Apparatus: Exanimus

Pretty disappointing. So I've been following the author for this game for some time, and they've seemed pretty proud of this one. Naturally I've been excited and considering their influence from LSD Dream Emulator, I was anticipating some pretty striking visual design and cool ideas. That is somewhat achieved here, in part. I love the purposeful clunkiness. The dated controls are cool to get used to and work around and demand a fuller attention, which can better invest the player into the game's atmosphere. Starting the game, I had put it down after failing a number of times to pass some of the starting areas because of how aggressively punishing it is. By design, the game utilises your HP in a way. Sorta like a half key system where you need more HP to survive, but there's also many traps you will most definitely take damage on, even if you're doing as much as you possibly can to dodge certain obstacles. This is because enemies in this game damage you by proxy of a damage radius, which will continuously damage you until you exit that radius. It's kind of novel, but very disheartening when you lack the means to control it at times. The environments are overall very barren and often lacking in thematic variety, as the majority of the game maintains a liminal interior design. In some ways, I'm inclined to think this is a big part of the experience, as is the aforementioned punishing nature of the damage and control systems, but the more you wander the repetitive halls opening doors and hopelessly running out of consumable keys that lead you into little rooms with not so much as a couple collectables, you really start to wonder "Where's the line between art that punishes, and an enjoyable experience? Is this REALLY worth my time, and am I going to get anything out of this?" This is where we introduce the game's more hidden aspect: [spoiler]The ARG on the connected company website.[/spoiler] [spoiler]When I first encountered this, I was pretty damn excited. I love multimedia experiences where you investigate more than a game to solve puzzles, or to simply learn more about it, and to the credit of... "Apparatus Exanimus" (which is a title my friends and I have coined as comparable to a Harry Potter spell and makes me laugh the same way "Morbius" does) it does offer both a fictitious history background and various puzzle elements that are both written in a very natural way that I enjoyed. Can't complain in that sense. But what I can complain about is how much this game never really delivers much of anything all that significant. One could argue that the journey is ultimately what one experiences a piece of media for much more than a destination, but when your journey culminates as wandering through repetitive halls, facing off against maybe three kinds of enemies total, getting lost dozens of times and feeling a constant sense of dread because maybe you missed something important and you need to reset the game, turning to a website to read about death reports and solving puzzles, you might hope for something a bit more exciting to happen in the game or on the site that makes you go "WOAH! That was SO ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥." and that never happens. The experience maintains a very consistent acceptable level of engagement from start to finish and seldom escapes its comfort zone of mazes, doors and keys. It's a level of horror that's not very engaging, it's an ARG that's okay, the endings all lead to unique rooms with a sign or something, there's not much music to talk about besides like one track that plays in the end areas, and by the time I got done seeing the endings, it really felt like my time was wasted and I got next to nothing to think about after all was said and done. The ARG itself is based on the development of the game and various anomalies surrounding disappearances of the developers, and while that's cool, I think an experience like this demands more philosophical questions and geometric diversity in the game worlds than what was offered.[/spoiler] [spoiler]Oh, and one other thing about the ARG. This game is to become dated inherently by the time the author can't pay for the website domain. This means any puzzles the game utilises won't work once this domain inevitably goes down. So if you're intending to play this and see all connected ARG material, you better get on it soon before they stop hosting the site.[/spoiler] It's just not that interesting. I think it has the groundwork to be more interesting, but I think by design it also wasn't meant to be, because it's a self aware game that's trying to be dated, vacant, and plain. It succeeds at doing that, so I guess it achieved that goal. It kinda sucks.

plays using keyboard controls only kind of like MS DOS games it is rough I cannot solve the puzzles there are stationary enemies and moving ones u take like 1 damage when around enemies for a small amount of time other than that I cannot find the keycards and opened a lot of wrong doors,pushed buttons and pulled levers, moved vent covers. so yeah probably not the easiest game there is some horror elements.I dislike these kind of heavy puzzle horror games terribly so if you like them this is for u, graphics are 90s-2000s max some 3D. its more Liminal or yume nikki overall feeling LSD Dream emulator type game. explore solve puzzles etc. there are endings so thats good. i rate 7/10 just for me personally I dislike the high amount of puzzles and maze like gameplay.

Hugely creative and rich puzzle game that challanges you in all the ways an oldschool puzzle game should! Only a littoe bit in but feels like there's so much more to explore. Pen and paper required!

Amazing game that I had the privilege of checking out ahead of its Steam release. Do yourself a favor and play it you're at all into secret hunting and information-driven adventure gameplay. I especially adored the lack of artificially restricting the player's access to information: there is no barrier between you and the player character. They only know as little or as much as you personally do, and there are no impediments to making progress if you were to somehow look up every single secret ahead of time and try playing the game out of order. This is the good stuff. The King's Field-like control scheme may feel outdated, but then again, it is an old game someone found in their attic, if you catch my drift. Do keep a notebook handy is all I'm going to say. Maybe be prepared to sketch a map (though I managed to uncover most of the secrets without drawing one, it surely would've come in handy).

Overall I would say this game is interesting but keep in mind that this game is 1000% a walking sim that has you viewing different levels with clunky ass controls. There isn't anything to be worried about besides the weird blobs on the walls and the ones that float around and the horror aspect of the game will just be an uneasy atmosphere. The game itself largely doesn't tell much of a story besides graffiti on the walls that you have to remember and go on dirus software to get an idea of a backstory. Also the most frustrating part of the game will be the controls especially in certain areas and I did get quite bored of the game the deeper I went in but I did get Ending A. If you like walking sims + exploration then this game would be good but keep in mind that the controls will be wack as hell plus the game will get a bit boring. I found the game interesting but I didn't find it interesting or enjoyable enough to see the other endings though https://youtu.be/1AY2taxV2eI

The Banjo-Kazooie of Echo Nights.

Just getting my feet wet, really digging everything so far I will find the apparatus of the dead

This is a really interesting one. Don't go into it expecting some sort of analog horror jumpscare-filled haunted game, instead it's more of a slow-paced puzzle platformer in the style of a classic Tomb Raider but from a first person perspective. There's no combat, instead the focus is put on positioning and negotiating your way around hazards with careful tank-controlled movements. The limited FOV and tank controls work really well to encourage you to slow down and examine each area carefully, as a pitfall or an essential key can easily be placed just out of your normal line of sight. This game might not be for everyone though, the low FOV is very authentic for this kind of game but it can have the side effect of making you feel rather nauseous, plus the slower pace and lonely atmosphere may not be quite everyone's cup of tea. However for me personally I greatly enjoy what it's doing.

Wonderfully atmospheric and just the right amount of challenging! As I keep diving deeper and deeper into the game I'm in awe of the care and detail that you can see around every corner. If you too want to play something that will really test your ability to puzzle solve and fill you with a sense of dread, give it a go! I love trying to solve the secrets of the Apparatus!!!!! I love trying to solve the secrets of the Apparatus!!!!! I love trying to solve the secrets of the Apparatus!!!!!

This game was definitely very much more complicated than I expected it to be. I like it quite a bit! I think, even beyond the more meta elements, the game itself I find very atmospheric and compelling, and I like its visual, sound, and level designs a lot. A very much slow-paced, exploration-heavy game that I think nails exactly what it's trying to do. And, the more ARG-ish elements that are within the game are not too crazy difficult to solve. I was able to solve most of it without much guidance. I'm not sure if this means that I'm better at ARGs then I thought, or if this one is just a bit more accessible and less insanely cryptic than other ones I have seen, but either way, piecing it together and solving the puzzles and exploring around its world were all very nice. I definitely recommend this game if you enjoy slow-paced, exploration-focused, atmospheric puzzle games and ARG-type stuff! The dragons in this game get a rating of 0/10, as there were no dragons in this game.