A fun game! The writing is terrific and the actors' performances really bring it to life! I share the sentiment that others are bringing up where some of the deductions are a bit of a stretch, but it's still very fun from start to finish!

I will say, it is worth mentioning that the game really is all about the salami case. There's more depth to it than that, but I was hoping that the game would lead to more cases, to see our brave/recently-divorced hero in more situations. The single case is very well developed, but I would have loved to have more cases of this quality to solve.

Would definitely pick up more Duck Detective games though!!

EDIT: I want to clarify my "not enough cases/locations" critique. The issue is not one of length (a ~1.5 hour playtime is very much appreciated right now!) but of depth in characterization. As it stands, we learn so many things about the protagonist (Divorced! Ex-cop! Breadoholic! Novelist??), but we never really explore any of it. The BearBus setting, characters, case feel to me like a very strong Act 1, but one lacking the rest of its story. I wish I could've delved more into the "why" of this character and maybe even a resolution of some sort of arc for him.

Absolutely floored. 1000xResist is one of my favorite games in years and quite possibly my Game of The Year for 2024!

Without question, it is the story that shines here. In terms of gameplay, it's a pretty straightforward walking sim with some light dialogue choice systems and a bit of Adventure game dna. That story though?

1000xResist is a scifi narrative game that explores themes of Pandemic, authoritarianism, and the Hong Kong protests. Its world, shaped by the last living human -- a teenage girl -- and her many clones is bleak and uncomfortable. There is a sense of artifice to everything, because their world has no opportunity for anything else. Everything is fake, everything is a lie, and you the Watcher, the one person in the world who gets to know the truth.

The magic of this story is in the execution; every layer and twisting thread is handled perfectly. Far better than I would have dared hope for, and boldly enough to nourish a need that I've had for years.

If you are someone who doesn't mind a walking sim, and if that story description above interests you at all, you MUST play this game.

I adored this game. Perfectly paced, terrific to explore, and a visual delight for anyone with an affection for PS1-era graphics.

I especially enjoyed the story in a way that I didn't expect. I never expected to be particularly SCARED by this game (one could even say it's more a "Halloween-like" experience than truly a HORROR experience), but the way the story unfolds and comes together in the end really left an impression on me! I hate to compare in reviews, but given the blatant inspiration, it does not seem appropriate: Crow Country left me as excited for a follow-up as Resident Evil or Silent Hill ever did as a kid!

To the critiques, I do think certain puzzles were a bit obtuse. A couple of times, I found myself looking up the puzzle not for the solution but for a description of what the puzzle actually was. That is to say, I didn't always know what my puzzling was supposed to accomplish. I also think that this game is convenient in a way that longtime survival horror fans might not appreciate. I really appreciated not needing to worry about inventory management, but I recognize that there was probably some tension lost there.

Despite these things though, I had a wonderful time! I even look forward to going for a second playthrough to get that S-rating!

This game is exactly what you'd expect: a lighthearted, low-stress, charming adventure around a town where you get up to cat-themed shenanigans.

Thankfully, it does all this well! I had a few blemishes throughout (a handful of conversations that went on too long to serve the joke being made, a couple of inconvenient invisible walls, stuff like that, etc), but overall the game was precisely what I'd hoped it would be!

Little Kitty, Big City lands for me around a 3/5 not because of flaws, but just simply as a matter of scope. Achieving the game that the developers were trying to make -- and to be the game that I wanted! -- just naturally lends to that score, for me.

If you're interested in this game on premise alone, you absolutely should play it! But if you're not, it might serve you as well.

I bought this because I expected it to be pretty on an OLED screen (it was), but I would have never guessed that it could quite possibly be my game of the year.

Animal Well is a fantastic, constant deluge of puzzles, all of which teach and reward an understanding of the game's unique visual language. There is a command of mood and art design that is rarely put on display as confidently as in Animal Well.

Most of all: if you are someone who appreciates a game that lets you solve its entirety, without ever handing you answers out of convenience, you MUST play this game.

This is a game of two halves. Tales of Kenzera hangs its hat on its narrative of grief, and it realizes this terrifically. The performances are great, and the themes of the story are well-developed all throughout the game. Each Act of the game presents and explores some different elements of what Zau is going through, and it all just feels so organic. This, combined with fantastic music and environmental design, really brings to life this game's central goal.

The rest of the game, however, is the gameplay itself, which I have less glowing things to say about. It epitomizes the concept of a death by a thousand cuts. No single issue with this game is itself a massive problem, but they're all just constant.

I wish this game relied less on insta-kill spikes, and I wish those spikes were better implemented. I wish the melee combat style was more agile, and I wish the ranged style was more effective and easier to aim; I wish didn't keep running into death spikes because I was trying to shoot a bird that was too high above my head to smack. I wish the movement wasn't so floaty. I wish I didn't get caught in weird wall geometry. I wish I didn't have to react at the last possible moment to succeed at platforming challenges. I wish the camera would show me where I'm jumping so that I'll know what's expected of me.

I wish most of all that I was not almost always dealing with one or more of these issues.

This game is a 3/5. I am thoroughly impressed with the narrative achievement of this game, but I have to warn anyone who reads this about how damn annoying this game can be.

To leave on a positive note: I DO look forward to this studio's next game! The issues I have are numerous, but they are small and fixable. I have full faith that this talented studio will be able to address such issues better in the future!

What a fantastic game! It's got a great, unique control scheme and some really inventive level design. There's a ton of content here, and it never really gets stale? Very impressive!

My only thing with it is a personal one. I probably won't beat this game because I kind of can't? I suffer from migraines, which means that I tend to be pretty sensitive to sound and "noisy" visuals, which are core to this game's visual style. They're done very well, too!! It's just a lot for me, to the extent that, after a normal play session, I usually need to cover my eyes and let them rest for a bit.

That was longer than my actual praise for the game lol but really! It's a great game! I just want to be clear for anyone with my sort of accessibility concerns.

A very special game for horror lovers and all those who love dark stories. You play as a kidnapper/serial killer who stalks his victims for a cruel and hungry god.

In terms of gameplay, this means that you're given prospective victims and a description of who your god wants. For example, you may be asked to find a victim who is unemployed. Then, using all sorts of unsavory tactics, you spy on the prospects to collect evidence on who matches the desired description, all while managing time limits and suspicion.

These systems work great on their own. They're compelling and satisfying puzzles to solve by their own right, but they also do a great job of making you complicit in what the main character is doing. The vibes here are awful, and to combine that with the "hell yeah!" feeling of solving a tricky puzzle lends to a very unique and compelling effect.

In between each puzzle, you're given cutscenes that show what the protagonist is going through during all of this. Once again, we have just terrible vibes and wonderful creative decisions coming together to make something truly brilliant. The protagonist's doubt and shame and pathetic loneliness are all on stark display in these scenes, and they illustrate a man who is practically begging to fail or be proven wrong.

The premise of this game is undoubtedly GROSS, but the game itself does not indulge in its own edginess. This is not a "Hatred" scenario. It is smart, careful, and thoughtful in a way that left me blown away.

EDIT: Oh! An important note! The game IS on the shorter side. I finished it after around 3 hours. I feel that this suits the game very well (and there is an "Endless Mode"), but I know that length is a consideration for many, so I thought I'd mention it.

I bought this game purely because I was confused by the high reviews and BOY do I get it now!!

Minishoot Adventures is basically a 2D Zelda game + Twin-stick combat + Metroidvania progression systems and it comes together perfectly. The combat is satisfying, the exploration is addicting, and the bosses are an event all on their own.

It also has a number of accessibility features, including some tied into how your character targets enemies, which was SUPER helpful for me the Steam Deck!

My only real critique is that enemies feel kind of bullet-sponge-y? To the extent that, in the postgame content, I ended up lowering the difficulty simply because constant aiming for so long was tiring for my wrist. However, that lowest difficulty setting felt really good to me, to the extent that I wish I had used it earlier!

God this game is good!!

I. Am. Obsessed. Children of the Sun is a terrific puzzler, just dripping in the most heinous of vibes. I had high hopes for this game's sniper mechanics, and I am glad to say those hopes were surpassed.

It starts out relatively simple: try to find the right out to shoot a handful of guys. I will say, it was during this phase that I wondered if this game really had meat on the bone, or if it was just a cool premise with evocative art.

After the first few missions though, the puzzles began to evolve at a thrilling rate. The number of missions I ended breathlessly triumphant over clever geometry and mechanics make me positively giddy.

There is also, like, WAY more content than I expected? I went into the game knowing that it was about 4 hours long, but those 4 hours are just so DENSE with fun. The missions don't take long, there are a ton of them, and not a single one feels perfunctory.

Basically: This game is TIGHT and pristinely polished. It's a game where you can feel the developers' fascination with their own premise, and the result is sublime.