[h1]Overview:[/h1]
'[i]ByLo[/i]' is a first person horror game with very light puzzle elements where you search for scraps of paper that make up a picture of a teddy bear while trying to stay sane throughout it all. The plot is nonexistent as even the developer states that there is no background story given to the player whatsoever. You're just thrown into an empty and decrepit hospital and need to find pictures that make up a teddy bear. Based on my playthrough, I'm assuming the plot was trying to repair a broken picture of a teddy bear and return it to a [i]very[/i] sick looking little girl. Even then, the significance of the bear is still blown out of proportion and there's literally no reason for it to even exist.
The objectives in the game also makes no sense and honestly everything just appears to be glued together with no rhyme or reason. Even the title is questionable. Who would have thought '[i]ByLo[/i]' would mean exploring a boring old hospital where a teddy bear is the main focus? But I digress, the game as a whole is very underwhelming and doesn't contain any jumpscares and isn't very scary for the average person. And since there's no backstory to the game, how does playing it fair?
[h1]Gameplay:[/h1]
As you can imagine just from the screenshots and videos on the store page, not very well. It's almost like a cheap Slenderman clone where you search for pieces of paper while avoiding a hostile entity but it's even worse. When you start the game, you'll find yourself in a small area of the hospital with already ready-to-pick-up items strewn around the place including a hostile zombie-like patient that doesn't even chase you when you get near it. As you pick up items the level changes whether it be a door opening or an item spawning or an entity appearing and it can be a bit confusing what to do and where to go if you're not paying attention. The game doesn't tell you what to do at all or give you any hints for what to do next.
The sanity meter decreases overtime and goes down the more you do things which can make playing the game more stressful since you're technically on a timer. Although I didn't necessarily have trouble with the sanity meter, I [i]did[/i] however have trouble once I reached the door maze containing the final piece of the picture. At this point a bed sheet ghost began pursuing me while I tried to figure out where to go but the maze is so cramped that it's almost impossible to navigate the maze without getting caught by the ghost. It can phase through walls making it difficult to get to the last page and by the time I figure out where is, it catches me.
Getting caught just makes the screen fade to black while the most generic female horror scream plays for a second and you restart at the latest checkpoint. The game doesn't truly end until your sanity hits zero so it's nice that you have multiple chances to solve the puzzles but it doesn't help that the overall structure just isn't done well. I'll cut the developer [i]some[/i] slack considering it's their first project but if a game isn't good, well, it isn't good. I'll give credit where credit is due and at least say that the concepts surrounding the game is kind of interesting. The strange dancing ladies you encounter when taking pills are humorous and the overall execution for a first time game developer isn't bad. The idea of taking pills in order to see hints on what to do to progress was also a neat idea.
The game is at least fully functional despite not being very fun to play and there's almost no ending as it just fades to black after you return to your starting position without any sort of credit roll or ending scene and just boots your ass back to the main menu. It feels more like an experiment where the developer was just fiddling around with assets and coding and what we got was '[i]ByLo[/i]'. Regardless, even with experience in question, the review is to judge the game as a whole, not the competency of the developer so although it pains me to write negatively about a game from someone starting out with game development, I also have to consider the game's quality and the purpose of the review system. This game isn't good.
[h1]Controls:[/h1]
The controls at least work and aren't broken in any way. Many bad horror games have glitchy and unusable controls with the infamous "falling through the floor" bit but this one plays fine. There's even a funny option in the main menu called "Cry for Help" which basically contains controls for the game (can't be changed). All in all, it works as intended and for a first time attempt at making a game, that's pretty good.
[h1]Graphics:[/h1]
Looks like pretty much every other B-horror game with the typical [i]Unity[/i] assets and generic maps. Lighting and shading are pretty much nonexistent and the super scary monsters are anything but. The scary patient you're stuck with for the first half of the game is [i]kind of[/i] creepy at first especially with it's slow crawl but the bed sheet ghost is just laughable. Even the main menu looks like (and probably is) a stock image pulled straight off of google of what looks like an asylum with lots of hands sticking out of doors. Where's [b]that[/b] in the game?! The whole horror aspect of the game is extremely weak and after a minute or two, the somewhat creepy atmosphere is quickly extinguished.
[h1]Audio:[/h1]
Has the most generic musical ambience and sound effects you could possibly find in a B-horror game. After playing more than enough [i]Unity[/i] horror games, you can pretty much differentiate between sounds that are straight from [i]Unity[/i] and ones that aren't. For starters, it isn't bad and [i]do[/i] somewhat fit the atmosphere but stock sounds from [i]Unity[/i] usually don't sound good.
[h1]Conclusion/TL;DR:[/h1]
'[i]ByLo[/i]' is a short first person horror game where you collect 4 pages of a picture while solving a few puzzles and avoiding hostile enemies. It can be finished fairly quickly but can also be confusing as to where to go and what to do. For a first project, it isn't bad but the overall quality and structure of the game could use plenty of work and with the right time and effort, can break off into another more better game. But '[i]ByLo[/i]' alone isn't great and is over shined by many other games (rightfully so).
