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After being impressed with the first little bit of Twin Mirror I have to say I was pretty underwhelmed by the end. It just increasingly felt rushed and also seemed to pull a bait and switch with it’s own mechanics. For most of the game You are allowed to use the mind palace to recreate what actually happened by testing out various possibilities until you find the correct combo of events. If you fail you just go to trial and error before you figure it out either through hints or luck. Not the greatest mechanic in the world and certainly could have been more fleshed out but still decent. Later in the game though you are not allowed to test run events, you have to take one shot at it and either get it right or not which leads to different outcomes. One one hand I can respect upping the stakes to create tension but at the same time the game spends time giving you expectations on how the central mechanic is going to operate only to change course at the end. I say the game felt rushed because the game seems to put together the pieces at a breakneck pace while failing to flesh out what led up to it or what comes after the game ends. I rarely say a game was too short but this game certainly felt that way. To top it off my favourite part of the game was exploring the town of Basswood but that section is limited to a very small section of the town and a single scene. My favourite character was Joan and that story angle also felt like it lacked a lot of meat on the bone leaving me wanting her to have a bigger role and a more defined ending for her. The game loved to introduce back story and characters and then give them too little depth and little to do. Overall though I can't say that the game was "bad". It was subpar and could have been better but no part was terrible. The graphics were decent to above average with the faces and vistas being the standout. There was a shot of Basswood from a lookout at night that was beautiful and the town itself was a very comfy area. The voice acting was well done as was the music. Other Don't Nod games could get by with a single game mechanic driving the game because they had stories that were much more fleshed out and deeper characters, Twin Mirror lacks those so the game play felt more hollow and shallow without something else to add to it. I also felt that none of the endings really felt like the ending I wanted or enjoyed. I also felt like the game didn't give me much in the way of choices where I could say that "these are the reasons I ended up with that ending". I felt like I got stuck with it with little in the way of choices I could have made to avoid it. I will give some credit to the lock puzzle as it had some good logic to it.

I played the game on Linux using Proton. Twin Mirror had a v-sync toggle, four AA settings, and four other graphics settings. The game had a couple technical issues. When I would first load a save the FPS would cap out at 60 FPS so I had to go into the settings, turn v-sync off, turn v-sync back on, and then it was fixed until the next time I exited and relaunched the game. There was also a scene that had a bit of flickering for a few seconds as well as some glitch with Sam's hair in the mirror early on for a short moment. I also didn't like how the cut scenes ran at 60 FPS where the main game ran at my monitor's refresh rate as it was a tad jarring at times. Overall the game ran very well with the frame rate never dipping under 116 while maxed out at 2560P. The game has an auto save system. I didn't have any crashes.

Game Engine: Unreal 4
Graphics API: DXVK
Disk Space Used: 26.8 GB

Game Settings: 2560x1440, Ultra, v-sync on, AA on Ultra
GPU Usage: 70-100 %
VRAM Usage: 3555-5120 MB
CPU Usage: 12-20 %
System RAM Usage: 5.2-6.7 GB
Frame Rate: 116-165 FPS

I thought that Life is Strange was fantastic, then I played Tell Me Why and thought it was decent but nowhere near as good as LIS, and now I have played Twin Mirror and am reduced to calling it subpar. Hopefully Don't Nod can improve going forward as they have shown they have a lot of talent in the past but are headed in the wrong direction in my experience. I finished my first play through of Twin Mirror in six hours and eighteen minutes. I paid $8.80 CAD for it. I find it hard to recommend it even at that price let alone it's standard price of $38.99 CAD plus tax. It just left me wanting and didn't explore the areas I did enjoy enough.


My Score: 6/10

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Asus RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | MSI Pro Z690-A DDR4 | Devuan 8 (Freia) | Dasharo 1.1.4 | Mate 1.28.2 | Kernel 6.17.9+deb14-amd64 | Mesa 25.2.6-1 | Open RC 0.63 | MSI G2730QPF 2560*1440 @ 165Hz | Proton 9.0-4

The games I have played from Quantic Dream usually follow a trend, both good and bad, and Heavy Rain was no different. The controls were terrible in my opinion. Countless times I had to force the character to go where I want and fight them wanting to go elsewhere. The closest I can relate it to is the tank controls of the old survival horror games. The camera didn’t help because it would often shift when I would have preferred it didn’t and that means more likely then not I was going to be taking the character in the wrong direction. I have found these issues with varying degrees in Beyond Two Souls and Indigo Prophecy as well. Why do I keep playing Quantic Dream work if I keep having these issues ? Because like the other games Heavy Rain has many positives to speak of. The story is fantastic, the different characters all give you different pieces of the same overall story from their own perspectives and it is all a well woven sight to behold. The branching is also second to none as there are real consequences if you make certain choices. There is little in the way of “failure” or “success”, whatever your outcome it just changes the story branch to suit what you did. It isn’t to say you have full free reign but it is far more actual meaningful choice than many games give you. This makes the controls and camera even more of an issue though as they led me to screw up in ways that I didn’t feel I wanted to and the only recourse I had was to restart the whole chapter sometimes because if the game auto saves after something important happens then you can’t just undo it. The only gripe I have with the story was when you finally are shown who the Origami Killer was I felt there was little buildup to it. It just kind of happened. Another thing that was also done better than even other Quantic Dream games was the fights. I usually hate QTE type events but Quantic Dream has always made it something that I actually found worked well. The QTE based fight scenes flow beautifully and even when I screw up and miss a prompt it actually almost works better as the fight looks like a more realistic back and forth between the people. There were times where the QTE and other button combos for to a masochistic level even I couldn’t stand. There were times where to complete something I literally had both my hands contorted like a pretzel trying to hit varying combos of buttons from all over the controller. The graphics were overall really well done. At the time of writing this the game originally came out fifteen years ago in 2010 and nothing looked visually sub par. Sure I can list games that have come out since that look better but I can also list many games that have come out since that look worse. The detail on faces and objects was great. The water, lighting, and shadows were also well done. If anything was maybe a little dated it was the clothing detail and even that wasn’t bad. The voice acting was a mixed bag. The voice actors for Ethan, Scott, and Madison were all great but I wasn’t overly impressed with the work done on Norman, Shaun and Lauren. The music was perfect and always added to the mood of the scene.

I played Heavy Rain on Linux using Proton. There was a resolution option, two types of AA that can be used at once with a total of five AA options total between them, two AO options, and four other graphics settings. The game has a 60 FPS limit that can’t be changed in game. You can change the difficulty when loading a save. There were a few technical issues I experienced. First was one where often times if I quit to the main menu to reload a save the game’s frame rate would plummet when it loaded. Instead of a smooth 60 FPS it would give me 30-40 FPS. I had to exit the game and relaunch it to fix this. This happened often enough to be a nuisance. There was also one small glitch when I got stuck in a side walk when walking down the street, this only happened the once and I had to reload my save to fix it. The performance otherwise was a smooth 55-60 FPS. I would have preferred a unlocked frame rate or to tie it to my v-sync of 165 FPS. You can have three save profiles in game but each only has one save slot. Other than the one save slot you must replay entire chapters. I would have preferred a manual save option. I was able to use a keyboard and mouse as well as my Logitech F310. While both options were not ideal the F310 was the far better option for me. The button prompts were correct for the game pad in game.

Graphics API: DXVK
Disk Space Used: 36.9 GB

Settings Used: 2560x1440, 8x MSAA, SMAA, 16x AF, HBAO on, All Highest
GPU Usage: 17-87 %
VRAM Usage: 3688-6009 MB
CPU Usage: 10-32 %
System RAM Usage: 4.7-7.6 GB
Frame Rate: 55-60 FPS

As with other Quantic Dream games I could go on about control and technical issues but I also have to go on about story quality, branching quality, and music. I want to be harsh on the game for it’s faults but it’s strengths are so good I can only go so far. Despite the issues I had I enjoyed my time with Heavy Rain. I finished the story in about eleven hours on the “I Play Video Games Very Often” setting. I paid $10.99 CAD for it and would say its current price tag of $29.99 plus tax CAD is still a good price for what you get.

My Score: 8/10

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Asus RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | MSI Pro Z690-A DDR4 | Artix | Dasharo 1.1.4 | Mate 1.28.2 | Kernel 6.17.5-artix1-1 | Mesa 25.2.5-arch1.2 | Open RC 0.63 | MSI G2730QPF 2560*1440 @ 165Hz | Proton 9.0-4

The Campsite does a good job of making use of it's short run time. It has a very comfy feel to it and I love the setting. It has some pretty straightforward puzzles that for the most part are logical. I will give it credit for having a unique Morse code puzzle. I did ind the use of the stake to be a bit weird. I like how it allows you to highlight things that can be clicked on but makes it optional. It satisfies both spectrums of puzzle gamer. The graphics are alright but pixel art games are always a tough one to grade as they are meant to be low detail to start with. The music is well done. I do wish that the handling of the text was different. While you can pause the game or skip the text it will almost always continue without stopping. I wish there had of been an option to set it to only advance text manually. There isn't a ton of story here but what there is was enjoyable and worked well.

I played The Campsite on Linux. It never crashed and I didn't notice any spelling errors or other glitches. There are no graphics options at all. The save system is one that saves on exit from the game and overwrites the same one save file each time. I would have preferred a manual save system with multiple slots although given the short run time it wasn't a huge deal. Performance was great but given the visual detail it should be.

Game Engine: Unity
Disk Space Used: 189 MB
Game Version Played: 2.0
Input Used: Keyboard and Mouse

GPU Usage: 6-14 %
VRAM Usage: 1282-1407 MB
CPU Usage: 7-11 %
System RAM Usage: 4.8-5.0 GB
Frame Rate: 164-165 FPS

Overall if you're after a point and click game that isn't ​​masochistic with it's puzzles and has a heart warming story then I think you'll enjoy it. I finished it in forty five minutes. It is free of charge but even with a price tag of $5 I’d still recommend it.

My Score: 7/10

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Gigabyte RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | Solus | Dasharo 1.1.4 | Mate 1.28.2 | Kernel 6.14.6-319.current | Mesa 25.0.6 |

The director’s cut of Deus Ex: Human Revolution falls into the pitfalls that many remasters/director’s cuts/etc type games fall into. That is that the parts that are good were already good and in the original game. The parts that are bad are often issues that were not present in the original game. That is the case here. The voice acting is great. The music is awesome. The story is fairly well done. There are a lot of decent choices in the game. There are a lot of ways you can play the game minus boss fights. Whether you want to hack, use vents, stealth, get into firefights there are augments, weapons, and level choices that will fit your style. The boss fights are very much combat driven for the most part though. Once again though all of this was true of the original game. The graphics have held up pretty well. They are showing their age in some ways but at the same time they’re not an eye sore. For a game released originally in 2011 it looks better and runs better than some lower end games in 2025. Bugs are ultimately what did this DC in for me. There are a lot of animation issues such as your body or an enemy’s body going through surfaces like walls or desks during a take-down animation. Maybe those were present in the original version, I don’t remember. What I know for a fact was not present in the original was the game breaking crashes I got on the Panchea level. At different points in that level I keep getting crashes with the error message “ran out of saved memory”. I was able to get by it once by loading a previous save but later on I could not get by it using that method, adjusting graphics settings, trying different versions of Proton/wine or anything else. I literally can’t finish the game which I had no issue with when the original first launched in 2011. Looking on the Steam forums gamers on both Windows and Linux complain of this issue dating back as far as 2013. The fact that this bug still remains in 2025 in various forms is a disgrace. There are even other bugs such as when using the social enhancer aug you can choose “charm” but it will actually choose “intimidate” instead which can cost you the conversation as the game’s code has switched the two for that instance and you really have to pick the wrong one for it to work. Once again looking at the Steam forums that bug has been unfixed since 2014. There are other bugs where objectives don’t always update properly. For instance I got a pocket secretary which told me where a person was hiding but my objective didn’t update saying I knew that info (still said I had to find out where they were) and I had to go there manually to get the objective to skip ahead saying I had found them. Don’t get me wrong, the game itself is still very fun to play. It’s just that other than making the DLC and game into one long game this DC does nothing but introduce bug after bug.

I played this DC on Linux using Proton. There were five AA settings, six AF settings, two SSAO settings, a v-sync toggle, an FOV slider that went from 75-100, and four other graphics settings. You can pause and skip cutscenes. You can manually save and there are one hundred save slots or you can use the checkpoint saves. You can change the difficulty mid game. The performance was fantastic.

Game Engine: Crystal Engine
Graphics API: DXVK
Disk Space Used: 19GB
Input Used: Keyboard and Mouse

Graphics Settings Used: 2560x1440, MLAA, 16x AF, depth of field off, rest at highest, v-sync on
GPU Usage: 15-90 %
VRAM Usage: 1624-1975 MB
CPU Usage: 12-40 %
System RAM Usage: 3.8-5.5 GB
Frame Rate: 68-165 FPS

As I have said there is a very fun game here that this DC has messed up royally. To get 36 hours into a game and not be able to finish it because of game breaking bugs that haven’t been fixed in over a decade is terrible. The original is worth the entire $25.99 CAD that it goes for but this DC is worth exactly nothing to me.

My Score: 9/10 for the original but 1/10 for this DC

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Gigabyte RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | Solus | Dasharo 1.1.4 | Mate 1.28.2 | Kernel 6.14.6-319.current | Mesa 25.0.6 | MSI G2730QPF 2560*1440 @ 165Hz | Proton 9.0-4 (also tried experimental)

We Should Talk certainly has an interesting concept. I actually liked the way in which you craft responses and would like it if other visual novel type games would adapt it and build on it. It wasn't always perfect though. A few times I couldn't really find a suitable response to certain situations. It seemed liked the game was trying to force you to make a response that would inflame drama and conflict at certain points. The story overall lacked much meat to it. It is basically a short game where you are out at a bar. The game hints at possible issues in your relationship before and hints at flimsy endings but never really gives you much context or resolution. It just came off as really thin. There also didn't feel like I had much choice or control in the story despite the point of the mechanics being to change that. I also want to point out that I got one achievement which said I lied about talking to my ex which is weird because I mentioned them by name and Sam knew that this was my ex so if I used their name and my girlfriend knew that was my ex how did I lie ? Graphics wise the game had a decent style to it but at the same time it wasn't enough from feeling like it lacked either visual pop or texture detail. The music as good and lended to the bar atmosphere well but was a bit repetitive.


I played We Should Talk on Linux. It never crashed and I didn't notice any spelling errors or bugs. The game has one resolution option and one graphics setting. I did notice that every time I launched the game it would default to 1920x1080 and I would have to manually change it to 2560x1440, it did save my choice of Ultra though. The game didn't appear to have any save system. I tried exiting and going back in early on at different points and it always put me at the beginning of the game. This means that to see the possibility of any different dialog choices you have to replay the game in full. It is a short game but a manual save system would still have been nice. There is also no mouse support and you have to use the keyboard. There is also no v-sync option so the game runs at crazy high frame rates which pushes the GPU usage way higher than it needs to be. Performance was fine obviously given this issue.


Game Engine: Unity
Graphics API: OpenGL
Disk Space Used: 1.7 GB


Graphics Settings Used: 2560x1440, Ultra
GPU Usage: 79-99 %
VRAM Usage: 3199-3276 MB
CPU Usage: 16-19 %
System RAM Usage: 4.7-5.0 GB
Frame Rate: 392-491 FPS


Overall I can't call We Should Talk a bad game but it isn't exactly a good game either. It simply exists. I think with some more technical polish and some more meat on the story's bones it could have been much better. As it stands it has a good concept that was held back by other parts of the game and was never used as well as I had hoped. I finished my first play through in twenty three minutes. I paid $10.06 CAD for it and felt that alright for what I got.


My Score: 6/10

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Gigabyte RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | Solus | Dasharo 1.1.4 | Mate 1.28.2 | Kernel 6.12.23-317.current | Mesa 25.0.4 | MSI G2730QPF 2560*1440

Shadow Warrior strikes me as how to reimagine a game properly. It still retains it’s old school feel but it has a lot of new goodies as well. I have played a lot of “remastered” games and usually I am disappointed because they change the core game play in ways I dislike or try to shove modern politics into a game that never had any to start with. The story is pretty simple overall as you have to seek out a sword for your boss. The expanded story that you learn as you go in regards to the shadow realm and it’s history is actually pretty decent although I found it could have been explained a bit better at parts. It still offers a more fleshed out story than many action games tend to. The weapon selection is great and fives you plenty of options for ranged, close range, and melee weapons. The combat with the sword is one of the better first person melee experiences I have had. You can dismember enemies in various ways, block, and learn a variety of special attacks with it. Speaking of the special attacks there are lots of varied skills and upgrades you can strive for as you find money, crystals, and earn karma. I did find the karma you earn to be rather hit and miss in how it is calculated. The idea is that the more varied and special the attacks you do combined with how fast you finish them off will get you more karma but in my experience I rarely found the score matched with how I thought I did not to mention that many times I took more damage and took longer but because I used a better variety of weapons I got more karma than when I was more efficient yet boring. There was a good selection of enemies to fight. They all had their own styles and strategies to match up to your weapon selection. The boss fights were decent but they made it very obvious how to beat them and they were all pretty much the same. The level design was varied in location but I found many times it felt very maze like. The game does give you slight hints of where to go but even then I felt it could have been better mapped out. The sequel has really remedied this thankfully. Something else the sequel did better was allow you to carry health packs. In this game you can’t hold them, you use them as soon as you touch them. I can hold onto a half dozen weapons as well as hundreds of rounds of ammo but not a health pack. I also don’t like how early in the game you pretty much need to have hints turned on. For instance at one point you must heal to progress and another you must learn a specific power but neither time does the game tell you this without hints on. The graphics were fairly good for when it was released and hold up pretty well over a decade later. Nothing was a standout for 2013 but everything was at least solid or above average. The voice acting was good and the humour was top notch.

I played Shadow Warrior’s native Linux version. The game has a vertical FOV slider that ranges from 50-90, four AF settings, toggles for AA, SSAO, and v-sync as well as eight other graphics settings. You can change difficulty any time you want. You can manually save any time you want and there are auto checkpoints as well. You can skip cut scenes. Performance wise the game ran great which isn’t shocking given it’s age and my hardware. There were a couple issues such ass the game crashed to desktop twice. An enemy was able to attack me through a wall one time, and a barrel exploded just by me touching it one time.

Game Engine: Road Hog Engine
Disk Space Used: 7GB
Input Used: Keyboard and mouse
Game Settings Used: 2560x1440, FXAA, 16x AF, v-sync on, highest settings
GPU Usage: 12-75 %
VRAM Usage: 1848-2918MB
CPU Usage: 13-28 %
System RAM Usage: 4.5-5.8 GB
Frame Rate: 72-135 FPS

If you love action games with good humour you should try Shadow Warrior. You don’t have to have played the original old school version to enjoy this one. It currently retails for $33.99 CAD plus tax which may seem like a lot for a ten year old game but I enjoyed this more than many newer games even after all these years. I finished the main story on normal difficulty in eleven hours and thirty six minutes.

My Score: 8.5/10

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Gigabyte RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | Linux Mint 22 | Dasharo 1.1.4 | Mate 1.26.1 | Kernel 6.8.0-51-generic | Mesa 24.0.9-0ubuntu0.2 | MSI G2730QPF 2560*1440 @ 165Hz

It Paints Me was a tough game to judge. On one hand it had great music and atmosphere, a decent amount of choices, and decent voice acting. The story is where I felt conflicted. I felt too much was missing from it. I know this was a jam game so it was going to be short but I felt like not enough backstory was given on Sam or Marie. We get a glimpse of details but not much more. I also found Sam a little whiny and distrustful. If I was supposed to then good job but if not then something got crossed between the game and I.


I played It Paints Me on Linux. It never crashed and I didn't notice any spelling errors. You can save whenever you want and it has fifty four save slots.



Game Engine: Ren'Py 8.2.1.24030407

Graphics API: OpenGL

Disk Space Used: 280 MB

GPU Usage: 7-10 %

VRAM Usage: 1701-2168 MB

CPU Usage: 6-8 %

System RAM Usage: 4.5-4.6 GB



I can't say I disliked the game but I also can't say i did like it overall. It has a lot going for it and I think given how well everything but the story was great in my eyes that given the right material I'm bound to enjoy some of the developer's future work. I finished three endings in twenty one minutes. Visual novels are tough to judge even when free because there are lot of good free visual novels out there. It’s stiffer competition than some genres.



My Score: 6.5/10


My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Gigabyte RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | Linux Mint | Dasharo 1.1.1 | Mate 1.26.1 | Kernel 6.8.0-45-generic | Mesa 24.0.9-0ubuntu0.2

Kona is the kind of survival game I can enjoy. It has a lot of similar features as other survival games but it doesn't take them to a masochistic level. You have to manage inventory weight, cold, stress, and health but at no time was I pulling my hair out dealing with them. The story is very well done although I do think it could have done a bit better of explaining it near the end. Despite that I really liked the direction the story took. I think that the fact the game doesn't have a stated goal is good and bad. The game usually did a good job at letting you know what things need to be done without listing it on the screen or having a quest marker. I found the journal to be fairly useless at keeping track of things though. The map was great although it would have been nice if it listed which places you had visited. The graphics were decent but not spectacular. Nothing from object detail to clothes, faces, etc were mind blowing but they were not an eye sore either. I will give a shout to to the fact that your footprints in the snow stay a while. Many games don't go through the trouble to even have footprints in the snow. The sound effects were very well done. Everything from the sounds of feet crunching on snow to the sounds of doors, the truck, the snowmobile, etc were all great. The music was decent but repetitive. The game did employ invisible walls a couple times which is a cheap way to block your path. Other times they properly find good reason why you can't go somewhere so not sure why they didn't other times. I found it a tad weird that you can't view the map while driving the snowmobile while you can in the truck. I've never driven a snowmobile before so maybe this is realistic.

I played Kona on Linux. The game never crashed. I did notice a couple minor glitches such as weapons going through Carl's body and shrubs going through the floor of the truck. Nothing major though. The game has an FOV slider that goes from 65-90, an AA toggle, a v-sync toggle, two AO settings, and twelve other graphics options. Performance was great with the exception of the game having the odd micro stutter. The frame rate never dropped low but for a second or so the game would stutter. It didn't happen often enough to ruin my experience. I will also say that the game took way more horsepower than expected given the graphical detail. The game has a manual save system but the game doesn't load you back to where you saved, it loads you to the last location your non manual save occurred such as a cabin or fire. The manual save does save progress and inventory though. There is only one save slot but the game does allow you to have multiple different game files if more than one person wanted their own play through.

Game Engine: Unity
Graphics API: Vulkan
Disk Space Used: 2.9 GB
Input Used: Keyboard and mouse

Graphics Settings Used: 2560x1440, motion blur and depth of field off, everything else on highest or turned on, 90 FOV
GPU Usage: 35-86 %
VRAM Usage: 3459-4672 MB
CPU Usage: 17-41 %
System RAM Usage: 5.7-8.6 GB
Frame Rate: 134-165 FPS

Despite the little nitpicks I have with Kona it was a highly enjoyable experience that I recommend. It had good mechanics and a good story. I finished this play through in four hours and fifty five minutes. I paid $20 CAD for it when it originally came out so the current price of $16.94 CAD is more than fair for what you get.

My Score: 9/10

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Gigabyte RX 7800 XT 16GB | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | Artix | Dasharo 1.1.1 | Mate 1.28.2 | Kernel 6.10.10-artix1-1 | Mesa 24.2.2-arch1.1 | MSI G2730QPF 2560*1440 @ 165Hz

Ladykiller in a Bind has a lot going for it. It’s got some really interesting characters, a great setting, and an interesting story. It loses a lot of the momentum as it goes though. It is a game that takes place over the course of seven days and it makes you choose how to spend your time on the ship which means on a single play through I not only have to spend time with some characters that I didn’t care about but also couldn’t spend as much time with those I did. For instance my two favourite characters were the Photographer and The Swimmer but you have to choose between them early on so right off the bat I can’t spend time with both of my favourites. I also am forced to spend time with The Hacker or The Beauty each day. I didn’t mind either of them but I enjoyed my time with The Bro and The Lieutenant more. The game does have a lot of customization to it which is nice. You can choose custom nicknames for pretty much every character. You can choose to skip lewd scenes. There was one choice that still wasn’t much of a choice though. There is one borderline non consensual sex scene that you can skip but it still happens because the dialogue afterwards still implies it took place, you just didn’t have to watch it. I would have preferred that skipping it means it takes it out of the plot. The sex scenes in any case are mostly dialogue as there is little but still images on screen and even then many just involve sensual touching or acts rather than full blown sex. Basically if one were to play the game mainly for the lewd scenes they will come away disappointed. Even if you don’t come just for those you still may. By the end I had many questions about just what the overall goal of The Brother was and what role certain people played. They just randomly did things with little to no explanation and then take random potshots at capitalism. The visuals had a pretty good style and the music was decent. The menu system was pretty unique as many Ren’Py games end up with really similar menu systems where Ladykiller went for their own style.

I played Ladykiller on Linux. It had a weird issue where it froze on my three times. If I left it there for about twenty to thirty seconds it would unfreeze on it’s own. This was really strange because I have played hundreds of visual novels over the years and I can’t remember any of them freezing on me, the genre is usually pretty bug free. The game has a manual save system with no save game limit I could tell but you can’t save at any point however it is almost any point. One of the biggest technical drawbacks to the game was the lack of a back button for the text. Basically as the dialogue progresses and you get to make a choice that isn’t the only choice you get. If you let the dialogue keep going without choosing you can sometimes get additional choices but other times you lose the ability to make some or all choices. I really disliked this system. I would have preferred we get to see all choices at once. This way I clearly see what my options and and don’t lose out on any dialogue. This system is especially annoying combined with the lack of a back button I mentioned earlier.

Game Engine: Ren’Py 6.99.6.739
Disk Space Used: 654 MB
Game Version Played: Build 786

CPU Usage: 5-12 %
System RAM Usage: 4.2-5.7 GB

I would say that Ladykiller in a Bind ended up as a good game. It started off great but sadly a combination of technical issues and choices with the weird twists to the story hampered it. The other issue would be it’s current price. It retails for $25.99 plus tax CAD which is pretty high for a visual novel. I finished my first play through in five hours and fifteen minutes. I’d say that the price range of $10-15 would have been better. The length seemed fine as what the game needed wasn’t more content but a more cohesive story and better freedom with what characters you spent time with.

My Score: 7.5/10

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Intel UHD 770 | Mesa 23.0.4 | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | Trisquel 11.0.1 | Mate 1.26.0 | Kernel 6.9.5-gnu

The prologue to Hauma - A Detective Noir Story had me hooked pretty much from the start. I love the comic book visuals and the game had some good voice acting to boot. There are certain “puzzles” to solve in order to progress. I use the word mostly due to lack of a better one. It’s really just finding certain items you need or discovering clues through dialogue that you can use on another person to further things. It’s not difficult but it does add an extra element so the game isn’t strictly a visual novel and it does all make logical sense which I appreciate. The music is also well done.

I played the prologue on Linux using Proton. It never crashed and I didn’t notice any bugs or spelling errors. There is no menu at all and no options. The prologue also didn’t seem to have a save system. Hopefully these things change for the full game. Performance was great even on Intel onboard graphics. Despite not having a v-sync option the game respected my refresh rate.


Game Engine: Godot
Graphics API: OpenGL
Disk Space Used: 456 MB

GPU Usage: 36-89 %
CPU Usage: 5-12 %
System RAM Usage: 4.5-4.7 GB
Frame Rate: 100-165 FPS


If you enjoy visual novels or light puzzle games I would suggest trying Hauma - A Detective Noir Story. It has a fantastic style, an interesting story, and some decent mechanics. I finished the prologue in thirty one minutes and am looking forward to getting the full game.

My Score: 9/10

My System:

Intel i5-12600K | 32GB DDR4-3200 CL16 | Intel UHD 770 | Mesa 23.0.4 | Western Digital Black SN850X 2TB | Trisquel 11.0.1 | Mate 1.26.0 | Kernel 6.9.3-gnu | Proton 9.0-1