Tag: Detective Game

Noob’s Top 10 Games Experienced in 2022

The year is almost over! Since I don’t make a habit of playing many brand new games on release I don’t often have a lot to add to the Game of the Year conversation. I do however track all of the games that I play within a given year. Since I missed so many titles throughout my life, I am very fortunate to experience many amazing games for the first time all year around. I want to celebrate that, so here are my Top 10 Games from this year!

Here is a chart of the release year of all the games I experienced this year!

10. AI: The Somnium Files (2019)

It was very difficult narrowing this list down. I have played so many good games this year that could make my top 10 for so many different reasons. After much back and forth, I have chosen AI: The Somnium Files as number 10. Despite not enjoying everything about it, I have to acknowledge that I loved the core mystery. Not only did the game deliver a murder mystery that kept me guessing with so many wild yet somehow plausible theories, it managed to bring it all together to a satisfying conclusion. When an ending falls flat it can often dampen my memory of the rest of the experience and that could very easily happen with a story so full of twists and turns. Thankfully, they nailed it!

If you would like to hear more about my mixed feelings on this crazy game, you can read my review here.

9. God of War (2018)

God of War felt like my first delve into the best that cinematic gaming has to offer. I felt like I was playing a blockbuster and because that is so rare to me, it was pretty damn awe-inspiring. I think the reason that this game doesn’t make it further up the list is becasue when something shines so much, the rough edges feel a little rougher. Slight issues with pacing, invisible walls and certain character arcs occasionally took me out of the experience and stopped this from being up there with my favourites. However, the fight choreography, the mythology and the characters themselves were so much fun, it was overall a fantastic experience.

8. Yes, Your Grace (2020)

I almost missed this one so I am so glad that I got to play it before it left Game Pass. The tough choices every day, the looming threat and the never knowing whether we would get through the next week created an extremely stressful and melancholic atmosphere in which I personally felt the weight of the kingdom on my shoulders. Yet somehow that is not all I remember. I remember the charm of every character being recognisable despite their pixel forms. I remember the nerves when someone returned to the palace, and the joy when they were saying thank you (and bringing me supplies). I remember the shenanigans of my daughters that elevated the game from a management sim to a life sim. It can be sad, it can be stressful, it can be buggy, but it is very worth playing.

7. Astrologaster (2019)

Having zero expectations helped as I discovered how much of a total delight Astrologaster really is. The music, the history, the choices, the relationships, the consequences – that is what the game is all about. It is all delivered with a sense of humour that couldn’t be nailed by just anyone. The passion and heart from the devs is palpable. If you are having a bad day, I couldn’t recommend this enough to get at least a few giggles. For how simple the game is moment to moment, the production value shines and makes this a stand out indie title.

6. Zero Time Dilemma (2016)

Finishing the Zero Escape series was the end of an era for me. I played the entire series for YouTube and each one was as wild as the next in their own way. It took me a while to adjust to the third and final game having such a new style, but once I got used to it I grew to love it. The janky animations added character as much as anything else, and the new flow of gameplay made a lot of sense in terms of the story. As I reflect, this game and Virtues Last Reward keep trading places for my favourite in the series, and that was very unexpected considering how much I enjoyed VLR.

If you would like to hear more of my feelings on this game, not only can you watch my series in the video above but I guested on the Left Behind Game Club podcast where we talked in a lot of depth. You can find more information about that here.

5. Elden Ring (2022)

One one hand, it almost feels wrong to put Elden Ring on this list as I am not even sure I am half way through yet. On the other hand, I HAD to put Elden Ring on this list. I have quietly enjoyed the souls games from a distance for a few years, but never thought I could actually play them. I wanted that sense of exploration but I don’t have the patience required for the combat. Then Elden Ring came along. It is like Dark Souls had a child with.. well.. me. Every change they made and feature they added feels tailored to my enjoyment and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game so far, knowing I have many more hours of joy, discovery, fear and fascination to go. This was my onlyday one gaming splurge this year and I am so glad that I did it.

4. Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)

I am not entirely sure why it took me so long to play Guardians of the Galaxy. I had access to it for a while but the timing never felt quite right. Now that I think back, it is like it was for a reason. In an extremely stressful time in my life, this game gave me a wonderful place of respite. It is another that felt designed for me on a few different levels. The character interactions and small details were fantastic and the levels were very fun to explore. I even enjoyed the combat which isn’t usual for me. The only hype I really heard about this game were the few who were championing it saying it is underrated, and I whole-heartedly agree. I always hope for more people to play it because I’m sure there will be many that have as much love for it as I do. It is funny, colourful, bold, emotional, and so worth your time.

3. Stray (2022)

Stray was everything I needed it to be and more. To this day I see people calling it ‘that cat game’ but that feels so reductive to me. In my review I went into detail about why I believe this game worked so well, so instead of rehashing that, I will leave a link here. What I do want to say is while this game will not be for everyone, I am so happy that there is a space for games like these to be made. Not everything has to be a blockbuster, but I do believe games need some sort of substance. This is a short game that is bursting with atmosphere, gorgeous visuals, small moments, world building, and feelings; perhaps even more impressive considering all of the characters are animals and robots.

2. Persona 5 (2016)

This game took over my life in a way that I didn’t expect. At a time when I was creating a schedule – forcing in some mandatory yet reluctant rest time – P5 became part of my evening routine. Having never played a story based JRPG before (unless Pokemon counts) I wasn’t even sure what to expect, let alone whether I would like it. But after playing the first couple of hours I was completely sold. It was a totally new experience and I was entirely on board. The further in I got, the more I loved the characters and the more excitement I got from new mechanics, new story beats or discovering new elements of the game. This game is a masterclass in style and I couldn’t get enough. I lulled in the middle which isn’t unusual for me during a long game, but overall, Persona 5 took a place in my heart. Maybe even stole it? A hugely enjoyable experience that I will remember for a long time.

1. Return of the Obra Dinn (2018)

The award for favourite game that I have played this year goes to – Return of the Obra Dinn! All I knew going into this game was that there might be murder mysteries and puzzles, and that I was slightly off-put by the art style. It is so interesting how thoughts like that can 180 so hard that it becomes one of your favourite game experiences to date. As soon as I felt the game in motion I knew I had it wrong. This game is art in every sense. Not only the visual aesthetic, but the music, the audio design, the pacing of every reveal, the setting, the characters, the story, the clues, the unravelling. It is crafted to perfection.

In puzzle books my favourite pages are the logic grid puzzles. I had no idea this game would basically be a huge, sprawling version of those. Except for a couple of tiny niggles, this game ‘hit’ on every level for me. My only regret is not being able to experience it for the first time again.

Looking back over my list and writing this post is pretty magical. These games are outstanding and were one of the saving graces of a tough personal year for me. And the best part? I know there are 1000s more where they came from, just waiting to give more fantastic, wild, emotional, challenging, thoughtful, hilarious, *insert all other adjectives here* experiences, and the library just grows and grows.

For anyone else like me – people who want to experience everything there is, Indie and AAA alike – we will never be able to play all of the games that we would like to before we die. There literally aren’t enough hours. On one hand, that could be a reason to be super selective. On the other, how many games have clicked with you on a level that you never expected or could not have predicted? For me, that number is pretty high. The conclusion – be adventurous. Go with your gut. Listen to others, but not too closely. Curious about something? Give it a go! Not really feeling anything? Try absolutely anything! Games are more accessible than they have ever been, what better way to celebrate that then.. well.. playing games.

If you would like to see more of what I played this year, I have a Twitter thread with initial thoughts of every game I played here. I also have a more concise visual list on GGApp that you can view here.

Happy gaming and all the best for 2023!

top 10 games experienced in Other years

More end of year content

Sign up now to stay up to date with the latest posts!

A Noob’s Review – AI: The Somnium Files

I went into this expecting a visual novel akin to the Zero Escape series, a series that I have covered to completion on my channel. What I found was that the similarities are few and far between, and I think that if this is a visual novel, then it is on the very border of the definition of the genre. That is by no means a complaint. While a lot of the mechanical differences didn’t hit for me, the story (which has to be core of any game that identifies as a visual novel) succeeds in telling a thrilling murder mystery, in a world where the gritty, shocking atmosphere doesn’t get bogged down by the sci fi elements, but is rather enhanced by them.

+ The Story

Something that I think is important to note is that everyone may get a very different experience of the story depending on the choices you make. The game has a flowchart structure where you follow a route to completion, then go back and change your choice to see what happens in different scenarios. By the end, you will have the same information as anyone else, but the journey in which you got there could be vastly different. I personally believe I got all of the endings in an order that was specifically curated for my tastes (anticlockwise around the flowchart for anyone that is curious) and feel very lucky for doing so. Following this route, the story ramped up very far very quickly and I was hooked. The mysteries had me desperate to see what was going to be around the next corner.

Looking back, it must be some good story telling that it had me guessing so many theories. Some were close, some were mildly correct, and some were way off. Allowing you to have this variety of thoughts, and yet the actual answers being satisfying too is a credit to the writers. I think my favourite thing about this developer is the ability to allow your imagination to go wild, misguide you and leave you asking questions right to the end. They did that well in the Zero Escape series and they were successful here too.

+/- The Writing

While I was praising the writing of the story above, the writing of dialogue can go from great, to so annoying that I don’t even know why I am playing. The player character is a man named Date. Don’t get me wrong, Date isn’t the only one guilty of this. But obviously that doesn’t make it any better. It makes it worse, because you don’t only have to endure it from him but others too. I do like his character sometimes but it gets overshadow by how perverted he is. The occasional lewd joke, sure, why not. But every scene has something. Some have multiple, and it is just not funny. It comes across as juvenile to me and makes me grateful that I didn’t stream or record this game. That way, I could just roll my eyes and move on instead of having to take in what was being said.

+/- The Characters

The Characters are such a mixed bag for me. Some of them feel very over the top to be almost caricature-ish. It is impossible to explain why without spoiling the game so I won’t go too deeply into it, but Mizuki and Mayumi were great to me. Iris and Ota not so much.

+ AI

AI, Eye, Aiba. I had no idea what this game was about when I started. All I knew is that it had a title that made no sense to me. The game very quickly explains the deal with AI and I was into it instantly. I am very attached to my eyes – something happening to them is probably one of my biggest bodily fears – but I do think I would give one up if it meant I could have an AI. Also, her physical form is frickin adorable.

– The Somnium Puzzle Sections

Where the Zero Escape series had novel sections and escape room sections, AI has a little more variety. The bulk of the puzzle sections though are the Somnium puzzles. In these sections you are exploring various dreamscapes, investigating for clues and progress by interacting with objects. So far this sounds like something I would love, but it is completely ruined by the time mechanics. Every Somnium has a 6 minute time limit. Every action you do costs a certain amount of time. Some interactions give you modifiers that you can choose when to use (for example one modifier might make an interaction take exactly 30 seconds, another might make it take an eighth as long as it was going to). If you happen to get a bad modifier then your next action will take double time or more. At first I thought this could be neat. It is something new that I hadn’t seen before. But actually playing it doesn’t work on so many levels. Firstly, if I am in a dreamscape, that is super interesting! I want to be able to explore without consequence. Secondly, it is not intuitive which actions are going to help you progress, sometimes its something completely unexpected. Thirdly, what if I want to try out all of the silly interactions? Well if that’s the case then be prepared have to go through the convoluted retry system or start again from the beginning. If you do need to restart you can fast forward text, but that is no fun to me. In the end I gave each Somnium one try, then as I was running out of time I would pull up a guide because I found replaying so tedius. Finally, these puzzle sections are where the story branches happen. The trouble is that there is no way of knowing what interaction you make is going to take you down what path. Like I stated before, I am very lucky that I got the story in the perfect order for me, but that was literally just luck becasue I had no idea what direction I was taking things. In the Zero Escape series you make blind choices that lead to different paths, but at least in that game you can base your decisions on who you would like to spend more time with. In this one, you don’t even necessarily know you are making a choice till you have commited by interacting with a random object.

+/- The Other Mechanics

As I mentioned before, this game is more interactive than many other visual novels. What would often be a novel section in other games can almost be a point and click section in this one. You can look around your environment, clicking on everything and hearing comments from your own character as well as others around you. I really enjoyed this to start with, but it gets repetitive. I bet by the end most people are no longer clicking on the background objects. The problem is, they do throw in some new lines every now and again, but you never know when. So you either go through the tedium of clicking on every object due to fear of missing out, or you miss out on some character quirks and jokes. This section is also used to ask characters questions which I enjoyed.

There are some other sections too. This game contains action. And with action comes quick time events. These were fine. If anything I think I would have preferred to just watch the action rather than doing the QTEs. I am not sure what happens if you miss them so I can’t comment on that, but if you have to start the section again that would suck, it would ruin the pacing just as much as replaying a somnium does.

Finally, since you are a detective, there are interrogation sections. Unfortunatly there arent much to them, but I did like them none the less. You will be presented with a question and a few clues and you have to pick out the relevant answers. It is simple but it is nice while you are in the process of putting things together. If you choose the wrong one then Aiba will tell you, so there is no failstate.

+/- The Audio

As mixed as I have been with everything else, I am also mixed on this too. I don’t find the soundtrack very memorable. They did reuse some sound effects from the Zero Escape series which took me out of the game a little bit. There are occasions where you have to sit through an extended section of pop music and I was sat there like ‘oh my god, is this still going’. The best part of the audio though is that it is fully voice acted, and I think the majority of the actors did a great job. I enjoy hearing what each character sounds like as it gives them their own personality, more so than if I was just reading all of their lines.  

I have tried to be as spoiler free as possible because the less you know the better, but also I believe knowing the caveats in advance can help set expectations and should hopefully improve the experience for anyone reading. Despite all of the problems I had, I still recommend this game if you have the patience, because the mystery was great and I really enjoyed the story. I am curious if any of my problems have been improved upon in the sequel! 

+ The Story

+/- The Writing

+/- The Characters

+ AI

– The Somnium Puzzle Sections

+/- The Other Mechanics

+/- The Audio

Sign up now to stay up to date with the latest posts!

Review – Murdered: Soul Suspect – PS4

Murdered: Soul Suspect is a homicide detective game with a twist, developed by Airtight Games. You are actually the murder victim and you have to solve your own death. As someone who enjoys solving a good mystery it was a no brainer for me to pick this game up. That, and I was completely intrigued by the whole concept. You play as cop, Ronan O’Conner, in the haunted town of Salem. The whole game takes place over the night of your murder, bringing with it the spooky atmosphere of a night in a town with a haunting history. The experience is elevated again when you remember that Salem is a real town in Massachusetts, well known for its history of Witch Trials.

Murdered: Soul Suspect_20170402220454

I found the atmosphere of this game to be absolutely perfect. Walking around in a different plane, you see not only the present but also ghosts of the past. The way the town is now and the way used to be. It is eerie and honestly very creepy sometimes, but it is also fascinating and it didn’t put me off exploring the world. Well, not at first anyway. Add this to the noir, mystery vibe and I honestly think they nailed it. I would say there are definitely horror themes. Pretend you are in a horror movie and list everywhere that you don’t want to go. I dare bet that most of the places on your list are places that you will visit in this game. But it isn’t a horror game. I seriously don’t do horror, but I managed to get through it. Only just, mind you, but I’ll come back to that a bit later.

Murdered: Soul Suspect_20170402204511

The story is divided into chapters where you enter an area (most of the time only available for that mission) to progress the story, then between the missions you will have access to the semi open world of the town. Most missions consist of getting from A-B safely, and investigating. I LOVED investigating. I love finding clues then putting them together. I loved exploring and finding hidden secrets. If that was solely what this game was about then I would have adored it. I loved the collectibles in this game, they really gave a purpose to exploring. Almost everywhere that you can go there are collectibles and sometimes there were even puzzles to get to them. Not only that but the collectibles were interesting. Each unlocking a piece of history of your character, or other characters, or the town itself. It’s one of the first games that I have actively gone hunting for collectibles without a guide and thoroughly enjoyed it. Of course, there is a downside though. If you don’t get all of the collectibles as you go then you will have to play the whole game again. This particularly annoyed me because in almost every section I had missed ONE collectible. I thought to myself ‘I’ll go back and get it later’… only you can’t go back and get it later, unless it is in the main town. Even then, once you have finished the final mission the game is over. On the bright side, your collectibles transfer over to your second play-through. So, even though you have to play the whole game again, you don’t have to re-find every single one, only the ones you missed. I personally would have no hesitation to play through a second time if it wasn’t for one thing that almost spoiled the whole game for me. Demons.

Murdered: Soul Suspect_20170403135702

You learn pretty early on that demons can be found roaming around the ghost world, and if they see you they are a bitch to escape. The aim is to sneak up behind them and execute them but that is sometimes easier said than done. To be honest, they were an annoyance at best, at worst they almost made me quit the game. It is not like they are that difficult, but they completely ruined my mindset while playing this game. When there were no demons I thoroughly enjoyed searching every nook and cranny for collectables. However, when you hear that awful scream you know they are there and you are going to have to spend some time getting rid of them. As I mentioned above, I did not buy this game to kill demons and I did not buy this game for any kind of horror. I bought it because I wanted to play a detective game and solve a mystery. If they didn’t exist I would have finished and platinumed the game months ago, but I honestly never want to deal with those demons again. It is very annoying because I really do want to see the rest of the ghost stories. I wish they had never implemented them into the game, it would have been better off without them, they just weren’t fun.

Murdered: Soul Suspect_20170402204027

The technical side of this game is where it is let down in my opinion. If you enter the clues menu, it tells you your current objective. Till the very end of the game, my objective was stuck on one of the first. I was afraid that when I turned the game off that the autosave may not have worked but it did, although the objective never updated. That was just a minor issue I had. The game is very buggy. One time it froze and I was just about to force my PS4 off but it started working again. Sometimes collectibles weren’t registering and the prompt to kill the demons wasn’t appearing. Also, whenever I came back to the game after turning it off, it gave me the tutorial messages for the menu features every single time. It does get quite annoying if you are playing through a lot of sittings.

Murdered: Soul Suspect_20170402210933

I enjoyed the story of this game very much. From the opening scene, showing us Romans past, I thought it was beautifully done and I was sold. Throughout the game I kept going back and forth in my mind who I thought the killer was, then in the end it still surprised me which is something I value so much in a story. I thought the characters were all interesting and I just really enjoyed the direction the story went. The ONE issue I had was I wish the Epilogue scene was slightly longer, but that doesn’t matter too much since I can still use my imagination. It is a really nice mystery and I urge everyone who enjoys detective games to play, despite its flaws.

Murdered: Soul Suspect_20170403150221

Overall, this game is all about exploring and investigating, uncovering mysteries and helping people, with some stealth involved, all in a supernatural yet realistic setting. If that sounds up your ally then I urge you to play. Especially since this game often goes on sale for £5 or less, you can’t go wrong.

Have you played? Did you enjoy it? Did you guess the killer? Did you hate the demons as much as I did?