Publisher: Goldfire Studios
Developer: Goldfire Studios
Year: 2025
Platform: Windows, Mac, PS5, Xbox Series

Rating: 4

If you’ve played an adventure game in the past fifteen years, you’ve no doubt explored an abandoned town, abandoned house, abandoned space station, or abandoned office. You may even have been accompanied by an eager bot, a snarky bot, or a voiceless bot. If you’re tired of those, you’re in luck with Arctic Awakening, which sees you exploring abandoned research complexes with a therapy bot! I love these tropes all the same and was eager to dive into this walking simulator set in the chilly northern wilds. But while the game is competently made and has some definite highlights, I was mostly underwhelmed for the nine hours I spent with it due to some repetitive gameplay with little lore to keep things fresh.

Publisher: Raw Fury
Developer: Clifftop Games
Year: 2021
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Switch

Rating: 8

On the eve of the release of Kathy Rain 2, I decided to finally play the director’s cut version of the original. I reviewed Kathy Rain a few years ago and didn’t see a need for an upgrade to the 2016 classic. And while I still don’t feel it was necessary, there are some definite improvements that make this the preferred version for me, though not everyone agrees.

Publisher: Tlön Industries
Developer: Montraluz
Year: 2025
Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox Series

Rating: 1

Full disclosure: Outside of The Stanley Parable, I have never played a game about liminal spaces.  That game relied on narration to engage the player, but from what I gather, many others about suspiciously empty rooms go for horror, with stalking entities or jump scares to keep you on the edge of your seat. Montraluz’s first game, Dreamcore, strips away all of that, creating enormous labyrinths of mostly nothing, almost exclusively relying on the player’s imagination to create tension and intrigue. However, while I appreciated the occasionally entertaining visual aesthetic, long before the end my imagination had been dulled by exhaustive monotony.  

Publisher: KAPA
Developer: KAPA
Year: 2022
Platform: Windows

Rating: 2

Half of an ambitious solo project from first-time Estonian game designer KAPA, The Silent Sky is a wonderfully hand-drawn and animated game about a boy who finds a portal in the woods behind his country home. Unfortunately, great animation is about all that it has going for it. Poor localization, poor dialogue, poor character development, and mediocre puzzles make it difficult to recommend.

Publisher: Stately Snail
Developer: Stately Snail
Year: 2024
Platform: Windows

Rating: 4

Yes, this game killed me early and often, and perhaps my greatest disappointment is that it doesn’t keep a death counter. I earned those deaths! All fifty of them! (At least.)