Barnacle

I've never left a review on game but playing this on release and seeing 2 reviews I felt as I have to. If you enjoy watching Minecraft ARGs and wondered what it would be like to play through one PLEASE get this game. I streamed this game on Twitch to my community and we we're all captivated and on the edge of our seats with the story and wondering what secret will we discover next. I stream as a full time job and the amount of horror/mystery games I come across that are obvious cash grabs and hoping Caseoh plays it is so upsetting (along with all the AI use). It's been so hard to find games that have passion and tell a story so finding this game and taking the risk with it having no reviews when I started playing on stream was such a treat. I really hope this game hits YouTube and becomes a trend for people to play as this game deserves a lot of attention. I'd dive more into gameplay and story but I think this is best played knowing nothing about what's to come and following your curiosity. [spoiler]The commentary on AI in this game being "barnacle" was such a fun thing for us to discover and made the story even more fun to follow!

I had the privilege of playtesting this game and it was a captivating experience throughout. The environments were unique and gave me the Yume-Nikki feel that made me want to try this game. The soundtrack fits perfectly for the world and atmosphere, and repeating tracks never got annoying even if you were exploring one world for a while. The progression system is almost metroidvania-like and it feels rewarding to explore, and the platforming sections are fun with how smooth the movement is, and are made even more fun when unlocking certain items. As you explore more, you piece together more of the story from random clues you found throughout, until you compile everything together and reach the ending (no spoilers). Overall, a very fun experience that I would recommend.

Interesting minecraft like game I suppose though you do have to have quite a bit of perception / patience to get anywhere in this game. I did find two map fragments and 1 item being the marker but after this I am not to sure where to go or what to do since things are not very clear in this game. This game needs a guide or something eventually lol. Spookiest moment I encountered though was the church in the forest area when something decided to pop out and run back in. Still though I like this game for its eerieness of the unknown and maybe if I played more I could get deeper in https://youtu.be/GKC_YZw5jo4

Minecraft meets yume nikki! The atmosphere is great in the game, but I wish the music was a little more interesting sometimes. Almost sounds a bit too thin at times. The actual SFX is great though. Other than that, it's pretty good!

I'd be amiss to say I've really given Barnacle's key inspiration (and probably mainly used comparison point) Yume Nikki any real time nor am I an expert on Minecraft Horror ARGs (Alternative Reality Games) bar a few pretty popular ones. However I can confidently say that Barnacle still stands out as being a captivating, tense and mysterious little game. It's use of the Luanti engine (an open source voxel game engine) was a masterful gambit in creating a feel akin to the latter inspiration whilst also being a vessel for interesting use of it's mechanics. The slightly not quite Minecraft texture work and lighting is used to great effect to create an uncanny feeling, the music serves doubly so, I adored the sense of mystery and atmosphere with this one and I'm a sucker for exploring weird, abstract and 'liminal' environments. I think the framing of just stumbling onto this abandoned server is perfect for inserting yourself into the narrative. You feel like you're a character in the ARG instead of just watching one. The story you end up uncovering is also pretty engaging and I found the commentary it had to be resonant. It brings the overall experience up to the level of quality of it's inspirations whilst also standing out from them.

Perfect horror game! In every way! Being modelled & textured like Minecraft almost puts you at ease, with a sense of familiarity, yet there's just something wrong about it. Well, obviously it's not MC, but the feeling of familiarity associated with the overly popular block game certainly adds a layer of uneasiness to it. The story & narrative is as it says. Game server, looks like there were people, now there isn't, find out why. There're notes you can find, but no dialogue or any instruction. Just sleep, go through a door & see what you find. The core gameplay is pretty much just wandering around a few different areas looking for clues & tools, there's no puzzle, a lil' bit of parkour, some scary creatures. Some of the areas you go through certainly scratches that liminal itch. I have played & seen many different horror games, from great ones to terrible ones, popular ones & hidden ones, this is unlike any of them. There's just a constant wrongness about it, that something's off & I love it! At it's base price, it is worth it! Worth it! Worth it! Worth it! If there're horror games out there you have to play before you die, this is one of them!

8時間ほどでクリア？ 3D探索ホラーアドベンチャーで陰湿な雰囲気がすごく良い！ 常にわくわくできるマップの形をしてるので探索も楽しかった。そしてギミックのある場所はギミックの内容が理解しやすいので苦戦せず楽しく遊べましたし、なにより変なものがたくさん見れてすごく満足できました！ ホラー要素もジャンプスケア等が無くて良質でした。 ただ、まだ探索できる場所残ってるので時間あるときに見たいところです。

I don't know what I need to say to convince you to play this game, but you should play this game if you like unsettling atmospheres and puzzles that won't give up their secrets easily. It's wild to me that this game is flying so under the radar right now. Easily one of my favorite hidden gems from new releases this year. It's hard to gush about this game without giving out spoilers, and it's definitely one you'll want to go into knowing as little as possible about. You'll do a lot of walking, but the atmosphere keeps it interesting. I haven't completed the game yet, but the story that's slowly being revealed feels very topical. Barnacle rewards patience and persistence, but also demands both. Every time I feel like I'm completely stuck, I keep pushing onward, checking every little corner I might have missed until I'm rewarded with the discovery of some whole new area I didn't know was there before. I am loving this.

Really underrated, definitely yume nikki inspired. ALSO this game doesnt have a horror tag and idk if its just me but its real scary at times. That bird playground zone is nightmare fuel man.

Not a bad game by any means, the game starts off strong with it's atmosphere and ambiguity of what's possible and can be fun for a few hours just exploring and getting spooked, but often times I felt lost and directionless and the game does not make obvious what you should be looking for, especially after you've gone through each door and feel like you've looked at everything there is to see, and you just sit at the door world wracking your brain thinking was there any place you may have forgotten to look. Some of the worlds are too on the nose with their inspirations like the backrooms or certain Roblox and Minecraft horror experiences and it doesn't help to keep you in the immersion that you feel at the beginning, and just ends up feeling derivative. For the sake of your sanity, if you come across a platforming area that feels really difficult, just ignore it until you happen upon an item that makes it easier. Because the way the game works, you'll be expected to do that platforming again later anyway if you want to get all of the map pieces. If you enjoy endlessly wandering for hours and listening to some tunes until you maybe happen to run into something story/progression relevant, which is what this game's end game pretty much is, perhaps this is the game for you. Unfortunately that's about when I check out mentally and go outside of the game to fulfill any curiosity I may have had about it's story, which I did find quite interesting, but I don't think the hours wandering around for it is exactly worth it. That being said, the atmosphere and music was quite nice and those first couple hours was something quite special. Shame that by the end I'm left exhausted and bored and I lose my curiosity and motivation to keep looking around.