Common'hood

Common'hood is a type of indie sandbox game where you must scavenge and build in order to survive. We play as a young girl, Nikki who has lost her father along with her home. She is now on her own and must learn to survive. She packed up her dad's truck with whatever she could grab and drove to his old workplace. Upon entering, she finds a group of people who are living in the abandoned building.

I haven't played this game long enough to give an entire review on it, but I will give you my personal experience playing the game on 2-3 occasions. In the beginning, you have a short sort of tutorial where it tells you to meet the people you will be living alongside. You become acquaintances with them but are not friends right off of the bat. The game shows you how to use blueprints to build items and teaches you the basics to get the ball rolling.

Personally, I was a bit confused with some of the controls. I know half of it is an operator error, but the other half was specifically a small issue that would occur when trying to build certain objects with blueprints. Little building issues aside, I did enjoy playing this game. I didn't get overly far, but I did manage to recruit a few people to join my crew, I progressed several times with building things like the bridge to cross to the other side and repairing the crane. It's a pretty cozy game to play.

Overall, I would recommend getting this game if you prefer sandbox types of games like this. I would maybe recommend getting it on sale if possible. I played it while it was available for free on xbox game pass. I wouldn't say it is necessarily a bad game by any means, I just personally feel like the building issues kind of slowed my gameplay down. I had to wait for my crew to help build certain items that I was not able to complete on my own. I just couldn't fully get in the game to be able to progress far enough in the game to give a full review. I know steam has a free demo version if you'd like to try the game out for free. I believe Common'hood is also available to purchase on steam or xbox/xbox pc app. You can also check out my first and second video playing it on my YouTube channel.

What Never Was

In What Never Was, we play as Sarah who's grandfather has recently passed away. She must begin cleaning out his attic all on her own. There are some more general items she recalls when moving throughout the room, but she soon realizes there is some sort of story to uncover. It makes her wonder if she really knew the whole truth about her grandfather.

As I mentioned before, you begin the game just inspecting what is in the room. Sarah will give a bit of information about certain clickable objects. In the beginning of my gameplay, she mentions how he "sure did like his books" along with describing other mundane objects. Soon, I came across his old travel diary and how it may be missing a few pages. This begins our search for the missing pages while inspecting the room further.

We also come across an old tape recording that he has seemingly left for Sarah to find. This gives more background on the close relationship they had and how he kept secrets from the family. He cryptically informs her that he now needs her help and that she must see things for herself. I won't spoil the game any further, but the rest of the gameplay consists of searching for clues and solving mini puzzles to find out what this big secret is and how Sarah must help.

What Never Was is a fairly short game unless you're like me and it takes you a little longer to complete the puzzles or be confused about the controls. More of an operator error on my part. Regardless, I think you should check this game out. It was a nice break from the hectic games and horror games I had been playing around that time. This game is free to play on steam. You can get it yourself or feel free to check out my playthrough if you click here! What Never Was Chapter II is currently in the works and available to add to your wishlist on steam. I will most likely be revisiting this game again once the new chapter is released.

Dollmare

In Dollmare, we begin our new job at a very odd toy factory. We are desperate to make some money, so we take on this part time job regardless of the rumors about its shady reputation. For some reason, we are the only employee at this factory. We never meet our boss in person, but we can see him up in his office window as he gives us instructions over the loudspeaker. It's a bit strange but we don't have much of a choice if we'd like to keep affording rent.

Our job is to sort through the dolls at our workstation and dispose of any that don't pass inspection. Throughout the game, our job becomes more and more difficult. Soon the imperfections show up on many of the dolls and we are required to repair them and check for imperfections that are not visible to the naked eye. Personally, I think our boss begins making up some of these imperfections but maybe that's just me.

As the days go by, things begin to get more strange and personally more stressful lol. Along with the additional repairs and quality checks, we are eventually required to package dolls up to mail out to customers. This leads to us to leaving the work area and eventually needing to explore more of the factory to fix malfunctions. It's up to us to stay alive and find out what is going on in this place.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing Dollmare. I think it took me a over 2 hours to play through the first time, but I did end up going back and seeing if I can get the second ending. I don't wanna spoil things too much, but some of your decisions during the gameplay will lead you to the type of ending you get. This game is available for purchase on steam. I highly recommend trying out Dollmare for yourself, or you can check out my play through if you click here!

Rot in Paradise

In Rot in Paradise, we play as June who is about to go on vacation with some friends. At first the resort seems super fancy and like this is going to be the best time. Sowly, they begin to notice some things are not adding up. What's up with these strange guest encounters and things slowly beginning to fall apart.

In the beginning, we are introduced to McCoy, Vonnie, Carmen and Ryan. They take the ferry to an island resort for a weekend getaway. There is a bit of an odd encounter before checking in, but June quickly brushes things off. They get settled into their room and decide to check out the bar.

Throughout the rest of the game, we get to know a little more about these different characters. They spend time at the beach and check out what else the resort has to offer. Soon things begin to get more and more strange. June can't help but notice these strange occurrences.

Rot in Paradise has 2 different endings, both left me a bit speechless during my playthrough. I highly recommend you check out this game for yourself. It is a fairly short 2D horror visual novel which makes it easier to go back to try for the second ending. Rot in Paradise is created by the same game developer who made Elevator Hitch and Dead Plate which I've previously played and wrote about. This game is available to download on itch io, or you can also click here if you'd like to watch my playthrough.

This Bed We Made

This Bed We Made takes place in the 1950s. We play as Sophie who is a maid at the Clarington Hotel. Throughout the game, we explore the hotel as we complete her work tasks and interact with fellow coworkers. While cleaning the hotel rooms, we soon discover there is a sinister mystery for us to solve.

Throughout your playthrough, you have a lot of freedom in how you interact with the objects and job tasks, but all of your actions will determine your fate. This game has multiple directions the storyline can go in with multiple endings depending on your decisions throughout the game.

Sometimes, even the smallest decisions can end up affecting the lives of those within the hotel. You can also choose who you want to become allies with as you begin trying to solve this mystery. I really enjoyed being able to interact with Sophie's coworkers.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing This Bed We Made. I don't want to go on and accidentally spoil anything before you get to try the game out for yourself. I highly recommend you do. Just make sure you are mindful about the decisions you make. This game is available for purchase on xbox, playstation and steam if you decide to check it out. If you'd like to check out my playthrough you can click here!

What Remains of Edith Finch

 In What Remains of Edith Finch, we play as Edith Finch as she returns to her childhood home. We explore the different rooms and land to learn more about her family members and what has become of them.

This game has beautiful scenery outside and very detailed room inside of the home. The storylines of each character were well crafted and often a more interactive story where we get to play from that person's point of view. It helped understand a little more about them.

I really enjoyed playing this game as we ventured through discovering even more about the people that Edith thought she already knew. They all seemed to have so much more going on than meets the eye. I enjoyed how the art style would often change in order to shift the mood of the whole storytelling sections.

I would definitely recommend playing this game. It isn't your average explorative game. I'm not going to sit here and write that this is the most revolutionary game or anything, but I genuinely enjoyed playing along as we made our way through the Finch home. At times the story can take a sad turn but overall, it was a great game to play. If you would like to play for yourself, this game is available for purchase on multiple gaming platforms. If you would like to check out my play throughs, you can click here for Part 1 and click here for Part 2.

Dead Plate

 Dead Plate is a 2D restaurant tycoon themed rpg horror game. Part of this game include visual novel and point and click elements. We play as Rody who is trying to make as much money as possible within a week. We get hired at a fancy bistro and begin work as a waiter.

I grew up playing games like Jane's hotel, Diner Dash and Delicious (Emily's New Beginning). So, this game was perfect for me to play. The section serving the customers could sometimes be a bit frustrating, but I think that is more of me fumbling with the keys rather than the game set up. I very much enjoyed that aspect of the game, but I also liked the point and click sections to learn more about our characters.

This game is made by the same developer that made Elevator Hitch, racheldrawsthis. Similar to Elevator Hitch, Dead Plate has multiple endings to it, and there is more to the game than meets the eye. There's is a lot more to this story then just serving customers in a hurry and saving up to buy your next add on from the magazine advertisement.

I definitely recommend you try this game out if you are a fan of games like diner dash or games with horror intertwined in the storyline. I was completely surprised when I reached the end of the game. You can download this game for free on itch io, or you can check out my play through if you click here!