Eila & Something Shiny

Hardcore gamers might not think the mechanisms are anything to note, but I found myself really taken in by the elegant simplicity of the card system. A deck of cards is placed in front of you in a card holder, and you take the frontmost card and reveal it in your play area. You'll make a choice, and then your card either goes into the past (left hand pile) or the future (right hand pile). Your choices may also cause you to draw red events (which are placed in the frontmost card in the card holder, and thus will be the next card revealed) or blue events (which are placed in the future pile). Once the deck runs out, you take the cards in the future pile, shuffle them, and the story continues. There are also resources to manage, abilities, items, and habits to earn, all of which makes for a fair amount of puzzle. The game is broken into 5 chapters, and each one introduces a new gameplay mechanic, which keeps things fresh. I was very impressed with how this simple card system was able to tell such a compelling story. I just completed my first playthrough last night, and I'm still thinking about it, wondering about and weighing the different choices I'll make for my next playthrough. But it's not just because I got an ending that I was unhappy with--I was thinking about the game in between each session, too. If you like story-driven, choice-based adventure games, I'd wholeheartedly recommend Eila & Something Shiny.