What Are We Playing? [Nov 2025]
- PostCurious
- 17 hours ago
- 5 min read
Periodically on this blog we highlight a handful of tabletop and digital games to spread the word about interesting experiences and support other creators. Here's our November edition, which includes a variety of puzzle games and video games.
Reminiscent of the Rusty Lake series, Birth is a dark, surrealist point-and-click adventure game where you collect bones and organs to build a companion. It was both cute and a little creepy at the same time.
I generally enjoyed the series of tasks and puzzles you had to complete as you moved through this game. The actions had almost a meditative feel to them, and the music added to the calming quality of the game. Although, the tasks eventually got somewhat repetitive, and I wished for more of a build up with some variety.
Simple and spooky, Birth is a good choice for when you want a brain break but are still looking to play a game.
Difficulty: 1/5
Time: 2.5 hrs
Based on an Agatha Christie short story, The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge is a boxed mystery game where players investigate the death of a wealthy man whose body is found in his nephew’s hunting lodge. This was more of a deductive mystery than a puzzle-driven game, though there were a few codes to break along the way.
I thought the story was well put together and enjoyed unraveling its layers with a group. This did mean that we missed some connections between documents before we had all had the chance to read them. We appreciated the variety of the props, but felt that some of them were underutilized. The puzzle to open the locked compartment was a little convoluted, though we felt the overall plot was not too hard to crack once we had all the materials.
With its wealth of documents and interesting text, we think there is plenty in this game for sleuths to sink their teeth into.
Difficulty: 2.5/5
Time: 3-4 hours
Taiji is a puzzling video game that focuses on grid puzzles. Exploring the open world while listening to the soundtrack was relaxing and peaceful.
The logic of this game did not feel immediately intuitive, and I often felt like I was solving puzzles based on vibes as opposed to understanding the logic. It could just be that I kept accidentally running into more advanced areas before their easier counterparts, but I felt that some of the rules were difficult to figure out and I would have appreciated more onboarding.
Despite some confusion during game play, I enjoyed the ending sequence and appreciated the way the game put a twist on what I had already learned. This led to a satisfying conclusion.
Overall, there was lot more content in this game than I expected. Fans of logic puzzles and puzzle-driven games like The Witness should definitely check this one out.
Difficulty: 3.5/5
Time: ~12 hours
The Kai Leary Case is a deduction game in which a young insurance adjuster and community advocate had suddenly and mysteriously died. Players can expect to pore through documents, reports, and records in an attempt to find a suspect with motive, means, and opportunity.
The central mystery was generally well put together, and our group enjoyed making connections across different documents while uncovering the subtext in the narrative. The documents were numerous and gave us a good sense for the characters, but could be improved with better graphic design. Additionally, they could benefit from some proofreading because we found several mistakes in our playthrough.
There was an online audio element that we couldn’t listen to because the provided QR code led to a dead link. This leads me to believe that support for this game has been discontinued. We were worried the missing piece of information would prevent us from solving the mystery, but we still managed to come to the correct conclusion on our own.
The website hints offered for this game were very lean and not especially helpful in determining if we had missed something. Thankfully, the answer envelope contained a detailed walkthrough of the solution, as well as the conclusions we should have reached about the other suspects. We appreciated the depth of information and found it satisfying to have our theories and observations verified.
While fun to play, this product appears to be currently unavailable and it is unknown whether or not it will be back in stock. If you are interested in taking a crack at the case, you may be able to find a copy secondhand.
Difficulty: 2/5
Time: ~2-3 hours
TOEM: A Photo Adventure is a relaxing exploration video game where you discover the mysteries of the world through your photographic eye. You complete quests by taking pictures of the things you find in the world, and can even create optional collections, such as a creature compendium.
I liked the simple, charming art of this game, and the black and white color scheme reminded me of an old-school cartoon. I also enjoyed the small added touches, like getting to pet the animals!
It was often hard for me to orient myself without a map, but each area was contained enough that I never felt overwhelmed. I decided to not go the completionist route while playing, but was still surprised at how many details I missed, even in the areas I explored extensively.
While there was no big narrative or puzzle presence in this game, the cute characters and enjoyable gameplay loop made it a charming and delightful way to wind down at the end of a long day.
Difficulty: 1/5
Time: 3-4 hours
The Rise of the Golden Idol is the standalone sequel to The Case of the Golden Idol. It contains twenty cases for you to solve, and was an interesting and enjoyable twist on the original game.
The storyline in this game felt more spread out than the original, which allowed for more variety in the gameplay. While some characters did appear multiple times, it was less focused on a specific set of characters than its predecessor. This meant that, in order to solve the case, you had to match characters to residences and symbols to meanings instead of just inserting words into mad-lib-like solutions (though there was plenty of that too).
Some scenarios were more challenging and complex than others, but they all generally felt fair. There were a few times where we struggled, but were usually able to find our way to the solution and rarely needed to resort to using the hints.
An excellent follow-up to The Case of the Golden Idol, this comprehensive series of mini-mysteries will reward your “aha” moments with more and more chapters, and eventually even downloadable content.
Difficulty: 3/5
Time: ~12 hours for the base game
What have you been playing lately?