With just a week until RadCon, I’m pressing pause on The Warlock’s Army to focus on convention preparations. I’ll be deciding what to bring for my artist alley table, printing up price sheets, and so forth. But before then, I have a couple of video game recommendations for you.

The games are called Strange Horticulture and Strange Antiquities. They are a combination of role playing, story, and logic puzzles. They both are set in the Victorian village of Undermere, with a mild Gothic horror feel.

In the first game, Strange Horticulture, you inherit a plant shop in Undermere. (Surely this is the setup of about 1/3 of all horror stories, inheriting an unknown property.) But these are no ordinary plants in your shop. Some have medicinal or mystical abilities. As customers come in, you try to figure out which plant they need from clues they give you. As the game progresses you get drawn into the murderous schemes of a cult.

In the second game, Strange Antiquities, you are the apprentice to an occult master. As he gets called way for increasingly urgent matters, you get left in charge of the shop. Again, patrons approach seeking magical items and you have to figure out which ones they need. And, again, there is a strange cult with murderous schemes.

In both games, your decisions will shape the outcome of the developing story. You can make what you think are kind or noble choices, only to have a dark outcome. And you can make what you think are harsh or cruel choices, only for them to lead to a happy ending. It’s fun to replay them both and see what turns out differently.

The games have been acclaimed for the design of characters, plants/items, and setting. The music is mild, yet menacing. It has a slower pace compared to a lot of adventure games. You can take as long as you need to think about the clues and decide on plot turns.

The puzzles are sometimes tricky, but with low stakes for failure. The games will not let you give anyone a completely wrong plant or item. Instead, you have a “fear meter” that fills when you make mistakes. If you mess it up too many times, you have a mental breakdown and have to solve a different sort of puzzle in order to recover.

These two games are a great change of pace from typical video games. I recommend them if you’re up for more of an intellectual challenge, but still with an intriguing story and role playing elements.

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