There were a lot of superficial issues, and as an adventure game it's not made particularly well, the interactions and the text are too slow and I think you need to work on reducing the delay between the actions, however, I still think the mood and the atmosphere were handled pretty well, if you can overlook the actual "game" part of the experience, there is still an interesting psychological deconstruction of the character.
I had the opposite experience from one of the reviews I read, I think the story is the highlight of the game while the locations needed a lot of work, yes it's a predictable story, and yes it tells you the mystery very early on, but I think it's perspective of the character and how he gets to that point is what makes it a suspenseful experience. The narrative itself is very grounded in reality, I am sure the plot in this game happened to a million people, but I think the whole point of this game is that it shows what happens to these individuals and how a sane person is driven into despair. There are no monsters in this game, there are no magical towns with evil gods, just the things that happen in your head, it's a metaphor for him losing everything that he cared about, and tracing back the steps that led him to that point.
I would recommend staying away from using the grain and fog too much, maybe you were inspired by Silent Hill, but with these 2D games you really want to see the detail and have that sense of contrast to get a good aesthetic going, if I can barely see anything, it's not making the game more immersive, it just looks ugly and confusing to me. The very first segment in the street made a very bad first impression because you overused the effect, but the second time you come back to this place (toward the end) the contrast is a lot more clear and I can appreciate the work that you put into details a lot more. This happens in a lot of rooms in the game, a lot of the time the source of light does not contrast enough against the background, making it look like everything is on the same level, giving the picture no depth. There are actually some locations in this game that strangely have better contrast, so it's not consistently bad or good, I think going forward, I would say that you should focus on detail and sources of light, instead of assuming that putting fog and grain creates a spooky environment, you can still use those effects, just do it more sparingly.
The puzzles were mostly extremely basic for the first half of the game, pretty much just 1+1 with little to no navigation. The only time I felt different was during the section with the "house of mirrors" because the puzzles had more of a metaphoric place within the narrative, which made them more creative, as far as I am concerned. I kinda liked the usage of the masked man who is like the only "character" we get to interact with, and you probably could have populated the place with that a little more, just to make the experience a bit less empty.
There was only one part of the game that I thought was excellent and that was the strategic use of the sound effects and ambiance, I really liked the purpose of "moans" and how the characters would refuse to revisit their locations, as well as using them to highlight the tense parts of the narrative. Overall it seems like you would play a lot with the soundtrack across the locations and you should maintain that going forward because it makes the atmosphere more rich with character.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) Even though the story was very basic and pretty much explains exactly what happens, in this case I think you got away with it because all of the focus is on his mental despair and how the game walks you through his journey, it's a very grounded narrative, but sometimes a realistic story can be effective too and I think you manipulated the locations using the psychological metaphors pretty well.
(+) The soundtrack was the best part of the game for me, there were a lot of strategic mood changes and highlighting the narrative moments with the sounds that the character didn't like.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
[u] Visuals [/u] - while I didn't like how you often overused the blur and grain, there were occasional locations that had interesting designs, I think if you can strategically focus more on the contrast of light sources and maybe a little effects like dust particles, it would look a lot better. Since you are using photo-like images, it might be a good idea to hire someone to make a similar sprite for the character, pixel art stands out a bit too much against the images. A good example for me is the contrast between the street at the start of the game and the same street toward the end, second one looks a lot better, and there is no reason to just blur the crap out of the game, if I can't see much of anything, it does not make environment spooky and immersive for me, it just looks low effort. Whenever you have light sources from the outside or something like a neon sign, try to give them some glow against the background.
[u] Delays and Hotspots: [/u] - there is a bit too much dialogue and action delay in the game, not sure if you are using AGS or not, but you should be able to reduce it a little to make it more responsive if I am skipping the text. There were a bunch of locations and puzzle spots that looked too much like a background, make sure the player can spot them. Give the inventory UI some type of basic art, and you should be able to click and point the items instead of holding the mouse.
[b] Overall Thoughts: 6/10 [/b]
The game made a bad first impression, I didn't think it was made that well at all, but somehow with the use of good sound effects and some decent psychological metaphors, you still managed to get to the finish line burned and broken. So it wasn't great, but if you can work more on the superficial experience, I think you at least get the atmosphere and the narrative right which is more important to me. You don't want your game to ever look too blurry, even for a horror game, things like detail, texture, and contrast are more effective than making everything dark and gloomy. Like I said, the second time you enter the street looks much better, that is the aesthetic you should maintain.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
