Before I Forget is a narrative game exploring the life of Sunita, who has dementia. By moving through her house, players will unlock memories that she had previously forgotten. These are visualised with the spread of colour through the previously monochrome rooms, an effective way…
Windlands 2 is easily the strangest feeling I’ve ever had in VR. A virtual reality platformer, the game asks the player to swing from branch to branch using their twin grappling hooks. The movement that this system creates is incredibly engaging, but intense enough that…
Smoke and Sacrifice first hooked me in with its protagonist: a mother. Strangely rare in games, given how many fathers there are, this game’s is called Sachi. Sachi’s tale begins when she is forced to sacrifice her son to the mysterious priesthood, spurring her on…
Raji: An Ancient Epic might have been the most gorgeous game at EGX Rezzed. Influenced by Hindu and Balinese legends, the titular Raji must go on a journey to rescue her brother and defeat a demon lord. Other than exploring the beautiful environments, the player…
Morkredd is interesting because its monochrome aesthetic and the menacing dark that players must avoid contrasts cleanly with how much I laughed playing it. You’d expect a game with this kind of aesthetic to be tense, and it is, to an extent. But with two…
Lost Ember has some of the most adorable animals in games I’ve ever seen – especially the wombats. And to make it better, you get to play as these cute critters. Beginning as a wolf, you meet a strange spirit who seems to be seeking…
Knights and Bikes is nostalgic for the 80s – but not in the sense that it’s riddled with cheap pop culture references. Instead, it focuses on childhood, friendship, and how it felt to get the freedom of your first bicycle. The game follows Nessa and…
This here post marks the 5,000th story published on Cliqist. To the casual reader that’s not necessarily a big deal, but to me it’s mind blowing. Since launching in August 2013 Cliqist has gone through countless design changes, nearly a hundred staff writers, and more…
I usually try to avoid comparing games to other games, but when Inkle Studios’ Art and Code Director Joseph Humfrey called Heaven’s Vault “Guitar Hero but for linguistics,” it made a lot of sense. Blending sci-fi and history, the game follows archaeologist Aliya Elasra and…
I’m not going to lie, Ooblets was by far and away my most anticipated game of EGX Rezzed – and it did not disappoint. The critter collecting, battle training, and farming simulator combo has consistently looked beautiful, charming, and funny, and its demo was no…
Lake Ridden is an upcoming narrative game centred on 13 year old Marie, who is searching for her missing sister in the Maine wilderness. Their recent press demo had me exploring an attic, solving puzzles to move forward. They were smartly balanced – not too…
Homo Machina is the upcoming game from the developers at Darjeeling, based on the works of the pioneering science writer Dr. Fritz Kahn. In the 1920s, Dr. Kahn released five volumes of anatomical illustration that imagined the human body as a vast, interlocking series of…
A stunning and addictive game. Where we help Dika navigate her mysterious and magical dream. You will be playing with Dika, a little girl who is lost and completely disoriented in a mysterious and magical dream, where she will have to find the mysterious secrets…
Elizabethan astronomer and doctor Simon Forman operated in the late 1500s, healing patients and giving them advice based on the position of the stars. Now, developers at Nyamyam are turning his real case books into a game with Astrologaster. Equally real characters, from barmaids to…
Another Sight centres on Kit, a teenage girl who loses her sight in an accident while exploring the unfinished London Underground tunnels of 1899. But her blindness doesn’t stop her from continuing to adventure, with the help of a fluffy feline friend called Hodge. The…
When I first got an email asking if I’d like to book a demo with Epyka, I thought the game must be made specifically for me. Not just because it stars Jack, a helpful canine companion, though that is a major draw, but also because…