Guys, please don’t miss Metaphobia. It could be the best adventure I played since Thimbleweed Park! And it’s free. Impressive! (Give the story some time to develop)
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Thanks for the suggestion! The game is also available (for free) on itch:
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It’s a game created with AGS. Great!
Let me guess, you noticed because you ran the configuration tool? 
I just downloaded it, I’ll try it.
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I’m playing some Joyfess. I’m currently suffering from moon logic. There’s a corkscrew and a bottle with a cork. I can’t take the corkscrew along with me, fair enough. But I can’t use the bottle with the corkscrew either. So doubtless I’ll have to come up with some scheme to steal or be gifted the corkscrew…
After getting bored halfway through Pendula Swing, and before seeing @seguso’s post about Metaphobia (definitely want to play that, good find!), I went through my backlog and finally settled on either Lamplight City or Bard’s Tale IV. Latter had been one of those Kickstarters where euphoria and disappointment alternated as development progressed, with disappointment having the upper hand on release day. Since then it’s been sitting on the shelf long enough to actually receive the promised Linux version and its final update, too, and being still in the mood for an RPG it seemed the better candidate.
As more of a dungeon crawler I hadn’t high expectations for any sort of narrative, so the rather nicely characterized premade characters were a first positive surprise. Combat is actually fun and rather unique; we’ll see how long it’ll remain like this.
From the technical side, it’s a bit of a mess. Started with auto-adjusting graphics settings to something that resulted in a slideshow on my PC, followed by weirdly flickering textures on character models and some environment textures missing altogether and then last night it even crashed while loading a new area (and I hadn’t saved for a while). I can deal with the former, but if latter becomes the norm euphoria will once more switch to disappointment 
.
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I played Tokyo Dark, currently available in a Humble Bundle. It’s reasonably nice. It’s sort of like your stereotypical Ringu/Grudge type thing storywise, with one-dimensional extras. The soundtrack and occasionally skillful graphics are what sets this one apart.
So would I recommend it — well, a little. Take it or leave it. If the description on the store page looks interesting to you, you very well might like it. If not, there’s no compelling reason to go for it.
Played and finished 2 other games made by DONTNOD entertainment and published by Square Enix:
- The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit
- Life is Strange 2
It’s a narrative-driven adventure game in the Telltale mold. Most of your time is spent walking around small environments, gathering information, and talking to folks. The fun comes from the decision-based structure. And from the really moving story.
Captain Spirit is free on Steam, and the things you do will be loaded in the episode 2 of Life is Strange 2, integrating its story.
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Guys, please don’t miss Metaphobia . It could be the best adventure I played since Thimbleweed Park! And it’s free. Impressive! (Give the story some time to develop)
I’m enjoying this so far. The animations are surprisingly good except for, bizarrely, the main character’s walk animation, gait and general posture. He walks all leaned back like he’s a drunk about to fall over backwards and then he rights himself and he’s slouched forwards. When he does other stuff he is a complete hunchback. I’m assuming he is alien and I’m eagerly awaiting this plot twist.
I couldn’t finish Metaphobia. I applaud authors for an effort, making the game free and I hope they will make a better one in the future. Hopefully, with puzzles that do not rival the dumbest things in Gabriel Knight 3.
Yeah, I have to say the last two hieroglyph puzzles were boring. I had to look at a walkthrough and even then I didn’t understand the logic. The ending also seemed rushed. But up to that point it was very good, I think. Overall I liked the atmosphere (graphics, music, acting) a lot. but not the puzzles.
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Just finished the game, it was alright. That very last hieroglyph puzzle was just weird, I looked up the answer even though I had everything up to get it solved, it really was unclear.
If anyone else plays it, when you get to the library, try to get a library card from the librarian before talking to the old man or you will be stuck and need to reload or restart. Big bug.
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Played a bit of Counterfeit Monkey. It seems to be entirely made up of language-inspired puzzles, but without (yet) crossing into red herring and monkey wrench terrain.
It’s a fairly modern text adventure and can be played online. Normally not my thing, but found it featured in an article about narrative games and the name caught my attention. And I have to say it’s pretty fun so far.
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Finished Counterfeit Monkey.
Given that it is little more than a map and text on screen, I’m impressed. The worldbuilding, the description of the locations, the plot, the protagonists and most of the puzzles were pretty good. While the premise isn’t entirely novel (a t-remover can be found in Leather Goddesses of Phobos), making an entire game based on language puzzles, with a coherent backstory and fitting plot is no mean feat. That it would also be gripping, and at times fun, really came as a surprise.
Given the difficulty attributed to text adventures in general and the nature of this one in particular, I’m pleased to say that it was fairly accessible overall. I managed to reach a score of 54 before failing to find the second part of a password. Turns out I had it with me already, just overlooked .
However, there was also one puzzle I would never have solved unaided: getting an animal by adding t to an abstract or thing. And it wasn’t a newt.
That aside, it’s something to absolutely try, especially given that it’s free and runs in your browser. The source is also available, though it’s written for an interactive fiction interpreter and looks really strange. When stuck I rather looked at the test scripts 
.
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I tried my hands on PlayStation Dreams and this is the first thing I came up with.
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They have that clock as an asset? Did you make it? 
The walk reminds me of this:
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Wow, zak put on a bit of weight over the last 27 years… must be all those two-headed squirrel burgers (you know, the latest food fad)
And thanks for putting me in a square fishtank this time!
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I was astonished myself that I didn´t have to do it myself, turns out somebody already did! 
The playing character is a generic “man in suit” I looked up. I thought he was close enough. No idea about the physics though. If I could figure out the customisation options a bit more I guess, I could make a far more accurate Zak eventually.
No probs, I have my doubts about its qualities as a future space helmet though, with it being so square and all… 
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I agree! 
But like @Sushi wrote: He looks like an older version of Zak. 