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This user has reviewed 38 games. Awesome! You can edit your reviews directly on game pages.
FRAMED Collection
Created on 20 October, 2026 09:35
FRAMED Collection

Uncompromisingly stylish puzzler

FRAMED Collection consists of two extremely stylish puzzle games that took me some time to warm up to but in the end won me over. (It didn't really help that I first had to get the game to actually launch - which I managed thanks to omegamuerte's tip in a review below.) Both games play as noir-style comics where your protagonists, performing a heist, travel from one panel to another and meet various obstacles. You initially help them navigate the obstacles by changing the order of the panels (e.g., if there are two platforms, and the lower one is cracked, you move another panel featuring a ladder ahead of the first one, so your hero climbs onto the higher platform first) and later also by rotating them and reusing them. Harder "pages" are interspersed with easier ones for a change of pace. All the narration is done through animations; there's not a single word of speech or text. The graphics are stylish, fitting the genre and topic, and the animations feel like a twenty-first century Prince of Persia, i.e., also cool. Both games have their balancing issues, though. In the first one, the innovative mechanics feel too new even for the authors, and it looks like they didn't know what exactly to do with them. Sometimes there's not much to do - just mechanically dragging the panels. Sometimes you don't really know how things are supposed to work, so you just trial-and-error until it works. And then there's a spike in difficulty that made me go through some of the closing stages not really knowing how or why I succeeded. In spite of all its style, I completed the first game not really impressed by its playability. The second game does a much better job at showing you how things work. It also learns from the predecessor by having you to actually work for your success. Sometimes a bit too much, as some of the puzzles are a wee bit too difficult (remember me when you reach the green door). Some are delightful, though, and at times, they add a bit of comedy. The second half reaches the sweet spot with very nicely varying and balanced puzzles. When I got to the end, I felt that I would love a bit more of this - which is always a good thing. One thing where I have absolutely no objections whatsoever is the soundtrack. Apart from fitting the game like a thief's glove, it is simply an awesome piece of art. It now sits on my music player and isn't going to leave it anytime soon. Overall, the FRAMED games should definitely be played for their innovative mechanics and graphical and musical style. The gameplay isn't polished to absolute perfection, but it's still worth your time.

HuniePop 2: Double Date
Created on 11 October, 2026 04:49
HuniePop 2: Double Date

Still nice but a bit overcooked

Just like the original game, HuniePop 2 is a surprisingly deep logical game with a funny hentai facade. Well, with the innovated rules, the game is now maybe too deep. On the good side, the game managed to keep most of the positives of the original: a quirky cast, some good jokes, nice visuals and OK music, addictive game loop, plus the story now has the crazy factor cranked up to eleven (only you can save mankind with your dating skills). However, if you don't want to just produce more of the same (and the dev didn't), you have to innovate the gameplay. And there's my problem with the game, because the original was very nicely balanced, and the sequel is a bit overcomplicated. This time you're always dating two girls at the same time, so you have to divide your attention between them, which is supported by the new "stamina" mechanic. Good. However, big moves (4+ matches) cost more stamina, so you get effectively punished for doing what you're supposed to do. This kinda drains a bit of the fun away, as the beauty of this type of games is the dopamine rush and satisfaction from finding these moves - while here, after you find them, you have to carefully evaluate whether you can afford to actually execute them. As the game gets progressively harder, you'll have to start using gifts, which will help you during the date (higher frequency of certain tokens, extra moves, etc.). On the other hand, each girl has 3 baggages, which you discover through more interaction. For some, the sense of certain tokens is reversed, and if you forget about it, you're doomed. And trust me - you will be forgetting. However, the most annoying bit for me was that some girls won't allow certain kind of gifts during the date. To be able to win the game on the Incel (Hard) difficulty (the finall boss fight is totally unforgiving), I ended up with a multi-sheet excel where I figured out which gifts to give to each girl so that there's no risk of the other girl not allowing the gift. And this, for me, crossed the line between a challenge and a chore.

Creaks
Created on 07 September, 2026 00:00
Creaks

Amanita goes full-blown gaming!

Amanita's games have often been casual affairs based on beautiful graphics, great soundtracks, and nonsencial sense of humor. Chuchel, the Samorost trilogy, and Pilgrims spring to mind here. Creaks, on the other hand, is a real puzzler that still keeps that trademark Amanita weirdness and sense of wonder. One night you discover that below your house, there's a complete strange world inhabited by some bird-ish (yet non-flying) folk - and monsters. The monsters follow nightmare logic - in the dark, they follow you and can kill you, but if you manage to hit them with light, they turn into pieces of regular furniture - chairs, coat stands, etc. - that you can use as weights, push them somewhere else or just bypass them. The game starts off real slow. The initial puzzles are very similar, taking a lot of time with introducing the game mechanics in all their usual weights & levers, floors & walls glory. Later, though, the difficulty increases, and even though the rule set is quite limited (e.g., there are only five regular enemies), the authors have managed to design some puzzles with really beautiful, original solutions. Not all of them are this inspired, though, and some of the mechanics didn't really click with me, which together with the slow start is the reason I don't give Creaks five stars. To avoid tedium, during the game, you discover a kind of mechanized pictures that you collect. Some of them are interactive, i.e., mini games, which are totally optional and serve only for more variety and achievements. There are also a lot of cut scenes that tell you the story of this weird world. The graphics have their own personality, and so does the soundtrack. I'm more of a mainstream guy who's not into indie experimental art, but Amanita is an exception that proves the rule: they always deliever something different, yet coherent, and weird, yet beautiful. It was great to see Amanita plunge into the waters of actual games (as in not being just playful but also offering the players an actual challenge). Creaks took me 8 hours to complete, and the length was enough to give me the feeling that I got bang for my buck while not overstaying its welcome.

Pilgrims
Created on 23 August, 2026 20:50
Pilgrims

Amanita cuteness with bad design choices

Earlier Amanita games have been known for their crazy playfulness and sense of humor, just putting a wide grin on your face. You can find this all in Pilgrims, too, but it's not as much fun as the other games. Pilgrims are about you needing to catch a little singing birdie whom you need to get a ride on a ferry. To catch the bird, you need to help a cast of really quirky characters (a forest bandit, a homeless hag, and a devil) to reach their own goals (get rich, get a home, and bring a sinful priest to hell). With this being an Amanita game, what can go wrong? When you're clicking through e.g. Chuchel or the Samorost games, once you get an idea of what will get you further, you usually try out all the wrong solutions first, just to see what happens, as Amanita have always been brilliant at creating hilarious situations and animations in their games. Here it comes at a cost, though, as Pilgrims are in fact a very old-school-ish adventure game with very simplistic but multilevel puzzles. E.g., to acquire the services of the bandit, he wants you to bring him a bottle of liquor. The innkeeper wants to exchange it for a cooked fish. To catch the fish, you need a fishing rod and a worm (and then a cauldron with water). You get these in various locations. Once you get the hang of it, you can breeze through the game in about 30-45 minutes. But here's the catch: while in the older games, you just clicked on one particular screen to get all the funny responses. In Pilgrims, to see all the uses of the bottle, you have to catch the fish and cook it etc. and exchange it for the bottle over and over again. Which becomes tiresome pretty fast. Others have found out that you need at least four different playthroughs to get all the achievements, and I stopped in the middle of my second one. I have no problem with the often beautiful moon logic of their games, but if a dragon tells you that if you deliver him a princess, he'll get you a treasure, and your character nods that they agree, you just don't expect them to find a different solution and call it a good one. I had fun during my first playthrough, and if at the end the game didn't show me that I had about a third of the available achievements (with me consequently finding about how repetitive getting the rest would be), I would definitely rank Pilgrims a star higher, but the way it's designed it overstayed its welcome.

Ballance
Created on 13 June, 2026 21:52
Ballance

It could have been a zen game

Ballance is a physics-based game where you guide a ball along a tricky surreal track somewhere high in the sky. Sometimes you are allowed and sometimes you're forced to change the material the ball is made of - paper can float on air jets created by fans, stone can push heavy obstacles, and wood is the default material. The authors have obviously set themselves a goal of creating a unique experience, and they succeeded. However, that doesn't automatically mean they created a perfect game. Ballance is about patience, precision, and planning. Slow and steady wins the race here, and you should think thrice before you make a move. The sound effects and especially the micro tunes in the game evoke a meditation and monasteries on mountain tops. So far so great. The gameplay isn't in compete sync with the above though, and you can't really call it frustration-free. On some occasions, you have to make blind choices resulting in life losses, and the final part of the final level requires more luck than skill. It tries to motivate you with high scores and a timer. The score factor didn't work for me (if I replay a puzzle game, it's because I want to return to the wow discoveries, not speedrun it) - and I lost quite a lot of lives under time pressure only to find out in the last level that the only thing the timer does is influence the score - if it runs down to zero, nothing happens! The controls are solid while you're rolling the ball. In the air, though, because of the minimalist graphics, you have no reference points to find out at which speeds you're moving along which axes, and before you find out, you're often falling to your death. If this was fixed, if it was clear from the beginning that the role of the timer is just cosmetic (or there was no timer at all) and you could freely move the camera around the level, so that you could actually plan your strategy instead of just guesstimating, it woud really be a relaxed, zen affair that you would experience at your own pace. Maybe. Because for whatever reason, my main problem with the game was that in about the final quarter (except the monorail - that's something to look forward to, as it's awesome!), it didn't really feel like a game anymore; in the end, completing it felt more like ticking off a chore.

Guns, Gore & Cannoli
Created on 02 January, 2026 06:43
Guns, Gore & Cannoli

Funny and uncompromisingly stylish

Wow, I thought they didn't make games like this anymore! Guns, Gore & Cannoli is a funny "jump'n'gun" platformer with a clear vision, lots of style, and refreshingly dark humor. You play Vinnie Cannoli, a 1920s gangster on a mission in Thugtown, which is suffering from... a zombie outbreak! So you'll be fighting zombies (e.g., apart from generic zombie citizens, there are zombie policemen, zombie strippers/dominatrices, zombie American football players, etc.), other gangsters, and also the U. S. Army, which stands between you and what you want - and, as the main protagonist says, "If they're not a part of the solution, they're a part of the problem." Main positives: + It's just fun to play! You can see how much effort has gone into variability of the game's tempo (segments with demanding precision fights interspersed with shorter, wilder ones, sometimes just rewarding you with chain-exploding many enemies just for the silly fun of it), different backgrounds and environments, and each weapon having its place in your arsenal. + The graphics are comics-stylized, and each and every element is imbued with humor, slightly or less slightly exaggerating various period or genre clichés. + Period-ish soundtrack. There's nothing like killing hundreds of zombies to the sound of a merry swing tune! + Clearly set goals - the game wants to put playability on top, be funny, and stick to its 1920s parody theme. And that's exactly what it does. Some negatives: - Just like I'm happy that there's no overpowered weapon in the game, in many segments I had a feeling that they were designed for one particular weapon to be used. The mechanic of having to find the right weapon for the situation just stood out a bit too much. - Switching fast between 9 different weapons isn't easy - you inevitably make mistakes trying to press the right key, so in the end I just cycled through them, even though it costs slightly more time. Also, changing weapons takes some time, and while you're doing it, you're a sitting duck. - My biggest gripe is the semi-random nature of the enemy spawns. In some places, you always get the same enemies, while in others, the game surprises you with different enemies in both strength and count. Here, the variability/randomness is one or two notches too much. I played the game on the Impossible difficulty, and quite often it happened that a randomly placed enemy pretty much meant having to start that segment again because there wasn't a gangster's chance in a zombie-infested neighborhood/house/room to get out of the situation alive. But well, even though the game isn't perfect, it hasn't happened to me for a while that I played a game for more than 24 hours straight. On the highest difficulty it can be very challenging, but you can see your learning curve, and most importantly, you always have fun.

The Procession to Calvary
Created on 27 December, 2025 11:27
The Procession to Calvary

Monty Python and the (Un)Holy Game

At the end of the holy war, our heroine is disappointed. She can't murder anyone anymore! So when she finds out that Heavenly Peter, the archvillain of the North, escaped, she decides to find and kill him. The Procession to Calvary is a sequel to Four Last Things, and it's one of those rare sequels that actually do everything better than their predecessors. The graphics are again composed of classical renaissance paintings (and the paintings as such are key to solving three of the puzzles), the soundtrack is again made of recordings of classical music in public domain, and onscreen, it is again played by musicians inserted into the picture sometimes in a completely crazy and sometimes very organic way. The game still follows the formula "The humor is dialed to eleven, a lot of the stuff is bizarre, but puzzles strictly make sense". And while they mostly just made sense in the first game, here they are simply done right. Some of the puzzles here are the kind of mult-stage puzzles that give you a sense of accomplishment once you figure them out. Obviously, there was a lot of testing done prior to the game's release, as exactly at the spots where some of the solutions are bordering unintuitive, there's a hint to the solution either in your character's reaction to an item or a surrounding dialogue. Also, the humor is now more general and not directed strictly at churches and religions. And there are less characters whose sole reason to exist in the game is just a funny comment on their looks (which became kinda tiresome after a while in the first game). Plus, once again, there's a nod to Monkey Island. The game's about two times bigger than Four Last Things and took me about 4.5 hours to solve. One non-spoiler hint for you: The game has 3 different endings, so I recommend saving just before you confront Heavenly Peter. To sum it up: One-in-a-million idea, great humor, some great puzzles. A fair rating would be about 4.5 stars, but 5 stars are something I reserve for stuff that oozes absolute perfection. So very, very strong 4 will have to do.

5 gamers found this review helpful
Four Last Things
Created on 27 December, 2025 10:34
Four Last Things

Beautifully bizarre (b)adventure

Four Last Things is a humorous point-and-click adventure about a guy who wants to confess his sins and get absolution, but the dudes in the local church have a strict rule of absolving only the sins committed in their parish. So yeah, they will entertain his request, but only if he commits the seven deadly sins again on their turf. The entire graphics are made of classical renaissance paintings enhanced with crazy animations in Monty Python style. Likewise, the soundtrack is made of recordings of classical music in public domain. In each of the game's "rooms", there actually are some musicians playing that particular piece, and our hero can hum along and even praise the musicians. Which sums up the beautifully silly, yet witty humor of the game. The "Church'n'religion are baaad, mmmkay" attitude is a bit tiresome towards the end, but I knew what I was buying, so complaining about it would be unfair. The humor may be nonsensical at times, but the puzzles are not. The inner logic of the puzzles always makes sense (and on the one occasion when I didn't know the how-to, the character just committed one of the sins just by the way during a dialogue). The dev is obviously a fan of Monkey Island (there's even a mention of a three-headed monkey). There are some multi-stage puzzles and some timed puzzles as well, but I never really got seriously stuck in the game. It's on the shorter side - I solved it in about 2.5 hours in one go. Overall, I'd rate the game with 3.5 stars (while its sequel, The Procession to Calvary, is kinda 4.5 stars for me), but it definitely is above average, is based on an ingenious idea, and I had a lot of fun with it, so 4 it is.

BLACKHOLE
Created on 26 December, 2025 07:31
BLACKHOLE

Nice idea ruined by imprecise controls

I am a hardcore gamer, and I rarely leave games unfinished, but Blackhole, in spite of all of its positives, is a game I don't intend to return to. It's an arcade puzzle platformer where you need to fix a ship but that crashed-landed in a black hole (there's an inner logic explanation of it in the game). You have to collect a special substance, which - what a nice coincidence - also contains some nanobots that will help you fix the ship. Getting the substance requires solving a puzzle (figuring out how to get it, mostly using gravity-changing walls) and precise execution. I can't really tell you more, as I'm leaving the game after 11 out of its 90+ levels. The good bits: funny, comics-styled graphics, soundtrack (I had bought it on Bandcamp before I even bought the game), and the slightly crazy AI that guides the hero through the game. Based on the trailer, I was really looking forward to playing the game. The bad bit: the controls / game design. The controls just aren't precise enough for me to feel in control of the main character. I love a good challenge. But when it happened to me for the third of fourth time that I just couldn't tell whether I'm just not executing my chosen strategy well enough or I'm just trying something that will never work, I realized it wasn't a challenge but just bad design. It may not bother if you play the game just casually, as it's enough to collect just one piece in each level, but if you play the game for the challenge and want to sweep every level clean, you'll run into this problem time and again. And well, game stores are full of games with physics-based puzzles.

ScubaVenture: The Search for Pirate's Treasure
Created on 20 December, 2025 16:15
ScubaVenture: The Search for Pirate's Treasure

Sub-par even for its time

ScubaVenture is an underwater adventure about getting a fabled treasure from the wreckage of a pirate ship. On your way, you'll meet with all kinds of hostile fauna, rival divers, and ghosts! In each of the 8 levels, you have to find a special treasure before you're allowed to move on. Having a Commodore 64 on my table, I always review games having their time of origin in mind. But as I actually remember gaming in those times, I'm sad to say that ScubaVenture was below average even back then. It was developed by Apogee just to get rid of their contractual duties to Softdisk, and it shows. The one good thing I can say about the game is that it has got OK graphics - stylish, imbued with a sense of humor. Other than that, it's rather on the short side (I completed it in about 5 hours, mostly because of the hardcore die-and-restart-a-level attitude - a net playthrough lasts slightly below an hour), has only bleepy sound effects, and average level design. But the biggest problem is the pacing. One of the key mechanics is the oxygen, which you can replenish at oxygen geysers. However, said geysers release a bubble of oxygen only now and then, so you have to get there and then wait... and wait... and wait. A few times, the semi-random nature of this meant that even though I stopped at a geyser only to play it safe, I died because it didn't release the bubble. Same for the enemies. Sometimes, you need to lure them away from a certain place and then outswim them back to it. But as the enemies mostly move very slowly, having them follow you is very tedious, as once again, most of the time you just have to wait for them. If I hadn't had a soft spot for oldies, I would never have forced myself to complete the game, because such a large part of it is only about waiting. Had it been released about 5 years earlier, it might have been a decent game. But in 1993, even the PC (which wasn't the best gaming machine by a large mile at that time) already had games like Prince of Persia (1989) or Apogee's own Commander Keen (1990) and Duke Nukem I (1991). Of course, if ScubaVenture was one of the first games you got to play as a kid, just disregard my rambling and have fun! Otherwise, there are many other, much better good old games from the same period available here on GOG.

1 gamers found this review helpful