Cabernet

Улицы плачут по белому снегу Дворник не может отчистить их серость Пьяный он смотрит на красные руки День на глазах умирает со скуки Если чудеса только в фильмах Если чудеса только в книжках Кому я молюсь? Кому я молюсь? Дети в подвале мучают кошку Я подпеваю, дышу понарошку Белое платье моей пустоты Так не к лицу мне, не приходи Если чудеса только в книжках Если чудеса только в фильмах Кому я молюсь? Кому я молюсь? © Alina Orlova

Cabernet was a really nice surprise! Though fairly linear and limited in certain ways, the game allows for a surprising degree of freedom and player agency. Inhabiting a newborn vampire doctor, you navigate meaningfully consequential moral choices that gradually come to define your character, the relationships she forms/maintains/complicates/ruins, her place within vampire high society, and the stubbornness (or frailty) of her tether to humanity. There is also an interesting metaphor here about alcoholism. Liza (the protagonist) grapples with memories of her father's alcoholism and the destruction/instability it caused, as she finds herself struggling to manage a destructive drinking habit of her own. The feeding mechanics reinforce the metaphor: in this game, feeding is not only necessary, but addictive. It can also offer diminishing returns... unless you're careful, you can end up needing more and more to achieve the same result. You might even become a blood-addled haematophiliac, cultivating angst through the slaughter of cute, innocent bunnies (and cute, innocent humans). Alternatively, you might decide to use your vampire powers for good. Or to make your pet cat immortal. Or... It's a relatively short game, but it gets a whole lot longer once you start replaying. I was happy to find that there are often multiple ways to solve problems or resolve quests... and to find that the ways you resolve quests have lasting ramifications on the story. In a world with not nearly enough games narrowly tailored to indulge my love of vampire roleplaying, I'm very happy to have discovered this one!

Beautifully written

I had to return this because it ran really poorly outside of cutscenes. Much stuttering even after following the different help guides.

Love this game. The characters, the writing, the powers you get as a vampire. Just all really well done. It feels cozy like a good book you tuck into and forget the world. Allocating stats to unlock dialogue choices was cool. I like feeling like I can specialize in one topic over another or know a bit about everything. I felt invested in the characters I liked. Sympathized with others. I accidentally overfed on one of the side characters causing their demise early on and every time I heard her name going forward I felt awful. Your choices actually feel like they matter as they do impact your game. Seems to have some replay value as well since you can choose different things to say or have different options in dealing with things. Overall, a very well done Indie game that just goes to show, you don't need to be a Triple A game from a major company to be good.

Eats. This is THE vampire Victorian gothic story-based game, as far as I'm concerned. The writing is very well done, and the atmosphere and tone are excellent. Specifically, this game balances "cozy" and "gothic" on a knife's edge, and it works so well. In this game, unless you're following a guide very closely, there is no possible way to get everything "correct" on your first playthrough. There is NO character who has plot armor to emerge unscathed. That is exciting - it raises the stakes knowing that your actions will have consequences you can't avoid or undo - and also, it can be challenging and frustrating. If, like me, you indulge in save scumming, know that it is really hard to do in this game. The autosave at the end of each in-game day rewrites the old autosave, and there is only one physical location in game where you can manually save. Crucial story events are on a timer, and you might not realize that until it's too late. But, this is part of the point. We make mistakes, and we have to live with them, and life goes on. Not everything goes as we wish it would go, and the more we see, the harder it is not to become jaded. We must hold on to our humanity anyway. In that questioning search for meaning and humanity in the face of inevitable decay and corruption, this game is so highly Eastern European. One small gripe I had was that characters all from the same village and country had wildly varying accents. If it was not possible to find a voice actor cast that could do Eastern European accents, I think they should have stuck to either UK or US accents. One of the most important things a voice tells us about a character is their cultural background, and it was a shame to miss that in this special setting. I prefer media where vampires are not inherently horrible monsters, without also being softboy-ified. Cabernet nails it. Vampires have a range of responses to their conditions. And true evil comes from humans in this game as well. Cabernet is very thoughtful about the meaning of vampires, from the alcoholism metaphor to the capitalism metaphor. And it's also just so fun! The drama propels you forward and has depth, but you also get to fly around, decorate your house, pick out dresses, forage for mushrooms, date, go to the bookstore and curate your library, and yes, drink people's blood. For being both deep and enjoyable, and maintaining such a lovely, tricky cozy-gothic tone, I happily place it among the best vampire media out there.

I liked it. Wish you could speed the dialogue a little better but super interesting game.