(06-06-2026, 07:40 PM)Joe Wrote: The Hand of Glory: 7.5/10. Difficulty: 6.5/10I was surprised by this one too. More than the sum of its parts?
~12h Broken Sword-like.
I was surprised by this game. I had no expectations and thought it would be one of those cute, little indie games. However, I quickly realized that it's a great game that is unfortunately held down by a myriad of little things.
But first, the pros:
- The puzzles are great—the real highlight of the game. They are challenging but logical. There is a fair variety of them, with many hotspots, items, and locations, so brute-forcing solutions is not a viable way to solve them. There are also many helpful little hints to ease the frustration. For example, when you try to use a tool on a powered-up object, you don't get a generic "I can't do it," but rather, "First, I need insulation to avoid electrocution."
- The characters are likeable and have unexpected depth.
- The intriguing detective story has some supernatural elements.
- It's a lengthy game. Even though it's in two parts, each part could easily take six or more hours.
The nitpicks:
- The graphics are bland but not without charm. The characters look especially flat, and the backgrounds are better but also nothing to write home about.
- The only good thing I can say about the music is that it isn't annoying.
- The voice-over is uneven. Fortunately, the MC has good-quality VO, but some characters sound like they're talking through a pipe, and others have different volumes of speech in the same sentence.
- I admit that I'm not good at remembering names (of locations and people). So, when the game throws a bunch of them at me — many of which are Italian — I get a little confused at times.
- It didn't bother me much, but there is a linear way to do things. You can't take items before doing other things or talking to a specific person. It gets to the point where MC blatantly tells you, "I don't need it now. I'll steal it later." As I said, it doesn't bother me much since it increases the difficulty of the puzzles, but I feel it's a little arbitrary which items you can take immediately and which you can't.
- In some places, lines of text are unreadable. The fonts are often the same color as the background, to the point that I thought it was a deliberate move by the developers.
While there are technically two MCs, you can rarely play as Alice. It's a shame, since she has her own little fun gimmick.
Anyway, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to scratch that Broken Sword itch.
There should be a sequel soon(ish): Roots in the Sky — The Hand of Glory 2. This time, I have high hopes for it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/96101..._of_Glory/
I understand the developer is Italian and unfortunately I think that hasn't helped them. If a little more effort went into PR and advertising for the game (the title looks particularly amateurish) the sequel could have been getting a lot of hype right now in the AG community.
(07-06-2026, 10:31 AM)Joe Wrote: The sequel is supposed to be released this summer. If they manage to make it better than the first one, I think it could be a strong contender for the best adventure game of the year.
I was excited for it but the demo didn’t exactly entertain me personally. It literally had me do chores. Clean up my room and was my clothes before I could start my adventure. Not in a fun, puzzle way either. I was disappointed.
Hopefully the game brings more “adventure” than the demo.
Note: I played it two years ago. - Joshua
AGH Co-founder, Owner, Business Management, Pop Tart lover
Follow the meaning: 6/10. Difficulty: 3/10
~ 90 minute game about a detective who must get into a hospital to uncover the secrets of three eyed people.
Standard gameplay: click on hotspots to obtain items or unlock access to other hotspots. Occasionally, there’s a puzzle that requires basic pattern recognition.
The art style has low saturation; it looks as if it were drawn with colored pencils or crayons. The overall look is nice, aside from the fact that everything is very far away, so the details are small. A zoom-in option would be useful.
The plot is minimalist and borders on the meta. You can guess some of the twists ahead of time. The whole story revolves around people with three eyes, their belief in a creator, and how others treat them.
There’s nothing particularly unique about this game, but there’s nothing bad about it either. If you’re looking for some relaxing entertainment for a short while, this game might be for you.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/27202...e_meaning/
~ 90 minute game about a detective who must get into a hospital to uncover the secrets of three eyed people.
Standard gameplay: click on hotspots to obtain items or unlock access to other hotspots. Occasionally, there’s a puzzle that requires basic pattern recognition.
The art style has low saturation; it looks as if it were drawn with colored pencils or crayons. The overall look is nice, aside from the fact that everything is very far away, so the details are small. A zoom-in option would be useful.
The plot is minimalist and borders on the meta. You can guess some of the twists ahead of time. The whole story revolves around people with three eyes, their belief in a creator, and how others treat them.
There’s nothing particularly unique about this game, but there’s nothing bad about it either. If you’re looking for some relaxing entertainment for a short while, this game might be for you.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/27202...e_meaning/
This post was last modified: 07-08-2026, 06:11 PM by Joe.
Whirlight - No Time To Trip: 7.5/10. Difficulty: 7/10.
~12h old school p'n'c game with time manipulation elements.
The good:
- The devs didn’t cave to the pressure of modern game development philosophy: “Make the game super easy just so you don’t scare players away.” It’s not the hardest game in the world, but it’s still challenging, thanks to its multi layered puzzles and occasional (but fair) moon logic. There isn’t much hand-holding, and despite occasional hints on what to do with a given item or hotspot, you’re on your own.
- The game’s structure and mechanics. In the first part of the game, a day-and-night cycle is introduced where different events occur at different times (the best part of the game), and in the final third of the game, you travel through time and space, collecting items and occasionally influencing the timeline to achieve the desired effect.
- 10+ hours of gameplay and that’s only if you don’t get stuck at any point (or if you’re playing with a walkthrough). Otherwise, the game could easily be twice as long (a quick glance at reviews on Steam showed that for some players, it was even four times as long). So be prepared for a longer playthrough, especially if you’re less experienced with p'n'c games and too determined to use a walkthrough.
The meh:
- The game's plot isn't bad, but it's definitely just a backdrop to give you an excuse to visit wacky places and experience wacky situations. It has a feel-good vibe and serves its purpose.
- The English dialogue is a bit rough. As a non-native English speaker, it didn’t bother me that much, but if someone is sensitive to that, it might put them off the game a little.
- The animations can be a bit stiff at times, like the MC’s running animation.
The bad:
- I’m probably in the minority here, but the art style didn’t work for me. I’m not a fan of 3D graphics, but it doesn’t bother me that much. Here, however, there was a certain “clash.” The elements looked fine on their own, but combining them with the main scenery created an unpleasant contrast. At times, it looked like a collection of assets awkwardly sticking out of the surroundings. As if a given element wasn’t part of the scene but had simply been placed on top of it.
- The game drags a bit toward the end. I'm talking about that last part with time travel. Each “era” consists of only a few hotspots, items, and characters. Traveling between them quickly becomes tedious. For some reason, fast travel is taken away halfway through the game, and we’re forced to walk back and forth. Switching between characters requires starting a conversation instead of a single click. You can’t pause or skip the animations. Each of these things is a minor nitpick, but together they waste a lot of time and make the game more tedious than it needs to be.
- This isn’t a criticism directed solely at Margaret, but generally at female MCs in p'n'c games. Margaret is a typical, bland MC whose only personality trait is that she’s capable. I’ve seen this character a dozens of times already, and I’d love to see, for once, a female mad scientist, a pickup artist, or a borderline psychopath. Maybe it’s some kind of design philosophy to create a flat character so the player can relate to her. I don’t know.
Anyway, despite my bitching, I sincerely recommend this title, especially for people who want to relive the old school, challenging (but not frustrating), p'n'c experience.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/27069...e_To_Trip/
~12h old school p'n'c game with time manipulation elements.
The good:
- The devs didn’t cave to the pressure of modern game development philosophy: “Make the game super easy just so you don’t scare players away.” It’s not the hardest game in the world, but it’s still challenging, thanks to its multi layered puzzles and occasional (but fair) moon logic. There isn’t much hand-holding, and despite occasional hints on what to do with a given item or hotspot, you’re on your own.
- The game’s structure and mechanics. In the first part of the game, a day-and-night cycle is introduced where different events occur at different times (the best part of the game), and in the final third of the game, you travel through time and space, collecting items and occasionally influencing the timeline to achieve the desired effect.
- 10+ hours of gameplay and that’s only if you don’t get stuck at any point (or if you’re playing with a walkthrough). Otherwise, the game could easily be twice as long (a quick glance at reviews on Steam showed that for some players, it was even four times as long). So be prepared for a longer playthrough, especially if you’re less experienced with p'n'c games and too determined to use a walkthrough.
The meh:
- The game's plot isn't bad, but it's definitely just a backdrop to give you an excuse to visit wacky places and experience wacky situations. It has a feel-good vibe and serves its purpose.
- The English dialogue is a bit rough. As a non-native English speaker, it didn’t bother me that much, but if someone is sensitive to that, it might put them off the game a little.
- The animations can be a bit stiff at times, like the MC’s running animation.
The bad:
- I’m probably in the minority here, but the art style didn’t work for me. I’m not a fan of 3D graphics, but it doesn’t bother me that much. Here, however, there was a certain “clash.” The elements looked fine on their own, but combining them with the main scenery created an unpleasant contrast. At times, it looked like a collection of assets awkwardly sticking out of the surroundings. As if a given element wasn’t part of the scene but had simply been placed on top of it.
- The game drags a bit toward the end. I'm talking about that last part with time travel. Each “era” consists of only a few hotspots, items, and characters. Traveling between them quickly becomes tedious. For some reason, fast travel is taken away halfway through the game, and we’re forced to walk back and forth. Switching between characters requires starting a conversation instead of a single click. You can’t pause or skip the animations. Each of these things is a minor nitpick, but together they waste a lot of time and make the game more tedious than it needs to be.
- This isn’t a criticism directed solely at Margaret, but generally at female MCs in p'n'c games. Margaret is a typical, bland MC whose only personality trait is that she’s capable. I’ve seen this character a dozens of times already, and I’d love to see, for once, a female mad scientist, a pickup artist, or a borderline psychopath. Maybe it’s some kind of design philosophy to create a flat character so the player can relate to her. I don’t know.
Anyway, despite my bitching, I sincerely recommend this title, especially for people who want to relive the old school, challenging (but not frustrating), p'n'c experience.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/27069...e_To_Trip/
This post was last modified: 07-15-2026, 08:26 AM by Joe.
I loved the art but I agree that it started to lag. Your review is very fair
AGH Co-founder, Owner, Business Management, Pop Tart lover
Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery: 6.5/10. Difficulty: 7.5/10.
~ 10h puzzler set in a small town where all the residents have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
First and foremost, this is a puzzle game. The story is interesting but sparse. The game is divided into 15 chapters in which you explore various locations around town.
The core of the gameplay consists of puzzles, which appear in large numbers. Unfortunately, aside from a few puzzles involving items or manipulating objects, most of them are based on finding passwords.
Safes, alarms, hiding places, doors, TVs, toy boxes, secret passages, machines, computers, and vehicles, everything in this city is password-protected. Apparently, the city’s residents were obsessed with passwords. At the same time, they must have had very poor or selective memories, because they set these passwords based on physical occurrences or objects in their surroundings. The shape of furniture, paintings and their placement, the type and quantity of cleaning supplies, the shape of books, children’s pictures, clocks, the arrangement of benches, coordinates on maps, the placement of electrical boxes, the order and degree of damage to mannequins, all of these can serve as clues to the password.
This can lead to monotony, although I have to give the developers credit for trying to ensure that the types of solutions for the clues don’t repeat too often.
As for the audiovisual elements, the music is forgettable. It’s monotonous, and while it isn’t annoying, it doesn’t add anything to the gameplay either. The developers were clearly aware of this, because in longer chapters you can come across radios and music players that allow you to change the music.
The graphics are interesting and based on “raw,” angular shapes. This gives the game a clean look and clearly depicts objects without leaving much room for interpretation, which is useful in a game where you’re constantly searching for clues in the environment.
Additionally, there’s a camera rotation mechanic. You can only see two sides of a given location at a time, and you can rotate the view by 90 degrees to explore the rest. It doesn’t add much to the gameplay, but it’s an interesting feature that visually sets this game apart from other puzzle games.
Ultimately, I can recommend this game to those who enjoy a good brain teaser, aren’t afraid of challenges, and don’t mind constantly searching, deducing, and memorizing passwords.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/12596...n_Mystery/
~ 10h puzzler set in a small town where all the residents have disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
First and foremost, this is a puzzle game. The story is interesting but sparse. The game is divided into 15 chapters in which you explore various locations around town.
The core of the gameplay consists of puzzles, which appear in large numbers. Unfortunately, aside from a few puzzles involving items or manipulating objects, most of them are based on finding passwords.
Safes, alarms, hiding places, doors, TVs, toy boxes, secret passages, machines, computers, and vehicles, everything in this city is password-protected. Apparently, the city’s residents were obsessed with passwords. At the same time, they must have had very poor or selective memories, because they set these passwords based on physical occurrences or objects in their surroundings. The shape of furniture, paintings and their placement, the type and quantity of cleaning supplies, the shape of books, children’s pictures, clocks, the arrangement of benches, coordinates on maps, the placement of electrical boxes, the order and degree of damage to mannequins, all of these can serve as clues to the password.
This can lead to monotony, although I have to give the developers credit for trying to ensure that the types of solutions for the clues don’t repeat too often.
As for the audiovisual elements, the music is forgettable. It’s monotonous, and while it isn’t annoying, it doesn’t add anything to the gameplay either. The developers were clearly aware of this, because in longer chapters you can come across radios and music players that allow you to change the music.
The graphics are interesting and based on “raw,” angular shapes. This gives the game a clean look and clearly depicts objects without leaving much room for interpretation, which is useful in a game where you’re constantly searching for clues in the environment.
Additionally, there’s a camera rotation mechanic. You can only see two sides of a given location at a time, and you can rotate the view by 90 degrees to explore the rest. It doesn’t add much to the gameplay, but it’s an interesting feature that visually sets this game apart from other puzzle games.
Ultimately, I can recommend this game to those who enjoy a good brain teaser, aren’t afraid of challenges, and don’t mind constantly searching, deducing, and memorizing passwords.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/12596...n_Mystery/