Monday, June 16, 2025

Wednesday, June 4, 2025

"Without a Dawn", my Adventure Game Hotspot review!



Excerpt: "Based on the developer’s previous games, I was disappointed that there wasn’t much else to do in Without a Dawn than clicking through dialogue choices. Especially when these don’t prove to be real choices to begin with. This is a pure visual novel that wants to tell a chilling story while dazzling you with its unique graphics. In that it definitely succeeds, as it almost made me afraid to go to bed, nervous that someone could be standing outside my own window or the man with the gas mask might appear in my dreams too. But I do wish there had been at least a bit more interactivity, more direct control of the main character, to pull you in further instead of making you feel like nothing more than a spectator. And perhaps be a little longer so I could admire the impressive art style and haunting soundscape. It may not be much of a game, but nobody can argue that Jesse Makkonen isn’t a storytelling artist."

Sunday, June 1, 2025

New game: "Life is Strange: True Colors"

New game!

I started playing Life is Strange: True Colors and I'm one hour into it! You play as Alex, a young woman who grew up in foster homes and is suddenly contacted by her long lost brother. She goes to meet him in the town of Haven Springs. But of course, Life wouldn't be Strange if there wasn't something peculiar with Alex, which first shows itself when she sees what appears to be a blue aura surrounding her brother Gabe when she meets him.

Meet Alex. "Hi, Alex!" "Hi, gamer..."
I'm not far into this game yet, but immediately Haven Springs is a place I want to travel to myself and spend some time there. When it comes to graphics, I can't think of any other games that have such a high quality and level of realism. A perfect game for me would be this style of graphics coupled with a point 'n click interface, since that genre of adventure games still has my preference (but of course that's a bit hard to combine with a 3D open world).

Welcome to Haven Springs!
True Colors is best played with a controller. As you walk around the scenes, hotspots will highlight automatically and you can interact with them with a click of a button. Which leads me to the story and worldbuilding. These games are so detailed, it's like you're actually transported into a novel or a movie. There's lots to explore, lots of little things to see. Not everything is linked to the main story, and most of the exploration is optional.

Cool music in this game, and not-so cool cats...
The first hour of gameplay ended with a bang: my brother was suddenly assaulted by a jealous boyfriend of someone he'd been helping out. A red aura flared up and Alex seemed to take over his aggression and went She-Hulk on him, like an extreme case of mirror-touch synesthesia (I've learned that from the TV-show Brilliant Minds!)

Usually the "good" choice comes back to bite you...
After that episode, I now find myself on my own in my brother's apartment, and I can finally unpack. No idea what this all will lead to, but I do expect some backlash from a choice I made a bit earlier, about keeping a little boy's secret or not...

You can find Life is Strange: True Colors on Steam!