I finished up God of War Ragnarök (Santa Monica Studio). I’m so impressed with this game and its narrative. Kratos and Atreus go on such an amazing journey both together and apart from each other, each of them growing and changing along the way. Kratos has softened and discovered a sense of community, while accepting leadership and responsibility for the friends and allies he’s made. Atreus has matured significantly, discovering the secrets of his destiny and learning to draw from both his Grecian and Giant heritage, which empowers him to choose his own future.
I started playing The Séance of Blake Manor (Spooky Doorway), a first person puzzle adventure and detective game. Declan Ward is hired to find Evelyn Deane, a woman who seems to have disappeared at Blake Manor. The Manor (a high-end hotel) is hosting a séance, attracting a dozen or so strange individuals who believe in the supernatural and strange. The player’s job is to explore the Manor, sneak into guest rooms, and interrogate guests and staff to find evidence of what happened to Evelyn — all of which is displayed on an elaborate mind map that allows the player to make connections to find the truth in the limited time before the seance takes place. Each investigative action costs the player a minute of time, building a sense of tension and the need to rush.
Transcribing a postcard in Dead Letter Dept. | screenshot by me
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.
Michelle is a stylish survivor in Sorry We’re Closed | screenshot by me
Sorry We’re Closed (á la mode games) is a survival horror game with immense amounts of style. The art (which is one of the first things that attracted me to it) is stunning, both the nostalgic computer graphics and the character portraits. The music hits the perfect vibes and the gameplay adds to the survival horror experience.
Michelle is a young woman working in a corner shot in a small neighborhood in London. Though on another continent, the community feels very much like some of the counter-culture neighborhoods I’ve seen in San Francisco, being full of charming punks, oddballs, and weirdos. Everyone seems a bit on edge, considering the number of disappearances in the area.
In Stray , developed by BlueTwelve Studio, the player gets to experience what it’s like to be an ginger tabby cat exploring the ruins of the human world. At the start, the cat is living with a group of fellow strays, who wander along giant pipes and culverts, likely looking for food — when one of the pipes suddenly gives way causing the kitty to fall into a deep crevasse, with their cat family helpless to do anything but watch him disappear into the dark.
Alone in an underground structure full of garbage, the kitty must find their way back outside (hopefully to return to their family). Fortunately, he’s not alone in this journey. Neon signs and lighted arrows guide the cat through dark tunnels, helping him to avoid danger, and ultimately leading him to a small, empty apartment with a secret room full of computers and technology. After solving a simple puzzle, the cat encounters a new friend in the form of a small, floating robot.
B-12, as this robot is named, would also like to reach the Outside, because that’s what it’s long-dead creator wanted. So, it straps a battery pack to the kitty’s back and together, they head off to escape to the world above.
