Mmmm, joy. Solo developer indie horror game.
Gonna jump into the review since, like the game itself, it's very basic and to the point.
Plot's simple: You're a teenage girl named Harley. Your little sister, Chloe, went missing at a haunted carnival. Go rescue her and kill the monstrous figures keeping her captive there. There's not much else to it besides that. With games like these you really don't need to focus so much on the story, although I am wondering if the developer intended to flesh it out more. There's messages and parts of Harley's diary you can find scattered throughout the game, but at a point it felt like the story kinda...stops? Even if you get all the achievements and unlock the secret door, that still leaves some questions that were unanswered. But again, the story isn't always the selling point with these games so long as the gameplay holds up.
And the gameplay holds up! ...Mostly. I do like that the game offers old-school tank controls or more modern controls; my stubborn ass stuck with the old-school controls. I'm assuming gamepads are for the modern controls because I kinda struggled moving around and just wound up using the mouse and keyboard. But that's on me for not changing the controls.
This game is what you expect from most survival horrors. Gotta find clues to unlock doors, solve puzzles here and there, occasionally find door codes, conserve ammo, etc. There's no stamina meter (thank you), the puzzles are easy to solve, it's fairly manageable wandering around the carnival and backtracking, and the game encourages you to kill enemies by giving you money you can spend on more ammo and/or health upgrades.
As for the weapons, they were kinda meh. I spent the whole game using the shotgun and revolver only. The rifle has crazy sensitivity when you try to aim--to the point where it's a detriment. There's probably a feature to turn that down, but even so, given the controls, I just found it easier to whip out the shotgun or revolver. I also didn't bother with the SMG because the revolver is shockingly very fast to fire and does decent damage. It's very easy to plow through this whole game with just the shotgun and revolver--plus it costs less money to buy more ammo for those guns at the supply shop.
I enjoyed the tone of the game. It's not trying to be super spooky and scary and there's surprisingly no jump scares (or cat scares) in the game. Some creepy visuals such as that one enemy that's a body mouth [i]thing[/i]? That was unsettling. But this game felt more like it was aiming for the [i]fun[/i] kind of horror, not the kind of horror that will traumatize you to the point where you don't wanna play it. The developer made that very clear with the coaster ride where you shoot knights and then you're thrown into a boss fight with a giant knight that can summon fire. Does this need to be in the game? No. Is it scary? No. Is it wacky and loads of fun? Absolutely.
There's just little things like that which made the game fun and entertaining for me. The medieval knight boss, having to saw a body in half, only for it to turn into two separate bosses you fight simultaneously, the whole nutcracker boss in the ice rink, the jack-in-the-box that summon a tiny puppet that [i]shoots a machine gun at you[/i], the fortune teller that acts as a save point, the music as a whole--it all really culminated really well for the aesthetic this game had going for it. And I'm glad the developer just stuck with this one aesthetic and didn't try to do too much; some projects end up falling flat on their face because the developer tries to do [i]everything[/i] and they don't succeed at [i]anything[/i].
Couple bugs to report. The game's volume is automatically set very low. So if anyone buys the game, make sure you turn up the volume in the settings; there is voice acting as well as music to listen to in the opening cutscene. I'm guessing the developer naturally kept it low so no one's eardrums get blown out when they start the game. There's a glitch where you can spend five coins before a boss fight, but if you die and reload your save, the game will ask you to save again. [i]Do not[/i] say yes again; you'll end up spending another five coins. Alternatively, save at the fortune teller before a boss. It's cheaper anyway. Also, if you're trying to get an "S" rank, [i]close the game completely[/i] before starting a new game. I found out the hard way that if you beat the game once, then immediately start a new game, then all the time, saves, and health you used from your previous run will carry over and lock you out of getting the "S" rank achievement.
Really my only biggest gripe with this game is that it's a bit too short. You can speedrun this game in under an hour if you know what you're doing; I managed to do it in under forty minutes to get the "S" rank. I brought up some issues with the story earlier, there's the bugs up above, the game can get a bit [i]too[/i] easy in some places, and the final boss fight is laughably pitiful. The game gives you an overpowered new weapon with infinite ammo and you just spam the fire button. The first time I fought this boss I literally stood in one spot, got the final boss locked into a corner, and fired until he died. That's not good considering you built up this villain early on with how he can stalk you throughout the carnival and he's got this cool design and scissor legs and whatnot. But then you fight him and it's like "Oh, okay. I guess we're done. Whoo?"
So yeah, those are my thoughts. Pretty straightforward and simply survival horror. I can't even be upset over the price of the game either. It's only five dollars. And this game was primarily made by one person who hired three voice actors, had additional help with the music, and used some pre-made assets during development. I've come across (and played, and subsequently got pissed off about) games that cost twice as much, sometimes even [i]three times as much money[/i] as this one, had the same amount of manpower (if not more) and yet those games in question had [i]half[/i] the passion and effort put into them. A twenty-minute key hunt simulator should not cost ten dollars. So I'm very glad that this developer took the time into making this fun little project the way he wanted to, even if it's a bit on the short/easy side. Apparently BEDTIMESTORIES has more solo games on itch.io.
And after playing this, I may go check 'em out.
