Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace vs Gamedec
Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace
Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace is a story-driven, party-based adventure RPG complete with unique gridless turn-based combat, and a creepy Lovecraftian theme. In this game, you get to control a ragtag team of investigators with varying experiences and talents. The goal here is to track down the mysterious cultists who are involved in the murder of Professor Tillinghast during what seems to be a sacrificial ritual. Will you be able to find out what’s really going on and who’s to blame for the murder?As someone who has not played the board game version of Arkham Horror before, this turn-based adventure RPG is a pretty great introduction. I absolutely love the horror-themed storytelling here and the voice acting is simply brilliant. Since I’m an avid fan of turn-based RPGs, the gridless gameplay here is unique enough to help it stand out. That said, the game is unfortunately marred by several glitches, especially the annoying camera glitch which can only be fixed by reloading a previous checkpoint.
So, to sum up, Arkham Horror: Mother's Embrace may not be triple-A level, but it’s a solidly fun game in spite of its bugs and is still worth the purchase.
Gamedec
Gamedec is a story-driven CRPG in which you play as a game detective, or “gamedec” that's set in a cyberpunk world where people mostly prefer Virtualia (the virtual world) than the real one (a.k.a. Realium). Similar to a private investigator, your job, when hired, is often to solve problems in the many game worlds in Virtualia, most of which can also be linked to issues in Realium, with your unique set of gamedec tools. There are plenty of decisions to make, people to talk to and professions to pick up as you progress through the storyline, revealing one plot twist after another!I truly can’t sing enough praises for Gamedec. The storytelling, the setting, and the immersion here are nothing short of impressive and I just love that there are so many different ways you can go about doing things. The movement controls can be a bit wonky at times, but that doesn’t take away the fact that this game is as good as they come, and well, if you’re into achievements, you can have fun playing through the story again and again, trying out other dialogue choices and maybe even discovering new story branches that you might have missed in your previous run.