As a standalone game, I think this is solid. Precision platforming built around a double jump and hover mechanic that share the same meter so the game becomes about figuring out which moves to make where while also dealing with whatever platforming puzzle or obstacle lies in your way. And there's a good number of obstacles built around these mechanics, and unique level gimmicks to keep things feeling fresh. It's a fun time that can be challenging, sure, but rarely does it feel "too hard", or thereabouts.
But, also, it is literally impossible to not compare this game to Celeste, because the game is mimicking it almost to a T, to the point where it's kinda frustrating. EVERYTHING must be like celeste. The visual style? Celeste. The plot about anxiety and fear? Celeste. The level structure of linear gauntlets with optional collectibles off to the side? Celeste. The platforming design that's oft as much a puzzle game as it is a platformer? Celeste. A lot of the gimmicks even bear resemblance to gimmicks from Celeste. It's flagrant. It begs the comparison, and it's a comparison it's inevitably going to lose.
And my main frustrations with the game pretty stem from the specific aspect of Celeste it's based most of its gameplay around - stamina management. Everyone's [i]favorite[/i] part of Celeste, I'm sure. No, it really wasn't. And this game's SUPER touchy about stamina management, too. Most of the struggles I had were not because I was failing a jump or platforming challenge, rather, because I just ran short of stamina to make it through a section. Just whittled down my bar slightly too far so now I can't do that last jump input. Don't have quite enough fuel to make the hover. It feels. Bad. To fail in this way. Celeste did have [i]some[/i] stamina management puzzles but they weren't all that frequent and generally were overshadowed by the cooler, movement-based challenges. Not the case here. There's also, towards the end of the game, challenges based around spraying purple blobs, which... feels bad. Especially so with how ungodly huge the hitboxes in this game are compared to its source of inspiration - feel like I had a lot of cheap deaths due to barely clipping a hitbox here (and even sometimes touching a WALL that had a blob atop it would kill me - feels awful!)
The game also generally lacks for, like... fun momentum-based challenges. Aside from the last B-side (oh, btw, this game has Celeste B-sides because of course it does - no C-sides to be found, though, or at least I haven't found any!) you're pretty much gonna be moving at the same speed the whole way through. There [i]is[/i] a boost mechanic that I only vaguely understand how to use, but it's never required at any point in any level and the game never teaches it to you. This kinda feels more like a nitpick, but, hey, it's something I noticed.
I also feel - and forgive me for soapboxing a little, but, this is important - that the narrative is a little... improper. It's obviously something that spawned as a result of covid, but the narrative differs in that... well, the epidemic in this game ends, fairly early on even, and the rest of the game is spent making the main character look like a paranoid freak. Which, in isolation is fine... but I feel like a lot of people don't really understand that covid isn't over, that it's still infectious and ever-evolving, and that we don't fully understand the consequences of long covid yet, either - sure, maybe you survived the initial infection, but at what cost? Sure, it's not as immediately deadly as it used to be, but that doesn't mean it isn't still dangerous. I understand the game's not trying to be about that but it feels like a really bad message to send at this specific point in time, I dunno.
Also, minor nitpick, but the game entirely taking place within a house means there's not much in the way of visual variety - no particularly interesting backgrounds, hell, every room has a wallpaper background with at most some wall hangings because - again, a house. And since every other cue of its visual design is taken from Celeste, well, it's not very interesting to look at.
I dunno. I'd definitely be giving this a "meh" if steam allowed it because, like... there's no reason to play this when you could be playing Celeste or one of the many free Celeste mods (that also often tend to add their own mechanics - someone could probably make this entire game within Celeste with what that mod scene is capable of). But it's a perfectly serviceable precision platformer, and I've certainly played worse - the era of Super Meat Boy and its clones was DIRE, y'all - so I can't say I'd recommend against if it you really need that precision platformer fix. I just. Don't think there's much, like, [i]special[/i] here, just base competence. It's fine.
