Some Games I've Played Recently
I've played quite a few games lately, most of them indies, so I thought I'd do a little writeup on them here.
An English Haunting
This is a point-and-click adventure game created by solo developer José Maria Meléndez, whose studio moniker is Postmodern Adventures. You play as Patrick Moore, a professor with a scientific approach to ghost hunting in spiritualism-obsessed 1907 London.
At the outset, I was struck by how beautiful it is. The pixelated environments are full of detail, from an overlay of fog on a city street to soft lighting in a theatre dressing room. The amount of work and care that went into creating the setting alone is impressive. There are a significant number of screens in the game, and all of them are lovely and interesting to look at.
I didn't have much difficulty with the puzzles, so I could argue that the game wasn't sufficiently challenging, but I had a great time with it regardless. I did get stumped a couple of times before finally realizing what I needed to do, but I was so wrapped up in the story that it didn't matter how easy or hard the puzzles were.
The ending pays off in a spooky Lovecraftian romp that's satisfying and a ton of fun. I also love how the developer's appreciation for horror permeates the game with its many references and its lovingly crafted atmosphere. I plan on playing his other game, Nightmare Frames, very soon.
Loretta
Another point-and-click adventure, this is a psychological horror story about a 1940s housewife who kills her husband and then slowly begins to unravel the truth about his life. It might be more apt to call it a visual novel, as it doesn't have many puzzles and the few it does have are fairly straightforward. It's a narrative game that twists its way to a deeply affecting ending. You can actually get multiple endings, but the one I got felt so right and had such a profound impact on me that I haven't yet tried for any of the others.
Loretta is a flawed but fascinating character who I completely fell in love with. The game gets into the nitty-gritty of its time period while presenting an intricate tale of grief, lost potential, and restlessness. It has an eerie feeling throughout, enhanced by its soundtrack and art style. I loved every second of it.
This Bed We Made
This is a more difficult one for me to talk about because I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. I loved the concept -- you play as a maid named Sophie at a hotel in 1958 Montreal. While snooping through a few of the guests' belongings as you clean their rooms, you discover an intriguing mystery, which can only be solved by... more snooping!
This game has a lovely LGBTQ+ story, and I'm always happy to see representation in games. However, some aspects of it fell a little flat. You really only interact with two characters throughout the majority of the game, making the hotel feel oddly empty. Most areas are blocked off, keeping you confined to a small section. The ending also leaves a lot to be desired, with cut-and-dried outcomes that feel rushed and unsatisfying after investing in the story.
All in all, it just feels like this game could have been much more fleshed out, but I did enjoy the setting and the story, so my feelings rest somewhere in the middle on this one.
Koudelka
This is the game I'm currently playing. I'm on disc 3 of 4, so I'm getting close to the end. It's a survival-horror JRPG from 1999 that plays a lot like the original Resident Evil games -- that is, if Resident Evil had turn-based battles. You explore a mansion in Victorian Wales with fixed camera angles, and you randomly encounter Final Fantasy-style battles.
I'm finding the combat itself a little boring, mainly because my characters feel overpowered and I one-shot almost everything, but I don't mind because I adore the battle music and the enemy designs. I love going into a new area and seeing what new kind of enemies I'm going to be faced with -- everything from sentient chairs to a Silent Hill-esque mannequin.
Koudelka was one of the first games to use motion capture, which is evident in its cutscenes. The characters' actions and interactions feel realistic and dynamic, in comparison with the more typical stilted cutscenes of the era. It's also fully voice-acted, and the actors all come from theater, making it a delight to listen to their dialogue. Playing Koudelka feels very much like experiencing a stage play, and I'm absolutely loving it.