Paradise Lost, despite having one of the most generic titles you could think of, is actually one of those hidden gems that I'm really glad I stumbled across.

You play as a boy who one day (seemingly at random) discovers a trap door out in the snow. So you decide to go down. All is very dark at first, but you'll eventually find a light and that's where things really get interesting.

My Steam hours on this clock in at around 8 hours - and that's all there will EVER be - because I have completed the game. It is short, but it is emotional. I would describe this as an exploration game. And you better enjoy exploring, because that takes up about 95% of the game. The details the developer has put into this are incredible, and there are no "oops we forgot to make this wall texture not look like an original blocky Doom texture from 1995" (which you can very easily find in Skyrim, by the way). But I really LIKED exploring everywhere. Sometimes a slower pace is really absorbing and calming. It is a shame though that there is not more interaction with things in the game. Some rooms are MASSIVE, and crammed with detail, yet have only 2 points of interaction in the entire room - invariably reading bits of paper. This is something that I hope the developer improves upon if they make another game of the same style.

You cannot save the game. Instead, if you need to stop and go and do something else, you can just quit, and then when you come back the menu option is "Continue". This is the game's Achilles heel. Every.single.TIME I clicked to "Continue" I was STUCK - walking on the spot, unable to move away. The ONLY way to free yourself is to restart the chapter. And sometimes that involves a LOT of wandering around that you have already done. So just be aware of this rather bad issue with the game.

The voice acting is a bit below average, but I still liked it because it is quirky. 2 Polish people speaking sometimes slurred English is a lot more enjoyable than listening to 2 English speaking people pretending to be Polish.

Without any spoilers, at the end of the game you're presented with 2 very big decisions to make. Really though, I had a strong sense that all that would have been different if I'd chose the other option would be a couple of differing lines of dialogue. But I'm always going to be curious about what those lines were - so one day I will go back and play through to the end again!

You should really give this game a try - especially at a price this low. It's absorbing, calming, yes short, but emotional. It has great atmosphere too. Recommend.

So far this game has been amazing - almost as good as the glorious Need For Speed Most Wanted (original 2005 version). Finally a sense of speed is back, and the cut scenes are great, with not too much "sick ride dude!" cringe moments. BUT if your connection drops you're kicked out to the menu - whatever you're doing at the time. This is INCREDIBLY bad implementation. Luckily I wasn't in the middle of a race at the time but it's going to infuriate you, and there is no way to go offline so you're forced to be always online in the game, so at the mercy of this happening again.

Those who are complaining about the "lack of realism" aren't getting what Need for Speed games are about - they're about fun, and are arcade games, not simulation games. If you want those then go for something like Project Racing or Dirt or Grid games.