Recent reviews by Stitches

It takes about this amount of time (about 4 hours) to finish the game at a leisurely but still very active pace, so keep that in mind when considering what is comfortable as a price point for you. With that in mind, I actually adore this game. It was a slow burn game with lots of horror elements. The music was somewhat sparse but used well when it popped up, the other sounds in the game mainly consisted of ominous, soft whispers and the pattering of rain upon the roofs, with the occasional, disorientating groan of a creature. Everything sounded accurate and fairly creepy. Notably, where appropriate, they added a named sound to the top left when a *special* sound is being played that you need to pay attention to, what a great feature!

The story had quite a few playful twists and, due to the unstable narrator situation, the deeper you went into the game the more you weren't quite sure where the story was going to ultimately end up. You could potentially guess the ending, but it was very occluded until the climax near the end. I loved the main character, Lazy Ollie, as he seemed, the most part to be a very sincere depiction of a mentally unwell individual. He isn't actively malicious, in fact, he's extremely helpful, understanding, and perhaps a bit too agreeable at times (at least for the most part). He relies on his religion, and this does feature quite a bit in the story, but it is not the main focus. I felt his depiction, while a bit unrealistic near the end, for the most part was somewhat believable given what he had gone through. I wish I had been able to explore more about the other characters as well, though it's understandable why that may not have been possible, given the ending. However, what I did learn about them, I found interesting and for the most part, well written.

I very much enjoyed my time with Lazy Ollie and his dubious sanity, and perhaps I missed a few things, but I did achieve all of the achievements (anyone that follows the main story should complete them all as well). The gameplay itself consisted of light survival elements (sharpening blade that get dull, collecting bullets, filling your lantern) which were fairly easily managed, and combat mechanics, which were fairly consistent and not overtly difficult until the end where it became mildly clunky when enemies approached at certain angles. Primarily though, it's a puzzle game, though not a particularly hard one. Don't expect a pixel hunt or the endless re-roll of nonsensical combinations until the solution pops up somehow. Everything makes sense, and when you don't have what you need, you can just move over to another puzzle, and eventually the solution will pop up for the previous area. This means you'll be bouncing around all over the grounds, but for me, this feels appropriate for him and the story, less backtracking, and more opening rooms and areas you couldn't get to prior. It reminded me of unraveling a bundle of wires, you just start tugging, untying a few, and eventually you get everything straightened out. Overall, the game is a fairly casual, but good, spooky time exploring a well made narrative about a very unfortunate and very troubled clown.

The new bible. Everyone will love this thing. Bow to your god mortals. 10 outta 10.

Banished is a city building game, where you start as a group of people banished from an unknown city for an unknown reason. You help them build and grow, fighting the harsh elements and disasters along the way, but is there a storyline throughout your cities growth, beyond that of what years were harsh, and what years were not?

I submit that yes, there is a plot buried deep within this game, a secret plot that is probably overlooked in the grand scheme of things. It starts and ends with one "death" for me this "death" was as followed: "Early Spring 69: Lutheribert the Teacher went crazy and was banished". Beyond the comical date, lay an interesting idea: this growing city had become just like the city that abandoned my people so long ago.

This was the only "death" that I had seen thus far that actually didn't explicitly mean death, and I had seen many deaths throughout my cities time. yes, he probably wandered into the wilderness and died.. but possibly he did what my people had so long ago instead: he left to create his own city. Throughout my years growing and suviving the harsh elements to help my little exiled people survive, just so that they can finally prosper, I had lost something invaluble along the way: the very reason my people had been banished in the first place. In the end, my people became what they hated most, what had abandoned them so long ago and left them to die in the elements, just so that they could prosper in this new land. In doing so they had banished a functional member of society because he was deemed crazy, just as they had been banished for the same injustice.

alternatively, he could have just been a kooky psycho trying to teach my children and they kicked him out because he was being creepy. Either way 10/10 Sewnwington's mighty empire shall rule this land eternally!