The Alien Cube

Though there are many walking sims inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's stories, this is an excellent one. It's beautiful rendered and directed, with superb ambient music, sound effects, and a bit of voice acting. Start with a mystery and slowly sink deeper and deeper into the ancient, cosmic horror... you know the drill.

The game is linear, though it involves interesting exploration of its many detailed areas, with some simple tasks and puzzle solving. There are various documents to find (easy!) that add to the storytelling, as well as 8 secrets, some of which are not easy to find without a walkthrough. There is no real reward for finding them, so consider them skippable.

Unfortunately, there are a handful of chase scenes. Luckily they are not hard and not too frustrating. But, in my opinion, they are an unwelcome addition to the genre. This and other games like it would have be even better without them.

It's also great to see the dev, Alessandro Guzzo, progress so well since his previous game, The Land of Pain. Not only is the presentation superior and highly polished, but the gameplay in particular shed a lot of the early awkwardness and frustration with large open areas and annoying chases. The Alien Cube is a satisfying Lovecraftian ride from start to finish.

And now fans will just have to patiently wait for Guzzo's next game...