Wide Ocean Big Jacket

Rarely am I moved enough by an interactive narrative game to write a review about it, but this one is just perfect. Part walking sim, part camping sim, all relationship-building. It’s a real sweet time. It’s already a curious dynamic; childless couple Brad and Cloanne take their precocious 12-year-old niece Mord and her awkward “boyfriend” […]

Signs of the Sojourner

You have taken over your late mother’s shop which you are tasked with keeping well-stocked lest the traveling caravan on which business depends takes it off its route. In order to gather supplies, you hitch a ride with the caravan (or can go it alone) to meet locals over yonder who will give you stock […]

A Mortician’s Tale

This is one of the better-known titles of the package, but I’m including it here because it is very much Not Like Other Games that is too short and sweet to not play. You are a mortician and your tale is one of dignity. You learn the ins-and-outs and the what’s and whys about end […]

Astrologaster

In this highly niche musical narrative choose-your-own adventure, you play (the real!) Simon Forman, the last “doctor” (of astrology) to not flee from the plague who must win enough letters of recommendations to obtain a medical license by the time the real doctors return and demand the integrity of their profession back. Over the course […]

Sagebrush

[Disclaimer: I’d definitely go through this one with as little expectation as possible, so maybe don’t read past the first paragraph if you actually want to play it] In Sagebrush you explore the abandoned compound of a religious cult, putting together the story of Father James and his flock; how it came to be and […]

One Night Stand

In this elegantly rotoscoped morning-after-the-one-night-stand simulator, you are tasked with trying to connect the hard way. Before you can sneak out undetected (the game will not give you the option to be too much of a scumbag about it), she wakes up only slightly less confused than you are and seeming like she probably doesn’t […]

Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist

You begin in the green room of a what seems to be some sort terribly mismanaged theater production, as evidenced by the strike signs and letters of resignation lying around. We find out through the disembodied voice of the frazzled director that the production is in fact the game you are supposed to be playing […]

Fortune-499

Set in a nondescript office building of an unnamed company, you play an underappreciated and overworked witch, Cassie, who suddenly becomes its most valued employee when monsters invade and she is the only one who has the power to stop them. She is assigned to “spearhead” the “project” by her boss, Derek, who briefs her […]

The Stillness of the Wind

Here you play an elderly lady named Talma, who lives on the family farm in the middle of nowhere, her remaining family having abandoned her for the city. She tends to her crops and animals in order to tend to herself alone, and that is the purpose of her life, though the purpose of the […]

Democratic Socialism Simulator

[Disclaimer: I have no ties to the promotion of this game other than my being anti-fascist] It should be the headliner, but pulled from the depths of the greatest bundle there ever was is a game where you play the first ever socialist president tasked with proving the success of the democratic socialist system to […]