Dead Letter Dept., developed by Mike Monroe and Belief Engine, is a fantastic horror game with an interesting premise. After moving to the city, the player is taking part in a data entry job in an empty, dank warehouse in the middle of nowhere, filling in addresses that a mail-scanning system finds illegible. Each day, you wake, wander down the dreary corridors of your apartment hallway, hearing the muffled voices of your neighbors in their own apartments, and take the train to work.
The job — and gameplay — involves hand-typing in addresses and, in some cases, increasingly bizarre passages of text. Little narratives unfold in the strange letters and postcards sent through, each building a sense of dread. While typing, the electricity sometimes flickers and pops (multiple times causing me to jump) and also hear strange sounds of things shifting around the room.
Atmosphere is huge in this game. The art has a grainy worn quality, the lighting is appropriately moody and shifts to reflect the changing mental state of the character, and the sound design is top notch. The audio built a high level of tension, and in general I loved the experience and want to play the game again to get some different endings.
Considering how many games I’ve been playing lately have fallen on the creepy or terrifying side, I wanted a game that would be adventurous and chill, which led me to finally playing Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions). After surviving a battle against the Mongols, Jin Sakai, one of the few remaining samurai, sets out on a quest to to save his captive uncle and avenge his people on Tsushima Island.
The game is beautiful and wonderfully satisfying to play. It does a good job introducing the player to the use of the sword in combat, with different stances designed to handle different kinds of enemies. The world also has a ton of collectibles, from supplies that allow the player to level up their weapons and gear to fox dens, temples, artifacts, and hot springs that either provide benefits for the character (such as additional health, charm slots, resolve, etc.) or expand the story lore and world.
One of my favorite parts is climbing on the back of my loyal steed and riding through the forests or blooming hills. The use of wind to guide the player to the destination of their next quest is such a lovely touch, because it feels less intrusive than a marker, letting me explore as I’m riding and discover new locations or collectibles on my own.
I’m also really enjoying the story and the various side questions. The characters all having interesting backstories and their own relationships to honor and loyalty. The question of whether to bend how one approaches battle against and overwhelming force is such an interesting one to me, evolving naturally out of the way the player approaches combat. The choice of whether to behave like proper samurai, attacking enemies head on versus using stealth and quiet assassination to eliminate enemies has an interesting impact on the narrative, as Jin flashes back to memories of learning the ways of the samurai from his uncle.
For the most part, I’ve stuck with attacking my enemies head on and for the most part haven’t feel too overwhelmed (though, I am playing on easy mode). However, some sequences lend themselves to stealth, especially when a kidnap victim is involved, since the enemies will begin killing their captives if attacked openly.
So far, I’m having a great time with this game. I’m still fairly early on in the game, but I’m already wanting to be thorough and discover all the collectibles, if I can.
Browser Games
Bicross RPG(eli_li) ate up far too many of my hours this month. It’s a simple puzzle game, in which you have to find the proper placement of the plants based on the numbers at the top and right, indicating how many are in each column. The RPG element adds a nice twist, providing additional life or tools to help find the solution, while the puzzles getting larger and more difficult.
“Ten Things I Learned In The Red Room,” an interactive fiction game by Nessa Cannon. Inspired by Twin Peaks, this surreal horror broken into ten vignettes that build on a sense of unease and dreaminess in a strange red room.
“Jagged Bone” is another interactive horror fiction by Nessa Cannon. In this one, the player is at the home they inherited from their father, but the woods hold a deep and deadly secret. One of my favorite things about this game is how it shifts perspective, adding a nice layer of depth along with the tension.
“Intrusive Thoughts” is a fascinating dating sim created by Josep Valls, Peter Vaňo, softeal.png, and Sam. In the game, the player goes on a date with a beautiful woman and has a rather basic conversation. However, in order to select a line of dialog, you have to play an increasingly difficult mini-game to make the optimal choice. Failing the mini-game causes the date to go off the rails. It definitely added a stressful layer to the conversational structure.
“A Murder Most Fowl,” developed by Ouch Pouch, is a charming little interactive fiction about a crow attempting to hide evidence of misdeeds, while also having to host a party. It’s a sweet little tale with an amusing end.
If you’d also like to know about the books and media that I enjoyed recently, you can check out my Culture Consumption for February.