Sunless Sea was the first time I was exposed to the mind of Alexis Kennedy (Founder of Failbetter and Weather Factory, Lead Developer of Both Games). As a lad who started reading occult stuff pretty early on, his writing was the first thing that got me hooked. While Sunless Sea was a much more enjoyable game, a rogue-lite narrative RPG with only one actual ending; this is more like a time-management, resource-management adventure game presented through cards and slots. I say less enjoyable, and I have multiple reasons for it.

Albeit completely intended, the game has no tutorial and very shy on hinting you towards any goal. This in turn makes any progress into the story a guess-work. You have to try, fail and try again under different circumstances. I do not enjoy this aspect, so I had to play the game by checking out wiki pages on the solutions. Don't get me wrong, I think it made the game less fun for it, but being the perfectionist I am, I don't have all the time in the world to fail dozens of times and start over.

On top of this, even if you know how to progress through the game, you still have to deal with RNG Devil. The fact that the game always demands your attention to make sure you're not getting yourself into any of the fail states, turns the bulk of the game into a grindy desk job. Again, I see where he's coming from and this is the work of a great artist that makes you indulge yourself with the meta aspects of it all. It is ultimately, one of the most effective pieces of art, presented in video game form. Is it fun, though? Well, I don't think so.

Despite the heavy guess-work and grindy nature of it, I found myself coming back to Cultist Simulator day in and day off. It became like an addiction, a disease if you will. I found myself intoxicated with its overly cryptic occult fan fiction and the manifest meta aspects that are easily relatable to real life.

So hereby I recommend this experimental weirdness to any people willing to try new things and have a strong will in the face of mundanity.

F.E.A.R was all the rage back in 2005 and for good reason. Special forces chasing after a rogue anomaly was a great concept, it was old-school but creative in its design and very well executed in certain aspects. Story was captivating, combat was responsive and held great replay value thanks to the inventive enemy-AI. It all came together thanks to the clever level design and claustrophobic industrial mood.

However, because of its success Monolith's other child didn't have much attention. Condemned: Criminal Origins was released just forty days after F.E.A.R. did. It was a rushed release and Windows version still had seven months to hit the stores. SEGA was partially responsible for this, since F.E.A.R. was published by Vivendi when Condemned was published and paid for by SEGA. It was a project focused on consoles, hence the second game never seen PC release.

Condemned is an ambitious project and experimental in game design for its time. There is the melee heavy, gritty combat with an unexpected AI and then there is the crime solving mini games. It was new for its time, gathering evidence, talking on the radio with the forensics team and trying to solve the maze-like corridors each and every level. Nowadays, these gameplay gimmicks are most seen in First Person Adventure games. If you're into gritty melee combat and physical suspense, you have to give this game a chance. Sure, the writing leaves a lot to be desired but the second game is even better and safe to say that it's improved in every aspect. To play the second game though, you must have a PS3 or Xbox 360. Tough luck. It is a shame that neither this nor the second game sold well enough despite the good reception.