Game Recommendation #7: Papers, Please

Welcome to Arstotzka, where you are now a border immigration officer who is trying to survive cold winters while serving your country. You must keep out immigrants who come from countries you do not have open borders with and let the others pass. It sounds like an uninteresting premise, but thrill and puzzlement shine through this addictive dystopian thriller puzzle game.

Gameplay and Story

Papers, please is made by indie game developer Lucas Pope, published through his game company 3909. The game starts out with you receiving your new job, and you must begin immediately. Each round will start out by telling you the regulations. A person will pass through your station and hand you a passport. You are the one responsible for making sure that the person meets the regulations and you decide by either rejecting them or letting them through.

At the end of each round, you will get paid and you have to organize your funds so that you can survive and take care of your family. You get paid every round, but its dependent on how well you did during the round.

The game gets increasingly more difficult with each round, as political conflicts rise with Artstotska and its neighbors. This is the puzzle aspect of the game, as you have to balance your work so you can let as many immigrants in as possible.

Who would I recommend this to? 

The game has decent graphics, and the art style accompanies the dystopian tone underlying the gameplay and story. Even though the game is essentially paperwork, it quickly gets addicting and the ambiance of the story adds to the fun. A good game to check out if you enjoy puzzles,

 the game is priced at $9.99 on Steam. Glory to Atstotska!

Game Recommendation #5: Hyper Light Drifter

To start up this blog again, I will be recommending a game that came out just recently. Hyper Light Drifter by Heart Machine is one of the most recent indie games, it just came out less than a month ago. It's one of the most ambitious Game Maker projects, raising money on Kickstarter. It's a beautiful exploring RPG with challenging gameplay and a gripping story. 

Story 

The game starts out with an intro sequence. There is no dialogue, but there is music to add drama to the scene. Your character has to fight off monsters, and to do so, has to collect pieces from ancient temples and upgrade their abilities. You can talk to the NPC's to slowly learn more about what is going on, but everything is visual. 

Gameplay 

The gameplay in Hyper Light Drifter is challenging but fun. (It's recommended to play with a game controller.) You have a sword, a gun, and the ability to 'light drift'. This lets you run away faster and get through puzzles. You usually encounter groups of enemies to kill off before running out of health. There is also a lot of platforming, but it never gets frustrating. There is a large challenge in balancing your health since you can only heal yourself if you find health packs. 

Graphics

Out of all the games that I have recommended so far, this is the most breathtaking to look at. All of the character and enemy designs are unique, the backgrounds are stunning and the colors pop. Knowing how hard it is to use Game Maker, the visuals are outstanding. They add to the story and gameplay, never being too distracting. 

Who would I recommend this to? 

I would recommend this to someone who is ready for a challenge and love pixel art. It can get frustrating, but it's not game ruining. So if you have the time to appreciate beautiful art and story with complex gameplay, then you can buy it on Steam for $19.99. The heart put into the project really shows in the beauty of all its aspects. 

So what do you think of Hyper Light Drifter? What should I recommend next? 

Game Recommendation #5: OxenFree

OxenFree by Night School Studio is an audio-based game that has interesting characters, story, and diverse gameplay. It is a thriller, but it doesn't start that way.

Story

You are a girl who is with her friend and step-brother, and you are headed to a party on the beach of a mysterious island. You can decide how the dialogue goes as you are given a set of options. You have a radio and you and your friends start to notice the mysterious things going on, especially when you start listening to audio channels with white noise.

All of the characters are teenagers with a variety of personalities and relations to one another. You slowly learn more of the background information through the dialogue.

Graphics

This game has very beautiful backgrounds and unique character design. The background and the character models can be a bit off balance sometimes since the backgrounds are 2-D and the characters are 3-D, but they still blend pretty well.

Gameplay

In the opening sequence, you learn the basics of the gameplay. Whenever you are given an option to talk, about three dialogue options will pop up. You can decide to be mean or nice, and it can change how the characters view you later or what happens in the story. As people are talking you can move around, grab things, push things, or turn on the radio. You need to really listen a lot in this game so that you don't miss important dialogue or when you have to turn on the radio. The gameplay is fairly easy to grasp onto, and the story makes it more intriguing.

Who would I recommend this to?

I would recommend this game to people who enjoy interactivity, character interaction, interesting stories and beautiful backgrounds. I would recommend playing this game with a really good set of headphones since you really need to be paying attention to the audio. It can be found on Steam for (I need to check the price I think its 19.99 but it might be 11.99 but its on Steam) In conclusion, this game is a great game to play when you just feel like sitting back and listening to an interesting story.

New Year Update! Top Games of the Year + New Posts Coming Soon!

It's a new year, meaning that this blog is active once again. To start up the new year, I would first like to state what I consider to be the top three indie games to come out this year. These are games that I already made a recommendation post for so you can check those out if you want to know more about the game.

Top #3: 

-#3: Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt

"Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt (by Ludosity developers) is a fun, challenging RPG (role-playing game), and guess what? It's free! You can find it on Steam for free, and you can get a prequel expansion pack (Princess Remedy in a Heap of Trouble) for $2.99 (I have yet to finish the game so I haven't seen the expansion pack yet)."-Recommendation Post #2 
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I feel that Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt deserves to be number 3 in the Top Games of the Year because it has the best value of all the games shown on this blog, being free of course. For that price, it packs plenty of content, characters, and gameplay.

-#2: Stardew Valley

"Stardew Valley (published by Chuckle Fish and developed by Concerned Ape) is one of the most addictingly fun games out there. It uses the elements of Animal Crossing, Facebook games, and phone games, adds depth and complex gameplay, and then creates something new." -Recommendation Post #3
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Stardew Valley is given the number 2 spot here because it is the game that has taken up the most time in my life. It's highly addicting atmosphere and ambiance makes it a fun way to spend the time, developing your farm and feeling like you're accomplishing something. It was all developed by ONE person, so it's existence is a plea of passion on its own, nevermind all the options and beautiful design that it has. 

-#1: Undertale 

"Now here's one you've probably all have heard about by now. Undertale, developed and published by independent creator toby fox, is one of the most popular indie games in recent years. It gained popularity as YouTubers everywhere began to play it. It's not that hard to understand, though, it has a complex story that changes depending on how you play it, interesting characters and settings, a new take on RPG gameplay, and it was all made by only a handful of people. " -Recommendation Post #4
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Undertale achieves the number one spot here because it was worth its price and has all of the characteristics that a good game should have. It's a story told through battle and quirky characters, and a lot of heart and passion was put into this. Its popularity has already reached its peak, but it's still a worthy game to check out. 

Now that that's settled, I would like to move on to talking about some of the games that I will be making Recommendation Posts later throughout the year.

Recommendation Posts

Hyper Light Drifter

-Hyper Light Drifter is a new indie game that came out last November. It is highly puzzling and addicting and uses a unique fighting RPG style with beautiful graphics.

OxenFree

-OxenFree is a very interactive game with well-developed characters and well made 3-D graphics.

Psychonauts

-Psychonauts is a well made 3-D game with a complex story and characters that has been around for many years now. 

Papers, please

-Papers, please is a simple puzzle game with simple graphics, but its story and atmosphere add to its core gameplay.