The Tartarus Key
I finished The Tartarus Key yesterday, which is an adventure/puzzle game designed to have graphics that resemble that of a Playstation 1 game. It is very much a horror game, but it wasn't too frightening. I was startled a couple times. It is a little creepy and weird. You play as Alex who finds herself locked inside an office in a mansion. Seemingly alone, she has to solve a puzzle to get out of the room, and then she comes into contact with an ex-cop, and together they must find a way out of the mansion and beat someone's sick game, and perhaps find other people along the way?
So, this game was a similar idea to Escape Rooms. There's basically a puzzle in every room you have to solve in order to get out. I really enjoyed solving these puzzles and figuring them out was truly satisfying to me. They were just in that right level of difficulty to me. I could work my brain without becoming too frustrated. I'd also write down notes in my phone, which was useful. Later in the game I was looking up hints though. Some of those puzzles literally meant life or death to someone, so I wanted to make sure I didn't screw up. This added a layer of tension to the stakes. Saving before you make a fatal mistake is essential. I did wish there were more than three save slots though.
It can also affect the ending. I think there's basically the good ending, the bad ending, and the ending I got, which is known as the true ending. I was OK with getting that one. The story was intriguing. You're not really sure what's going on. Is it some highly intelligent psychopath's game or is there a more paranormal twist to this? The characters were pretty interesting too. I really didn't want to accidentally kill anyone, so I made sure to save everybody. There's no voice acting though, but there wouldn't have been for this style of game if it had been made in the late 90s.
All in all, I really liked this game with its enjoyable puzzles and all the weird creepy going ons in the mansion. Here's a screenshot. Main character, Alex (why they make her do all the dirty work of solving the puzzles, I'll never know) and Torres. Alex is genre savvy.
So, there's this little sub-genre (I think?) of adventure games called “found phone”games. Well, I'm going to play that sort of game next. Actually there's two games in this series. The first is called A Normal Lost Phone, and it's what it sounds like. Find a phone, solve a mystery.
So, this game was a similar idea to Escape Rooms. There's basically a puzzle in every room you have to solve in order to get out. I really enjoyed solving these puzzles and figuring them out was truly satisfying to me. They were just in that right level of difficulty to me. I could work my brain without becoming too frustrated. I'd also write down notes in my phone, which was useful. Later in the game I was looking up hints though. Some of those puzzles literally meant life or death to someone, so I wanted to make sure I didn't screw up. This added a layer of tension to the stakes. Saving before you make a fatal mistake is essential. I did wish there were more than three save slots though.
It can also affect the ending. I think there's basically the good ending, the bad ending, and the ending I got, which is known as the true ending. I was OK with getting that one. The story was intriguing. You're not really sure what's going on. Is it some highly intelligent psychopath's game or is there a more paranormal twist to this? The characters were pretty interesting too. I really didn't want to accidentally kill anyone, so I made sure to save everybody. There's no voice acting though, but there wouldn't have been for this style of game if it had been made in the late 90s.
All in all, I really liked this game with its enjoyable puzzles and all the weird creepy going ons in the mansion. Here's a screenshot. Main character, Alex (why they make her do all the dirty work of solving the puzzles, I'll never know) and Torres. Alex is genre savvy.
So, there's this little sub-genre (I think?) of adventure games called “found phone”games. Well, I'm going to play that sort of game next. Actually there's two games in this series. The first is called A Normal Lost Phone, and it's what it sounds like. Find a phone, solve a mystery.