RADina Games: 2020 and onward!

Playing through all my Steam (and other) games in 2020 and beyond. This was originally a challenge to finish all my unplayed games in 2020, but since then I've just started playing and reviewing games in general. Steam profile: Arthur Pwnin' Doyle Currently Playing: Transistor

[radinagames2020]

Bastion

4/5⭐ | Fun if easy action game; emotional story | Steam

I'm back on my playthrough of classic games! This is an oldie I've actually tried twice before, but both times bounced off because it was "too hard". Now having played through Tunic, part of Hades, and plenty of other games, I found it quite easy. I did mostly do a no-idol run (although I did one Who Knows Where run with an idol to get the reward), but I found it pleasantly non-difficult.

Overall, I enjoyed this game a lot! I was worried it would be like Hades and once I put it down I wouldn't want to pick it up again, but that didn't happen - I was eager to keep going. The exploration and battles are varied and interesting, and the story proceeds at a decent pace. It's a great, emotional story too! The ending section was actually kind of hard to play through, and I enjoyed the final choices you have to make.

The game is also wonderful to play because of the beautiful art and stellar voice acting. The soundtrack is also great - I've actually sung a song from this game before, but knowing how it fits into the story makes it all the more poignant.

So overall, 4 stars! Not a perfect game, and didn't blow my mind, but very fun and interesting. Definitely worth its place in the video game hall of fame!

[radinagames2020]

Figment 2: Creed Valley (and more)

4/5⭐ | Just as fun as its predecessor! | Steam

Just like the first Figment game, this is a fun isomentric puzzle + action game that takes place inside the mind. As Dusty, the mind's Courage, you run around solving puzzles and fighting nightmares.

I liked this sliiiigtly less than the first one - the story felt simpler and more obvious, there was less music, and there was only one bad guy and only one or two real boss fights. I think the first game had a bit more meat to it.

However, the sequel was still really fun and the first game's formula continues to work well! It also introduced the fun mechanic of "open vs closed mindedness", which changes the world between 2 states. There were also some particularly creative and enjoyable phases such as the Ethics Maze and the random detective segment. 😂 So I'd definitely still recommend this game!

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I shall also briefly mention a cute little puzzle game I played through in 2 hours today - Factory Balls Go. It involves dipping balls in paint to recreate a given pattern, using tools which modify the paint's effects. It's simple, but fun, and I enjoyed blasting through 100 levels!

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This "challenge" is not going to be much of one, but I'm still progressing through it!

[radinagames2020]

Puzzle Spy International

4/5⭐ | Very short, but a fun variety of puzzles! | Steam

Not a ton to say about this one tbh - but I definitely enjoyed it! It's basically a collection of logic puzzles, wrapped in a fun little 60s-style spies and supervillains plot. The writing was cute and had my style of dumb humor. I did think it a bit odd that it vaguely dipped a toe into dating sim mechanics without making good on that, but oh well. The art and music were also very charming and set the tone perfectly.

The puzzles were a nice variety, mostly word based or logic based, and were challenging without being too hard. I appreciated that the game did not track hint usage at all, although we did manage not to use any. :) I just wish the game had been longer! But for an hour or two of puzzling fun, this hit the spot.

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Still gaming away....

[radinagames2020]

Utter A Name

4/5⭐ | Short but cute and atmospheric Obra-Dinn-Like | Steam

Short but sweet review for a short but sweet game! This game is clearly inspired by the Return of the Obra Dinn, both in its gameplay and in its pixel art grayscale aesthetic. You have to identify people and their killers - at least in this game, no need to specify their cause of death - and only get feedback after getting 3 correct. You also use psychic powers to look into the past and see frozen scenes playing out, helping you identify who's who and what's what.

So overall, very much an Obra Dinn clone, but it still stands on its own IMO! The story is fun, and there are some really delicious twists at the end, especially the very ending. At first we had absolutely no idea how to solve anything, which is kind of a fun feeling, if intimidating. After looking at all the evidence it started to fall into place, first slowly, then in a big rush. Very satisfying! So I'll give this game close to top marks for story and puzzles both.

It's a short game, 1-2 hours tops, so not one to overstay its welcome, but absolutely recommended for a quick weekend puzzle sesh!

[radinagames2020]

Strange Antiquities

4/5⭐| Fun spooky mystery with mild puzzles | Steam

Somehow I forgot to review this one! This is a sequel to Strange Horticulture, and I actually liked it a bit more, although overall they are very similar. Maybe I just prefer weird objects to weird plants.

Like its predecessor, you are tasked with running a shop in a town where spooky events are taking place. You have to use your powers of examination to find items to fulfil clients' needs - including touch, smell, and even emotional senses. You can also solve various puzzling notes and omen cards to "go" to locations and find new items, although you never actually go anywhere. And by the end of the game, you have choices to make that determine the fate of this town and whether it survives the events that are coming to a head.

The puzzles in this game are fun, even though overall pretty easy. I loved the object examination mechanic. Later on the puzzles get more complex, requiring you to cross-reference multiple different books, which my nerd heart loved. :) And the setting is impeccably spooky and delightful.

The one thing I disliked about this game is how non-replayable it is. There are 3 fully separate ending lines, each with multiple versions of how they end, but getting to them involves replaying lots of the game content. I wish I could skip past sections I'd already solved before, visual-novel-style, and just redo the parts that are new or different.

But nonetheless, this is a fun puzzle game with impeccable vibes - perfect for a fall weekend or anytime you're feeling a bit spooky!

[radinagames2020]

A Case of Fraud

4/5⭐| Quick, fun detective game not spoiled by its derivativeness | Steam

This game is basically a copy of The Roottrees Are Dead, although with its own unique twists, but I don't think that's bad. It is a great formula, and the devs used it here to tell a fun story!

Unlike in Roottrees, you're filling in a company org chart, which makes for a pretty different vibe. You're also trying to figure out the motive behind the central murder and who could be responsible.

The main game puzzles weren't too hard, but figuring out the finale was a very satisfying brain bender. The game is short, but it's very fun for what it is. A can't-miss if you like this style of detective game!

[radinagames2020]

The Séance of Blake Manor

5/5⭐ | Steam | Amazing atmosphere and voice acting; fun mystery plot; not too challenging.

The developers of The Darkside Detective are back with another spooky supernatural mystery game! That's about all the games have in common though, as rather than a tongue in cheek goofy point-and-click, this is a first person puzzle game with a much more serious story.

In terms of puzzle games, this one is very easy. Your clues are collected on a corkboard type screen, and you can put them together to form hypotheses, but this part is very straightforward and the game basically holds your hand through it. Even though "time management" is part of the game, it never really causes difficulty - it's mostly just there to make the game feel more real, and prevent you from having to talk to all 20 characters each about 100 dialog items. There are 37 mysteries and I solved all of them on my first playthrough, saving 100% of the saveable characters. So if you're looking for a challenge, this isn't it.

But I still loved it, because the real meat of the game is exploring - talking to people, learning about their pasts, exploring the grounds, etc. And this is where the game shines, because the setting, mood, and voice acting are all stellar.

The plot is a vaguely spooky one with a lot of inspiration from Irish mythology, as well as dabbling into a few other cultures' supernatural sides. Learning about all the myths was a big plus of the game, and it made the story feel really grounded.

The ending was great, with a fun twist and an exciting finale. My only complaint is that in the very end, a character who you've learned over the entire game is a terrible person basically gets off scot free and befriends the protagonist. But I suppose I can forgive the game that, as everyone else feels like they get a satisfying conclusion.

Overall, this is a really fun game with great atmosphere, even if it is easy on the puzzle side. Definitely worth giving this a spin next October!

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[radinagames2020]

TR-49

4/5⭐| Steam | Fun, if quick, puzzle game, with an interesting if subtle plot and great voice acting

From the makers of Heaven's Vault comes another puzzle game, this time about searching for books inside a weird computer archive. The only interface is entering 4-character codes into a machine, which may or may not lead to specific documents. Finding the documents' titles unlocks snippets of them and helps connect the various documents through time and history. The gameplay is very reminiscent of The Roottrees Are Dead, just with a plot centered around fascism, dark magic, and resistance instead of family soap opera celebrity drama. 😅

The puzzle aspect of the game is very fun, and I enjoyed it, even though it never really was that hard. At first, the sheer amount of material feels overwhelming, and I love being faced with a giant puzzle and slowly unpicking it. Even later on as the final connections became very straightforward, I still had fun and felt satisfied overall! The game takes notes for you, which definitely makes it a lot easier than something like Blue Prince - not sure how I feel about that, but it didn't really affect my enjoyment. :)

The WWII era machine aesthetics are gorgeous, and the sound design is amazing, both with really immersive, chunky sound effects and wonderful voice acting. My only issue is that at first, the voice acting kept interrupting me when I was trying to read and absorb information - but you're not on a timer, so pausing to have conversations and then returning to research is fine. I also think the second "outsider" character to appear was a complete miss. He was upsetting for no real purpose, as far as i could tell, and I basically ignored him completely.

My other complaint is that the "final ending" is so easy to find - I wish it was some sort of ultimate puzzle combining the entire games' worth of knowledge, but instead it was just a super obvious step from the previous solution. There are 4 endings though, so finding all 4 of them is a fun little exercise even when you have completed the entire archive.

Despite its small issues, this is definitely a game worth playing. It only took me 5 hours to 100%, so it doesn't overstay its welcome. It serves up an intriguing world with fun puzzles that's beautiful to look at and listen to - what more can you ask for?

[radinagames2020]

Perfect Tides: Station to Station

3/5⭐| Steam | Lovely art and music; less gripping story

I really enjoyed Meredith Gran's first game, Perfect Tides, so I was excited to pick up the sequel and see what happens next in Mara's life. While the first game shows her in high school, this second one is about her college life in The City (aka, NYC).

Maybe it's because I'm not a city person, or maybe it's because i'm not a writer, but I just didn't gel with the story of this game nearly as much as last time. I was also a lonely weird nerd in high school writing stuff online, so I related hard to Mara, and maybe that let me forgive some of her personality flaws and find them more endearing than annoying. But here in college, I found her tendency to overwrought pretentiousness mostly just irritating. Her series of bad decisions made me cringe, which is definitely the intent, but I found her attempts to understand herself painfully shallow. Basically, she used a lot of words to say nothing.

I had another issue with the story, and it started in the first game too - as someone who didn't even date until my junior year of college, I have trouble sympathizing with Mara complaining about how unloveable she is when she's on her 5th boyfriend. I know things are more complicated than that, but still - from my perspective, she has a decent time of it.

Anyway, this maybe got more personal than necessary, LOL! Otherwise, the game had a lot of good moments. The art is, as usual, astounding, and there were some really creative and fun moments thaht stood out. The Bohemian Rhapsody scene was SO fun, and I also loved the concert rhythm section.

The story was interesting, and I still love Mara and some of her friends (Rosetta <3 <3). I loved seeing her relationship with Lily grow, and her family story expand. I didn't really care about all the musings on the nature of art, and discussion of The City, but that's just my personal prefs.

The gameplay was much improved from last time, although it still had issues - it claimed full controller support but completely ignored mine, for example. But there was a lot less pixel-hunting! I missed some core (I think) mechanics of the game, so I think I possibly missed out on some content, but that's on me of course.

However, perhaps it sums up my reaction to the game that I couldn't be bothered to go back and replay to get that content. The game was fine, and I'll definitely check out a sequel if the saga continues, but it wasn't as gripping for me as the first one. So it goes!

[radinagames2020]

Tiny Bookshop

3/5⭐| Steam | Cute management game if you enjoy that sort of thing!

This is one of those cases where I can tell a game is so perfect at its genre, but it's just not the genre for me. Similar to Inside - I feel kind of bad giving this game only a 3, but it was a 3 experience for me personally.

Tiny Bookshop is a 100% perfect game for anyone who loves management games. Decorating the shop is fun; the book recommendation mechanic is awesome (especially if you are a reader and can use your personal knowledge of the books); the characters are cute (although I did wish we could date them tbh!); the changes of season and the flow of various holidays and events are charming to experience; and the plots and achievements are fun. Also the art is delightful and the music is generally a bop.

However, for me personally, it dragged. I played through 2 years to get all the stamps and by the end I was very bored. I just don't enjoy passively watching people visit my shop, even with all the coffee making, recycling collection, book recommending, dog petting, and shopping I have to distract me. But if you do enjoy that sort of thing, then this is definitely a can't-miss instance of the genre. :)

PS. If they ever add dating to this game... Anne, call me!

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[radinagames2020]

Cocoon

4/5⭐ | Steam | Brain bending puzzles in a gorgeous, surreal world

Published by one of my favorite game publishers, Annapurna, I had high hopes for this puzzle game. It turns out it was designed by the same person who made Inside - but luckily for me, while there is a tad of body horror in this game, it's a lot less dark and creepy. It hit the spot for me and I really enjoyed it!

The game is pretty much summed up by its premise: you have various orbs which enable certain powers (eg, revealing hidden bridges, or toggling platforms on/off), but also contain nested worlds. You have to go into and out of these worlds, carrying them inside one another, and even sending signals from outer to inner worlds in ever more convoluted fashions.

From a puzzle aspect, this game reminded me a lot of Manifold Garden. The puzzles were confusing because they challenged my perspective, but not that hard. However, I do think Cocoon's puzzles were more tricky, and my brain felt pleasantly active througout. Also like MG, this game suffered a bit from the "idk what I'm supposed to do but I'll just do the thing directly in front of me" syndrome. Progression was very linear and I never felt like I understood my overarching goal or had to strategize a path - I just went "forward" until I reached the end. Maybe this is also a side effect of the designer's previous games being 2d sidescrollers. Anyway, it wasn't enough of a problem to impede my enjoyment.

And overall, the game was really enjoyable! The puzzles were fun, but the real treat was the visual design. The worlds were surreal and gorgeous, and the characters and bosses fascinatingly constructed. I also enjoyed the soundtrack and hope to pick it up. It was a short game (~6h) and well worth the time!

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Definitely going to do better on my challenge this year :)

[radinagames2020]

Split Fiction

5/5⭐| Steam | Another delightful side-by-side adventure

From the makers of It Takes Two comes another couch co-op, and I was very excited to play it since the first game was so good. It has big shoes to fill, but on the whole, this game does it solidly! You play side by side (or over the internet, but that seems less fun) as two writers, one who focuses on scifi and one who focuses on fantasy. Trapped in a VR machine, you have to traverse stories from both your worlds to get free.

Much like its predecessor, this game serves up fun puzzles and just-challenging-enough boss fights, while also telling a compelling story. Once again, the two characters start off fairly opposed, but grow together throughout their adventures. The reveals about their backstories, while fairly predictable, are well written, and the stellar voice acting really sold everything. I cried multiple times!

I really enjoyed the puzzles and fights in this one. I think the difficulty is slightly increased from last time, which was great for me - this is not a hard game, but it was right in my personal difficulty sweet spot.

The only thing I liked less about this game was the settings were a lot less varied, and it was less whimsical. By definition, there were really only the 2 genres - sci fi and fantasy. Even though you explore multiple stories and worlds within each, it still made me miss the wide range of settings in It Takes Two. Also, there are a lot fewer toys and side minigames here, which I missed.

However, this is still a really wonderful and fun game to play with a friend. Definitely recommend giving it a go!

[radinagames2020]

2026 plans

Update my widget and site to reflect a new year, new goal - except it's the same 1-game-per-2-weeks goal I always have. Since I'm not pushing myself to play specific games this year, it should be easy, but I like the pace of biweekly games so I saw no reason to change it. Just the widget color! :)

I'm very much enjoying my current game and will definitely have that done by the 14th, so - so far, on track 💪

[radinagames2020]

Hades

I'm not going to rate this game because I finally decided to DNF it. I feel bad about it because it has so much going for it - the art is awesome, the voice acting is STELLAR, the soundtrack rocks. Overall, it's a super immersive and delightful world. And I'm interested in finding out more about Zagreus, his past, and what will happen to him!

However, I just never felt inclined to pick it up again after putting it down for Thanksgiving break. Part of it is that I'm not super good at this style of action game, but I'm not even sure that was it, because I did turn on God mode. I think it just became too grindy and dull for me. The dungeons are extremely repetitive, and you get so little plot progression between runs. I do think I was enjoying the battles and runs themselves, but not enough - I guess I would have preferred more variety in rooms/enemies.

So, it's done for now. I might go back to it someday but for now, I'm on to games that excite me more!

Overall, 2025 was a bit of a bust in terms of my "retro" gaming list. I did play a bunch of games overall, and even some off my list that I really loved (psychonauts!!). But for 2026 I'm going to go back to letting my moods drive me - and if I never get around to certain games, that's perfectly alright.

[radinagames2020]

The Roottrees Are Dead

5/5⭐| Steam | Fun and satisfying detective story

A really great detective game! The story was fun, with a lot of characters I either loved, or loved to hate. The reasoning behind why we were investigating (to determine who would inherit a family fortune) made sense, which is not always the case for these sorts of games.

The puzzles started easy but got trickier, and by the second half of the game ("Roottreemania") it became extremely challenging, which is a plus for me! Digging through 90s websites and looking through old fliers, books, and photos was also very fun and charming. Overall, pretty much nothing was a miss here.

The only "critique" is that it takes a lot of strong inspiration from Obra Dinn, even down to some sounds, and the mechanic of how you lock in names and professions. But it does have its own twist and character, and there's nothing really wrong with taking a leaf from such a great book.

Overall, this is a great weekend game (took me 13 hours to finish almost 100%). If you have a day or two to solve some family history mysteries, definitely check it out!

[radinagames2020]

2 smallish Halloween-vibes games in this one. They're not even the same rating, but I do what I want :P

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Tidy Cauldron

3/5⭐ | Steam | Simple tile game with cute aesthetics and music

This game is super adorable, about helping a witch organize ingredients in her cauldron (and later other areas, such as summoning circles and coffins). The music and pixel art are super thematic, and I really enjoyed it - until the puzzles got too tricky and I bailed. 😅 I don't have enough patience for the whole game, but if you like this kind of puzzle, this is a great version!

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The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood

4/5⭐ | Steam | Fascinating narrative game about witches in space

I loved so much about this game - the setting (space!), playing as an immortal and super powerful witch, the variety of rad sister witches you get to meet, creating and decorating your own "tarot" cards, learning about the world and your character's past, and chilling with a giant demon guy.

The narrative of the game is fascinating, especially as you learn more about your powers and grapple with how to use them. I loved all the relationships you can form with various witches, and exploring your existing friendships and mentorships. I also enjoyed the cardmaking mechanic - you can spend awhile working on art for the cards you construct in the game, which is more fun than it has any right to be.

However, the story of the game is pretty fixed, which IMO limits its replay value. On my second playthrough I did encounter some fun new character moments, but the overall story stays mostly the same, so I think replays have diminishing returns. Still, I enjoyed discovering this world for a few hours, meeting interesting characters, and thinking about the nature of the future and existence itself!

[radinagames2020]

Escape From Mystwood Mansion

4/5⭐ | Steam | Quick, but fun, escape room game

Not a ton to say about this one! It's a short little escape room game (I finished it in around 3 hours). The puzzles aren't super hard, but are enjoyable and did make me think. The sound is good and the visuals are really nice. If you want to spend a couple hours exploring a sunlit manor house and solving puzzles, this game will do nicely.