Atama

Atama, as a game, is far from the worst Unity horror game that I've played. There is a clear idea, the game is mostly clear of bugs, and it does feel complete for what it is. Its biggest crime is that while complete, it lacks anything to truly stand out. The plot is fairly barren; though it leaves some room for mystery, it lacks the substance to have any staying power. Even with the secret ending coming in with an alright twist, there just isn't enough meat on the bone to feel invested in. I wasih I could say more, but there's so little going on that trying to explain my problems would require spoiling what does exist. The concept of looking through the perspective of enemies to plan routes and evade them is a good one, especially when it's also used to hint at parts of puzzles. However, that same mechanic is easy to ignore; I outright ran through multiple areas (the forest, the old town, ascending the tower, residential district, the "rooftops") without needing to check for enemies using this main mechanic. The enemies and their AI were either laughably easy to evade, or frustrating to deal with. Early on, enemies were able to see my full body in their sights and not realize I was there. In other areas (especially the Tower's descent), the enemies would be triggered just from seeing a sliver of the player character's hand poking past a screen. Worst of all, it seems you can easily outrun an enemy so long as you're not running straight at them if you just walk diagonally, which made the more open areas trivial. There are some things I like in the game; a sequence where you incapacitate the enemies with a gong does some interesting things when you try to look through their perspective, and the sound design was generally good. The problem is, this good wasn't enough to make it stand out, and it certainly isn't enough to warrant the $20 price the game has at the time of writing. It's especially bad when the Developer's Commentary outright admits there wasn't much of a budget: the assets were primarily from free asset packs cobbled together. (This was pretty obvious, though it doesn't become a problem until the Manor, which had really strange statues and a dungeon that was straight out of Oblivion.) I understand this game had a team of devs that all need to get paid, but $20 is a very steep price for what this game offers. $10 would be more reasonable in my opinion. All in all, Atama is a fairly mediocre horror game. It feels more like a stealth game with bad mechanics for most of it, and I feel like the only thing I'll remember about it in a week is that my friend paid $20 for it. I would not recommend this to anyone who doesn't seem incredibly invested in the idea of waiting for heads to fly away.

I went in nearly completely blind to this experience, and was very impressed. I was kind of struggling with the core mechanic of seeing through enemies' eyes at the start, but the game does an excellent job of slowly honing your skills with it. About midway through the game I caught myself having memorized one of the enemy's routes by remembering landmarks I saw through their eyes only one or two times. This after nearly dying in the tutorial, twice. It was around that moment I realized "oh, these guys know what they're doing." Atama's enemies should not be this scary. They are, on their own, silly. But in context, in motion, with the game's atmosphere, music and sound design, and with the *creepy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ grin* the enemies get when they close in on you? I went from kinda chuckling at them to dreading them pretty quick. That's not easy to do with AAA resources; to pull it off like this is actually pretty wild to me. I got more anxious about these enemies than about the aliens in Alien: Isolation. Video games don't scare me easily and this one got a good few out of me. The story and writing are enough to set the mood appropriately combined with everything else, and a few times the Resident Evil-style notes through which most of the story is told inspired a very shivers-down-your-spine kind of feel. Only word of caution: it's short. If 20 bucks (16 on itch.io) is too much in your opinion for a game that can be beaten in one sitting, then there's your answer. I think it's worth it for sure, though.

Atama is a First Person horror game from Team Zutsuu that features a "sight-jacking" system similar to that in Siren. As Kaede, you will traverse a cursed town trying to find your Aunt. But all around you are terrifying beings patrolling, stalking, hunting the streets. Atama is Team Zutsuu's first release, but manages to position itself as a strong base for which the group can build upon. While having a similar visual feel to most indie horror games, it sets itself apart by utilizing the sight-jacking mechanic to determine enemy patrols, and solve interesting puzzles. Level design is fair, with most sets relying on a clever use of patrol recognization, as well as manipulating the environment in various ways (via doors and switches) to create safe paths, or open new ones. At no point did I feel I was being unfairly caught, or that situations felt undoable. While the levels themselves are packed with interesting architecture, and the textures are great, the monster design feels a little one-dimensional, with awkward animations as well. The sound design is top notch, even if the sound effects are obvious or rudimentary. Enemies bark loudly when they see you, and mumble, gurgle, and growl as they lie in wait, or stalk around the levels. I will never forget that horrid baby babbling as long as I live. Variations on the monster patterns and behaviors often leads to some good jumpscares, and there's a tense atmosphere around as you try and sort out their locations via sight-jacking. Few games on the market utilize the sight-jacking mechanic, and it's a bit of fresh air seeing it come back. I'm definitely interested to see in where Team Zutsuu goes from here, and having a solid title as their debut puts them in a very good place to move forward.

Heard about this game from a friend, and, as a huge fan of Junji Ito's "The Hanging Balloon" and Keiichiro Toyama's work, I had to check it out. I'll be honest, learning it was a stealth game, I fully expected to only play a small amount of it for stream before checking out. I'm pretty awful at stealth games, normally. Thankfully, there's a Story Mode that only punishes you for getting caught with certain enemies. It makes the game INCREDIBLY easy, but for people like me who mostly want to experience the story and vibes of the game, it was PERFECT. It was also perfect for streaming! I definitely intend to go back and try the dev commentary and normal mode on my own time. Even in story mode, I recognized how well thought-out the game design was, and how well the games leads you. Contrary to most stealth I've experienced in games, every level felt far more like a puzzle, trying to figure out the best plan of attack. Highly recommend checking this game out! Wonderful homage to The Hanging Balloons and Siren.

If a game is Junji Ito inspired, then it shall be played. Story and plot are very straightforward, it starts off with a chat conversation between you, and your sister, where we learn that we are heading towards a village due to a family curse. It doesnt take long to encounter your first enemies, a bunch of giant flying heads. A unique mechanic allows you to look through their eyes, helping you avoid them. They are faster than you and kill you upon contact, except you play the game on adventure mode. The best about Atama is definitely its world. Mostly everything here is Unity store assets, but its all so well put together that you wont even notice. They did a great job. The music compliments this even more. The only issue I had is that it gets rather frustrating, especially close to the end the amount of enemies is insane, and I only played on normal mode, but I guess that is my own fault, because I had no idea that I could change the difficulty at any given time. Thank you Team Zutsuu, for providing me with a copy, much appreciated! [b] Horror/Surrealist centered Curator: [url=store.steampowered.com/curator/43071910/] KuriKuration[/url] [/b]

I had high hopes for this game as a spiritual successor to the unique Forbidden Siren series, which uses the same sightjacking mechanic. Not that my hopes were unrealistic - I still knew this was a cheap indie game - but I was expecting a tight, short horror experience. Admittedly I only played half an hour of the game, but that was enough to tell me that I wasn't going to like it. The assets are all ugly stock parts, and the graphics overall do not do a great job of setting a tense, horror mood. The environments are sparse, the lighting is dull but not dark, and everything looks... "placeholder". On top of this there was no music and only basic "nighttime cricket" noises to set the mood sound-wise. The game communicates information solely through written notes, which are not particularly well-written or atmospheric - mostly they seem to be little details scattered about haphazardly in the environment for you to find, or in some cases to tell you how to solve a puzzle. They stand out a lot given that the environments are so sparse in details, and this makes them feel distinctly artificial. I could go on about all the little things where lack of effort and detail made this game feel like something thrown together for a 24 hour game jam by amateurs, but I think you get the message. As a final note, I will note that when sightjacking the enemies most of them make an awful slick slimy noise that you can't turn off and that I personally could not tolerate hearing. So yeah, I'm getting a refund. Maybe get this when it's on sale for half price if you really want to experience it, but from other reviews it doesn't look like the game gets any better past the intro.

Junji Ito + Siren, do you really need more? It is a an horror game where stealth is the main focus, you don't really fight enemies for the most part. Game has its charm, it's worth to play...Just please don't get discouraged if you are having minor stutters at the beginning, it's due to the large area. Multiple endings, difficulty settings, dev commentary (God the OST has a couple of BANGER tracks)

Atama is a game I grabbed around when it came out but didn't actually get to until this week. From my initial exposure to it I was aware of the Siren influence and I do think it is a game in a few ways that wears its inspirations on its sleeve, though that's not a bad thing. Combining the mechanic of sightjacking and using it as a means to map out a location, where you are relative to enemies, grasping the AI patterns as well allows for a unique experience that equally feels as much Siren as much as it does Metal Gear Solid and nails the proclaimed genre of "stealth horror". Some sections can be a fair bit more difficult than others, but nothing ever feels unfair by any means. Also much appreciation to the game coming with a developer commentary mode, it was a blast getting to go through that, hear bits and pieces from the people involved on the project as well as other bonuses to come with that. Lastly, I can't talk on the game without mentioning the soundtrack. Eerie ambiance to bombastic tracks that feel like they're wearing their inspiration from Akira Yamaoka. Thank you Team Zutsuu for this experience.

Super dig this very strange and wonderful horror game. The whole sight-jacking thing is a rarely used mechanic and very well implemented here. Looking forward to replaying to get the rest of the endings and them ding dang coins

Go to abandoned village where giant screaming, crying and flying heads will attack you. There is story mode that says it disables the enemies, but it doesn't.