::Warning: Graphic content::

Not all that glitters is gold.

..

My name is Steris. I am a young adult. I enjoy superstition and trashy romance novels. I used to wait tables in a diner. I am currently dead.

These short sentences are all I can remember.

I was the subject of a mysterious group's mindless experiments. What they were supposed to test is not clear. How long I lay on the operating table under the flashes of busy scalpels I do not know. The only thing I remember is walking home from work after a late shift, then... nothing. Nothing at all.

When I came to, there was nobody around and the warehouse was in a state of disrepair. My body was twisted, mutilated from the repeated dissections. My mind was clouded. And my heart was stilled. But through all this, I now understand one thing. And that understanding seethes in me, burning brightly so it is all I need with which to see the world.

My name is Steris. And life is no longer sacred.

--

A reverse-horror/stealth game in a constant state of night where you play as Steris, an unliving human-turned-weapon whose morals and sense of humanity were stripped away as a result of macabre experiments performed on her body and mind for unknown reasons. Awakening in an abandoned warehouse on an operating table, the game moves in a 2.5D format using 3D graphics to create a third-person sense of winding alleyways and dark corners, with the player having an overall sideview and options to move in other directions.

Unlike other horror games where you run from a predator, you instead play as the predator, skulking around darkened militaristic streets. As a result of the strange experiments, your wrists end not in hands but in oversized surgical blades, razor sharp and waiting. The area is rife with all manner of targets, from home guard to hoodlums to ordinary civilians, each with a different face and story to tell. But you won't be talking to them. Your new body has a keen taste to blood, and every time you claim a new victim you receive flashes of their memories and feelings through absorbing it. You hope by doing this enough times that you may unlock secrets within yourself, as well as the adrenaline rush from fulfilling your new calling. Different people have different memories and skills, so while a policeman has knowledge of firearms and intimidation tactics, a shopkeeper would make a safer target while still giving a chance of uncovering something useful.

As for useful, looking at people's memories and thoughts can be nice. But what you are really after is a lead to the shadowy group who took your life and left you discarded on that table. You look forward to returning the favour. Your scalpel arms can deal quick, devastating flurries that quickly rip through armour, your hangman's rope can be used to yank victims closer, your pain suppression can be activated to withstand punishment, and your eye of fear paralyses your victim where they stand or scatters others far and wide. But your one drawback is that you have a limited reach on your attacks and are vulnerable to being outranged by targets with firearms. You will need to sneak or ambush your target, making use of the element of surprise to single out small numbers of victims - or even one at first - and prey on their memories. As you become better at what you do, you can follow the chain of memories - reviewable at any time - to pursue high-value targets that become clear and hunt down the shadowy group once and for all, as well as the mystery surrounding the experiments.

==

In this first-person 3D detective game, you play as a castaway who has been washed up on an island in a strange faraway place with no recollection of being on any trip. There is nothing on the island except you, a forest, and a small number of other individuals, all of which are waking up as you look around at the empty land.

Only one of these people can be trusted.

You are the Human. You have been isolated on an island with no memory of anything before arriving, and are among five other people. These people are known as the Deceiver, the Poisoner, the Betrayer, the Murderer, and the Innocent respectively. But you don't know which is which, and neither does the Innocent. It will only become clear who you can trust over a length of time, but the other four all know who the Innocent is, and are aware you are one of the others. Will you be able to identify the Innocent? Will it be too late for either of you by then?

--

The island you live on is beyond time and memory, and you do not need to eat or drink to survive. But you do need to sleep sooner or later. As the hours turn into days, certain behaviours will start to subtly emerge among the people: the Deceiver will attempt to exploit mental vulnerabilities in the group and extract the secrets of others for later blackmail; the Poisoner will fill everyone's minds with hatred and distrust through subtle suggestion and scandal, making them less likely to work together; the Betrayer will worm into someone's good books, then turn on them when they have nothing more to gain in favour of another, leaving them helpless and with nothing; and the Murderer will case a victim silently, patiently, before finally cornering and preying on them alone, without warning.

A way out exists for you and the Innocent; at the center of the forest, beyond the dangers of the others. Should you both make it to the center, a way out will appear before you and spirit you away from the island. But the Innocent will not go into the forest alone with anyone else until they trust them, and will instead stay on the coast, watching the others. The Deceiver will appear to be the Innocent through tricks and guile. The Poisoner will spread lies and make it seem like someone else is doing the poisoning; the Betrayer will zero in on another, playing harmless; the Murderer will stay where the victims are, revealing nothing of their intent.

It is your task to figure out who the Innocent is before either of you fall victim to the other four's traps, gain their trust even as the others try to do the same, and with them navigate to the center of the forest, alone. There, in the Innocent's and the Human's combined presence, an escape to the outside world will appear. But beware: if the person you have found is not the innocent, it most likely will be too late...

==

Image from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft, 2013)

"In this profession one has to endure heat, hunger and hard work, to sleep little and often to keep watch. And to be exhausted and to sleep uncomfortably on the ground only to be abruptly awakened. And you will be powerless to change the situation. You will often be afraid when you see your enemies coming towards you with lowered lances to run you through and with drawn swords to cut you down. Bolts and arrows come at you and you do not know how best to protect yourself. You see people killing each other, fleeing, dying and being taken prisoner and you see the bodies of your dead friends lying before you. But your horse is not dead, and by its vigorous speed you can escape in dishonour. But if you stay, you will win eternal honour. Is he not a great martyr, who puts himself to such work?" -Geoffroi de Charny, French knight of the 14th Century

--

A game where you play as a knight who has been in his line of work for a long now and has lost the excitement he once had for his craft. Instead, he suffers the onslaught of post-traumatic stress disorder from the years of screaming blood rushing through his head. The land he lives in stands on the brink of yet another civil war, and with that threat looming over the hills, political figureheads of his country seek him out by name and call for him to come back into service. But he is exhausted; disillusioned with the horrors he's cornered himself into with every skirmish, and only wants out.

It works a lot like many 3D action RPGs, with the exception that your quest is to do all you can to avoid adventure. This will not be easy. Quests will be foisted upon you by many of the locals you may need to talk to, guards may recognise you and cause a scene, nobles will attempt to coerce or blackmail you into their service. With your quiet life being constantly trampled on by the clamour around you, find a way to earn enough of a living to pay for meals and boarding while keeping your stress and exhaustion levels to a minimum. Will you live as a hermit and forgo all luxuries, or attempt balance yourself in the storm of unwanted attention and political string-pulling?

==

Image: "The Tired Knight" by Simon Cox http://storybookmurals.co.uk/new-shop-now-online/

A 3D survival game where you and a partner start on a desert island in the middle of an endless sea. Unlike similar survival games such as Rust or Don't Starve Together, the focus is off player versus player and combat with monsters. Instead, the challenge of the game comes from simply attempting to survive. Crafting will not be straightforward menu-based clicking; do not expect to be able to make a torch from grass and a stick like in other games, oh no. It will be as difficult as you trying to survive on a desert island would be in real life; you have no idea how to do anything, and your attempts at making shelter or catching fish are clumsy at best. First you'd need fire, then suitable materials to make the torch - a stout stick and some sort of fuel, not too dry, not too moist, so as to catch the flames well. Then you need to carry the fire to the torch or vice versa. With Surgeon Simulator-like grabbing, this will not be easy. Assuming you managed all that, well done! You have a torch that will keep you slightly warm and won't go out unless it runs out of fuel, is held in too strong wind, or is dropped in the sand.

In order to make this ordeal easier, your partner will be there to assist you. But here comes the catch of Mixed Messages: any attempts at communication will be slightly garbled. Text will be partially obscured by strange symbols, and microphones will be filtered. You will have to be interpretive when trying to decipher what your partner needs your help with, and you will need to construct some sort of shelter before night falls. It gets very cold here during the nighttime. Maybe in the morning you will have time to gather water that's safe to drink.

Good luck surviving...

==

Image credits: http://www.slideshare.net/Marianelajp/how-to-live-on-a-deserted-island

A game where you are a newly constructed cyborg composed entirely of metal who has awakened to find the factory deserted. With no other imperative, you are trying to escape the factory while remaining unscathed. Hazards include giant magnets which will pull you off your way or across gaps, catwalks that unhinge if you stand on them too long, vats of acid, conveyer belts and crushers, and corrosive rain falling through gaps in the broken roof.

Find a way out while replenishing your electricity reserves at various power stations in order to refuel your functions, and find some answers as to what happened while you were being constructed that could have left this factory in such disarray.

Image: "Catwalk" by -Chris- on derelictmetropolis.com http://derelictmetropolis.tumblr.com/post/31400933764/catwalk-by-chris

A 3D arena game where you play as a young child's weaponised toy spider, as you compete in the playground arena, referred to as the SandPit. Your child is socially awkward and at the bottom of the playground pecking order, and as such your first opponents will be poorly-assembled, simply made spiders largely armoured with Legos and glue. Should you succeed in the Pit, your owner will win the lunch money of the opponents, with which you can choose to either buy the child food to keep concentration levels up for better handling, or buy upgrades and parts for your spider for higher stats. But beware: as you advance higher into the ranks, past the bullied, past the tech heads and the thugs, and into the bullies, they will start conspiring against you and rigging the matches in the bully circle's favour. If you can persevere, you will face off against the biggest bully in the playground, and his ten-time-running champion spider, the infamously dangerous Black Widow!

Image: "Lazarus Mecha Spider 3D Model Demoreel by Sandra Soh on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2YCaOK5LFk