“A first-person adventure puzzle game set in the 1930s that tells the story of Norah, a woman on the trail of her missing husband’s expedition.
“The search takes place on a strange but beautiful island in the South Pacific, filled with secrets waiting to be unearthed. It is an otherworldly tale of mystery, adventure, and self-discovery.”
Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X
Release: December 8, 2020
“Play as a duo of dogs on a captivating, puzzle-filled adventure. Linked by a stretchy belly, you’ll need to bark, bite and bounce your way through obstacles set across the themed worlds of Food, Sleep and Play, in co-op or single-player.”
Platforms: Windows, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release: December 3, 2020
“Yu and Kay have escaped to a forgotten planet, leaving everything they knew behind. Play two lovers at the same time as they settle into an unknown world. Explore the planet looking for parts and material to fix your ship and make it a cosy home.
“Enjoy moments of everyday life as a relatable couple while cooking meals, crafting and collecting precious resources to make it to the next day. Fight against those trying to tear you apart by synchronizing actions in combat, finding the perfect timing and rhythm, while controlling both characters and battling to keep them and their relationship alive.”
Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS5
Release: December 3, 2020 (PS4 & Nintendo Switch next year)
“A side-scrolling adventure and a short heartwarming story about learning how to love yourself. Help Vivi finds herself through the journey that takes her to where people go after they died, to what comes after.
“Ride the train filled with the souls of the people, animals, and plants that are on their way to leave this world, and talk to them to learn about love, regrets, life, and death that haunt us every day until our time has come. All presented in a light-hearted way with a sprinkle of comedy and philosophy.”
Platforms: Windows, Mac
Release: November 5, 2020
“A first-person psychological horror game. Explore a mysterious ever-changing house in a slow-paced, atmospheric world that combines both uncannily comforting and horrifyingly realistic environments, and enjoy a genuinely terrifying experience.”
Platforms: Windows, Xbox, PS4
Release: October 30, 2020
“A serene and evocative experience, free of danger, frustration or death. Players will explore a meticulously designed world brought to life with delicate art, detailed animation, and an elegant original score. Through the game light puzzles, platforming sequences, and optional skill-based challenges will reveal themselves as more of Gris’s world becomes accessible.
“Gris is a hopeful young girl lost in her own world, dealing with a painful experience in her life. Her journey through sorrow is manifested in her dress, which grants new abilities to better navigate her faded reality. As the story unfolds, Gris will grow emotionally and see her world in a different way, revealing new paths to explore using her new abilities.
Platforms: Windows, Mac, PS4, iOS, Android, Nintendo Switch
Release: December 13, 2018
“A magical action roguelite set in a world where every pixel is physically simulated. Fight, explore, melt, burn, freeze and evaporate your way through the procedurally generated world using spells you’ve created yourself. Explore a variety of environments ranging from coal mines to freezing wastelands while delving deeper in search for unknown mysteries.
“Every pixel in the world is simulated. Burn, explode or melt anything. Swim in the blood of your foes! Enter a simulated world that is more interactive than anything you’ve seen before. Create new spells as you delve deeper into the caverns. Use magic to crush your enemies and manipulate the world around you.”
Platforms: Windows
Release: October 15, 2020
“Become the Hunter, a master of archery who travels to a mystical island to dispel a curse of darkness that grips the world. Forge a connection with your eagle companion and soar through the air. Perform fluid acrobatics and execute awesome trick shots with a unique archery system that allows effortless shooting while moving at high speeds.
“Forge your own path through a beautiful open world packed with secrets to find. Traverse misty forests, lush meadows and snowy tundras. Discover the dark history of the island as you solve puzzles in ancient ruins and unearth long-forgotten secrets.”
Platforms: Windows, PS4, PS5, iOS
Release: November 12, 2020
“A first-person shooter of old, re-imagined using modern rendering techniques. It reaches the quality you expect from a AAA experience while adhering to some of the aesthetic technical limits of older hardware.
“The game features a hand-crafted campaign from industry FPS veterans, a fully-integrated level editor, and a built-in community map browser for instantaneous action with nearly limitless levels to play. Get ready to paint the walls red. This is the Boomer Shooter you’ve been waiting for.”
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch
Release: November 10, 2020 (early access)
“A classic film noir type adventure game with dark humour, adult themes and very, very dangerous animals.
“Sonny Featherland and Marty McChicken were once legendary detective partners, but time had passed them by. Sonny is a burnt-out, alcoholic ex-cop, who spends his days in an abandoned hotel, while Marty hides behind the facade of a star-detective, but slowly he’s losing himself. Now they’re back together again on a case bigger and much more dangerous than anything they’ve ever encountered before.”
I received a key for this from the developer and although visual novel/point-and-click stuff isn’t really my thing I decided to give it a whirl because the premise of chickens as police is pretty interesting to me.
I wasn’t planning to play much but I did get a bit sucked into the story and ended up going through the first chapter which took about four hours. There are four chapters I think and I’m a bit of a slowpoke, partially because I lost like 20 minutes trying to get a high score in the target practice minigame. The game feels quite polished mostly because of the art and voice acting (which is almost always great) but I also didn’t really encounter any bugs, except one time I did things out of order and the characters talked about visiting a place they had already been (maybe they were trying to block out the body they had just found).
The questioning/interrogating of characters is probably my favourite bit (choosing the right dialogue options based on your updating knowledge of their personality) especially because I’m not sure what happens if you completely screw it up and getting the “True Detective” stamp at the end is a super satisfying relief after previous anxiety.
The game is mostly about visiting locations, talking to characters, and trying to learn who you can trust while unraveling the mystery. It feels like there might be a lot of depth to the characters, but I’m not far enough in to make a determination on that. The writing overall seems good and the dialogue is pretty decent I think although it misses the mark a couple of times for me as I’m not super into noir.
I’m not sure if I will continue, although I really want to meet Miranda the giraffe, but that’s definitely mostly a factor of the visualnovelness (it’s not a hard-core one but I’m severely lacking in patience at the moment), so if that’s your jam it’s definitely a game to look into.
Platforms: Windows, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
Release: November 5, 2020