Is this the last of them? No, just the last of the ones with full controller support so I didn't have to bother switching the HDMI cable from the TV to the monitor - which honestly shouldn't be the hurdle it is, but is frequently more effort than I can be bothered putting in.
And technically I have actually played some of these before, but I couldn't remember anything about them so I gave them another shot. Probably shouldn't have bothered.
Tell Me Why
As the above graphic indicates, if you're reading this in June 2021 then this game is free. If you're reading this after that date, remind me to update this info.
Firstly, this is one of those games that gives the impression the creators wanted to make a movie but didn't have the opportunity and/or ability. It does claim that your choices affect how the story plays out, but I've heard that before and I don't believe it.
Secondly, it's so fucking slow. I played for 45 minutes and I feel like, if it was a movie, everything I played through would have happened before the end of the opening credits. There is so much nothing happening. People standing silently, walking silently, talking about nothing. I feel like I was actually in control of a character for about a quarter of the time at most, and the rest of it was just waiting for something - anything - to happen.
Third, the animation and voice acting is bad. Not bad by the standards of video games - not even by the standard of modern, high-budget video games - but bad for the type of story it's trying to tell. For most games would be perfectly fine. But this game is trying to tell a dramatic, emotional story, and it really needed a higher standard.
It's not even anything major, it's just stuff like objects kind of looking weightless, and the dialogue sounding like it was recorded separately, line-by-line, instead of with all the actors together and able to react to each other. It's subtle, but it makes conversations feel awkward and stilted in ways they're clearly not supposed to.
But the biggest issue is the slowness and lack of interactivity. It's a video game. I want to do things. But this game gives you very little to do and most of what it does give you is so straight-forward that you feel like you may as well have just been watching a cutscene anyway.
Vessel
Despite being an entirely different genre, style and tone, it actually had a similar problem to Tell Me Why: It's too slow. Again, I felt like I wasn't really being given much opportunity to actually play the game. This time it wasn't endless dialogue and cutscenes, it was mostly just walking around.
The game is sort of a puzzle platformer, but the platformer elements just seem to be holding it back. I feel like it could have been quite enjoyable as a straight puzzle game, but having to get your avatar to move around the world and get to to the various puzzle segments is tedious. You want to just solve the puzzle, and not being able to do so directly is frustrating.
Violett
Once again this game shares an issue with the previous one. This is a point-and-click adventure/puzzle game, but it should have just been a puzzle game. The big issue is that it's not clear what you're supposed to be trying to do or what result any particular action will have, and because of having to pilot your character around the screen it takes just that bit longer to do anything, which makes the trial and error nature of solving these puzzles just that bit more frustrating than it needs to be. And once you see what you're supposed to do, you can't just do it, you have to make your avatar do it.
A Virus Named Tom
Pipe Dream but shit? And that's saying something, because I wouldn't actually waste my time playing Pipe Dream either.
Who's That Flying
Space Invaders but shit? Again, I'm not looking to play Space Invaders and I'm definitely not looking to play the same game but worse.
Wizorb
Breakout but shit. Mixed with an equally shitty RPG. Two terrible games for the price of one. Also, it came out in 2011 but looks like it's from the 80s, and not in a charming retro way; it just looks authentically shit.
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