Animal Gods is highly representative of a major flaw in the crowd-funding model: namedropping a classic series is practically a shortcut to financial success. Still Games sold its product almost exclusively on its superficial similarity to The Legend of Zelda and the works of Team Ico, so it's not much of a surprise that it doesn't follow through with its ambitions. However, even the most cynical observer would expect more from it than this. This is a vacuous mockery of the titles that inspired it, a boring art project at best, and a $10 insult to the customer's intelligence at worst.
Fear Effect Sedna conclusively stomps out any life the series had left with its shallow, malformed gameplay and disjointed narrative.
Past Cure is an aggressively meaningless story broken up by astonishingly pedestrian gameplay.
Hello Neighbor is incompetent and barely playable as a horror, stealth, or adventure game, in addition to being incoherent as a narrative.
The developers technically made a smart design decision by limiting the player's available timeframe to eight in-game days (or a couple of real-world hours), because it facilitates unlocking all the endings through multiple playthroughs. However, those eight days are so incredibly dreary and underwhelming that most players will be immediately discouraged from doing so. Considering that only a new form of disappointment awaits at the end of each path, however, that's probably for the best. The commitment to a unique, indelible atmosphere in Breached is admirable, but it absolutely cannot carry the entire experience, especially not when the rest of that experience is so dry and under-realised.
It would be easy to call Dear RED - Extended another case of "interesting concept, terrible execution," but the concept isn't actually as interesting as it thinks it is. With its half-baked themes and inoffensive presentation, it's really just a run-of-the-mill visual novel that happens to be condensed into the space of a lunch break. The fact that the plot is built around such an absurdly illogical surprise is just the biggest nail in a coffin already riddled with them.
To be "one of the most relaxing games ever made" was a stated design goal of Lumini, but the only thing the experience has in common with relaxation is that both end in sleep. Come to think of it, sleep is an acceptable substitute for playing the game. At least in dreams, visions of alien worlds and meaningless stories don't come with a $13 price tag and a couple of hours of monotonous gameplay.
The Town of Light is depressing, and not just for the intended reasons. It's painful to see a project with such noble intentions squandered by such a profound misunderstanding of how to effectively utilise them. It is very possible to create an artistic work that deliberately avoids being fun while still keeping its audience engaged. This game gets as far as the first step and then just gives up…
This third entry in the series, Dillon's Dead-Heat Breakers, is at best woefully insubstantial and at worst torturously protracted.
Overgrowth's opaque combat, off-putting presentation, and unremarkable ideas would have made it a mediocre game ten years ago. Today, they make it a bad one.
Dead in Bermuda is a game about solid characters that doesn't have any character of its own. It's an uninspired title with a warped sense of progression, most notable for the inevitably divisive conclusion waiting for users who stick with it for 15 hours. That probably won't be a very large percentage, because this is, at best, mildly fulfilling in the same way a run-of-the-mill MMO can be: because humans are instinctively fascinated by rising meters and numbers. Anyone who wants some engaging gameplay with their numerical Skinner box would be better served elsewhere.
Curses 'N Chaos will appeal only to a very small niche market. Enjoying it requires an intact nostalgia bubble and a friend to play with, and even then, there are better options out there. Tribute Games have admirably captured the immediacy and charm of retro gaming, but they've also revived its unfair and ill-conceived design techniques, many of which died out for good reason.
All of the underlying wrongness of Infinity Runner can probably be traced back to Wales Interactive overstretching itself. The game was almost definitely envisioned as something more open and complete, until a lack of money or time forced the developer to squeeze its ideas into the shell of an endless runner. The rigidity of the genre ruins almost every promising aspect of the game - it defangs the antagonist, dilutes the plot to the point of irrelevance, and - most damning of all - makes the fact that the protagonist is a werewolf almost inconsequential.
Spinch is a trip - both the psychedelic kind and the "fall on your face" kind.
GRIP: Combat Racing demands constant discipline from its audience while exhibiting little itself.
The word "illogical" has always been the bane of adventure games, but Memoranda takes it to new extremes by extending it to its setting and narrative in addition to its gameplay.
Chasm's beautifully realized world can't distract from an ill-fitting gimmick that leaves its gameplay unbalanced and repetitive.
The ridiculous premise of Metal Wolf Chaos far outstrips what its gameplay can deliver, but this international release is still good for a laugh.
Pathologic 2 is the ultimate acquired taste - unforgiving, byzantine, and eye-opening.
This faux-remake does what it sets out to do eerily well. There's just the question of whether that goal was worth achieving.