Curtain drops on "As Dusk Falls"...

Quite the aftermath...

My wife and I finished the last two chapters of As Dusk Falls, after having a great time with the first four. This game is entirely about story, so it's hard to talk about it without spoiling the whole thing. I had a feeling all character storylines wrapped up too quickly, too easy. Most characters didn't even return in the final chapter, except in reference (non-playable). Perhaps they would have if we had made different decisions, but I doubt it. The story just focuses on the same two characters...

Hey look, a mini-game!

We mostly played it to keep everyone as safe as possible. Usually we agreed on the decisions. Sometimes I overruled my wife, when I felt a very strong dislike towards one of the other characters, and I didn't want my lead to take any crap from them. My wife was very upset when I angrily turned away someone handing me a religious flyer, for instance, saying you should at least thank them politely... Sometimes I went with my wife's decisions, even when I would have done the exact opposite had I been playing on my own. I wanted to take another character with me, but she insisted I leave them behind, thinking they would die otherwise... It's give and take when you're together!

Wow, payphones, how 90s...

When it comes to the community results, our decision-making style was pretty much all over the place. Mostly we either joined a 2/3 majority, but I liked it better when we were with the 1/3 minority. I didn't like it when it turned out almost everyone made the same decision as us, but I marveled at the decisions only 10% of the people made. I always like it when it turns out I played a game differently than most. 

In any case, we had a blast playing this! It's something different than watching a movie or TV show together, and my wife really likes being able to steer the story a bit. Though she often expects different results from the chosen dialogue options, because sometimes it's not only what you say, but how you say it, and that wasn't really incorporated into the game, so sometimes things "came out wrong", you might say, and some what she thought were positive decisions, backfired.

I'll be playing on my own again next. A new, short, sci-fi, detective story by a very prolific developer. But if anyone has any suggestions on other games like As Dusk Falls I could play with my wife again, we'll be very much obliged! 

You can find As Dusk Falls on Steam and on GOG! There are also Playstation and X-Box editions.

New game: "As Dusk Falls" playthrough!

New game!

The last time I played a game together with my wife, we put in over 100 hours spending 65 in-game days in Blue Prince. Then we gave up, because the conditions we needed to meet to make further progress were just too out of this world. When she said she wanted to play a new game the other day, I was ecstatic and tried to find something to her taste. In the past, we had fun with Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, so I figured perhaps As Dusk Falls, a game that has been sitting in my library for several years now, might be a good fit.

Now where could that hidden safe be...

First a small disclaimer: we played the game in Dutch, which you will see in the screenshots I posted. Sorry about that. It wasn't really a concious choice; the game just automatically started up that way, and since we live in Belgium and are used to translated subtitles, we kept it that way.

Do I stop the woman, or quiet the dog?

Anyway, the choice of game was a good one. With a similar gameplay style as those Quantic Dream titles I mentioned, As Dusk Falls is an interactive thriller/drama about a burglary gone wrong and two families colliding. It's mostly about making choices, giving dialogue replies but also bigger decisions on which path to take when there's a fork in the road. Then there are also some QTE's, but they're very easy and you have plenty of time to respond. I think I only ever failed one simply because I really wasn't expecting it... Well, easy for me to say, of course...

Should I do my chores, or step outside for a bit?

The most astonishing thing about the game is its graphics style. The main characters are played by real actors, but they are presented as static photos moving around in a kind of slideshow manner. Sometimes they are slightly animated, for instance when their hair is blowing in the wind. The game is fully voiced as well, though there's no lip syncing since the lips of the characters aren't animated. It looks a bit weird perhaps, but it works. Any motion in the background, however, is fluently animated, like doors opening and closing, cars driving by, rain falling, and the scenery changing in the window when you're inside a moving vehicle. It gives the game a very special animated graphic novel feel.

An overview of the community's choices

As Dusk Falls consists of six chapters, and after each chapter you get an overview of your choices, and how many of the players made the same choice. You could compare this to the Life Is Strange games, except here it's shown in a neat timeline where you can also see the forking paths, which makes it easier if you want to go back and do things differently. After five hours, my wife and I have two chapters left to go. I don't know when, since this is different from my regular gaming schedule, but I'll try to write a final post about the game when we've finished.

You can find As Dusk Falls on Steam and on GOG! There are also Playstation and X-Box editions.

The last train arrived in "Perfect Tides: Station to Station"!

Reminds me of doing my wife's hair...

After 11,5 hours, I reached the ending of Perfect Tides: Station to Station! And what a ride it was. I'm very curious myself where I will rank this game in my top ten of 2026... There are hardly any puzzles, you just experience the story, make some choices in dialogue replies, and there's this "academic management" gameplay to it as well, in whether or not to read or write, and what exactly. If anything, this game actually makes me want to write stories again myself! Which has been years for me... There's this passion in Mara that's quite contagious.

Took me forever to find the second page...

Mara is a difficult character to figure out, though, because she's in constant turmoil. This makes the game very different from other adventure games, where the main character usually is some caricature, or very superficial, with only a bare personality, serving more as an avatar for the player. Not so with Mara, who is very much her own person, and so you never really play as yourself, you play as Mara. If you can actually call it playing, since you're more following her story than actually doing anything.

Ah, family...

Am I happy with how the story went? Often I wished I could make different choices, but some things just seemed bound to happen no matter what. Often I felt like I could only choose the lesser of two evils. But it's a good story, a very layered story, but you need to be open to it. It's very much a young adult game, with themes that occupy those young people's minds who are in college or university and struggling with their identity and relationships.

Just chillin'...

The only thing that truly bothered me, was the constant smoking. Actually refusing to smoke was a choice I sorely missed in this game... Otherwise, I quite enjoyed this story, since I often also still enjoy reading the occasional young adult novel, and I'm certainly happy I played this game.

You can find Perfect Tides: Station to Station on Steam and on itch.

Next up, my wife FINALLY asked to play a game together again - we haven't done that since we gave up on Blue Prince (after 100 hours and 65 in-game days) - so we're going for a choices-based interactive thriller/drama with some QTE's thrown in about a burglary gone wrong...

"Radiolight", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot!

Excerpt: "If you can’t get enough of weird 1980s supernatural fiction, Radiolight has it all: dark woods to explore, a mystery to uncover, and strange radio signals messing with the physical world. Graphically stunning for the most part, with realistic sound effects, a great voice cast and a highly atmospheric soundtrack, it’s good for five or so hours of exploration spent being stunned by so many strange encounters. It’s a bit too linear here and there, but that didn’t stop me from forgetting the actual world around me and getting completely lost in this fictional one. It might have its generic elements, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I sat on the edge of my seat the entire way. Not everything was resolved when my quest came to a close, but the ending is a Twilight Zone/Outer Limits type where your own imagination is triggered and challenged to come up with theories for what happens next. If you enjoy supernatural mysteries and are a fan of first-person exploration games with intriguing narratives, you definitely don’t want to miss out on this thrilling hiking trip. Just don’t forget your radio!"

"The Posthumous Investigation", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!

 

Read my full review on Adventure Game Hotspot!

Excerpt: "Time-loop games aren’t usually my thing. Too much repetition, too much trial and error, too much effort needed to change that one detail in order to get the perfect outcome. Not so in The Posthumous Investigation. This mystery lets you hunt for lots of information, and with fourteen murder suspects, every run keeps offering something new. I found it amazing how very unique every single loop still felt, even after more than 40 of them, totaling almost twelve hours of sleuthing. Yes, there is still some repetition, particularly towards the end, and even with some shortcuts after having done things for the first time, there’s still room for improvement in that regard. But with such compelling writing, it’s a joy to read through the dialogues and uncover all the suspects’ connections to the murder victim. Add in the beautiful noir-steeped monochrome setting of Rio de Janeiro in the 1930s and the era-appropriate jazzy soundtrack that perfectly tie together a great investigation game, and I loved it all to death."

High times quickly switching to low times in "Perfect Tides: Station to Station"...

Pivot! Pivot!

While my previous playing session left a bit a bad taste in my mouth - a lot of things went wrong there - I was happy to find the next part of Perfect Tides: Station to Station to be more uplifting! I went along with Mara to an amazing karaoke session - I had to play the song myself and witness a perfectly synced performance! - and I had time again to read a book and write a better part of her story. Though I'm starting to think this stuff doesn't really matter all that much, even though they're the most obvious goals of the game!

Scaramouche, Scaramouche!

What followed were some fun times in bright and beautiful pixel art. A road trip with a panoramic vista, a relaxing trek into nature, everything seemed to be perfectly chill. But this wouldn't be an interactive young adult novel if it weren't for some conflict, and that quickly ensues. Not only between the characters, but also in Mara's own head. Which is such a shame. But you can't fight who you are, I guess.

What an idyllic scene...

There are also some external circumstances that make the job even harder, and suddenly I'm back fighting for time to read and write. It even feels that some writing assignments are impossible to complete; I received a new one the last day before Fall turned into Winter, with no chance to actually work on it anymore. Unless I missed that window somehow...

Breaking down again...

This is an immensely intense and complex story. I'm sorry to say that most of the time I hardly understand these people at all. Which makes me wonder if I really was anything like them at that age. The fact that I keep going and going with this game proves to me that it's really involving. There's a certain flow to it, with those ups and downs, it carries you along like a rollercoaster and the most astonishing thing about that is that nothing really "special" happens in this game. It's no grand adventure, it's simply everyday life and still, the drama and the humor pulls you along. So I'm very curious to see where this final in-game season will lead to...

You can find Perfect Tides: Station to Station on Steam and on itch.

Wasn't expecting "Perfect Tides: Station to Station" to have a "death" scene...

What a lively place!

After three and a half hours of playing Perfect Tides: Station to Station I had to take a break. A lot happened since my first steps as Mara into The City. Things started off going quite well, but Mara's boyfriend problems were a recurring issue I knew I had to deal with quickly.

Ah, alone in a movie theater... 

After succesfully writing two papers, reading some books and going to see a movie by my lonesome, I met a famous writer/blogger who invited me to a reading, followed by some drinks. Those drinks didn't sit well with Mara, though, as her mother witnessed when she went to pick her up from the station.

The Mainland looks like a (White)fish...

The game overwhelms me a bit with its possibilities. There's much to see in any particular location. There are hotspots which turn the cursor red, but you can also right-click on random background elements and get a description as well. There's a lot of detail put into this game, both in world building as well as character building. This game is like a novel, there's so much information to be found. No wonder it won the Excellence In Narrative IGF Award!

What shall we do today?

But Mara's computer has a lot to offer too. On the first day I was allowed to surf a bit before writing my paper, so the next time I sat down to work naturally I decided to check online first again. You never know if you could find something that might raise your knowledge of certain topics. However, time ran out before I could start on my next paper because I had to go to a party with my friend Lily. Who also had a book to trade, but I hadn't had time to read the ones I had yet that day, and it was too crowded and noisy at the party to read one there and then. So it kinda felt like a wasted day, academically speaking of course.

Looks like a relaxing evening, right? RIGHT?

To make matters worse, Mara's boyfriend kept checking up on her everywhere she went, so finally "the call" came in which Mara decided to break up with him. Suddenly I had a kind of mental health bar, you could say, and when it ran out, I got something like a Sierra random death message. I had to go through the conversation five or six times before I succeeded in giving the appropriate replies. He just wouldn't take no for an answer... I wasn't too fond of this sequence... But hey, I'm just the player, imagine actually being Mara in that situation...

And indeed we were...

But finally I succeeded, and suddenly the school year is over, it's summer and Mara is working at the library, enjoying a well-deserved break from, well, pretty much everything, I guess. I'm a bit confused though, because I thought I still had some writing assignments due, and one of the books I had just vanished from my inventory... Now I need to write a piece for another reading with that writer/blogger, and Mara also has a story she wants to rewrite. I tried to write the first piece, since that reading is that same night already, but it sounds like the quality of whatever I write is rather meh... So I don't have high hopes for this event...


You can find Perfect Tides: Station to Station on Steam and on itch.