Apparatus: Exanimus

lots to see and explore here. a great love letter to an era of fun era of gaming without being overly derivative. the rigid control scheme has been frustrating at times but overall makes me focus and "get into it" more. deffo recommend if you like puzzles, spooky liminal space gaming, and have some patience :-)

Figglewatts has been busy making a very immersive walking sim with ARG elements set in a story that I can't seem to put down. Dirus Software is an ailing game studio on its last legs, right before the turn of the millenium, and Apparatus: Exanimus will prove to be their final entry to the art form. The connected website to Dirus Software is the core of the ARG elements, mainly giving important lore information as to what was happening in the studio during the game's development. I really like how the walking simulator 90s throwback here uses specific tank controls and strained movement options, because it helps crystallize a point where Dirus Software was developing this only for Half-Life to come out in November of 1998 and the amount of course correction it took to avoid being an also-ran in comparision. Your biggest threat in AE are these strange fungi strewn throughout the facility. You take radiation damage while within their AOE, which is represented by TV static overlaying your vision similar to how other games will use VHS static to alert the player of danger. Staying too long in this state takes one pip off of your health (represented as these red pustules in the top right corner) and you respawn at first aid stations when you die. Because of the aformentioned fungi and the fact that their damage is in a confined space, the slow movement in AE becomes a vital tool in your arsenal to stay alive - take your time, be careful, don't overstep into a fungi's radius or it'll cost you. The necessity of exploration to get anything done in this game provides the push and pull that makes this game so interesting - keep moving forward, but pace yourself. Most importantly, be on your guard...you're all alone in the facility - until you're not.

[b]Do you know when to stop?[/b] Fantastic game. What I thought would be a neat way to spend an evening became nearly a week of obsession.

An excellent remaster of a classic game!

A fun trek though weird areas with some puzzles and platforming with its own storyline that you have to find yourself.

Play this game! Its got some great early 3d environmental design, great puzzles and an ARG storyline that is really interesting and still ongoing(?). It is an amazing rabbit hole to unravel. the controls are janky but pretty easy to get used to.

amazing experience, super easy to get absorbed by the story and some parts were truly unsettling