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I've played a decent amount of good (and not so good, but fun) games this year, but as I get older I really only get super involved in the narrative-focused ones instead; as such, my only GOTY candidates I have are: 2. Pentiment  It's been described as Josh Sawyer's Disco Elysium, but as I've barely played Disco Elysium besides getting myself killed in the first five minutes  (blasphemy, I know) it stands on its own. The dialogue is occasionally meandering, and the text speed could be a bit faster, but the town of Kiersau is quite endearing, even if you have no prior knowledge of the time period. Meeting the characters, seeing the town (and them) change depending on how you play, and also slowly peeling apart the layers of both the player character and the mystery is quite a narrative experience and I enjoyed it a lot. There's definitely no wrong choices, although the game is fairly lengthy (10-15 hrs) so you may not be able to or want to see them all. The art is great, and while there's few musical numbers the few that do sound out definitely add to the experience. Josh Sawyer was one of the main directors for Fallout: New Vegas, lauded for its narrative and it really shows here. 1. Signalis  Normally I'm not much of a horror game person, as I'm not good with gore or scares. However, Signalis is just such an excellent experience it trumps that for me. A two-person dev project clearly heavily inspired by Silent Hill, Signalis is a mix of eldritch and sci-fi that references H.P. Lovecraft, among others, in your journey to find the main character's lost dreams. As you wander through the dark corridors, you slowly get enough bits and bobs of information to create your own interpretation of what is going on. There's the usual keys upon keys upon keys gameplay from Silent Hill/Resident Evil, but the puzzles are generally well crafted. I will say the inventory limit is a bit restrictive, and the middle section can be quite irritating since there is no map. Sound design is quite excellent - OST available here https://signalis-ost.bandcamp.com/album/signalis-original-soundtrack (with the caveat there's some minor spoilers in track names), with the few flashes of classical music meshing quite well. Art is pixel and anime-inspired, and overall is good and functional (although doors can be hard to see sometimes). Overall it's quite a triumph for a two-person team and probably the best horror game I've seen/played in years. RoyalScion fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Dec 12, 2022 |
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Dec 12, 2022 04:09
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rope kid posted:The only design I did on Alpha Protocol was taking over the CQC system halfway through development. I did no work on the narrative. Ah, that’s my bad. You were listed in the Wikipedia credits as a designer but not specifically a narrative designer so I made a bad assumption. Thanks for the correction. RoyalScion fucked around with this message at 17:59 on Dec 12, 2022 |
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Dec 12, 2022 17:54
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bone emulator posted:I would probably have never checked out Signalis if not for this thread since very few things make me lose interest faster than the phrase "indie horror game". Reminder to check out the OST for the game on bandcamp/youtube once you've finished, it's outstanding and really helps set the atmosphere of the game.
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Dec 19, 2022 22:23
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vSifdQ07qo Signalis - Turned Around (no real spoilers, it's almost one of the earliest tracks you'll encounter) Well, either that or Emptiness from the same game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKlAHqsiG1w RoyalScion fucked around with this message at 11:31 on Jan 2, 2023 |
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Jan 2, 2023 11:28
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