Lullabies Made of Static

consider this a neutral review. i think there is something here. but this game is fundamentally lacking in various departments. the set design when you look up and around you? pretty fantastic. the shading, the colors, the satellite that moves above you with the towering concrete. what you walk on, instead, are largely flat surfaces. this game lacks elevation for a game with such towering spires. the few times you do get to walk up concrete or otherwise, you find nothing. the cassettes mostly contain poetry i would expect to hear from a teenager. i also would expect to hear more about this city from the residents, but you run into a clown, a man who wants to be given orders by a stronger woman, and a lady that wants to destroy the patriarchy because she doesn't get respect. i don't really know if this game wants to take itself seriously. it tries to with the beginning sheep sequence, but when you talk to those in this megapolis, you aren't so sure. your narrative design doesn't need to be just in the cassettes. even finding small remnants of things in the (few) empty buildings you get to explore would be great. it doesn't need to be written; it can just be the remains of a bedroom. clothes on the floor. allow the space to be empty, but let there be reminders that this space was lived in once. these characters and their design/dialogue remind me more of joke/absurdist psx games from the height of puppet combo's popularity and influence in the "retro" games being made in the 2020s. let me taste your work fully. i also feel like many of the set pieces that do exist do not give you enough. in that i go to one place that has people and is different from the rest of the world, but all the guy does is tell me to scram. it doesn't tell me anything about the setpiece, why it exists, or why that person is there. it feels plopped in, as do many other buildings, where one has a wheel that is sinking into the dust. this game may very much improve in its level design by adding elevation. sections where you go up hills, areas sort of "quarantined" into each other. otherwise, you press W and A (because, for some reason, it is faster to run if you press two directions at once) and more or less glide across a superflat minecraft world. there is love here, especially in its inspirations and in its larger megastructure set design. again, i loved the satellite that seems to move in real time. i wish that care was brought to the rest of the world as well. there is something here that just needs to be improved with time and experience. i love walking simulators, retro graphics, and exploration games, so hope to see more from this developer in the future.

So what is this crap? A brutalist nightmare became a nightmare for the player. Empty dead open space with literally nothing to interact with in it? Great. A few spots with girls and a cockroach you can "talk to" (only they talk.. and they talk nonsense). The visuals are really strange... I have two explanations. Either the dev is making something for the first time and made lots of mistakes - floating houses, random textures sticking out everywhere and a HUGE amount of invisible walls. Or second simple variant - it's just another plain AI-generated garbage. Running around looking for cassettes with (in theory) good music is, unfortunately, absolutely boring. However, the concept is fine but only if very well done.

I love the atmosphere and overall aesthetics of this game. I do recommend it based on that. But in terms of being a commercial game, I would caution potential players that it is not about gameplay, but more open ended exploration. There is not a lot of guidance as to where to find things. There is some, but it is very abstract. I like this, but I could see it being a point of contention for players who are used to more direct quests. There are some movement and collision quirks, the character tends to get stuck on level geometry, making it difficult to navigate some of the more narrow areas. Not a big problem, but I could see it being annoying to some. I am not a big fan of poetry, but that is a big part of the game. I think it adds to the atmosphere. Whether the poetry is good or not, you may form an opinion on that independently.

Good concept, nice aesthetic. But it lacks polishing, for example the npc monologues being barely visible sometimes because it matches the colour of the floor, monologues only being continued if you look at them while pressing E: I initiated convo while moving, and got stuck, couldn't continue or anything, I had to restart and then the npcs just wouldn't talk at all. Also it is frustrating and goofy that the quickest way to move around this rather empty world is bhopping while holding W/S+A/D. It is someone's cup of tea, I like dopamine but I will come back with a nice dab in my lungs and I'll give it a second chance.

Solid game right here. You're basically wandering around a huge megalopolis city in search of 7 cassette tapes. The best part about the game is the soundtrack as the tapes play imo. Good stuff. Gameplay Impressions: https://youtu.be/DWHQG33jRzU

A hauntingly beautiful experience that immerses you in a surreal, atmospheric world. If you love exploration games like me, this is an unforgettable journey worth diving into.

I didn't expect this game to stick with me the way it did. The atmosphere is absolutely incredible. Exploring a massive post-apocalyptic megacity filled with brutalist factories, abandoned industrial towers, and hauntingly empty spaces creates a constant sense of mystery. Every location feels like it has a story to tell. One of my favorite ideas is finding the lost cassette tapes. Instead of relying on traditional storytelling, they slowly reveal what human emotions felt like through echoes of a world that's already gone. It's subtle, melancholic, and surprisingly memorable. If you enjoy atmospheric exploration, environmental storytelling, and worlds that let you discover their secrets at your own pace, this is definitely worth checking out. It's the kind of indie game that deserves more attention, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how more people discover it. Highly recommended. 10/10

Epic graphics and atmosphere... i reccomend it!!

In general, it is a game where the main objective is to question your own existence, stare into the digital void, and let the static consume your thoughts. Yes, greatness in absolute anxiety. First of all, it is an experience that encourages you to listen to the most unusual and unsettling frequencies, which are a delight for the ears (and perfect to induce a mild existential dread) along with a visual atmosphere which will make you take off your imagination while you wonder if your monitor is actually broken or if it's just art. A beautiful, terrifying harmony of white noise and deep psychological discomfort. If you were thinking on maybe getting this game, please follow my testimony, put on your best headphones, and do yourself a favour: experience this piece of haunting auditory art. My brain cells haven't been the same since those 6 minutes, and I found myself not wanting to blink on multiple occasions. Really looking forward to what future holds for the developer and excited to see if I can ever sleep peacefully again. 10/10 <3

[h3]Grainy and rusted electric sheep[/h3] A really grainy grunge metallic and rusty feel. Reminiscent of the Fallout autumnal colour scheme, you explore a rather large amphitheatre of a rusting world under a dead sky, only memories remain. You must find those memories. It's not a hard game, it took me about 2 hours odd to find all the parts of the story. And I also wrote a guide which is linked below. [h3]Mechanics[/h3] The narration is a bit off-putting, but easily ignored, the game has more than one actual scene but you will spend most of the game in a huge rusting amphitheatre under a really interesting orange sky. At times you do have to jump up some steps, but nothing amounting to parkour. There are very few mechanics to the game. There are poem voiceovers you can trigger, each of them tries to hint at where the next memory piece is or where the next person who might have more clues to find is. A few are hidden but most are in plain sight. The map area is pretty vast though. The soundtrack is augmented by industrial sounds, wind sounds and more sounds of things on the wind. I think some lions, and probably a lot more wind and it all works to make the game pretty easy to just keep on exploring in. My guide for you if you get lost: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3767070343 If you enjoy the game find others like it here https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41773079-EmpathyGames/list/90678