Beacon Pines and We Were Here Together are this week’s free games from the Epic Games Store

Every week the Epic Games Store gives away a game or two for free. This week, there are two indie games for free: a mysterious visual novel, and a co-op arctic puzzle game.

• Beacon Pines
  • Release Date: September 22, 2022
  • Game Type: Visual Novel, Mystery
  • POV: 3rd person
  • Party: Single Player
  • DLC: None, but there is a soundtrack and art book available on Steam

Beacon Pines is a visual novel with a very self-aware posturing. The entire game takes place within a book, and you use the book to navigate through the various scenes and conversations through the game. The book is crucial to unraveling the mystery of Beacon Pines. Also, all the characters are lightly anthropomorphized animals, but I don’t think this is ever explained. It’s perhaps unimportant to the plot as presented, but it still seems a little weird.

• We Were Here Together
  • Release Date: October 10, 2019
  • Game Type: Puzzle
  • POV: First Person
  • Party: Co-Op
  • DLC: None

As a total sicko for both puzzle games and survival games, particularly those set in the arctic with the liminal, lonely vibe that represents, the We Were Here series is both amazing and unfortunate. Amazing because it takes those two things and runs with it, but unfortunate because it’s forced multiplayer. I get it, because you have to communicate using your walkies to solve the puzzles and such, but I like the arctic settings for the lonely vibes, and I don’t really get that with somebody asking me if I have the red piece or whatever. Still, if you have a friend who’s into puzzles — or even if not, because there is a queueing PUG feature — this second entry in the series can be a fun time.