Crawling Angels

Turbio, por la atmósfera, los diseños y personajes, pero aún más por la historia y los temas que toca como la culpa y la crueldad, hace imposible que no te de escalofríos con varios momentos, y encima un trabajo de sonido impresionante. El gameplay tira a Little Inferno, los puzzles son básicamente entender frases y replicarlo con el pollo y las cosas, lo que te ayuda comprar mas cosas y avanzar, esta muy bueno y divertido probar cosas, las frases pueden llegar a ser complicadas de entender pero no suelen ser muy complicadas. Juegazo, muy especial y memorable pero si necesita estar con cierta mentalidad porque es mas fuerte de lo que parece. Recomendadísimo.

Disclaimer; [b] The latter part of this review will be talking pretty extensively about the games story, [/b] the game's gameplay is janky, odd and takes a lot of trial and error since it's a sandbox physics game. It's very nostalgic in its Kick the Buddy-adjacent gameplay and it most definitely delivers on the satisfaction of using the provided tools. It's an easy task to follow, you're presented with the game's iconic [i] Forever Chicken, [/i] solving puzzles and putting components together in order to figure out the clues given to the player. The game's art direction makes the entire act of brutalizing a plush chicken feel like a true carnival game. The soundtrack does a lot for setting the mood here, too. The gameplay, however, serves [b] mostly [/b] as a delivery mechanism for the game's story. Completing riddles given by characters continues their story lines, giving the player more money in order to get more tools to test out and play with. However you want to feel about story and gameplay being somewhat disjointed, the game has a pretty solid understanding of what it was going for. Personally, i feel that the separation of gameplay and story makes the player feel isolated from anybody else that may be at the carnival. This leads my review on to the gory meat and bones of the game; [i] The story. [/i] [h3] Ignorance is a virtue [/h3] [i] This part of the review will begin talking about the game's story. Spoiler warning! [/i] This game is drenched in the obvious main themes of childhood horror, growing up and the difficulties one might face along the way. The antagonist, Uncle Tontine, answers little questions the main character, Jacob, can ask. It feels natural to want to learn more, yet also harkens back to a natural part of childhood, being inquisitive and curious about everything. Tontine is the only adult figure in the carnival, not only that, he hold authority here. It's not long into the game that the player gets small parts of Tontine revealed to them, such as being "seen as a fairy" by most, something the player can easily recognize as Tontine saying he's gay, with Jacob thinking he means it literally. ("With wings and stuff?") It simply makes Jacob feel so much more like an actual, realistic child of the time the game is set in. Small plot points fill out to the player what sort of child Jacob is [i]and how much of one he still is.[/i] It's a pretty fine line to teeter on with children as characters, but i think that the team had done an amazing job fleshing Jacob and the rest of the cast of children out. Uncle Tontine's character naturally wakes a sort of curiosity for the player and, likewise, for Jacob. A sweet little detail here is that, while Tontine does seem to humor Jacob's curiosity, he explicitly begins to give Jacob worried looks if the player chooses to pester him for too long with questions, prompting him to tell Jacob to "spend some time with others [i]his age[/i]". Given the game's themes, it's a small detail that i can't help but love for being added. The game takes very little time to begin to take a turn for the darker, Jacob's friends being physically changed or disappearing due to what forces are at play. The game makes no point of hiding its messages about childhood and change here. I could gush about every single character's arc here for a dozen more pages - Something i'll hold myself from doing. It all feels unnatural to both the player and to Jacob, becoming a great homage to Pinocchio without being too on the nose about it. Once the cast begins to thin out, the game's eerie tone quickly becomes more and more prominent. Jacob becomes isolated from anybody he knows, returning home is not an option anymore after we see what happens to those that do, no matter how many times Uncle Tontine insists that Jacob may return home any time he wants. Stakes are rising and the carnival's population has died out considerably. Where there once was an abundance of other children walking around the inside of the Tent, interacting with or looking at curiosities, only few remain. This point of the game feels like the obvious "breaking of innocence" plot in a growing-up story. Jacob is faced with brutality, with the horrors of change and of maturity. It's the part of metamorphosis that we don't speak of, when the caterpillar dissolves in the chrysalis and change has to take hold. Yet, it manages to hold off on the obvious. Quickly, the game's simplest answer to where to take the plot, doesn't happen. The game decides to cement its themes not in the easy answers of 'growing up being hard'. We're faced with a comparison between Tontine and Jacob. [i] Guilt [/i] takes hold. We do not know yet what happened between Jacob and Myrtle yet, but the game straddles the game's theme on a razor-thin edge. The ending does tell us that [spoiler] Jacob and Myrtle had what essentially was a sexual experience, [/spoiler] yet Uncle Tontine's words feel like he's describing [i] murder. [/i] [h3] Guidance, Religion and Love [/h3] Childhood and sexuality are a topic that seldom gets explored in any sort of media. Usually when they are, they're handled in an overly protective fashion or simply way too clumsily. It's not lost on anybody that children do experience sexual development as they grow up and approach puberty, yet it still feels incredibly taboo to talk about. Crawling Angels explores this topic with the kind of weighty realism that i simply hadn't expect any piece of media to do. The end of the game makes the weight of the game finally settle on the player's shoulders. Tontine gives a choice of letting Jacob's transgression be forgiven through wicked means, or making the weight of his actions weigh on him until the end of his days. The offer comes from a place of compassion to Jacob. Tontine knows only the pain and misery that came from confession to his mother. Jacob's mother in the ending becomes a terrifying presence when the wound that was reopened is still fresh. The weight of guilt is suffocating at this point, yet the only way to relieve oneself of this weight feels immutable. Even the idea of confession doesn't feel like freedom. Yet, Jacob's mother becomes possibly the best depiction of a loving parent than i've ever, EVER seen in any sort of media presenting this sort of theme. She doesn't coddle Jacob for being innocent. She understands the situation, yet makes sure to let Jacob know that it's not the sort of thing that children of his age should be doing, among many other things. The entire conversation between Jacob and his mother feels so very, incredibly emotionally intimate that simply sitting there and reading and hearing it feels like intrusion on my part. I cannot praise this enough. Feeling the tension in my neck leave as the game concludes was bone-chilling. I haven't even got the vocabulary to even properly describe how much i recommend people to play this game.

I think think the world does not give enough ♥♥♥♥ about children. The governments, religious institutions - they all just pretend to care. All the fake children protection ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ they so eagerly use for their own egoistical material gains. This is the type of a game that doesn't really blast you with emotions when you're done with it. You're not in awe from the revelation. You don't sit on your chair with tears, swelling in your eyes from being overwhelmed. You don't feel the sharp tingle in your lungs. You don't feel your mind race. Quite the opposite - the horrible events and themes Crawling Angels touches are something every sensible adult must be aware of and, very unpleasantly, might be familiar with on a personal level. Something i'm familiar with on a personal level. When the credits rolled, i just felt... heavy. My head felt heavy. Like a headache. Something deep below, something under primal sadness wallowed inside me. With my mind in daze, dulled, protecting me from the emotions and memories somewhere inside. I think i never want to see this game again. I don't want to go through it again, not after the surpisingly warm, and heartfelt ending. The game is not for everyone. But i think it really is important. Love to children all around the world. They deserve a much better reality.

It has a rich unique story exploring the consequences of guilt, even when that guilt is undeserved. The puzzle and story elements are well balanced. Just the right amount of challenge and fun with the puzzles! In fact the story is so rich it may be misinterpreted by some, but that comes with the territory. I had to read up on Albert Camus, (Alittle rant tangent about specifically this quote w/game spoilers and related to the game's themes. You don't have to read this part:) [spoiler] I could convince Camus that his quote is flawed if he saw the state of today's religion. At some point it needs to be held accountable for the guilt and self-hate it purposely stirs up in people. In OSHA there is a sentiment of engineering out safety issues so that people can't kill themselves to begin with. Guilt is similar. When religion wields God like a weapon making Hell Houses to scare children to death about Hell -there is a social problem there that goes beyond standard humanity. (That was something I and many other kids had to deal with in childhood). This notion of religion causing guilt is related to the game, and even why we have our Antagonist Uncle Tontine to begin with. Point is -Individuals following their own spiritual path may not be the problem, [i]institutions[/i] claiming to do so definitely can be and it's been a problem, and continues to be one. Because you see, Camus' quote can be used to absolve religion when it fails people. Instead labeling guilt-making as a "Human issue" only. Ironically he has commited a folly some religions have done -psychologically painting mankind as flawed and sinful from the offset, creates a sort of destructive Nihilism that prevents the development of responsibility and problem-solving. Because it makes it seem like there is "No Hope" this guilt-making + punishment is just "Something that happens" it's "inevitable". But modern psychology and data-gathering on human behavior prove differently. It really does not have to be this way. A child as they are has no guilt in their heart. Philosophy can serve as panacea or a contribution to thought-virus that infects more. or a demon or parasite instead of thought-virus, if we use the game's symbolisms. Finally, to Camus even though you are dead, it's one thing to be punished by man, it's another to be punished with God. Spiritual abuse is it's own type of abuse for a reason. It's pretty nasty what it does to the soul...just look at Uncle Tontine!! (half jk)[/spoiler] Speaking of Tontine, the voice actor for Uncle Tontine did a phenomenal job at making him tangible and memorable. It really stands out. Back to the story again, one can't help but worry about the other child protagonists too. As far as their hurts and guilts go. The story does not explicitly spell out what their deal is with most of them, but it seems all of them are carrying some wound. I appreciate it's not spelled out, we have to exercise our critical thinking skills. [spoiler]Myrtle worries me the most, and no little Jacob, I don't think it has to do with you. [/spoiler] I guess you could say, the writing is so well done it has me invested in everyone's well-being. Now back to guilt - The funniest thing about guilt as an emotion is that some of the worst criminals in human history have no guilt. Isn't that the biggest irony of all? We have kids feeling so much guilt when they are basically innocent, and serial killers, ceos, and war mongers that feel nothing. Something to chew on as a companion thought to the whole theme in this game. If you like exploring deeper themes, I recommend this game. It really does capture the "Olden day fairy tale" feeling.

I already have my own curiosity back in playtest for this game. Well, Its simple really, You are in a night carnival and you are playing a specific carnival game with one and only attraction. "Forever Chicken" You will get a "Riddles" 90 Percent of the time these riddle has something to do with the Forever chicken who no matter what you have done to it, It always came back, Disregard the amount of brutality you inflicted on it. And that's the main point. Each time you've complete a riddle, You get a coin which used to purchase new objects which will corresponse with next riddle further and further down the story line. Speaking of story line, There are a story line which you must experience on your own, But let me give you a little headstart, Its a very touchy subject, A touchy kind that with incorrect response damage many lives over around the world in some way. I don't really want to get down to spoiling the ending but it got you asking the question. By the end, The result are the same, You must living on. But the question is whether you accept what happen as your own and moving on or enchant them as everything revolving around you and you chose to fabric yourself a story to convincing yourself that you must keep on going? This little stump of life certainly would have a consequence in a years to come. I know its a video game, But its hard to have any game these days touching on this very touchy subject without preaching. This is one of a few that done this quite well enough. Although you might be putting off with the grotesque and all. Lastly. Even if this is just a video game, I want to let you know, if you are reading this and felt the same way as I am. Life goes on, It maybe a foolish things children does, But no matter what, Life goes on and we can do better as long as we understand what had been done and what must be done further down the line.

sometimes when im bored i dip my Forever Chicken in tar and he scream loudd as ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

One of the most provocative games I have ever played, on top of a fun and engaging gameplay loop. While the game is short it does absolutely everything it needs to with its time.

This one took a weird turn.

What an interesting experience... little Jacob.

Estaba esperando un little inferno donde torturas a un pollo y acabé experimentando una historia sobre las consecuencias de la culpa a una temprana edad. La atmosfera es opresiva y el arte es grotesco pero muy bien hecho, Talia no falla creando este tipo de experiencias, los puzzles no son tan complicados y a veces son hasta chistosos, además que al comprar el juego también se apoya el desarrollo de clown meat el cual se ve que va a ser un también un juegazo, totalmente recomendado.