Don't Chat With Strangers

[b]Don't Chat With Strangers[/b] is probably a less accurate title than [b]Don't Chat With Vengeful Murder Ghosts Or They'll Run You Down With Your Own Car[/b]. You play as an unfortunate pyjama-clad man trapped in his own room by the constant threat of elaborate [i]Final Destination[/i] style death sequences and so, despite the titular warning, you have little choice to but to natter away online to 'Lucy', a malevolent and incredibly touchy spirit whose slightest agitation will result in you being stabbed to death or hung from the ceiling. The death sequences are hilariously over-gibbed. My car backed into at me five miles an hour and I literally detonated from the inside, my unidentifiable corpse looking like I'd fallen into a moshpit of bears. The main frustration of [b]DCWS[/b] isn't so much the trial and error repetition factor but just how long the steps themselves take. There's an unavoidable sequence that circles around finding a phone number that requires you to restart your in-game desktop, wait for a bunch of updates to install, wait for a scary crash sequence to finish, wait for a ghost to slowly crawl its way over to you, find the number in an error log, CALL the bloody number and FINALLY wait for the phone call to finish, after which you're finally free to do some guesswork, get yourself killed and repeat the entire exhausting process again. Click the wrong thing, interrupt the sequence in any way and you die. Call the wrong number and you die. Go outside, you die. Go to sleep, you die. Tell Lucy that you don't have any hobbies, you die. Beat Lucy at a game of 'Buttons', you die. Lose to Lucy at 'Buttons', you die. Let Lucy watch you play 'Mech vs. Fruits', you die. Stand up, you die. Sit down, you die. If you like dying, boy, you'll think Christmas came around again already, let me tell you. [b]Don't Chat With Strangers[/b] does manage to conjure a very solid atmosphere with its art style, audio and creepy randomised glitches that drop themselves into the online chat but it's far too drainingly rigid as a puzzle game. The achievements list hints at far more death sequences than I got to see but honestly, if I have to sit through that phone call puzzle one more time, I'll start trying to act them out myself anyway. You can see my fun with it below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVTYqqyo4AI

Don't Chat With Strangers is an interesting concept, with a really poor execution. Story: Don't Chat With Strangers puts you in the shoes of an unnamed man who gets out of bed after he hears a notification noise coming out of his PC, after he logs in he finds a message from a mysterious girl. After some time the chat becomes increasingly disturbing and you are forced to figure out who this girl is and what are her intentions. While the game itself is weak, the story is intriguing, while it's simplistic it really is a force that keeps you going to see how it wraps up. I don't want to spoil it, so this where I will stop. Graphics: The graphics in Don't Chat With Strangers are ok. I'm a big sucker for pixel style horror games, so the style is surely something I like. It looks nice all the models are really well crafted and the death scenes are gory and done really well. So the graphics are good. Audio: The audio is great as well, it's a great mix of ambiance of the computer buzzing and noises from the messaging app and other noises help build a great atmosphere that will surely get under your skin while playing. So the people that did the audio get a thumbs up from me. Gameplay: This is where Don't Chat With Strangers completely derails any good it has done before. The game itself is rather simple in concept. The only goal you have is to figure out what the mystery girl wants from you, finding that out is a one big cryptic puzzle which you have to figure out for yourself and sadly without a guide, it's kind of impossible to know what you have to do, that's how cryptic it is. This game is also incredibly difficult, you will die, a lot. Death is a common thing to the point that most of the achievements in the game are awarded for dying and seeing all the different death scenes. But after some time it becomes tedious to die over and over again trying to finish the game. As stated the cryptic nature of the game asks you to experiment with the chat options and see what leads to what outcome, but a lot of it is so random it will take you a lot longer than intended to figure out how to reach your goal. Once you figure out what needs to be done, the game only takes you around 15 minutes to finish and that's even if you don't mess up something, cause one minor mistake will kill you and then you will have to start from scratch. Also add bugs that happen constantly, completing the game will be difficult. Verdict: While a good concept, Don't Chat With Strangers is a mess of a game. Now while I think it's intriguing and there's more to do with the concept (maybe a sequel) what there is now is not worth the full price. It's buggy, difficult and too cryptic to be a fun game. If you want an interesting horror game with some really cryptic puzzles you can check it out. But for others I suggest skipping this. Final Rating: 5/10 Pros: + Great concept + Amazing atmosphere Cons: - Too difficult - Bugs - One big insanely cryptic puzzle For more reviews please join https://steamcommunity.com/groups/ImperialReviews and https://steamcommunity.com/groups/completingthebacklog

Well this was interesting at first but quickly got boring. So many different choices just lead to her leaving the chat and you dieing with the hanging "you left me" ending. I tried alot of different chat routes, almost every one of them ended in that ending. even the phone call ends with that. This game just seems lazy and unfinished and is not worth $5. tl;dr dont pay for this, just play sara is missing. its much much better and its free.

Disclaimer: This review contains spoilers. I also made a guide, check it [url=https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=838316578]here![/url] [b]Don't Chat with Strangers[/b] successfully creates a creepy atmosphere and although most of the choices given seem either arbitrary or useless, there is a purpose, and there is a hidden pattern.This is a pixelated horror point-click puzzle adventure game with an excellent soundtrack, interesting lore, a permadeath mechanic and the best in-game arcade game since Galaga (ha!). This game pursues an interesting philosophy where the method by which the player explores or uncovers certain information that propels the game forwards is death. You click, you die, you learn something new about the puzzle (be it the about the stranger, the room or the story in general) and you start over until you know exactly what to do. That, or, you're an incredibly experienced gamer who mainly focuses on puzzle games and deduces exactly what to do from one or two attempts. Most of the game is spent chatting with a strange woman online. Using simple point-and-click mechanics, you try to uncover the secrets behind this mysterious stranger. If you play your cards right, you'll get to have odd and surreal conversations with 'the stranger' that reveal interesting, yet puzzling bits of information that progress the story forward and clue you into what this is all about. If you don't, then you die, and have to start all over again. Your options are limited, yet you never feel trapped. You can walk back-and-forth in your room, interact with a few select objects, chat with the stranger or play minigames on your computer. However, the game is presented in a way by which every object has its place, and if you solve the puzzle, you will know exactly what to do and each objects purpose. The soundtrack is great. Especially the unknown piano song and the soundtrack to Mechs v. Fruits. [b]The only few things that bother me are the following:[/b] [list] [*] The minigame Mechs vs Fruits has two bugs that appear infrequently but can mess up your attempt at gaining the achievement for reaching Level 10 OR the main-story. Sometimes you spawn right next to an enemy and die. Other times you spawn trapped in an eclosed area where you cannot kill all of the enemies. [*] The radio sound is so loud and unpleasant. I do not know if it was on purpose to force the player to painstakingly listen for importan clues during certain areas but regardless, it's unnecessary. [*] [b]SPOILERS![/b] The whole overdose thing makes no sense to me. Why is that death triggered? Is it the door? Is it something to do with the gas? Never figured that one out. [/list] All in all, the game needs a few small patches but it is fun. Maybe extend the story with DLCs.

I don't really understand why all the bad reviews. It's a good game to play. It's just a small puzzle game. It's not totally amazing, but it's definitely not awful. If ya like small, horror puzzle games, then you'll like it.

this captures my experience talking to women

I really want to like this game, but it's very, very buggy. Almost to the point of being unbeatable. The stars have to align just right for a bug not to mess up your progress. When I press the space bar for any reason, the Fruit vs. Mechs game starts, and won't allow Lucy to join my Buttons game. I look forward to giving this game a thumbs up once the bugs are fixed.

This game isn't inherently bad at all, in fact, I mostly like it. Wish Steam had a neutral option on reviews. I find this game incredibly frustrating at times, and that itself is fine. But even if you do follow everything to a T, there's a chance you will get an entirely different ending, or just die following the same instructions that could've led you to a good end. It's buggy. I did like the story mostly and the graphics, it was just very tedious and didn't keep me fully occupied. Overall, It's okay, the cons just weigh down the pros.

The game is interesting and non-standard (I like the idea), but it`s awfully frustrating. To finish it, You have to do EVERYTHING right in the ONLY ONE, CORRECT order. One, smallest mistake or overheard detail and You loose, then start at the beggining. Anyway, I had some fun playing it :)

So since this game currently has no reviews for some reason I feel I want to share my experiences. Don't Chat With Strangers is a very unique experience and is similar to the Welcome to the Game style gameplay(Although I think this came out either near the same time or before) The premise is simple: Wake up at 1am to slide into some strange woman's DMs. The execution however is that chatting with this woman will lead you to dying in every way possible. This game has an absurd amount of deaths given to our poor Elvis Impersonating friend. In total we have: [spoiler] Gas leak, Suicide by hanging and overdose, electrocution, explosion, lasers, Crucifying, your own car running you over, your own car falling on top of you, Lasagna, having your head ripped off. [/spoiler] To beat the game however it requires some EXTREMELY specific decision making and while in theory you could beat the game in about 5 minutes or so if you know how to respond and answer everything, you end up getting a decent length game as you puzzle your way through. While this game can be entirely aggravating to an insane degree, it has a special charm to it. I feel being only $5 definitely helps as well. The graphics and audio is pretty great as is the story barring the unsatisfying ending. This game has a load of potential and despite it's fault if you're a seasoned horror fan you'll love it. I don't think this game is for everyone but if it's on sale and you've been wondering on it I'd say give it a try.