Walk & Talk Games I've Played
Walk & Talk games are categorized by a primary gameplay loop of advancing dialogue or exploring without danger. I've played 59 games in this genre so far.
You can also go back to all genres.
The Big Con
Charming and surprisingly intricate little exploration game where you steal your way across the country. The writing carries a decent story and the 90s vibe grounds the world nicely.
Pentiment
An enthralling tale of a man's place in a small town and the murders that happen there. But it's not about the mystery, really. More about the people and their lives. It's great to learn about everyone and see how your choices impact the story of this village. It's a bit slow at times, but it's cool to see the scope of it all.
Gone Home
Short but sweet walking simulator. Exploring the house is cool and it's neat how the story unfolds at your own pace. There's not really much gameplay, but it's a contained enough game that it didn't bother me.
Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County
A lovely end to an extremely cute trilogy. Tied it up perfectly, no notes.
Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard
Similarly charming with marginally more gameplay this time around (but not really). Still a fun world and story though.
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim
Interesting and dense story, if overly complex. I like the intermingling of the plots, but it does make it a little hard to follow. Combat provides a good respite and is simplistic without being boring. There's great QoL features for the visual novel part and gorgeous art, as always. It's an ambitious game, but it sticks the landing.
Venba
A bittersweet story about family, food, and culture. Nice little 1-sitting game, and surprisingly touching.
Trash the Planet
Doesn't shy from the political, but presents it in a fun, light way. Great theming, varied gameplay, good music, and doesn't overstay its welcome. The complete package.
Wide Ocean Big Jacket
Touching, small story. Nice art, chill vibe. Great dialogue and writing. No real gameplay, but the walking around and choosing who says the next line made it much more dynamic, somehow, than a movie.
Paradise Killer
Super interesting game. I like the open-ended exploration and the fact that it was sort of a secret platformer. There's a lot of overlapping storylines, and I liked how well they executed on the V I B E. The biggest knock was that you're not really _solving_ the case so much as you can talk to everyone as much as you want and explore. There's not much logic to it. But, it was good for what it was.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Justice for All
Better story than I remembered. Good investigation. Goofy cast, as always.
The Stanley Parable
Great follow-up. Looks as good as I remember. New endings are great and the bucket adds a lot of depth to the original game. Still a stone-cold classic.
A Way Out
Great game. Good story, great presentation/cinematography. Gameplay itself was light, but that was really the style. Didn't bothe rme at all. Action was engaging and experience was gripping.
Deliver Us The Moon
Very atmospheric. Cool story that we get to experience and find. Puzzles were fine and didn't get in the way. Low-g was cool. Interactivity was great. All around very enjoyable! Didn't overstay its welcome, either.
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist
Short and sweet. Cute little walking simulator, very Stanley Parable. Fun spin on what happens behind the scenes of a game.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
It was fun! Writing was better than I remember and the cases had good twists. Characters were eccentric and animated. Some of the evidence presentations were a little obtuse, but nothing too bad.
A Short Hike
Cute, relaxing game. Similar to Celeste almost, where the oveall goal is to summit a mountain. Great music, design. Fun flying mechanics. Light, doesn't overstay its welcome.
Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Very cute writing, interesting enough characters. Not a ton of gameplay, but it's a VN, so that's about what there is. Lots of reading, but not too burdensome.
Detroit: Become Human
Really impressive scope of choices and outcomes. Gorgeous game. A little heavy handed sometimes, but overall very good. They made the flowchart hard to navigate and replaying levels can't be sped up, so I'm not sure it's possible to go see all the other options in any reasonable amount of time.
What Remains of Edith Finch
An interesting story beautifully told. A little weird at times, but enjoyable!
Firewatch
Finished in one sitting. Mostly just walking, but a great environment and some good tension. Never really dragged, so I appreciate that. Worth a play! Finished the campaign initially in 4 hours. also had a great audio tour mode that really went into depth about how games are made, which I enjoyed.
South Scrimshaw
Odd little story, with nice art and music. Narration was also good (and AI generated!). It's only a part 1, so we're excited to see where the rest of the story goes.
Democratic Socialism Simulator
Neat concept, but heavy handed with its politics. Also, waters down some of the decisonmaking in a way that's not realistic or helpful.
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
Cute little game. Fun to explore the world, and it's ineresting being so short. The gameplay was light and there wasn't much gameplay in hunting for animals, but it's fun to stumble across them. Story was decent though, and the music was nice.
Grim Fandango Remastered
Great atmosphere and characters, but the gameplay felt especially dated. I can see why it's a cult classic, but the puzzles would have been _really_ frustrating to do without a guide.
Immortality
Very interesting. An FMV game, told totally non-linearly. An ok story overall, but it _was_ interesting digging into the lives of these people over time. I sort of liked the core match/cut mechanic, but it felt to random to be satisfying. We weren't so much discovering how to excel at the game as much as clicking through interesting looking things constantly. Glad to have played it and was engaged enough to stick with it, but definitely dragged. Pretty good UI though.
Disco Elysium
Very interesting. Neat skill system. Quests were pretty good and the depth of characters and voice acting was great. It was a little heady with the political alignment stuff, and there's a _lot_ of text. The actual plot was... ok? It sort of set the backdrop for everything else, but it would have been more satisfying to actually have been able to solve anything. Controls were ok. Interesting enough to explore and the art was nice, but, it was sort of an odd duck overall.
Over the Alps
Great vibe, decent story, ok interactivity. Glad we played it, but there was inconsistent quality between the episodes.
Norco
Good interface, puzzles, and vibe. Got a little creepy/nonsensical for me, but I enjoyed the ride well enough. Writing was good and minigames were generally enjoyable.
ABZÛ
Very pretty. Not much plot, but there was a bit of narrative. Not an overwhelming amount of gameplay, but the vibe was cool. Mostly just go play Journey, but there was a lot of cool oceanic life in here.
The Artful Escape
Incredibly stylish, but lacking anything remotely complex in terms of gameplay. Sort of a cool ride through a music video, but not unenjoyable. Charming, in its way. Doesn't overstay itself (too much) either.
Night in the Woods
Very interesting game. Light on gameplay, but the writing and story cycled between "interesting" and "good". Odd plot, but the whole thing was poignant in a way that earns it its 3.
SOMA
Interesting story, good atmosphere. I enjoyed playing it on easy mode, but without any challenge, there was only the puzzles (light) and walking around. But, I'm glad I played it safe, since being challenged sneaking around wasn't what I was in the mood for. Worth a play.
Observation
Interesting. Controls and atmosphere were great (but maybe a little too much distortion). More of a interactive cinematic experience instead of a game (there were no failure states, really). Neat enough, but not enough explanation to be really satisfying.
Death Stranding
What a weird game. The core gameplay of buliding improvements into the world to make your tasks (delivery) easier is good. It's certainly relaxed and repetitive, but that's nice sometimes. The story and characters are both confusing and dreadful. Sort of can't believe they started with a blank slate and ended up here. That said, I did play it for a ton of hours (more than most other games I've ever played). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Like I said, the core loop is decent. I built all the roads and a bunch of ziplines. The mini stories were sort of good. I'd honestly rather see this as a little indie game rather than the over-long monstrosity that it turned into. Finished the campaign in ~50 hours (which included some road-building and other side quests).
Superflight
Neat, concise little game. Fun to zoom around. Probably very cool in VR. Everything is simple, almost too a fault. Semi-relaxing to zoom around in and worth a look, especially at a super cheap price point.
Her Story
Very cool frame. A little bit open ended on how the "game" part actually worked, but I liked the story. I think we got the big twist too fast, but that was just lucky. That's sort of the risk you take with these. Overall, neat little thing.
Rime
Pretty good. Decent interactive storytelling. Very pretty game. Puzzles were light. There’s the sense that you can explore, but it actually ends up being pretty linear. Lots of flash, not a lot of bang. I’d probably play journey instead of this, but it does a lot of things nicely.
The Beginner's Guide
A little weird and very surreal, but there is some narrative there. Definitely a walking simulator, but not a wholly unenjoyable one.
Doki Doki Literature Club
I like how it broke the 4th wall and the character interactions happened. That said, there was a lot of build up. Even tongue in cheek, it took a while. Played it on Ryan's steam account.
The Magic Circle
Really neat concept, but the game felt pretty short. Thematically sort of all over the place.
Stories Untold
An interesting concept, but the gameplay itself left something to be desired. I liked the vibe of the text-based exploration, but it was more frustrating than fun. The story was interesting enough, and told interestingly, certainly.
SAI
A hint of a story, boring combat, nice enough, if bland, environments. Cool glowing deer. But, really not much there.
Jenny LeClue: Detectivu
Decent writing, but very slow gameplay. Didn't feel like it respected our time. Also, no real ending? It just stops without resolution. Mystery without resolution is just pointless.
Mind Scanners
Sort of interesting premise, but the time limit, dialogue, and vague puzzles don't really gel w/ me. It's mostly a worse "Papers, Please". Too bad, because I liked the UI.
OPUS: The Day We Found Earth
Cute idea, but execution falls a little flat. The main gameplay is navigating around a 2d star map, which could be really cool! But I feel like you don't get quite enough of your bearings to feel like you're really excelling. There's a bit of story and a bit of extra exploration, but it's not particularly satisfying. In post-game, there are harder side quests which were a little more interesting? They took a bit of actual logic and hunting to solve. But, there's just not enough there.
Orwell
Definitely an interesting game. It's interesting to see how, depending on what data is entered into the system, the story changes. I wish that had been made more clear though. It's basically a (slightly) interactive novel, which is interesting enough. Interesting commentary on modern surveillance states. Biggest points against it were inconsistent writing and the "game" not really being that good. The frame is great, but the actual experience of playing it is only ok.
Oxenfree
Didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. Good art and dialogue, but didn't really live up to its premise. Lots of setup, no satisfying ending.
Ico
I like the idea and the amount of storytelling they could squeeze into an atmospheric game. That said, the controls feel clunky and the enviroments are very bland. I appreciate what they were going for, but this one isn't for me.
The World Begins With You
Some nice art, but bad puzzles, platforming, and no story. I think pretending there's a story is worse than not having one. They're clearly inspired by Journey, but captured none of what made it enjoyable.
TIMEframe
Tiemframe _really_ stretches the "games as art" and "how much gameplay does a walking simulator need to be considered a game". There are a small number of text logs that let you piece together a bit of "story", but there's not enough there to be compelling. It also doesn't really use its "slow motion" theme in any meaningful way. Overall, just a miss.