EW/WE

Solides "ein raum" Horrorgame was sich leider gegen Ende des Games etwas verliert und die starke Atmosphäre für eine seltsame Höhle austauscht um eine.. strange story zu erzählen, trotzdem solides pixel horror game. Full game + analyse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU_HTi0cLpo&t=1s&ab_channel=Corrupted

[b][i]Review copy provided by developer via Curator Connect[/i][/b] Good scares in horror games take talent to arrange, which makes them all the more thrilling when they happen. Intelligent combinations of oppressive sound effects, stark lighting, and fleeting monsters in exactly the right places can make any experience terrifying. That’s why it’s so refreshing to see games like EW/WE, short indie titles that know just how to ramp the horror up in effective ways. And that’s why it’s so crushing when games like EW/WE drop the ball so hard it shatters the very foundations it worked so hard to make. EW/WE is described only as a bad dream, one that sees you trapped in your walk-in closet of an apartment. Waking in the middle of the night, you find that your room is not the familiar haven you need it to be. Matters go from bad to horrific as you drift in and out of sleep, and you are helpless to ride out the tide and hopefully surface on the other side. Through the entire experience you’ll see your room change in strange and awful ways, with only nightmare logic to guide you through. I won’t spoil any of the scares you’ll experience, but they won’t take long to start cropping up and it won’t take long for you to lose your composure. The scares here are the most effective kind, simple ones that violate your sense of safety and strike when you’re at your weakest. The simple visuals leave plenty of space for your imagination to work, and when it’s being bombarded by intense aural dissonance it puts you in the perfect place for a scare. I literally shouted out loud twice in the 45 minutes it took to beat the game, and both of those exclamations were well-earned. In the midst of everything going to hell, you’re free to wander your tiny domain and check things. Left-click lets you examine your desk, your window, your closet, and fall back asleep when you’re drowsy enough. You won’t get much in the way of enlightenment from the text, though, and that goes double for the text that invades the screen more and more as the game rolls on. Particularly intense moments tend to be accompanied by stream-of-consciousness rambling and one-word flashes that add little to the experience and nothing to the story that may or may not exist. Honestly by the end of the game I was no closer to understanding the hows and whys of why anything was happening, which would be fine if not for how the experience itself violently unraveled. There’s a section smack in the middle of the game, after some excellent tension-building and scares, where you are wandering in the dark. Things that you’ve only glimpsed before are down there with you, and you’ll probably want to avoid them. Probably, because in the 15 minutes this section lasts I never figured out what I was supposed to do. Sometimes I would run from the things, sometimes I would touch them, sometimes I would head in one direction, sometimes I would wander aimlessly. Every time I “died” to a thing that was far more terrifying when it wasn’t floating towards me lazily like the .jpg it is, and every time I “died” I got bombarded with more and more useless text. Eventually the game let me move on, and I still have no idea if that was what’s supposed to happen or not. The ending section of the game hits some of the high points of the opening, but really by that point I was just angry. I was angry that a game I had been enjoying so much and been so impressed with had turned on me so hard. I was angry those intelligent scares and oppressive atmosphere had given way to aimless wandering in the dark and playing tag with a static image. And I was angry that it had wasted my time with something I never got to understand. It’s a huge shame, given the glimpses of genius here, but EW/WE can’t maintain that genius at all. The bad parts are so much worse than the good, I can only hope the developer learns from this experience and puts out a more consistent attempt in the future. Did you enjoy this review? I certainly hope so, and I certainly hope you'll check out more of them at https://goldplatedgames.com/ or on my [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/11322459/]curation page[/url]!

If you've played IMSCARED, First Winter, or WRONGED, then you're going to be a few steps ahead when it comes to knowing what to expect from a game like EW/WE. It's an intense and theatrical assault on the senses, and it relies on cultivating real world diagnostic confusion to create an overwhelming side-effect of anxiety and unfounded fear. It also utilizes stark black and white contrasts, which change in rapid succession, to force your eyes to leave imprints of certain images for a short period of time when you blink; another feature that causes you to re-evaluate your personal inner psychological state for the duration of the game. There are a lot of hastily changing patterns and lights, so those with epileptic conditions or sensitivities should stay far away from this game. These types of horror games are different than anything you may have stumbled upon before. They want you to become so absorbed that you actually start to question your own mental status. EW/WE does that well, as its 30-60 minute campaign starts out at a snails pace and then amps up into a chaotic seizure of flashing words (KILL. ILLNESS. DEATH. CRAWL.) and fast changing scenarios. It creates confusion. It causes panic. Your palms will become sweaty, your heart will beat some faster. When everything dies down, you'll wonder if it's over. You'll sigh a breath of relief when it finally is, and you'll take time to get your bearings. It's like coming down from a really intense rollercoaster ride, but it's a little harder to shake off than that. This game manages to achieve all that, with very few assets, a black/white/grey aesthetic, ear-grating "bit" sound effects, and a very short lifespan; all for a buck. It's well worth the time and money if you really want something that will get under your skin. [h1]Rating: [b]4.0/5.0[/b] - Excellent, highly worth playing.[/h1] The Horror Network [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28221963/]Curator[/url] | [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/thehorrornetwork]Group[/url] Click for Gore [b]The developer provided a free copy of this game for review, through The Horror Network's Curation page.[/b]

"Do not approach objects that cause you anxiety," is one of the recommendations on the Steam Store Page of [u]EW/WE[/u]. Unbeknownst to the developer and publisher, [u]Date/Time[/u], everything causes me anxiety - HA HA! Contrary to another of their recommendations, I will not avoid them. I will not lie, or go to sleep! For Death is only the beginning. A 30-minute panic where your vision gets checkboard and you begin to crawl. This game surgically implants you into a claustrophobic atmosphere where everything causes you anxiety. [u]EW/WE[/u] assaults your senses with unpredictable flashes of text, cringe-inducing sound, and an enigmatic story. The gameplay features a crawling simulator with point-and-click mechanics. You check the closet, you look outside, you try the door knob, you che -- the phone rings! You pick up: silence. You contemplate sleep, maybe you should lie down. No, you check the closet, you look outside, you try the do - is that a hole in the wall? Wait, did you hear that? You check the closet one more time. Click, clack, point, click, clitcky-clackity they are coming. When? Soon. Why? Because they're hungry. You must play with headphones, otherwise you will fail to immerse in the pixelated atmosphere, and you would overall be doing yourself a disservice. To some extent, this is [u]IAMSCARED's[/u] bastard son and brother of [u]dead_file.exe[/u]: a high fever dream with general anxiety disorder and bipolar episodes.

This was an okay game. The first phase really highlighted that tension building and adrenaline pumping does not rely on life-like graphics and jump scares. The audio was used paticularly well, better than the visual aspect, but due to the disconnect between you as the player and the character in the game, there's nothing to immerse you in the experience itself. There's a phase to the game where you're wandering in the dark, but it's poorly executed in the sense that there's no real consequence for loosing your way, and the 'HUNTER' is no longer frightening. The final part of the game (keeping in mind that this is a 45 minute game) could be interesting, but as it's fast paced it offers very little perspective to what's been happening through the 'dream' and could have taken the story aspect to a higher level if it did more to inform the player. Over all, the game itself is a clever proof of concept, and I genuinley hope the developer keeps on making games. Despite how basic this is, it shows that the basics of horror gaming are understood. All that being said there is one major flaw with this game that means I'm not recommending it. It won't stop running - I've tried going through task manager, clsoing and opening steam, signing out and then back in again, but the game simply states it's running and wont allow me to unistall it or play other games. So get that fixed, and I'll change this to a recommendation. I'm off to restart my PC.

[h1]Details[/h1] [quote] [h1]The lying, the switch and the wardrobe.[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1612182791 In an 8-bit monochrome world, you appear to awake in a hotel room. The game involves moving in a 3D space and clicking on the environment in certain ways at certain times to move the story forward. The story is very dark and overtly disturbing and pulls you in to a short tale of darkness, despair and futility. A tangible narrative emerges from this abstract universe and it leaves you spooked without any cliched jumpscares. Its ambiguity does leave you wondering how well you did during a game, but there's enough of a palpable progression to be found as you progress from apparent victim to victor. [/quote] [h1]Summary[/h1] [quote] [h1]An intriguing puzzler that maintains a taut suspense throughout. Recommended. [/h1] Pros: - compelling and immersive - attactive art-style - the story is there to be found, and it is disturbing Cons: - it can be too abstract, resulting in random clicking to progress - do you ever know how well you did? - perhaps a little too esoteric for everyone's tastes https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1748238549 [/quote] [h1]See Also...[/h1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1049400 [h1]All [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/boyflea/][i]boyflea[/i][/url] reviews can be found at [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33138741-Good-Indie-Free-Game-Reviews/][b]Good Indie Free Game Reviews[/b] [/url][/h1]

This game is an amazing example how someone can take one surrounding and twist it to its fullest potential. This game uses the same resources in various ways to create a dark/uncomfortable atmosphere. This game is definately worth a play if you're looking for a short but worthy spook. My play through: https://youtu.be/iEvIRx4my8o

Psychosis Simulator

the game reminds me of my psychotic phases ...