Recent reviews by EL

I entered the game anticipating more of a conventional point-and-click adventure in the inventory management manner, but what I experienced was special. You’ll be asking yourself “what or WHO is Luna and what, exactly, is shadow dust? And why am I climbing this tower anyway?” while being consistently rewarded with enjoyable puzzles and cutscenes. Did I mention how beautiful this game is? Everything in the game is lovingly hand drawn and you can tell. This includes over 20 minutes of actually animated cutscenes. The graphical style of a game is usually a secondary factor for me when it comes to video games and yet the artwork is fantastic in Luna: The Shadow Dust. The artwork creates a truly immersive world and characters that you want to explore.

The absence of any spoken or written words throughout the entirety of Luna The Shadow Dust is one of its distinctive features. Instead, the locales and characters in the game themselves tell the story. This is an intriguing method of delivering the story since while some video games rely heavily on ambiance to tell their tales, I don't think I've ever played one that does so completely. Due to this reason your enjoyment of the story is going to depend on how close you pay attention to your surroundings. The game isn’t going to outright tell you what is going on. Instead you will get a lot of the story from looking at various paintings and other objects you find in the background.

If you’re a fan of point-and-click adventure games, but want something more focused on puzzle solving and storytelling, then absolutely. Just throw your money at it. There’s no inventory management, mindless backtracking, or obtuse progression gating here, and honestly, I’m not sure if I’d classify Luna: The Shadow Dust as a point-and-click first and foremost. It’s more of a puzzle adventure game since you have direct control over the two characters, only pointing and clicking to interact with objects in the environment. The game may not revolutionize the genre as it plays like your typical point and click game. Despite that, it creates a really engaging game. The puzzle design in the game is fantastic. The puzzles are well crafted and the solutions are quite clever leaving you with a sense of accomplishment. Supporting the puzzle design is the overall atmosphere which is fantastic. The game utilizes a hand drawn style that feels like playing a game inside an animated movie. The story is mostly told through the environment but it creates a visually stunning world that you want to fully explore.

Overall, Luna: The Shadow Dust checked off a lot of my personal boxes and I thoroughly enjoyed the five hours it took me to finish. I’m not sure I’ll go back and play it again since the big story reveals would lose their impact and the puzzle solutions would likely remain in the back of my mind, but even for a game I’ll only play once, I can still highly recommend it.

Carto is a journey worth taking. It is a wonderfully charming game that leads you through a well-crafted world filled with great characters. The puzzles are enjoyable and the artistic style of the game is fantastic. An overall very chill, very good experience.

Carto is an adorable little game where you guide titular character Carto on her journey back to her family. You explore a variety of environments and learn about the stories of the people who reside there while collecting map pieces to try and find your way back home.

All the audio (sounds, talking, music) fit the mood/atmosphere of this fun and bubbly game. It's all really relaxing and there's no pressure at all. The art is very stylistic and really fits with the whole cartography aesthetic of the game, while still being user-friendly and easy on the eyes! Most things in the game are signified through iconography which is awesome and makes the game a lot more immersed as opposed to having words spell it out for you.

The puzzles are very neat! There are a variety of them, mostly based on the whole map mechanic, which doesn't get old and doesn't punish you for getting a puzzle wrong! There are some other puzzles that mix the map-mechanics with other mechanics such as audio to give the game a little toss-up at times and keeps the experience fresh throughout.

The characters are all lovely and they make the game more colourful from their text to their personalities. None are too overbearing or unlikable, which makes talking to them a little more worthwhile.

Again, Carto is a journey worth taking! Recommended for those with a want for a good puzzle/narrative game, as well as those with only a handful of free time.

Cats hiding in games? Easy to find. My cat hiding from me? Not a chance.