Apparatus: Exanimus

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

fun and unique

I still need to dig into this one more, but having gotten the initial ending (and some progress beyond that) I feel confident in recommending it. Its presentation as a lost, late ‘90s exploration game from an obscure developer is quite fun, though the purposely dated control scheme with its lack of mouselook will put some people off. I found it to be a nice change of pace that suited the eeriness of the setting well, and despite being fairly “conscious” of the controls the game was surprisingly immersive. You are almost guaranteed to get lost given the mazelike nature of the levels and lack of map or other obvious guidance, but it never felt like my time was being wasted as there was always some new nook or cranny to uncover while revisiting areas. I was surprised by the amount of platforming the game featured given the controls (with some of it being quite precise), but for the most part this was relatively painless. As far as the visuals go, while the screenshots on the store page give a good idea of the general look, there are some curveballs thrown in the later areas in regard to both the visual identity and fidelity that I found very neat. Now, to where things get more interesting - while you can play through to the initial ending largely ignoring the graffiti adorning the walls and come away with a satisfactory experience, that is only the first of several layers of narrative that the game has on offer. Next comes figuring out what to do with the fragments of URLs among the graffiti, followed by the successively more esoteric bits of text and symbols. Without getting into any more spoilers, I’ve “solved” the URLs but have stalled out on the next portion, which I need to get back to. Even without all of the secrets I would have been pleased with what the game delivers purely as a spartan horror-adjacent exploration game, but the added intrigue of those elements lifts it up at least a notch (and maybe more, once I actually decode everything). Looking forward to checking out the other two games Figglewatts has on the horizon, which both look interesting.

Apparatus: Exanimus It's the kind of game for people who, like me, enjoy spending hours digging for secrets, making notes, investigating every space, every line, and this is a game where I felt my curiosity was rewarded. It's a game that has two kind of stories, one you're playing, another one is hiding on every detail and it feels "off" in a good way (in a "this game might be cursed" kind of way) and this makes me want to dig even deeper.

I did not manage to finish this game, but I still give it a hearty thumbs up and encourage others to check it out. My main issue was with navigation, which I struggle with in general. I am a patient gamer and don't mind exploration and slow game styles, but I got stuck in the same small area for hours and sadly just had to give up. But I really loved what I played, strange and atmospheric, oozing mystery. I really enjoyed piecing together what the game wanted from me, the light ARG elements, the vibes were incredible, the puzzles interesting and the gameplay loop of dealing with enemies was creative and refreshing. Big thumbs up, I just wish I could find my way out of that damned zone I was stuck in, and remember how to get back to that other area that I had seen earlier before I got lost! I may well return to this at some point, it really is very good.