As you all know, I use Steam Packs as a way to quickly
review some of the titles I wouldn’t spend 2,000 words discussing, and this
includes a lot of cheaper games… as well as free games. I own quite a number of
free games. Not that this is a bad thing, on the contrary. Free games are
usually shorter or simpler than any titles on Steam you might pay for – and, as
a result, those are bound to make their way onto these lists. At the same time, they still showcase great talent from young developers, and sometimes can be a lot more interesting than they seem at first. (Which isn't to say that they're all good, obviously - free games vary in quality just as much as games you can pay for.)
This time around, I want to do something a little
different. Only free games! Yes, I know winter is coming, and the Winter Sale
will happen on Steam soon-ish, but that’s a story for another day. Today, I
want to check through my collection and take out four free games that I’ve
never played, and see whether I want to keep them or not.
I guess another word for today’s four games is
“ambiance”. Each game brings its own ambiance, a somewhat creepy tone, which
works well in the world presented in each of them.
I am also at these crossroads of Steam where I might
run out of space if I download more games, so you can probably imagine that I
wish to get rid of some games in my collection; and what better way but to play
through a few and see whether I want to keep them? The Steam Packs are
surprisingly useful for this. Well then, let’s not waste any time!
The Desolate Hope
One of Scott Cawthon’s games before he worked on Five
Nights at Freddy’s, The Desolate Hope contains many elements that call to mind
his greatest success as a developer. This game has robots, unexpected story
twists, an explosion of various genres, mini-games, a gathering quest, and some
really cool designs.
On the unmanned station Lun Infinus, on an uninhabited
planet, live various robots (named Derelicts) who have been tasked with creating
simulations exploring possible future homes for mankind, were the Earth to ever
become uninhabitable. Sadly, it seems that humans pulled the plug on the
program and stopped sending samples long ago, causing the place to fall into
disrepair. A virus has apparently taken over the simulations led by the four
Derelicts around Lun Infinus (there’s a fifth one, but it's frozen… nothing to see
there, we swear). A coffee machine, named Coffee, plugged itself into the main
computer and sought out an A.I. that originally existed to play a preinstalled
game on the machine. This is Digital Counterpart 9 (AKA D-Co 9), and Coffee
gave it its own body for the surprise quest of ridding the station from that
nasty virus. Yep, if you ever wanted a game where you control a coffee machine
on legs, this is it.
In a simulation, the D-CO9-powered coffee machine has the powers to jump and shoot at stuff, yet it is incapable of making for itself a body less silly than that of a coffee machine. |
Trial-and-error? I don't think it's the time for that. |
Oh, and did I mention that you only have 15 day/night
cycles to complete the mission before the station definitively
shuts down?
As a concept for a game, it’s pretty clever and
manages to mesh various genres together in a coherent result. It has a
genuinely interesting storyline, endearing characters (as each Derelict has a
different personality and it shines through their monologues), and a decent
difficulty increase as time goes. There are, of course, various secrets, as
Scott Cawthon likes to include in his titles, and the story moves into
something more sinister as it progresses. It’s surprisingly deep for a free
title.
Cawthon has made an entire career out of uncanny valley, even before Five Nights at Freddy's. Just look at that thing! |
All in all, a decent game, I’ve yet to beat it, I will
admit that it has a lot of content, though I can see why Desolate Hope wasn’t
the big breakthrough its creator was hoping for. Still, as a precursor to FNAF, I'd say it's worth giving a try.
BREAKING NEWS! Speaking of Five Nights at Freddy's... Yes, FNAF 6 has come out Monday December 5th, 2017 (so, 4 days before the publication of this review), disguised as a free so-called pizzeria tycoon game. For the record, I write these articles 3 to 6 weeks in advance, which makes it difficult for me to be truly up-to-date with news and releases. I rarely add stuff like this to my publications - but the stars aligned and a new Cawthon game was released on the week that I planned to review a previous Cawthon game. I felt it was worth mentioning. It's real, and it's free. No, really. It's not called FNAF 6, but it's FNAF 6.
This is probably gonna rot in my library until all five previous games have been played... so I'll be experiencing it long after everything's been said about it. |
Electric Highways
This
experimental game is mostly a walking simulator. There’s little to do outside
of walking around and activating switches. The CGI is very basic, in that it uses simple forms for its designs. The levels, however, can be surprisingly large.
Not shown: The gigantic outside area. And the loneliness. |
There’s
about 30 minutes of gameplay, so it’s a pretty short game. The puzzles aren’t
all that difficult, either. Sometimes you might find yourself searching for the
switches, as the area can be fairly large, and there’s a slight bit of
platforming required (as the player can jump and it’s needed to access some
areas), but overall the main draw is the ambiance and graphics. The most
notable one might be Level 6, in which the walls are invisible, appearing to be
just like the background, meaning that the visible floors seem to vanish behind
the backgrounds of the level, in a fairly impressive optical illusion.
The ambiance only serves to highlight one other
element of these small worlds: Their emptiness. Outside of a few creepy
appearances by ghosts that vanish instantly, these places contain not a soul.
And the resulting feeling is one of sheer loneliness, no matter how far you
get.
This level loops on itself. Run to the end? You're warped back to the other end. And you can tell. That was most likely intentional. |
Fingerbones
Another short game, one that is completed in about 20
to 30 minutes, and it’s a horror-focused story. Once again, it seems to play
mostly like a walking simulator, so there isn’t much gameplay; really, the
entire point is to immerse the player into a setting and a plot. And, well…
Jesus Christ. I wished I hadn’t played it.
Read what that paper says, then feel your face turn to an expression of sheer disgust once you figure out the plot twist and the reason this is called Fingerbones. |
The upper room is bathed in yellow light emanating
from the windows, while the following rooms are so dark you cannot progress
except with a flashlight found early on. Some texts seem disconnected, others
refer to existentialism and other forms of philosophy, and then some others
seem innocuous (if creepy) at first until the big reveal. Said reveal also explains the
free game’s title.
Yes, that's blood and tools on the table. The person who made this game is sick. I'm not even joking. Truly sick. |
Those cries will be in my nightmares.
The Old Tree
The final free ambiance game for today, The Old Tree
chronicles the birth and subsequent adventures of an alien, a cross between a
green tomato and a half-octopus, as it makes its way around the depths of an
old tree built like a hotel for various creatures, on its way to freedom. It’s a very
short game, about ten minutes long, and focuses more on the experience it
offers than on any form of challenge. In other words, it’s not very difficult.
Mini-puzzle. Help the salt-shaker creature finish their soup! Or else the steam will burn you. |
Can you tell what's going on here? This game could have been improved with some way to lighten it up. |
All in all, not an unpleasant experience, it was
actually quite fun, but the game’s very short length will probably make it only
a one-time thing.
...Happy ending? Not for me, I'm allergic to those fluffy plant things. ... ... ... ... ...ACHOO! Dammit! |
And that’s it for today, four more games reviewed, I
can move on to other Steam titles. Next Friday will be a good day for a swell
battle. See you then!
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