Game 1 of 2025 - The Crush House

The Crush House

Developer: Nerial
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Platform: PC
Genre: Dating Sim/Mystery

Difficulty: Easy
Hours: 6

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 6/10

The Crush House is ok. 

You work as a producer on a Real World-esque reality show. You choose four contestants to live in the house for a season (which is only a week) and if you are able to satisfy certain audiences, you get to keep your job. As you play, you discover that the Crush House has a dark secret.

The positives: The game is often very funny, and some of the audiences you have to satisfy are just hilarious. In addition to your drama queens, teenagers, and wine moms, you've also got plumbers, conspiracy theorists, spiral enthusiasts (never figured this one out) and lighthouse fans.

The negatives: The dialog is pretty much the same from season to season. You have the same pool of characters to choose from, which kinda makes the mystery of the game obvious from the start. Despite having unique personalities, they all kind of act the same. Also they're all crazy and their behavior from one scene to the next is completely inconsistent.

This is tough to recommend, but if you find it on sale, maybe give it a shot.

Game 11 of 2023: Chicken Police: Paint it RED (2020)

Chicken Police: Paint it RED

Developer: The Wild Gentlemen
Publisher: Sega
Platform: PC
Genre: Adventure, Visual Novel

Difficulty: Easy
Date Started: Apr 14 2023
Date Ended: Apr 15 2023
Hours: ~6

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 8.5/10

Chicken Police! Police that are chickens! It's the famous Chicken Police!

In Chicken Police: Paint it RED, you play as Sonny Featherland, an aging cop (that's also a rooster) only a few months from retirement. In the tradition of hardboiled detective stories, Sonny is doing his best Phillip Marlowe/Humphrey Bogart impression, speaking in the patois unique to the prohibition era underworld.

Chicken Police: Paint it RED feels straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel, which is obviously the intent. Full of the tropes and bon mots of old pulp novels, Chicken Police mostly plays it straight. Sure, there's plenty of humor and clever (and not so clever) references and eye-winks, but this is more homage than satire. And you know what?

It works. It really does, and I liked it a lot.

You though I was kidding when I said he was a chicken but I wasn't, though. I wasn't.

The setting is, quite frankly, fantastic. The story takes place in Clawville, a city inhabited by a diverse spread of anthropomorphic animals. Clawville is something of a grand social experiment where predators and prey live in (relative) piece. Humans apparently existed in the distant past, but are now relegated to myths and legends. Andromorphic insects live in the Hive, a ghetto where even cops dare not enter. Insects are subject to extreme racism and poverty, and are depicted as having to take desperate measures in order to survive including and not limited to selling their larva to food manufacturers for cash. Jesus, that's dark. Everything is rendered in shadowy black and white, except for a splash of color here and there.

Multi-species harmony doesn't come without a price, though. Clawville has a figurehead king, but is actually ruled by the Council of Twelve, most of whom are in the pockets of murine mega-gangster Hobart "Ibn" Wessler.

Sorry, he's just too cute to be afraid of.

Sonny and his partner Marty are up against a corrupt system, attempting to figure out who is threatening Natasha Catzenko, nightclub owner and the girlfriend of Ibn Wessler. The gameplay is mostly point and click adventure, with some minigames and visual novel elements. Most of the time, you're traveling around the city questioning people, adding clues to your cluebook. Occasionally you get to interrogate a suspect, and your questions determine how much of the story you actually learn. Sonny gives you clues as to the suspects personality, and you have to choose your questions carefully. This is mostly straightforward, but I found a few instances where Sonny would be like "Yeah, now's the time to go in HARD!" followed by a bunch of softball questions.

I found the minigames to pretty weak to be honest, and the game would be better without them. You get into a shootout/car chase twice during the game, and I kept failing until I finally realized I wasn't supposed to shoot the bad guys, just their car. There's a minigame where you zip up an escort's dress, and it's just sort of... pointless. It's not hard, it doesn't accomplish anything, and you don't have to do it.

Like, why would I do that? Why would I NOT shoot the bad guys, with machine guns, that are trying to shoot me? Wouldn't that be easier?

Natasha Catzenko also gets a musical number that I found embarrassing. Like, the song was so bad I cringed(but well produced, the whole game is well produced actually).

tl;dr: Great game for adventure fans. Really liked it and hope there's more Chicken Police adventures to come.

Game 2 of 2023: The Case of the Golden Idol (2022)

 The Case of the Golden Idol

Developer: Color Gray Games
Publisher: Playstack
Platform: PC
Genre: Mystery, Puzzle

Difficulty: Moderate
Date Started: Jan 19th 2023
Date Ended: Jan 21st 2023
Hours: ~5

Finished: Yes
Final Rating: 9/10

I'm told this is a lot like Return of the Obra Dinn. If that's the case, I'm going to need to play it. 

The Case of the Golden Idol is a detective puzzle game, where you need to solve the mystery of twelve strange deaths over 40 years. Despite the premise, this game is lean and mean and no character or plot point is wasted.

It's fucking awesome.

In Exploration Mode, you can explore the environment and characters to gather keywords.

The Case of the Golden Idol lets you take your time with each case, and they are all re-playable in case you want to go back and refresh your memory. There is an overarching story and each case reveals a little bit more of the plot, with well developed characters and motivations. 

Oh, you would. You would spontaneously combust during an important meeting, wouldn't you?

The story centers around the aforementioned Golden Idol and various groups that desire to possess it. It takes place in a fictionalized 18th century England with a sort of supernatural element. As I played it, I really felt a connection to the story and characters, probably because each scenario requires you to closely examine each and every detail at the scene of death.

This is one of the most engrossing mystery games I've played in a while. 

Pros

• The graphics. They're rendered in a charming old-school adventure game aesthetic that I really liked. 
• It's relatively short. This is always a plus in my book. Great characters and an interesting story that doesn't overstay it's welcome makes this guy with limited free time happy!
• The challenge. The cases remain challenging enough without ever seeming overwhelming or making extreme leaps of logic.
• The story: Not only is the deduction part of the game fun, but the story you uncover just hooks you in with just the right amount of mysteries and plot hooks.

Cons

• Also the graphics: Many have referred to the characters as 'fugly,' and yeah, they're not exactly lookers. I felt it contributed to the game, but this might be an acquired taste.
• I honestly can't think of anything else.