FMV games are generally pretty shallow and you'd be better off just watching a movie or show, but I thought Five Dates was charming and satisfying enough for what it was. This one encourages replays with good fast forward features, and the fact that you can only see dates with three of the five women play out in your first run through.

This came out in 2020 and was clearly written and filmed with the pandemic era in mind, as Covid looms over the entire story. I think that actually works in the game's favor because the way these people are taking their video call dates very seriously is more realistic- it's the best they have. For me, Maya was so obviously the right pick of the five that it made the other dates kind of pointless, but that just might be a personal preference. The game relies heavily on the charm of these people and the lead character Vinny makes us like him and root for him to succeed. Shoutout to his best friend and wingman Callum who is just a super endearing and funny supporting character.

I had a lot of fun with this ultimately and would recommend, even though it's pretty short and admittedly cringey at times.

This one had a really enticing premise- teams of spies sneaking around a little playground of NPCs, trying to blend in and discreetly hack and score points. The game itself only somewhat accomplishes the fun potential of that.

I liken this a bit to my experience with the Assassin’s Creed multiplayers. It’s a nice thought to sneak around acting like an NPC, but real-life players who have spent a lot of time with this will generally know what to look for and it turns into a messy shootout more often than not. It’s hard to act that discreet when you’re trying to accomplish your hacking goals.

Deceive, Inc. attempts to spruce up its multiplayer loop with some goofy gadgets and character unlock system (which unfortunately leans heavily on a battle pass even though this isn’t free to play). However, nothing here was enticing enough to keep my friends and I around long enough to really get good at this and understand its intricacies. I still really like the cartoon spy style of the game, but it doesn’t really capture that stealth espionage feeling I was hoping for.

Ironbark Lookout is the second Fears to Fathom release from Rayll this year, and certainly the most ambitious yet for the series. This chapter takes us out into the dark woods as a new watchman in a fire tower. Think about the unease of isolation in Firewatch, and add some genuine horror elements, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what this one is going for.

Jump scare games are a dime a dozen on Steam, but the Fears to Fathom series distinguishes itself from the pack with how much love and care are so clearly going into them. There's so much detail going into creating the environment and immersing you into living at this fire tower that you can't help but appreciate it. You visit a full realized diner that I'm sure took a while to render right at the start, and nothing of real note happens there other than a bit of foreboding dialogue. I liked figuring out how to do the little tasks for the job along with everyday routines like getting more wood for the fireplace or cooking pasta. The runtimes of these games are getting longer, but they aren't really packing in extra scares. I continue to think Rayll seems more interested in crafting these environments and simulating living in them than the scary parts.

When the spooky parts do come, they will get your blood pumping but feel pretty rushed after all that build-up. I wanted one or two more encounters with this game's main threat, since it felt like it was all over right when shit hit the fan. There are some great moments right at the end but the credits are rolling in no time.

Despite the weird pacing of these games they have a ton of personality and charm and I find myself enjoying them more and more with each entry. I'll of course be looking forward to whatever is next from the Fears to Fathom franchise.

Carson House returns the Fears to Fathom series back to basics with another suburban house location, with you trying to survive an intruder. It's clear how far the developer Rayll has come from the first game as there's a surprising level of interactivity and detail around the house. There's even a section where you bike to the grocery store, with real purpose to the story other than to show off a fully modeled store and shake things up from the house location. It's funny how long these games are taking to the get to the scary bits- almost like Rayll just wants to make a chill, immersive lo-fi life sim but has to get the jump scares in there somewhere to sell copies.

Carson House has a very oddly told story, with a massive red herring that ultimately has nothing to do with the direction it takes. It's pretty befuddling because the foreshadowing is so strong that I was expecting some huge reveal and then what is really going on is pretty simple and not all that interesting. Even still, the climax will leave you pretty breathless, with more forgiving checkpoints than chapter two, and ultimately this was another good time.

The second Fears to Fathom game expands a bit in ambition as it takes place across several locations. This one picks up as your character wearily makes the long drive home from a concert, late at night. After a gas station stop, your car breaks down and you're left having to hitchhike to a nearby motel with sketchy characters. Norwood Hitchhike is effective in that you aren't too sure when the scares are going to start, so it leaves you in suspense. Maybe it's because there's so much downtime but when the jump scares do come they are oddly more effective than I find them to be in other games.

In my first run on Norwood Hitchhike, when my car broke down I thought I'd better start walking down the road. A car passed by me but then I was left in on a mountain road, walking seemingly endlessly for maybe twenty minutes. I realized when I reloaded the game that you were supposed to just wait by your car. Whoops!

That one was on me, but there are some trial-and-error elements in this, without many checkpoints, which makes repeating some of the gameplay more frustrating than I would've liked. It definitely holds back the experience somewhat, but Fears to Fathom 2 is still surprisingly fun despite its low-budget stylings and its place in the jump scare genre.

Think indie WarioWare, Pureya is all about bite-sized minigames leading with a fast gameplay loop of collecting marbles and dropping them into one of those gacha game style coin drop machines to unlock various prizes. The minigames are reasonably fun, and it's all about trying to get as many marbles as you can rather than a pass/fail system. If you mess up, you're just stunned and don't have as much time to collect. Do well and the minigames will speed up, giving you a chance to collect more marbles in a run but with a higher level of difficulty. All of the minigames are based off of two buttons which makes for a simple arcade feeling to it all.

I definitely found myself growing weary playing the coin drop game so constantly after a while, which is why I fell off playing this game fairly close to unlocking all the minigames and by extension reaching the credits. Pureya is fun in bite-sized chunks, the sort of game you can put on for a few very quick rounds before your friends get on to play whatever the main game you all might be playing that night. That's how I've treated it at least and have had a fairly okay time with it.

Super fun and addictive way to frame a trivia game. Majotori tells tiny little stories where Lariat the witch visits various characters, and challenges them to trivia. Your number of correct answers determines how likely it is that the character gets a happy ending. The little stories are very funny, win or lose, and in some of them I was surprised how I was immediately invested enough to care if my trivia guesses were landing.

Majotori's questions target its audience, so prepare for nostalgic anime and video game questions from a specific era. If you aren't knowledgeable in one of its categories, I could see where it might grow a little frustrating. I did like how there were plenty of questions to not see any repeats, at least in an initial run-through of the game.

Majotori is just a fun little trivia experience that was enjoyable to breeze through.

It's hard to describe why I had a good time with this. The game is janky as hell, with no margin for error and no room for improvisation. You have to play most of its levels exactly how they're intended. Each is a minute long, max, if you have a flawless run, but a lot of time is going to be spent dying over and over again.

There are three level types, shooting levels, punching/kicking levels with time slow-down mechanics, and then levels with limited ammo where you have to time headshots to take out multiple goons at once. I didn't really like the martial arts levels but they are pretty easy to cheese if you're not feeling them, unlike the other two level types which require deadly accuracy.

The vibes are there, with a pulsating synth soundtrack and the PSX-style graphic violence. The sound effects are cartoonish but feel right. There's even a bit of a simple martial arts story here that sort of worked for me. Overall this was a decent time, especially as a free game.

This is a free student project and for what it is- it's pretty fun. They definitely deserve a good grade for their handiwork. The game seems a little torn between being educational about wholly mammoths and being a silly mammoth wrecking simulator, since it flips back and forth. You'll go from peacefully trekking across the landscape enjoying some narration, to wreaking havoc on hostile human settlements. I appreciated that the game never felt difficult, and I had no trouble wiping the floor with these pesky humans and protecting my mammoth child. It's a fun enough 40 minutes for what it is with a satisfying ending.

My biggest question about this jump scare game- is why does it not advertise more that it is Christmas themed? This one confines you mostly to a single house location and does it best to startle you, but for me it was just irritating and lame. At one point I got very stuck trying to figure out what object they wanted me to click on to progress (it turned out to be a candy cane on a tree). Ultimately a very forgettable one- it becomes clear quickly how similar jump scare games become if you play too many of them.