Cerebral

This is mostly puzzles, but a lot of the solutions are quite nonsensical. I didn't finish it, it's not great.

Some puzzles are easy to solve others not so much and a few made no sense really especially the one with 4 doors when all of them were wrong. The dumbest one was the one with 6 pictures of that AI dudes face and I didn't see any hint that could tell me which one. The ending was horrible since it just consisted of running around in circles avoiding the multiple faces of the AI The game has a nice design with characters and environment but beyond that I didn't really enjoy much else https://youtu.be/t2bqgTinRLg

Dude... this game was AMAZING. no joke man this game had all the above... puzzles, horror, you name it. You really gotta think outside the box for this game and even tho i might have a smooth brain it was still super fun. Thank you for sending me this game! Its-Ascencio

This game had such an incredibly strong start and had me completely invested until about half way through. You're told early on that everything you need to solve the puzzles is in the room with you; however halfway through the game you have to just start guessing on solutions to puzzles because there was no obvious solve or story element that ever tells you how to solve the puzzle. On the picture puzzle with 6 faces, there was absolutely NOTHING to tell you what the correct solve was, so I had to just guess, and as luck (or lack thereof) would have it, I chose the correct answer on the LAST option, meaning I had to watch an unskippable cutscene 5 other times every time the game restarted from my checkpoint. (I was playing on the highest difficulty). Other puzzles where straight up guesses or impossible to solve without brute-forcing them, and that just takes me away from the immersion. All the good this game had going for it was completely overshadowed by poor game design and puzzle design decisions. I think the game could have been REALLY solid, but it just fell apart in the last half. Because of that I cannot recommend this game. EDIT: I see this may be this developers frist time making a game, so I would like to add something: The premise is SO SOLID. It's very good! I would just love to see more thought put into the puzzles. Make them make sense, make the answers something that can be obvious from the story or referenced to. You've got a great start here, and you'll only do better from here, but it needs a lot of work.

I really enjoyed Cerebral, a very creepy atmospheric psychological horror with some unique mechanics. If you want to play something a bit different and challenging then check it out. very good indeed:)

Nem rossz játék, de két dolog zavart: a „game over” részeket nem lehetett átugrani, és néhány helyen a megoldások túl nehezek voltak – bár én amúgy sem vagyok túl jó az ilyen dolgokban. Jobban tetszett, mint más, egy fejlesztő által készített horrorjátékok – ez kreatívabb volt. 7–8/10 – az árkategóriát figyelembe véve. ----- It’s not a bad game, but two things bothered me: the “game over” sections were unscippable, and in some places the solutions were too difficult—though I’m not very good at this kind of thing anyway. I liked it better than other single-developer horror games—this one was more creative. 7-8/10—considering the price range. My curators page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45665580-Dark-Surreal-Ps1Grafics-Weird-Deep-Games/

I am a pansy, I played on easy mode and I enjoyed the experience but hated everything inside, but that's just cause of me it was a decent game experience and had spooky moments contained within several mini games puzzles and events, but in the end it made no sense to me at all, I missed so much I could have seen out of un needed panic. even on easy mode I feel the backstory was not explained throughout or til the end, where I thought one story was going on or who I was and what I was going through was thrown out the window every, I am trying to give a review with no spoilers but I can't say much else, you would need to play it and ENDURE it , but only to be confused in the end, I am on the fence of liking and hating, but overall it was the lack of story clarity that made me not enjoy it as much as I could, that sounds negative,, but the choice puzzles are what kept me going and entertained... This is hard for me to do while on the fence, I liked and disliked it I can't recommend it due to in the end it didn't make enough sense to me or have real closure of the story. I am leaving a good review because actual thought and effort went into the puzzles and overall atmosphere, but in the end, it has to be made clearer what's going on in some of the puzzles as well the over all story. that will solidify the review... but if I check back in a while (maybe a few months) and it is the same, I will probably change the review. THIS IS FOR HOPE I played it once, but I feel if I were to play again, I wouldn't get anything new unless there are procedural puzzles and a large pool of them to make each run different in difficulty and puzzles. It was a good one time experience.

[h2] An unique experience about consciousness and identity [/h2] Initially, Cerebral feels reminiscent of the SAW franchise. You wake up in a strange room, with a screen displaying your mental health, alongside an AI that appears to be your antagonist throughout the campaign. It forces you to go through a series of tests while asking existential questions. The room is filled with strange objects and cryptic phrases. It works as a “safe room” (though there’s nothing particularly safe about it), and it’s where you always return. The story is enigmatic and hooks you from start to finish. The gameplay revolves around loops (or, as the game calls them, cycles). These loops are reminiscent of P.T. After leaving the main room, you enter a corridor that contains an exit door and six other rooms with challenges and puzzles to complete. Once you pass through the corridor, you return to the main room, which undergoes changes each time. New elements appear, and there is usually a puzzle where you must make the “correct choice.” Choosing incorrectly reduces your mental health. If it reaches 0%, it’s game over, and you return to the last checkpoint. The game is heavily puzzle-focused. Many of them are interesting and creative. Some may seem “senseless” at first, but patience is key. Take your time to understand them better and you’ll eventually discover something new that helps you solve them. Sometimes the clues are extremely subtle, like a background sound or a small environmental detail. The soundtrack is excellent and highly atmospheric. The environments, audio design, and overall atmosphere are genuinely creepy. The graphics are simple but effective. During my experience, I encountered only two bugs, both of which required restarting from the last save. The game itself isn’t particularly difficult, but I had to retry several times during the more action-oriented sections, which are definitely where the game feels weakest. One of the most interesting games I’ve played in quite some time. Extremely enigmatic, abstract, and psychologically deep. And with a lot of good puzzles. It is not for everyone, but if you like these kind of games, here's a gem. P.S. 1: They actually made me scan a QR code that [spoiler] opens the game’s own webpage. [/spoiler] P.S. 2: Thanks to the developers for providing a key to my curator so this review could be made. P.S. 3: The game is really good. I hope you can add Brazilian Portuguese subtitles so more people can enjoy it. I’d be happy to help with that if needed. Scary Level: 2/5 | Game Rating: 8/10 [code] [b] ---- Check out my curator page to discover more horror games: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45837348/] The Horror Archives [/url] [/b][/code]

Loved the artstyle, some of the scares were very unerving. I would like to be able to change the game difficulty without it affecting the scares, I want all the scares even on easy :)

I think this is a nice little hidden gem for sure! Really enjoyed the puzzles! It's not for everyone, but as a horror and puzzle lover, this met my needs for both! Good job!