CitizenArcane

Note: Since time of writing, and optional “Adventure Mode” update allows for the game to be played without fear of threat from monsters or darkness, while adding additional puzzles. This review is based solely on the original release.   My review of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, now ten years old, proclaimed it to be the […]

There is a long and storied history of writers writing about writers. The same goes for films about filmmaking. Artists love talking about their art. At its best, this kind of inward-looking expression provides insight into the given medium and the creative process, giving us a glimpse of the passions and anxieties of the people […]

“You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a small mailbox here.” For gamers of a certain age, that sentence evokes as potent a wave of nostalgia as hearing the song that was playing during their first kiss or catching a whiff of their […]

The trailer for is a good one. It checks off all the boxes of creepy, heady science fiction: a lone astronaut stuck on a tragically-abandoned ship; an enigmatic, overly-friendly artificial intelligence; a vertigo-inducing EVA sequence; flickering lights; frantic breathing; and hints of a secret, homicidal agenda. But you know that sinking feeling you get when […]

Loiste Interactive’s is a bit of an anomaly in gaming. You’re not a detective, a space pirate, a treasure hunter or mystical warrior. You’re just Mark, a structural analyst doing his job, armed only with a camera, a flashlight, and an untraceable accent. While the game does dabble in conspiracies and murder, it is primarily […]

One of the most important yet underrated aspects of horror, whether in movies or games, is contrast – that is, the balance between periods of relative safety, tension, and explicit scares. Each element is essential. The best horror experiences include all three in moderation, with plenty of strategic downtime in between their tenser moments while […]