I'm disappointed with this one. I loved their first game "In other waters". I was expecting a similar level of impact with Citizen Sleeper but it just didn't work for me.

The artstyle is lovely and the UI design is clean. Absolutely adore the character designs. The music is decent but In Other Water's soundtrack is more memorable in my opinion.

The writing is all over the place. There are a few compelling stories here but a lot of it is just bland. You are supposed to be this outcast android struggling to survive but everyone treats you like a savior character right from the start. The writing is nowhere close to being strong enough to compete with the likes of Disco Elysium and it's not good enough to carry a game like this, where game mechanics take a step back.

As a bundle compilation of how the Wii remote could be used, this does a great job. Everyone knows how these sports work in real life, and translating that into a game like remote really helped introduce people to the gaming like control scape, and really allowed for lots of people to experience games; even if alot of said games where not particularly "main stream." Beyond such however, Wii Sports is just really well put together, climbing the ranks to fight harder opponents, endlessly playing against freinds, and the many practice games make the game feel very complete, especially considering its bundle status. If anything, I would have liked more golf maps, but given how distributed all quality of all the games turned out to be, I can overlook it.

Buckshot Roulette is a decent proof of concept, but the problem is that the game it's a demo for already exists: Inscryption. The setup is extremely similar, you face off in a bizarre, lo-fi, grungy game against a mysterious, creepy entity, your life and body on the line. But where Inscryption was genuinely scary and had a surprising amount of depth to its gameplay, Buckshot Roulette is just that. It's Russian Roulette with a few extra wrinkles.

Those wrinkles may actually detract from the experience too. The first round or two are pretty much chance, and feel pretty damn tense. But then the game introduces some rudimentary tools you can use to your advantage. The main result of this change is that Buckshot gets substantially easier the closer you get to the end, which destroys what little horror the game had to begin with. By the time I'd reached the credits, I just felt a huge itch to return to Inscryption rather than any sense of satisfaction with the game I'd just played.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh. Buckshot Roulette is ultimately an example of horror games at their best. It's weird, it's short and it's very cheap, and if you haven't played Daniel Mullins' best, then there's no reason not to try it out. Even if you haven't, there's still something here. It's rawer, more immediate and brutal, and the framing of the backroom of a Eastern European nightclub is thematically delicious, even if it doesn't really do anything with its narrative potential. Give it a go, but don't expect much more than an unevenly cooked and unmemorable aperitif before moving on to a more interesting and substantial entree.

Once again, another puzzle game with a fascinating and original mechanic cripples itself with a naff story. Viewfinder is frequently surprising and has some pretty decent puzzling, but good lord the story is beyond mediocre. It wouldn't be so bad if it would just shut the hell up for a minute rather than constantly battering you with meaningless audio logs and incessant companions. Apparently, a pleasant English woman talking at you all the time isn't enough, you also need a pleasant Scottish cat to tell you how clever the puzzles are.

Even I feel that that was probably too harsh. But to be honest I'm so tired of playing these puzzle games that have such an interesting idea but instead waste time on nothing stories rather than building on the concept with more levels. Viewfinder is only about three hours long if you're experienced with this kind of game, so it doesn't have the room to cram in a saccharine and confusing yarn that could have been pulled from any other middling Portal-like. Just as Superliminal, Turing Test and Light Matter before it, Viewfinder ultimately fails its genius central mechanic.

There is plenty to be praised here though, don't get me wrong. The photo placing and manipulation is an idea that is as technically impressive and innovative as the Portals in Portal were back in 2007. The levels are fairly well paced too, but I found the levels I truly enjoyed were the optional puzzles, which were a lot trickier than the main content. Ideally more of these would have been fantastic. Portal can rest on its laurels in terms of optional content because Valve knows they have a willing fanbase who will churn out content an unimaginable rate, but indie puzzle games like Viewfinder don't have the luxury of mod tools, so need to come with more content. As it stands, I can't say that even half of the puzzling potential has been extracted out of Viewfinder's concept.

My opening tone is less an indication of anger and more frustration. I'm disappointed that such a great idea feels somewhat squandered, but perhaps I should be analysing what is here rather than what could be. And what is in Viewfinder is largely pretty good. Tune out the story and don't bother with the collectables and you'll find a fun, occasionally challenging puzzler that frustrates as often as it delights.