PC & Mac

The old year is over, and again we have to find a new one with Mateusz Skutnik!

Finding 2019 isn't easy, but what would you expect from such an important task, after all? Fortunately you don't need to fight 2018 which seems reconciled to its destiny, 'only' jump a lot, and it's a good think that while trying to pass not-so-easy levels (again and again) you may admire dreamy magical lands and fantastic constructions, listening to atmospheric music.

It does not require anything special, you might argue, to open many parenthesis when telling a story. And to that point, I would reply: yes, but it is a true sign of mastery to satisfactorily bring each and every one of them to a close. That is how I would best describe the twisting story in the land of Socotrine, a timeless reality suspended above the life of one little girl in the winding narrative crafted by Centicerise.

Romance and horror has always been a rather passionate combination, don't you think? All too often some innocent girl falls into the trap and awaits some horrible ending. I'm not going to spoil anything too much here, but The Doll Shop comes with an interesting twist: it is you who play as a man who might just play a pivotal role in the story. Add in some more intrigue with the disappearance of a little girl and the beauty of hand-drawn graphics and you're in for another treat by Atelier Sentô. We've previously reviewed two titles by them, Yûrei Station and Sango - Tales from the Coral Cave, but The Doll Shop definitely brings something new to the table.

Love can come in all sizes and shapes - and in this case, literally. Join a racoon for his journey to find his special someone - a crescent lost in a house fire a long time ago. Together with an extraordinary coincidence, this racoon has inherited the ability to talk to these "shape-people" - which bears no explanation other than that they are people that are shapes - from beyond the veil of death. Sometimes his clientele ask to simply pass on a message, other times there is some unfinished business left with spirits still on the more lively side of things. But still, the racoon keep searching for his lost love.

In a debut of a fan-beloved original, Day of the Tentacle, Return of the Tentacle delivers a thrilling, pun and comedy filled point-and-click adventure. Purple Tentacle is back with an ambitious plan to conquer the world, seek revenge, and worst of all, wants to make sure to kill you first! What's more there are the two telltale signs that it's not some lookalike or wannabe. One: he left a note scrawled on purple paper! And two: it's signed at the bottom, "Insincerely Yours, Purple!"

In Doppleganger, you have the (mis)fortune of having to chase after your perhaps insatiable curious cat. It ran straight into a temple full of booby traps and mystical powers, and it looks like you're going to need to follow it in and coax it out. While Schrodinger may have posed the problem of whether a cat in a box is dead or alive, in In Doppleganger it looks like your cat is always somewhere you're not looking! Your task is to journey through this temple and see if you can find your feline friend, with the aid of some unusual platforming mechanics.

You are a henchman in the infamous Gotham City, and unfortunately, a henchman seeking a new job. Dissatisfied with your current boss, you think surely it can't be too difficult to land a new gig. After all, what's the worst they can have you do to land the position? Spit in someone's face? Toilet paper their house? Get reference letters from your previous boss? All nope, nope, and nope, but you're getting warmer. Who would have guessed that your task would be a job interview?

This time, everything starts coming together. The latest Rusty Lake project, Cube Escape: Paradox has arguably the most unique player experience in the series. Accompanied by a short live feature (which I personally recommend watching after finishing Chapter 1 - it contains some spoilers), Paradox blends amazing production value and multimedia elements with the gameplay that Rusty Lake fans know and love. The game is divided into two installments, with Chapter 1 free to play (donations encouraged), and Chapter 2 available for a minute fee.

In the beginning, there was an epic battle between two ancient souls, one embodied as Chaos, and the other as Peace. After a prolonged struggle, Chaos won, and its executioner Darkness shattered Peace into many pieces. And yet, the war was not yet over, for a single shard of Peace managed to escape. In a stunningly beautiful two-and-a-half dimensional one-man indie platformer/puzzle game created by Yasser Reda.

Note: Pinewood Island contains sexual situations, including an implication of an attempted assault.

Would you go to a remote island for a month to get college credit? This might make visiting Pinewood Island seem like a good deal until you find out that the island has no cell phone access, no internet and no boats to take you back. And just when you think things couldn't possibly get any worse, your professor is murdered while you're stuck on the island. Now there's a one month wait until a boat returns and you can leave. How will you spend it?

In the ninth and newest addition to the 10 Gnomes series you are placed on the streets of Paris. Using black and white photography Mateusz Skutnik has once again created a detailed point and click scavenger hunt to find ten hidden gnomes. Since the gnomes are shy, they can be hard to find.

If you live in a city in certain industrial parts of the United States, you might be familiar with the concept of a trolley, built to take workers up and down a steep hill from their residence to their workplace generations ago. The Trolley is a 3D, storytelling experience that takes up the tale of the disassembly of such a vehicle in an unnamed midwestern town. In it, you play as an employee charged with the psychologically challenging task of tearing it down. There is no demand for such an artefact any longer, so it's only logical for them to want to remove it and make way for something else. Right?

Don't Starve Together is an inexpensive game that is easy for anyone to pick up. As an addition to the Don't Starve series of dark humor survival strategy games, Don't Starve Together has an expansive ever-changing world with many ways to play. In the original Don't Starve, after choosing a character to play as, you had to figure out how to survive a ridiculous and deadly environment with limited instructions. But playing through mysterious potentially-fatal nights and fighting monsters makes you realize - your odds of survival would be a lot better with someone watching your back.

This is where Don't Starve Together comes in. The game allows for up to six players to join in on the chaotic fun on one server. The gameplay is similar to other games in the series, but you don't need to know a previous game to play. The controls are simple, the game play is much more challenging.

Normally, if someone tells you to have a blast, it's to wish you well and hope that you have a great time. Things are somewhat different, however, at your new job in the Bomb Squad Academy. As a matter of fact, your very occupation is the antithesis of making things go boom. Your objective is to successfully diffuse electrical circuits hooked up to a live (virtual, fortunately!) bomb and disable them, often with a timer running in the background. You'll have several instruments to aid you in your task, including wire cutters and the ability to flip switches thus controlling the path of electrical circuits.

Out of a bunch of visual novels I've checked out recently, Cautionary Tale is probably one had some of the most work and love poured into it. Despite the name, there are actually three stories contained within this game, and quite honestly, any of the three could stand on their own merit as an independent game. These narratives are as follows. First, when Alex Kartha is given a full scholarship to attend a prestigious boarding school, she hopes she can finally leave behind the things that have haunted her ever since a fatal car accident involving her and her parents. Second is what seems an ordinary winter day, with Eli about to confess to his childhood crush. And finally, you'll experience "The Flood," the story of a girl about to become a woman about to turn eighteen, having vivid nightmares of the apparent impending doom of becoming an adult.