my views on this game has changed significantly over the years. at the time, i would binge watch a lot of the videos that were being made on this specific game because i just really liked this game and could not stop being excited about it. it's no wonder it gained popularity early on, the early alphas seemed very promising and had a great, unsettling atmosphere to them
what made it intriguing was how unsuspecting it was along with its overall mysteries, however it seemed like as the alphas progress, the developers seem to shift away towards what made the game engaging in the first place, and even expanding the house to a more abstract one. i liked the older houses because it actually looked like a house you would see in a neighborhood, yet... something about it just feels off
the older alphas were difficult, but not because the game was really confusing to follow (in fact, the task was pretty straightforward), it was difficult because the neighbor was getting really good at figuring out the player's patterns. however, that seemed to have worsened as newer alphas get released. the sudden shift when comparing Alpha 3 to Alpha 2 is just insane. even back then i still really enjoyed what this game had to offer, heck, i even used to enjoy watching YouTubers play Alpha 4, along with the full game. i was a real huge fan back then
as the years pass by, i've started realizing the amount of issues this game has. apart from the bugs that pretty much everyone that played the game keeps on talking about, the game was just so infuriating to figure out on your own. you're honestly better off heading to YouTube and find some guide there because the game is so unreasonably cryptic. the whole "mysterious atmosphere" was gone and it just became... whatever this is. the story was also just really hard to follow too and you're left with more questions than answers because none of this just makes any sense at all. i was really relieved when i finally was able to complete this game for once because i just didn't really enjoy this that much, which was really unfortunate, given this game was part of my childhood
honestly, i'm not entirely against the style they were trying to go for in the full game, but the execution was just not it. it's so jarring when you compare, idk, Act 3 to the earlier alphas of the game, like the atmosphere created by both of these games are so different. genuinely insane how much worse it's gotten over time
i don't have any issues with games having lore (though i admittedly could care less about the lore of games), but i wished it didn't take up the entirety of the game. when focusing on the lore however, it is just all over the place. and why is it so scattered too? rather than keeping it in one game, there's spin-off games, books, and a film adaptation too. so if you want to figure out the MYSTERIOUS lore of this game, then simply just playing this won't be enough
it IS worth mentioning they've definitely seemed to improved with their newer games (and KINDA have learned some of their mistakes), however, i gotta say, i don't really find myself interested in these newer games at all, especially with the style they're trying to go for (but i think that's because of my huge nostalgia bias. perhaps i'll give them a chance in the near future, who knows)
all in all though, it's pretty unfortunate that a once seemingly promising game became more distorted as fame got to the best of the developers and i just don't think this game is really worth anyone's time anyways. i do find myself coming back to this game occasionally, but only due to nostalgia. that's really about it
sometimes i wonder how this game would've turned out if they kept the older style the older versions were going for and expanded onto it
