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NO SHAREWARE NO DEMOS 262 FREEWARE PC GAMES (79 DOWNLOADABLE)
262 games archived    79 downloadable
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  5 Days A Stranger
Trilby is a tall, elegant, English gentleman thief. Thanks to an informer, he is heading to the now deserted DeFoe manor, whose owner and wife tragically died recently, hoping for a good booty. But, once he entered the big house, he can't exit; doors and windows leading outside the huge estate can't be opened anymore. Moreover, there's other people inside, trapped like him. And things get even worse when someone dies... So, we have a classic haunted house theme, but the entire game is so well developed over it, that you'll quickly forget this detail. The plot, articulated through the five days of the title, develops greatly, and a lot of reading is involved in getting to know more of the mansion and its former occupants. The atmosphere is one of the game's strong points. Gore is very scarce, there are more fear and terror than visual horror. What I liked the most, are the cutscenes involving situations where you can't tell where reality ends and nightmare starts, or vice versa. In those cases, I was genuinely SCARED. Later in the game, you could be afraid of going on, in fear of witnessing some more bad events. Really a great work on this side. Graphics are nothing to scream about. They just do their work more than decently, reminding me of the Sierra adventures of the late '80s, early 90's. I must point out, however, that a good effort was put into animations, you'll get the chance to see some noticeable ones in action. Music are declaredly taken from the RPG Maker 2000 library, but they fit with the atmosphere. Most of the time, however, it's just silence and strange noises, helping develop the tension. The interface is simple and not invasive. You can use the icons on the bottom of the screen to select the main actions, but it's better to click the right mouse button to recall the complete interface with actions, items and save/load/quit functions. The only annoyance is that you have to move the mouse outside the interface to close it every time. The game is not exactly long, also due to the limited amount of rooms - but, after all, you are confined inside a mansion, so a big variety of locations wasn't to be expected from the start. Some puzzles could prove to be challenging, you may feel clueless about what to do next until you gather the necessary information; remember, often reading is the key. Don't forget to save sometimes: in the second half of the game, there are a couple of situations were you could get killed. There are some game design flaws. You will find, at some points, a couple of objects practically popping out of nowhere at the right time you need them, an artifice I never liked in adventure games. And at times, for example after Trilby heard a strange noise or a bad event just occurred, he talks to other characters like nothing happened. But these problems don't hamper the quality of 5 Days A Stranger too much. It hasn't the lastability of some of the best freeware adventures, but it beats many of them in terms of atmosphere. It's far from perfect, but with such small download size you shouldn't miss it.
  GAME AUTHOR Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw
REVIEWED BY Gendo Ikari
STAFF RATING 8/10
USER RATING 8.1/10
   FILE SIZE 1.2 MB
FILE DATE Sep 29, 2003
UPLOADED Aug 07, 2004
DEV TOOL Adventure Game Studio
   NO DOWNLOAD

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NEW ARRIVALS THE BEST DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE [79] ACTIONFightingFPS/FPPlatformSpaceshooterMiscADVENTUREInteractive FictionPoint-and-ClickRPGMiscARCADE/CLASSICAsteroidsBoulderdashGalaxianLode RunnerNibblesPacmanPaddleSpace InvadersTetrisMiscBOARD/GAMECardChessMiscPUZZLEMinesweeperSokobanMiscRACINGMiscSIMULATIONFlightMiscSPORTSMiscSTRATEGYRTSTBSTower DefenseMiscTOYSMisc ALL GAMES [262]
ARCHIVE STATS
262 games
79 downloadable
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NO SHAREWARE • NO DEMOS • 262 FREEWARE GAMES (79 DOWNLOADABLE)
INDIVIDUAL GAME LISTING
5 Days A Stranger

Trilby is a tall, elegant, English gentleman thief. Thanks to an informer, he is heading to the now deserted DeFoe manor, whose owner and wife tragically died recently, hoping for a good booty. But, once he entered the big house, he can't exit; doors and windows leading outside the huge estate can't be opened anymore. Moreover, there's other people inside, trapped like him. And things get even worse when someone dies... So, we have a classic haunted house theme, but the entire game is so well developed over it, that you'll quickly forget this detail. The plot, articulated through the five days of the title, develops greatly, and a lot of reading is involved in getting to know more of the mansion and its former occupants. The atmosphere is one of the game's strong points. Gore is very scarce, there are more fear and terror than visual horror. What I liked the most, are the cutscenes involving situations where you can't tell where reality ends and nightmare starts, or vice versa. In those cases, I was genuinely SCARED. Later in the game, you could be afraid of going on, in fear of witnessing some more bad events. Really a great work on this side. Graphics are nothing to scream about. They just do their work more than decently, reminding me of the Sierra adventures of the late '80s, early 90's. I must point out, however, that a good effort was put into animations, you'll get the chance to see some noticeable ones in action. Music are declaredly taken from the RPG Maker 2000 library, but they fit with the atmosphere. Most of the time, however, it's just silence and strange noises, helping develop the tension. The interface is simple and not invasive. You can use the icons on the bottom of the screen to select the main actions, but it's better to click the right mouse button to recall the complete interface with actions, items and save/load/quit functions. The only annoyance is that you have to move the mouse outside the interface to close it every time. The game is not exactly long, also due to the limited amount of rooms - but, after all, you are confined inside a mansion, so a big variety of locations wasn't to be expected from the start. Some puzzles could prove to be challenging, you may feel clueless about what to do next until you gather the necessary information; remember, often reading is the key. Don't forget to save sometimes: in the second half of the game, there are a couple of situations were you could get killed. There are some game design flaws. You will find, at some points, a couple of objects practically popping out of nowhere at the right time you need them, an artifice I never liked in adventure games. And at times, for example after Trilby heard a strange noise or a bad event just occurred, he talks to other characters like nothing happened. But these problems don't hamper the quality of 5 Days A Stranger too much. It hasn't the lastability of some of the best freeware adventures, but it beats many of them in terms of atmosphere. It's far from perfect, but with such small download size you shouldn't miss it.

GAME AUTHORBen 'Yahtzee' Croshaw
REVIEWED BYGendo Ikari
STAFF RATING8/10
USER RATING8.1/10
FILE SIZE1.2 MB
FILE DATESep 29, 2003
UPLOADEDAug 07, 2004
DEV TOOLAdventure Game Studio
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