Short "peaceful, relaxing" indie 2D platformer with visuals that nicely combine hand-drawn 2D backgrounds with cel-shaded 3D models. Unfortunately, the level design isn't particularly interesting, and the platforming and general control feel awfully clunky, which becomes a bigger and bigger problem as timing-based elements take greater precedence further in; this isn't exactly Celeste, to be sure, but it's frustrating in ways I can't imagine the developers intended, and is more than enough to keep me from finishing this one. try it on deep discount, maybe

I would not have thought to ask the question "what if A Short Hike were about a child running around pretending to be Link in Breath of the Wild?", but I'm sure glad the developers of Lil Gator Game did. An unbelievably charming small-scale open-world exploration game with BOTW-inspired traversal mechanics (climbing on any surface with an upgradeable stamina meter, a glider, a shield you can surf downhill on), writing that's genuinely endearing in its depiction of childhood and growing up without coming across as overly affected, and an open world that's just the right size and density for it to be fun to explore without much in the way of navigational aids. The only reason I didn't give this a perfect rating is that I occasionally wished for more mechanically involving quest design (they usually don't involve much more than talking to one character or easily collecting/smashing a nearby item) or more bespoke platforming or puzzle challenges to make full use of the traversal toolset, but those are ultimately fairly minor complaints given how delightfully compact an experience the rest of the game is.

While Voyage might initially look like a cinematic platformer or a side-scrolling take on Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, it's really much more of a side-scrolling walking simulator, with minimal gameplay aside from some very simple puzzles. Very clearly a game where showing off the 2D art took precedence over everything else (there are a lot of sequences where there's nothing to do but walk very slowly past some gorgeous backdrops, and figuring out which objects you can interact with is quite a challenge without frequently using the "highlight interactables" button the devs thankfully had the sense to provide), but hey, it's quite short and pretty enough to be worth a couple hours if you're in the right frame of mind for that, provided you get it on sale.

the N64-inspired visuals have their charm, the basic movement and platforming feels solid, and any attempt to do a 3D third-person Metroidvania (still not a very common genre) has my attention, but once you progress past the tutorial areas and start getting into the open areas, it just gets more and more tedious to find your way around. Yes, an automap was recently patched in, but it's an incredibly bare-bones one that only shows what room you're currently in and which rooms you've visited previously, not your orientation/position within the room or any significant items/obstacles. I'm sure that memorizing room layouts or having to draw your own map appeals to some people, but it's definitely not for me; there's a reason that having a reasonably detailed automap has become a standard feature in this subgenre. Might come back to this if a better map system ever gets patched in, but otherwise, it's simply not my cup of tea.

this one seems to have garnered a fair bit of praise from indie horror fans upon its release in 2019, but after spending a few hours playing it, I'm honestly not sure why. Sure, a sci-fi take on Norse mythology is novel territory for a horror game (though not for gaming in general, though surely nobody likes to be reminded of Too Human), but otherwise, it's just dull all around: from the level design, to the exposition dumps, to the enemy design, to the unenjoyable stealth mechanics, to the "shoot green energy" mechanic for environmental interaction. Save points can be fairly far apart too, which is frustrating when enemies kill you quickly (even on easy difficulty) or you accidentally stumble into into a bottomless pit. Recommend playing these devs' previous horror game, Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn, instead.

Solid third-person walking simulator/exploration game with nice visuals (character models aside) about piecing together various flying vehicles. Some rough edges (unskippable walkie-talkie conversations that keep you from jumping or interacting with the environment for their duration, and the controls for grabbing objects and platforming generally aren't as tight as they should be), and the more open-ended third area probably could have used more signposting, but still a decent short play overall.

also recommend playing with Brazilian Portuguese voice acting instead of English, because the latter is... not great

Not nearly as polished as its obvious inspirations of Doom 2016/Eternal - it suffers heavily from stutter on PC, many of the gated combat encounters go on for way too long, I encountered some bugs with certain attacks not working properly, and it doesn't feel like combat makes full use of the traversal moveset (the fact that the grappling hook only works on the weakest enemy types is a major missed opportunity) - but the combat and gimmicky platforming setpieces are still pretty damn fun regardless.