Recent reviews by Not Now Mom, I'm Gaming Podcast

★★★☆☆

Well, I've already played The Whispered World, so why wouldn't I give Silence a go?

The soundtrack plays upon the area you’re in. It manipulates your emotions. It’s not the in-your-face kind, though the instrumentals can become rushed when danger’s afoot.

But the graceful sounds of the piano, the sad underlying tones of melodic strings, it all enhances the game you’re playing. It builds you up, and never once did it let me down.

I think the characters are all great. From the people, to the creatures, to…uh, a couple of rocks.

You get some of the same characters that you saw in The Whispered World, plus some new ones.

One thing I didn’t like about the characters in Silence is that they’re nowhere near as fleshed out as in its prequel. Sure, some of the same characters can appear, but they don’t appear for long, and they don’t have that big of a role to play. Even with the newer characters, it’s like Silence teases you with showing a concept of a character you enjoy, but never end up giving you everything.

Thus, you’re left wondering what happened to some of them.

Who knows? We (the gamers) don’t.

Silence is a beautiful world full of bizarre fantasy that begs to be admired.

The graphics are stylized amazingly well, and the background as well as all the objects around your character(s) make you want to interact with everything. Even though you can only move so far and only interact with so much.

It almost feels disappointing to be so confined…but definitely one of my top favorite artistically pleasing games to play.

It’s a point and click game, but unlike most I’ve played, you don’t get an inventory of items to use throughout the world. Instead, you need to interact with the environment itself, or use someone else to progress further.

There was one point where I couldn’t figure out how to get through an area. I looked it up, in case it was a glitch that others had suffered through, but not much was said about it. In the end, I stopped playing the game for a few months before coming back to the save file. Turns out, I forgot to interact with something, because I didn’t notice it before.

So yeah, the areas aren’t difficult. But sometimes the puzzles just don’t make since, or you may find yourself not noticing that one little detail.

Of course, hitting the spacebar once in a while may help…

It’s about a 6-hour game. It’s not bad, either, but it does have its flaws.

While I do suggest you play The Whispered World before you play this one, it’s not necessary to play one before the other. But you do get a sense of some of the characters from the first game.

Aside from that, you may just not understand the characters, or the meaning behind it all.

Game on,
TGEXP

★★★★☆

The style in which this game came across hooked me. Plus, it promised to be almost as funny as Deponia (if not on par).

Sit back, mon, and enjoy the soundtrack that sinks into your soul and becomes a blend of jazz, reggae, and ambiance. After, of course, the gangsta tone of the intro as two goons come barging into play looking for a book.

Gosh, the music has to be one of the best parts about this game; almost every bit gave me a sense of déjà vu of either a game I’ve played or a movie I’ve watched. However, toward the end of the first chapter, the soundtrack became very loud. Perhaps a glitch in the game’s development that they may have overlooked?

When I first saw this game, the characters reminded me of those in Last Day of June, though the renderings have more depth, of course. I can’t say that I know of any games where the characters have such a unique accent about them–Jamaican. Perhaps that’s one of the unique features that tugged my interest in the first place.

After playing a bit, everyone sort of have their quirks,

At first I thought, all right, these guys are dumb. Since, y’know, they do dumb things to make you, the player, laugh. Thinking on it, maybe it’s more naivety than anything else? They certainly weren’t as bad as Rufus in the Deponia series, but they were almost on par with humor.

The voice acting is well done for the major players you’ll be dealing with, but for those with a minuscule role and appearance, the voices weren’t stellar.

The hand-painted graphics are on par with setting the mood in various locations, combined with the right tone of the background music. I can’t say there was anything that wasn’t aesthetically pleasing to look at.

Except the fact that everyone’s eyes are a black, demonic-looking, soul-sucking emptiness.

It’s actually not that bad. Everything seemed on point.

I’m happy to announce that I only got stuck on a couple specific tasks, which means the gameplay is pretty simple, as long as you know where to look. The game hand-feeds you the answers, you just have to remember when they hand-fed you that info and possibly where.

Memory. My downfall.

It lacked a lot of problem-solving puzzles that I normally look forward to when playing a point-and-click game, but to each their own. Those that were there were simplistic and didn’t require much thought.

You’ll definitely want to root around every section you come across, and click on every item possible–either for the humorous commentary or a specific item. And then, combine those items with others, or use them in the weirdest of situations.

The Journey Down: Chapter One is a point-and-click adventure game that I highly recommend for its fun light-hearted humor and beauty.

However, the game lasts about three hours if you’re taking your time, and in the end plays out more like a prologue than a first chapter. I’d throw out caution at paying its full price, as it’s a bit much for such a short game lacking many puzzles and interactions.

Game on,
TGEXP

★★☆☆☆

I've never played this game in the past--nor had I heard of it--but I typically enjoy point-and-click adventures. Although, with this one...

The soundtrack is well done. Each area has its different music and vibe, depending on the location and the mood of things. In fact, whenever I tabbed out to do something else, the game’s music would continue in the background. Something nice to listen to.

However, there is a section where the music randomly quits. Every time it did I thought the game died on me, but that wasn’t the case.

The main characters I minded, but the rest of them weren’t so bad. So I’ll talk below about the ones that irked me to no end.

Gabriel:
Oh my lord, the innuendos that are thrown out in this game. They’ve made Gabriel out to be some sort of horny teenager, it seems, with all the lewd bits of conversation. He might not go into detail, but geez. Tone it down.

Another thing with Gabriel that I don’t like is his voice. The moment he spoke I internally groaned, because he just doesn’t look like he should have a voice that’s deep and drawls. The voice sounds older than him, maybe?

Obviously, scratch him off my to-be-liked list.

Narrator:
For some reason, they felt the need to add in another voice actor to do the narrative, which I found weird. Why not just use Gabriel’s internal monologue when you’re looking at items? Why does it have to be a disembodied voice of a person you don’t even know.

Granted, I’m writing this review pretty early in the gameplay, so maybe we learn who the voice belongs to? Because if not, I don’t see a reason for it.

Personally, I turned off the narrative speech.

Graphically speaking, they weren’t bad. Nothing amazing, but certainly not terrible. Nothing is truly hidden in a scene–nothing that you can’t really see that you’ll need to be able to see.

Even if you can’t find something, hitting the spacebar will illuminate all areas you can interact with.

The game throws you right into the midst of things where you have to find out clues about what’s going on with recent murders. I wasn’t a huge fan of that. No build-up or anything.

Then again, other games have done it and I’ve liked them, so maybe it’s something about Gabriel Knight – Sins of the Fathers that didn’t hook me. I was rather bored while playing it, and in no rush to complete it.

Perhaps there were just too many objects to click on and interact with that really didn’t do anything for the story, except to create a random piece of conversation that didn’t pertain to what was going on. Or maybe for world-building. Either way, it didn’t work.

Hidden objects games may have been a culprit in holding my hand when it came to “writing in my notebook.” You find something, it scribbles information down. While in this game, if you find something of interest, you’re going to actually need to use the notebook to jot the things down. (Sketchbook, notebook, same diff, right?)

If you can remember to do certain things when the days pass (I won’t tell you what these things are, of course), then Gabriel Knight – Sins of the Fathers isn’t a half bad game. It’s not something that I honestly have an interest in going back into and playing, but that doesn’t warrant it a kind of a brain-teasing, who-dunnit one-time play.

After finishing the game itself, I’d say the initial start was very slow with progress. But around the middle things picked up pace and that’s where I was drawn in a bit more.

Still, it was obnoxious trying to figure out how to do specific things to move the story forward.

Game on,
TGEXP

★★★☆☆

I'll be the first to admit I don't particularly have the patience for these types of games, as I can get pretty frustrated pretty easily. But, having said that, I've never actually tried one of them yet. I've watched people play Super Mario Maker and rage, though!

Anyway, it had an interesting look to it, so I gave it a chance.

There's not much audio to Ikao The Lost Souls, but it has a nice ambiance going for it. More than likely so it soothes your frayed nerves after your death becomes a repetitive washing machine cycle. Personally, I would've liked some more sound effects going on, just not an intrusive amount.

There are two different characters you play as. First, a blue, two-tailed fox, and then a spirit is later introduced as a character you play. Each one of them has different playstyles--different abilities, rather, to get through areas. They're somewhat introduced via short animated cutscenes.

The graphics are simplistic, maybe a bit dull at times, but that doesn't mean the scenery can't be pretty. From place-to-place it all sort of blends in from one level to the next. That's kind of OK, because you're not playing the game to look at how pretty things are. You're playing the game to dodge the different things that can kill your vulnerable self.

Even so, sometimes the bad things can blend in with the environment (I'm looking at you, thorny plants), and it can become annoying when death catches you off guard.

Have you ever played Super Mario Maker? Have you ever watched someone play Super Mario Maker? Ikao The Lost Souls doesn't have the same mechanics and certainly isn't as brutal, but it might make you just as tilted if you're unable to get through a level.

The levels are quite short, mind you, and there are 90+ you can test your skills to get through.

There's a reason I brought up Super Mario Maker. After every death I had in Ikao, all I could think of was there should be a big X counter to show all these locations you die at. I can't say if that would aggravate me more, or if it would spur me to get through the level no matter what.

On another note, the different abilities you have are rough to master at times. Such as the blue-tailed fox requires you to teleport and double jump, but sometimes after teleporting it doesn't understand the input you're pressing and you die. It's certainly not smooth gameplay through this regard, but the jumping--though something you can't height-control--is pretty smooth and stable.

It's a cheap game. If you like platform/adventure genre, piled on with the stress of death and getting through a level, then this is certainly right up your alley.

Also, at the start it mentioned keeping v-sync enabled on your graphics card. Well, I started Ikao with the v-sync disabled and it wouldn't play at all until I enabled it. So there's that oddity.

Game on,
TGEXP

TGEXP Reviews: The Quiet Man
★☆☆☆☆

It’s a game published by Square Enix. They’re basically known for pumping out some pretty dang near awesome games, that, although they may not fit your tastes, are probably still fun to play or go along with story-wise.

I’m so disappointed in this game.

It’s so very lackluster. I can’t believe Square Enix would even put this out on the market under their name. It makes me cringe.


Navigation was very simple, as there’s no actual open world to meander around in. You get small chunks of areas to look for things or fight your battles and that’s it.

It’s an FMV, so y’know, the actual video was pretty good. When it gets into the actual graphics of the game, where you’re controlling it, that’s where it becomes sloppy.

The character models aren’t that great. And, OK, sometimes they won’t be.

But if you’re going from actual people to a CG person, then it better be close on the mark. And with The Quiet Man, it doesn’t hit very close. When they tried to hammer that nail in, they hit their thumb instead.

While the character models don’t look that great, the fighting scenes have you or another character going through one another’s body at times. Like they aren’t solid.

Come on, now, Square. You can do better than this.

The FMV moments are good.

The game graphics, not so much.

There’s no instructions as far as gameplay. One moment you’re watching an FMV, the next moment you’re actually playing the game and beating up some people.

But without knowing actual controls, you kind of don’t know how to do anything and need to figure it out on your own.

This kind of situation works well if it’s a main character that either doesn’t remember anything, and thus we learn things with them, or if they’re thrust into a situation where, again, they have to learn things on their own. But with this game, they guy already knows how to fight, so how is it we don’t?

There is a way to learn. By pressing start and clicking certain buttons, it’ll show you what it does by…neon signs, I guess?

It’s weird.

For me.

When you’re looking for something specific in an area–such as an item or a door to go through, there will be some kind of signal that you’re getting closer to it. Eventually you’ll just hit the interact button and the game will progress.

The guy’s mute, but he knows what he’s looking for, so at least there’s that.

At the start of the game, it implies there will be subtitles at times.

You’ll get a chunk of subtitles in the beginning, but everything after that is quiet and a whole bunch of trying to lip-read.

I’m supposing the creators would like for you to experience the deaf world for yourself the first time around. But deaf people typically know how to lip-read, so they know what’s being said for the most part. We don’t.

I hear there’s an update coming up where they’ll patch in either voices or subtitles (like they should’ve) for clarity.

The Quiet Man could’ve been a very good game. It had the potential, but it barely made it off the ground with two broken wings. (An ironic analogy, considering our antagonist has a mask that looks like a dead bird skull)

The combat is clunky and just overall horrendous when it comes to figuring out how to dodge properly or the correct attacks to use on people.

A lot of the storyline comes down to a list of cliches. New York and its crime, Mexican gangs, druglord (?) black guy.

I dunno.

The story is there. It’s good. The getting through it is the crappy part.

Game on,
TGEXP

★★★☆☆

Upon first glance, Caligo looked like a darker themed walking simulator, which reminded me of the point-and-click game Tormentum. But even though it has some darker areas to the game, it doesn’t remain dark and edgy. It actually becomes bright and colorful in some areas, then abandoned in others, and then moving on into a frozen-in-time war zone.

But I won’t completely spoil the areas for those interested in playing the game.

Just know that the different areas you visit in Caligo are tied to memories that you’re recalling of your past lives. I like the idea of that. Continuing on after death, reminiscent of reincarnation, always a different life.

Aside from interactions you do with finishing one of the achievements, and one of two answers you can choose from at the end, there is no gameplay to this game. You simply walk to your destination.

Throughout playing this game you’ll be conversing with another character, a kind of master that helps create your worlds, whom also happens to serve as your alter ego. While I do enjoy that all the dialogue is narrated, I feel like the master’s voice is too…dopey, I guess? The voice doesn’t match the character’s looks. But the whole conversations you’ll be having are full of metaphors and symbolism and questions you ask one another.

Either you’ll get what the two are going on about or you won’t. Sometimes I wish characters in games were more straight-forward with one another, rather than beating around the bush. But it all does sort of make sense in the end.

As far as the soundtrack goes, it tends to match each location beautifully. There are a variety of walking simulators I’ve played where there are a lot of silent moments, and it makes for a boring experience. Caligo isn’t like that at all. The music is never in your face, but it can be prominent in some locations, while subtle in others.

The graphics can be hit or miss in this game. Not saying the environment ever looks horrible, because it’s all pretty great to look at, but some locations are more desolate and don’t have much to look at in terms of admiring the graphics around you. While some places really enhance your viewing pleasure, there are other locations that become barren, not much to see, no reason to wander.

There are two choices you can make in the end. That may be enough for you to try the game twice.

Or if you haven’t fully completed the achievement for the ink spots.

What I would’ve really liked is for them to add the different sections for you to choose from with the amount of inked paperwork you can find. Kind of like with Life is Strange. Otherwise, if you miss some for the achievement, you’ll have to look all over to find them. Some are sneaky.

I find this as one of the better walking simulators out there.

Bottle, a game that might just make you want one.

Our verdict: Unworthy
Find out why in our full game review[tgexp.com].

★★★★☆

Life is Strange is kind of a point-and-click game that you're able to move around in, snap pictures of different objects, and make decisions that can change the future. The changes aren't always too drastic, but they can be if you choose to make more than one fatal mistake as an option. It's definitely not always a happy game, but it is a game that'll stick with you, even after you've played it.

There's a variety of soundtracks that occur throughout the episodes of LiS. Sometimes they come from you placing a CD in a player, other times it's from you picking up a musical instrument, and then there's the moments where you sit down and reminisce on things. Of course, there's always the normal background music that tends to set the mood and atmosphere of what location you're in, but other times it's not too noticeable.

There's a variety of characters you'll be meeting and talking to throughout the game, and each one has a different personality and a different approach to you in the ways of speaking. I don't have any problems with most of the characters and their voices, but Max started to get on my nerves with her way of speaking. She's too dull. There's not enough emotion in her voice--not even during the intense scened with heartache and surprise and anger. Her voice is almost always the same-sounding. It reminds me of Katniss from Hunger Games. More monotone, except I feel like Katniss executed her anger and grief better.

I wasn't too sure when I first bought this game, because the graphics were certainly different than most other games. Not realism, not pixels, and not really textured. I at first thought of the graphics as more of a blobbed get-up, but they grew on me. I actually very much enjoy these graphics the game brought on. They're a style that I'll always recognize as LiS.

There are so many surprises in this game, there's always going to be one thing that throws you off that you didn't expect to see. That's what I enjoyed the most about this game. You might be thinking one thing, but it'll hand you something else. Also, there's no getting lost in this game. You're on a specific path to do something with every episode , and until you finish the objective, you can't get out of the section you're in.

You'll learn to love and hate them, just like they love and hate you. The characters basically stick to their own personalities, even if there are options you choose that may or may not make them like you or hate you more. That's what I like. They aren't mean one second and then suddenly gushing over you being their friend.

There's nothing bad about this game that I could find. Aside from Max's monotone voice. And I very much enjoy that at the end of every episode, you can see all the possible choices you could've made, and the percentages between you and your friends as well as you and the world.

Drizzlepath, a casual walking simulator that hopefully won’t make you walk away from walking simulators.

Our verdict: Unworthy
Find out why in our full game review[tgexp.com].