The Guest

I almost pressed the thumbs up button, but then decided that this game just doesn't deliver on the expectations it sets. There seems to be an intriguing backstory, but then the game ends abruptly (it is very short) with no closure at all. It's almost as if they planned a "real" game and then got tired of working on it, wrapped it up after the introductory level, and shoveled it on Steam. It feels like a free demo.

There's nothing wrong with short games. But, this one is just not very good. It's a puzzle game (not an "exploration" game, despite what the developers say) with just a handful of puzzles. The puzzles themselves are not very hard, though the setup to getting them sometimes is a bit obscure. Still, once you find the hard-to-find clue there's not much else to do. I love puzzle games, but these puzzles here are ... mediocre. So: a puzzle game with mediocre puzzles. Hard to recommend.

Also, as many reviewers have pointed out, the game uses a very dark palette. Great for atmosphere, but extremely frustrating for play. There is a brightness knob in the settings, but it doesn't necessarily help. Actually, high brightness will totally obscure one puzzle hint! So, you're better off staying in the gloom.