulty was overwhelmingly difficult, just not always the clearest at times. Puzzles ranged from deciphering codes to inventory based puzzles etc.

There is A LOT of dialogue in the game, most of which, was quite engaging. Combining Hannah’s childish antics and Graham losing the plot at it was pretty entertaining. Dialogue isn’t presented in the most engaging way through, with slow moving, un-voiced text above their heads, but after the first section, I did not mind this too much.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3363358347



The backgrounds are absolutely stunning, with the store page describing it as “over 50 digitally hand-painted” and “individually rearranged and animated” which resulted in animated panoramic, beautifully detailed backgrounds. Not only this, but character animations were also drawn frame by frame, helping to provide a real classic feel. The visuals were one of my favourite elements of the game.

Audio was a bit lacking in my opinion. Characters are not voiced, which generally doesn’t bother me too much in point & clicks, but I think being able to place a voice to a character would have made me feel a bit closer to them, as I never really felt anything for the protagonist, besides curiosity.

This game was played using a controller, and with the following PC specs.:
AMD Ryzen R5 7600x 5.4 GHz
32GB DDR5 5200 CL36 RAM
Radeon RX 6800 XT
2560x1440 resolution
NVMe 3.0 SSD
Windows 10

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3362676832

Playtime: I completed the game with 100% achievements in 6.5 hours in 1 playthrough. Note that the time frame will depend heavily on if you need a second playthrough to mop up the last achievements and also on your puzzle solving ability.

Replayability value: No. Note that there are also chapter-based achievements and no chapter-select option, so if you miss these, you may need to restart the game anew.


Whilst the Night is Grey is certainly not a perfect game, I enjoyed playing as an imperfect character. I can certainly see that the story will not be everyone’s cup of tea, and I myself am not a fan of the open-ended and crude finale, but I did enjoy the narrative build up, the exploration and the dialogue. The dark humour and psychological elements were interesting, but perhaps not displayed to their full potential. However, for the given price of $AU23.50, I do recommend it to narrative lovers, particularly those looking to unveil a dark story and don’t mind some dark humour along the way! Plus, the beautiful background art is certainly a big bonus!

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