Quick Play

All image credits: Hilltop Studios/tinyBuild/Versus Evil Lil' Guardsman is a seven-hour game that’s bursting at the seams with heart and humour. For all intents and purposes, it’s a point-and-click adventure game that cribs heavily from Papers, Please, but lightens the tone several degrees and wraps it up in a fantasy setting. Mix in colourful and extremely well-done graphics and deservedly award-winning voice performances, and you’ve got a game that is absolutely worth your time.

Hidden in my Paradise is a hidden object game with a cute aesthetic and some nifty extra features that make it stand out in a crowded market. When you’re spending the whole game scouring the levels in detail looking for the last thing you need to find, the game has to look good, and HIMP delivery well on that front. Quick Play is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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The story of how I came to review Paper Trail is an interesting one. I’d seen some stuff about it during the last Wholesome Direct, and while the game looks absolutely gorgeous, I have so many games on my list right now that I’m trying not to add any to it, so I didn’t really take note. One of those “I’ll probably get to this next year” kind of things. My list is so long, pals.

Everyone has something that will affect them emotionally more than other things. For many parents, that thing will be children, or parent-child relationships (which I think is part of why The Last of Us plucked so many heartstrings), for other people it will be situations or events. If you want to get an emotional reaction out of me, separate some friends or put an animal in some peril. So, naturally, Stray occupies a very special place in my heart. Quick Play is a reader-supported publication.

Gone Home is a classic of the “walking sim” genre and has also been the centre (or at least part of) a number of debates, right down to “What even is a video game, and is this one?” It was also in the unenviable position of being a target of the anti-woke brigade of the time (it came out in 2013), the angry tendrils of which became GamerGate just a year or so later. Quick Play is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Her Story is a unique experience as a game and as a piece of storytelling. In essence (though it’s doing it a disservice to describe it as such) the game involves watching seven police interviews (the answers only – we never see or hear the detective or their questions) and piecing together what has happened.

Garage Sale is an extremely sweet game where you play as young Juniper, allowed to explore town on your own for the first time for the annual Garage Sale Day. At a little over two hours, it felt just long enough to do what I think the developers were trying to do with it. Quick Play is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Still Wakes the Deep is a four-to-five-hour horror experience from developers The Chinese Room (the people behind Dear Esther, amongst titles). On the spectrum of Ubisoft-open-world-collectathon to literally-watching-a-movie, Still Wakes the Deep is definitely on the ‘interactive story experience’ end of things, but it does it confidently and with aplomb. Quick Play is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I’ve gone back and forth on how much, if any, of the story it would be okay for me to spoil in this review, and I think I’ve come down on the side of – this game came out in 2016, costs about £15, and only takes 4 hours to complete. If you want to avoid spoilers from 8-year-late reviews, you can. So I will be touching on story elements that are best experienced fresh – if you haven’t, here’s your encouragement to do so. Quick Play is a reader-supported publication.