Paul Prospero, a private investigator with unusual powers, slowly walks through a tunnel and sets foot on the lands of Red Creek Valley. Despite the mesmerizing beauty of the scenery, the protagonist has not arrived to admire nature, but to search for the very Ethan Carter. The boy himself asked the private investigator for help, but was lost somewhere in these parts. In fact, all the neighborhood residents in the form of a couple Carter’s disappeared somewhere, leaving behind a few empty mansions. However, the first member of the family can be found rather quickly. Or rather – his legs, quite carelessly separated from the body by the train carriage. Details of this heinous atrocity, we have yet to find out, using a special gift of our alter ego.

It would be tantamount to a crime to tell us what happened next, because The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a riveting tale that makes you want to read every letter of it yourself. It has a very Lovecraftian atmosphere to it: unhurried, drawn-out, focusing on details where you don’t have to (note the occasional clock), and confusing until the finale. The Astronauts has very little action and a lot of contemplation in the manner of Dear Esther. Most of the time you have to leisurely stroll through the valley, flooded with the rays of the setting sun. The developers warn from the start that no one will lead the player by the hand. There is no inventory, no map and not even a notebook with notes. You will have to go wherever you can see, and at first you are at a loss for such an approach. The world seems quite vast, and you want to explore every bit of it.

However, pretty soon it becomes clear that the valley is not so huge, and the passage turns out to be a leisurely stroll along the path, which has several branches with dead ends and a couple of alternative routes. The Astronauts manages to maintain the illusion of freedom in an elegant way: if you see a place of interest in the distance, you’re almost certain to eventually reach it. It gives you a nice sense of movement toward the goal you set out earlier. You can always return to the beginning of your journey to look for anecdotal stories, or glimpses into the lives of the valley’s inhabitants. Each of these is a unique puzzle. They all need to be solved to see the end of the story, so we recommend that you look carefully along the way.

Other characters we will be able to see only in flashbacks
To find out the mystery of Ethan’s disappearance and the mysterious force that has settled in the valley, Paul will have to resort to the help of his gift: by touching the object, the detective can see the events that happened to him in the past. If we draw parallels, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter reminds the recent Murdered: Soul Suspect with its main gameplay part. The detective examines the crime scene and finds all the key things. If something is missing, the evidence must be found and returned to its original position. When all the details fall into place, the next step is to play the picture in the right order. Only the correct sequence will tell us what really happened and give us a clue to our next step. These puzzles are usually solved without much trouble, you just need to think logically, and they occur less than a dozen times in the entire four hours of play.

As you have probably already realized, the project is not focused on gameplay, but on contemplation and storytelling. Being aware of that, the developers put all their talent and care into the visuals, and so The Vanishing Ethan Carter turned out to be really charming. It is hard to believe the old Unreal Engine 3 can create such pictures. The panoramic views can be shamelessly called photorealistic.

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These and many other questions are posed together with us by the main character of Transistor, for whom everything that is happening is no less obscure. One minute Red is a thriving singer, the darling of the crowd and a major talent in the whole of Cloudbank. Moments later, she is already leaning over the lifeless body of her sword-wielding savior. An assassination attempt. It should have been her. But why?

“We’re not going to get away with this, are we?” – Transistor, the very sword in the chest of the nameless hero, interrupts the silence. She and Red clearly know each other, but the answer is not meant to be heard: by keeping her alive, the girl loses just as much value: her voice. Thus Blade becomes our faithful companion and sole narrator throughout the game.

The situation is aggravated by the attack of the Process, aggressive robotic creatures of unknown origin. To shed some light on the outrage, we have to lead the fragile heroine through the beautiful streets of Cloudbank and inevitably try out one of the most interesting combat systems of the past year.

To an outside observer it may seem that not much has changed in terms of gameplay since Bastion, the previous project of the same studio. Yes, it’s still an isometric RPG with a bunch of abilities and… and that’s it. Transistor immediately reveals a completely different approach to battles and shows them from another, much more curious side.

First and foremost noticeable is the change of pace of the game. Skirmishes with numerous creepers now resemble calibrated tactical puzzles, rather than Diablo-style fights. An integral element becomes the tactical pause, where cunning combo hits are planned and a wounded heel is carried away in a hurry. Although this mode requires you to reload after using it, you’re unlikely to get far without it.

But the most interesting aspect here is the combat skills. Instead of the traditional pile of hundreds of skills the game offers only sixteen universal “functions”, which the player combines at his discretion. Any technique can be used as one of the four main strikes, hang as an additional effect to any other skill or even leave in the “passives”, getting a general increase in characteristics. Combinations can be very different – your imagination is limited only by the energy limit.

And to keep you on your toes, these same features play the role of additional lives. Once the Lifebar is empty, the most powerful ability “burns out”, giving you a chance to come out the winner of the battle, but at the same time complicating the rules. Access to it will of course come back when you visit a checkpoint, but in combat it’s better not to rely on a single skill.

Another reason behind the experimentation is that the Process is not just a faceless mass of red-eyed vehicles. Their ranks are constantly updated with new species with their own characteristics: weeds, for example, do not move and attack only in close proximity, but treat allies well, which complicates battles with bloodhounds, frisky enough to get away in time. Such nuances if not radically change the applied tactics, then at least forced to consider the potential of this or that enemy. It is true that the number of variations is not crazy, but this is compensated by regular “upgrades” of old species.

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Punch Club is a street fighter’s manager, where you choose the path you’ll use to get to your goal. Along the way discovering all the twists and turns of the plot in the best traditions of action movies 80-90 years.

It’s up to you to decide what style of combat and tactics you’ll adopt. Will you follow the Way of the Tiger, or go on a long path of a follower of the Turtle Style, or maybe you decide to combine all possible schools. The choice is yours. But don’t forget that a fighter is not only a fighting style, but also a great physical shape. Run, press weights, work with a punching bag, and of course, don’t forget to eat in time!

Every decision will have consequences. To be the good guy or the bad guy? To buy steak or pizza? Go work out a lefty in the head or hang out with a friend? Beat up crocodile ninjas or star in an alien movie? It’s up to you! And don’t forget it’s a good idea to make time for your girlfriend…

• Street Fighter Management/Sim with RPG and Taikun elements
• Find your father’s killer, and maybe even learn something new about yourself
• Deep plot with multiple twists and multiple endings
• Pump up stats, learn new tricks, and explore 4 branches of skills
• Cool pixelart with lots of references to movies and games from the 80s and 90s.

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In general, the familiar ideas and proven gameplay mechanics haven’t let the genre go for a long time, and the truly successful experiments are rare. And then Phasmophobia comes along – seemingly the same ungodly budget “romp” with cameras and flashlights, but with co-op. As a result – an immediate explosion of popularity among streamers, YouTube-bloggers and ordinary players. Everyone who is even slightly interested in the genre is talking about the game.

And the reason for such success is not the ability to play with friends. The developers of Phasmophobia approached the mechanics cleverly, creating perhaps the most unique horror of recent years. We tell you what’s the point and why the game has a huge, but not yet fully disclosed potential.

In Phasmophobia, a team of up to four players take on the role of paranormal activity researchers – much like the Discovery Channel shows. They go out in search of the supernatural to various abandoned places where eyewitnesses say they’ve seen ghosts.

Using cameras, ultraviolet lights, radios and other gadgets, ghost hunters look for a spirit’s lair and try to identify its type (Poltergeist, Shadow, Demon, Oni, Banshee, etc.) – and, if possible, take photos to get a proof premium. There’s no need to catch or exorcise it – players are only scouts, specialized people will deal with the ghost.

Gameplay comes down to a peculiar ritual: find, identify, photograph, leave. First, hunters look for a spirit’s lair in the building (it usually sits in some particular room with high paranormal activity or low temperature) and set up cameras there, through which the room can be watched from the van.

On the second run, the hunters go with additional items with which to accurately determine the type of ghost: ultraviolet lamps, an intercom, salt, or a regular book in which the ghost can write something.

The class of an unclean thing is determined by three key clues from the list: low temperature, level five abnormal activity, talking through a radio, hand or foot prints in ultraviolet light, writing in a special book for communicating with spirits, flying white circles on cameras.

Also, a ghost can leave footprints on piles of salt and talk to the living using a ouija board for Ouija séances
Once you find one or more clues, they must be logged. Each new one narrows the search: the ghosts may share common traits, but each has a unique set of three specific traits. For example, only Demon lowers the temperature of the room, talks on the radio, and writes in the book. If at least one clue doesn’t match, it’s no longer him.

In addition, ghosts have their own peculiarities: Mare is afraid of light and often attacks in the dark, Djinn likes to turn off individual lamps in rooms, Phantom is afraid of photos, and Shade only attacks singles and doesn’t like to contact people. If some clue is missing and it’s too risky (or scary) to go into the house again, you can try to determine the ghost at random by circumstantial signs.

The more detailed you study the ghost, the more money and experience you will be given. Money buys equipment, and for the experience opens up new content – so far only the increased complexity and new gadgets. Pay the team for determining the type of ghost, the completion of additional tasks indicated on the board and photographs of objects of interest: voodoo dolls, bones, Ouija board, the traces of the ghost. Money is also given for pictures of the spirit itself and the corpse of a partner.

All of these are drawn by the ghost in the book.
Players can die if they stay too long on a mission. The thing is that everyone has a sanity index (sanity). If it drops to zero, then in a fit of madness, the hunter can simply kill himself, not withstanding the horror of the haunted house.

Also, the spirits try to prey on those who are most afraid – so players with a low sanity score are often under attack. Self-control suffers if you sit in the dark for long periods of time and notice a ghostly presence – moving objects, slamming doors, lights going off.

In the end, every case is a big risk. Going into the house an extra time for valuable pictures? Send one brave man out to photograph a ghost-hunting loner? Trying to complete all the extra tasks or backing out so as not to piss off the otherworldly creature unnecessarily?

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