Misthold Welcomes You

The Whisperer in Darkness (2014) is a visual novel game based on the H.P. Lovecraft short story of the same name. It's basically just a retelling of the story, set in modern times.

Since you literally don't have ANY input except for slowly moving a pixel person across the screen, which honestly could've been left out with no loss to the story, I don't think this is actually a "game." There are no dialogue options, no plot choices, no actual interaction except for moving the pixel person.

As an art form this is an interesting concept; as something I spent almost an hour reading I can't say I was that excited about it. (I don't like Lovecraft.) I liked the art and the old school style font, and I appreciate the unique delivery of a short story, but it was VERY boring.

Not really recommended unless you want to try out reading a short story via video game. I vaguely remember these sorts of things from my 1990s childhood, and I don't think I liked them then, either...

Price: $2.99

Available for Windows, Linux and macOS. I played the Mac version.

Content notes: Screamer-style art panel at the end, though there isn't actual screaming.

One-Eyed Lee and the Dinner Party (2019) is a puzzle/visual novel game set in a fantasy world where spirits exist and, sometimes, merge with living humans to become...something else. One-Eyed Lee is a something else, and Beracus is the doctor trying to figure out how to change him back. Or at least make him less volatile...

Beracus and Lee get tipped off about a whole heap of spirits in an abandoned bunker-- only to become trapped inside with a family of living skeletons. You (playing as Beracus) must solve puzzles, talk to the skeletons (whether they like it or not), and keep Lee alive to get out of the bunker!

I had heaps of fun playing this game. The art is fantastic, Beracus and Lee have a very interesting partnership, and the bunker-skeleton family setting was great. It starts off uncanny, as a post-apocolyptic bunker without an apocalypse to go with it, and then gets super creepy by the time you leave and find out wtf really happened.


The puzzles are solved through finding clues (e.g. clicking on everything), talking to the skeletons, and matching clue to mystery in a specific order. I'm not sure if it was just my computer or if it's part of the game, but there was a small amount of lag between hovering over a clue and the highlight turning on, which mean I had to go a little slower than I usually do. Also, the highlight was a dark red color, which was a little difficult to see even for a non-colorblind person like me. (The whole bunker is heavy on red/orange tones.)

Side note that you can click on objects multiple times, and some of them lead to funny interactions! Or new clues! So that's cool.

Because you're also talking to people, you have some choices on how to proceed through the puzzles. For instance, there's some tricky situations where you could lock yourself out of a set of dialogue cues that change interactions between Beracus and Lee. Or you could leave behind an item that would come in handy at the very end! There are 8 total endings, so it's worth going back and trying different routes to try and get them all.

To make it easier to get the different endings, the game has a History option (to read back through the text), a Skip option (to zoom past text you've already seen), and a Back button if you immediately regret choosing a specific option. There's also a Journal tab, which keeps short notes about the story/clues, and even gives a few subtle hints on where to go next if you're a little stuck.

It took me about 3 hours to get all 8 endings; I used some hints from the dev (on the Itch.io page) to figure out what I needed to do at the end, and made sure to try different options than I did the first time. The last part is very tricky! I did notice that once I got the happiest ending, the loading screen illustration was also happy! When I got the bummer ending(s), it was super sad. Such a nice little touch in an already detail-filled game.

Great characters, good writing, humorous moments and spooky ones, too: I really enjoyed playing this and highly recommend checking it out!

Price: $4.99

This is apparently the first of a series of games the dev is planning on making with Beracus and Lee, and I can't wait to play them!

Available for Windows, Mac and Linux. I played the Mac OS version.

Jam and the Mystery of the Mysteriously Spooky Mansion (2019) is a point & click reverse whodunnit set in a haunted house. You play as Jam, a tween detective with ambitions higher than her mystery-solving capabilities. At the start of the game, you've already captured the villain and now you need evidence to prove what villainy he was doing.

Explore through different rooms clicking on things to find "clues," solve easy puzzles and put together "solutions" to solve the "crime." These involve picking up both clues and interactive elements, and figuring out which element interacts where (it's not always obvious). It's a short game and not hard to play-- the fun comes through the dialogue, the spooky atmosphere, and Jam and Alexandre (the villain) interacting.

There are 16 different endings, 15 through presenting evidence and 1 secret ending that I stumbled on accidentally. Once you present one solution, you can go back to that exact moment and present the other 14 combinations, no need to backtrack. All the endings lead to very funny dialogue, usually with a wham shot because of the demon.

Cool things: the default font is in the style of a 1980s computer game, but you can adjust it to something easier on the eyes (like I did). Also comes with a spoiler-free walkthrough/hints, including an endings checklist to make sure you get all the clue pairings.

Took me almost an hour to go through everything, and I really enjoyed it. I'd love to play a sequel game!

Price: $2.00

Available for Windows, Mac and Linux. I played the Mac OS version.