Daymare Town

While I would like to recommend this game, in all honesty I can't bring myself to do it. After playing Submachine Legacy, and paying more for Daymare town than that, it's a big let down. While the art work and atmosphere are there as in all Matuez previous offerings, this is more of an over engineered scavenger hunt. I think Submachine is probably the best game I have ever played, this simply doesn't even hold a candle to it. I guess I was spoiled by playing Submachine first, because all of the subsequent games of his I have played have been tepid at best in comparison. If you haven't played Submachine yet - DO IT!!. This is simply not a game that even approached his previous efforts and feels like he is playing off of his prior success(es).

The art and atmosphere carry the game, compensating for its otherwise frustrating design.

It's a slow paced game. You are free to explore, no time pressure, and enjoy the creativity the author put into all his hand drawings which later became this wonderful game. To me it's relaxing, funny and engaging in the same time. Personally it's a great way for me to recover from burnout. My mind is totally absorbed by the story, the exploration and the puzzles, all accompanied by a genius soundtrack. All my intrusive, burnout generated thoughts are simply melting away and my batteries start to recharge. Huge THANK YOU!

I've played this game in its earlier iteration as a Flash game. I have long considered this artist one of the best game makers in the point-and-click style of adventure game. The art is haunting and expertly done, the gameplay is a bit of a challenge (without being impossible). You will need to look very carefully for clues and Easter-eggs. I love being able to explore and solve puzzles - nothing feels better than solving a mystery and figuring out a puzzle.

The beautiful, detailed, and winding environments have the side effect of forcing you to hunt each image for the stuff that is actually clickable. It’s super annoying that the game does not separate key items from the 300,000 coins and paper clips and lint balls or whatever you can pick up for optional achievements. If I had known which items were actually important, I probably would’ve finished the game in an hour.

Rusty Lake wishes it could be this edit: okay i do have a few criticisms. a lot of the items you can collect are only useful for optional achievements, or in being sold for cash. but you don't want to sell any of them because there's no way of knowing what's important, even if you're not interested in the achievements. so by chapter 4 you probably will have accumulated WAY too much junk, making it difficult to even find an item in your inventory. the Submachine series doesn't have this problem, because it didn't have a billion achievements just for using X item in Y place. one change from the Flash version intrigued me: [spoiler] in the original Flash game, you talk to a suicidal npc (literally named "jumper") sitting on a cliffedge and are unable to convince them to change their mind. in the Steam version, just your briefly talking to them is enough to make them determined to keep living. I can understand why it was changed, but... I think the original was possibly more effective? and added to the unconquerable atmosphere of dread? maybe skutnik didn't feel comfortable randomly including something like that anymore, or maybe he wanted to show that there is hope even in this aimless wasteland [/spoiler] regardless this is still a great pointandclick adventure slash interactive comic book. deprived of the striking colours of the mature Submachine entries, skutnik creates a compelling atmosphere, equally bleak and whimsical. no silly orchestral stings or jumpscares. he understands the fundamental isolation of the genre. every screen is a new strange world.

Prachtig getekend, mysterieus en bij vlagen hilarisch. Zoveel zijlijnen en kleine verhaaltjes om op te helderen. Ik heb het spel nu bijna 26 uur gespeeld en me geen seconde verveeld. Ik heb er van genoten!