Marginalia

It's difficult for me to say whether I liked it or not. It has a sublime atmosphere, with a forest that you can tell it was made with care and with points of interest scattered throughout it (some more visible than others), and on top of that a storytelling that is as captivating as it is creepy. Where I have a problem is that more than a walking simulator it's a marathon simulator. The game's short if you manage to find your way around, and even then it's quite tedious to walk so much (you can't even run), and be aware that it's ‘if you manage to find your way around’, it's easy to get lost between one point of interest and another. Still, and this might sound like a spoiler, the last 5-10 minutes really made the whole experience worthwhile. Esp: Me es complicado decir si me gustó o no. Tiene una atmosfera sublime, con un bosque que se nota que fue hecho con ganas y con puntos de interés repartidos en este (algunos mas visibles que otros), y encima una narración de la historia que llega a ser tan cautivadora como escalofriante. En donde tengo problema es que más que un walking simulator es un maratón simulator. El juego dura poco si logras ubicarte, y aun así es bastante engorroso tanto caminar (no se puede correr), y ojo que es "si logras ubicarte", es fácil perderse entre punto de interés y otro. Igualmente, y puede que suene algo spoiler, los últimos 5-10 minutos realmente hicieron que valiera la pena toda la experiencia.

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9686972/]Follow "[b]First Person Exploration and Puzzle Games[/b]" for more games like this![/url][/quote] The game starts out by saying "I haven't told this story for a long time, so I might be fuzzy on the details". That's the last I heard from the narrator for twenty minutes. Instead I spent that time walking through the absurdly huge woods with an FPS so low the game looks like stop-motion animation. After 20 minutes - which is not an exaggeration, that was the literal time before anything happened - I found an orange lamp-post in the middle of the forest. When I walked up to it, the narrator started telling what was clearly the middle of a story. Nearby there was a giant claw with purple lights shooting up into the sky. When I walked into it [i](falling off a cliff at one point and having to backtrack to get back up the hill)[/i], the game told another line of the story, and then nothing. I walked around a bit more but didn't see any more lights or contextual clues. At this point I gave up. Aside from the extremely low FPS, the game has literally no options. The mouse sensitivity was too high, which there was nothing I could do about. The ambience was creepy, and the screenshots look nice. But I think this needs more work (optimizations, settings, better contextual clues, some guardrails to prevent dumb players from getting lost in the woods for 20 minutes) before it's ready to be sold for money.

Nice atmosphere, some interesting ideas for the story, and I like that the narrative seems to revolve around a gay relationship. Unfortunately, the map is far too large for its own good, meaning that you'll spend far too much time trudging around aimlessly, searching in vain for the next red light needed to advance the story. Shows promise in its earlier stretches, but ultimately just an exercise in tedium.

the less you know the better. make time and just sit down playing this walking sim. that's basically all it is.. but the atmosphere and story are worth experiencing in peace. slow dread, no jumpscares. (my only criticism is that the audio-mixing isn't great so it is tricky to hear the voice over the music and sounds.)

Disappointing..after playing this I'm surprised how many reviews for it are positive. The story is poorly told. It's easy to get lost in the big forest full of nothing (I guess it's a decent getting lost in the woods simulator?) It has a couple of spooky things to see, but it's not scary, there's honestly not much to like. I have to be more careful when buying cheap games because even for one dollar I still wasted some time which is immeasurably valuable.

Spoilers ahead! TL;DR, this game does a really great job of making you feel tense for a good duration of this, without resorting to a cheap jump-scare, which it very easily could have pulled off and probably scared me out of my seat, and I recommend it just for that tension. Also the sound design is really excellent. The story is interesting enough for the game, but I wouldn't have read it as a standalone. The ending sequence was ruined by letting the player fall off a high place accidentally, and unable to get back up; miss whatever the ending was supposed to be. I first started off not really knowing where I was meant to be going. So I tried the tunnel. Tunnels are pretty inviting when the alternative is endless woods. After that failed, I realised the game wanted me to enter the woods. So enter I did. You quickly discover that your controls are limited a lot. You can walk, and jump. You can also crouch, and turn your flashlight on and off. Now, we all know what kind of things to expect from a horror game that lets you turn off your flashlight and crouch, we expect to hide from something. This game completely subverts that expectation. You never have to hide from anything, you're best keeping the light on to see where you're going. Despite this, I turned the light off pretty quickly, and walked in complete darkness for most of the game, and as the game progressed, I was crouching at every musical sting that played in my ear, expecting some big bad to jump out. This never happened, and so functionally, these features are completely useless. Why let the player turn off their light if it never matters, why let them crouch at all? If the game never gave me those options, I'd have probably walked through these woods with little tension, because I'd know the game wouldn't dare throw anything at me but not give me tools to do anything about it. By giving me the option, I grew more and more tense as the game went on. As for the story, it's mildly interesting, but it's not particularly original. It reminds me a lot of the old MarbleHornets slenderman stuff from way back when, or House of Leaves. Someone is experiencing somebody else's obsession take control of them, second-hand. It's tense, and mysterious, but it lacks any real substance or closure. My major criticism is the sequence at the very end. Throughout the game, there were invisible walls stopping you from jumping off cliffs or breaking sequence with weird pathing, I discovered this atop the cliff which you later are at the bottom of to enter the tree that leads to the end of the game. Why is this important? There is a narrow, barely textured walkway that is exceedingly high up that leads to what I'd assumed is the game's final set piece and reveal(?), but I'll not know, because in admiring the scenery I found myself in, my character slid off this walkway into the chasm below. I presume this section has timed triggers, as I wandered around aimlessly, unable to reach back to where I was, for a few minutes, the screen went black, returned me to the menu, and the narrator read out some closing statement about a body. I wasn't really up for playing through that same experience for half an hour just to see what that weird purple thing was (especially when most of the other weird purple things in the game weren't important or explained)

Ranked #1 with Gone Home for the most boring and pointless game I've ever played in my life. You start walking in the direction of a tunnel. You quickly realize that you can't go any further there because you come across an invisible wall. So I went right into the forest. And then I ran somewhere for several minutes without anything happening. In the meantime, I've been thinking about which series I'll watch next and what I'll make for dinner later. I also wrote down my shopping list in my head. When I woke up from my daydreams, I was still out in the woods and nothing happened. I stuck the W key and went to the bathroom. When I was back, I stuck between 2 trees. I continued to press the W button and continued walking for a few minutes. Still nothing happened. Suddenly I was overcome by a very deep and tugging feeling of utter boredom and annoyance. I quit the game with ALT and F4, uninstalled and requested a refund.

This game... is terrible. I have no idea why it sits at 85% positive reviews (at the time of writing this). In the half hour it took me to play this, I just held W and occassionally moved the mouse. That's it. It's a walking simulator taken to the extreme. Now I don't mind walking simulators as long as there are things to do and see, but nothing happens here expect during the last 5%. I don't even mind artsy indie games that try weird things, but this is not it. The story is interesting, but it's told while you're walking by a voice that's very hard to hear. There are subtitles, but they're small (on my 27" 1440p screen at least), so it's just annoying overall. Also, while you walk around, the same droning music plays over and over again in a loop, only changing during the last 5% of the game. The screenshots make it look exciting, mysterious and artsy, but most of the game is just walking past the same trees over and over again. I say stay clear of this one.

Ok, this game is weird. Like, super weird. I am a big fan of walking sims, exploration games, lovecraftian games, and story-based games, so this one seemed right up my alley. And it has some nice things, like scenery, music, general atmosphere, and some very interesting moments near the end. However, it's also pretty boring for the most part. You can't run, so you just walk through a HUGE forest. I've read that there are actually hidden things around, but exploration seemed greatly discouraged given that there's practically no way to orient yourself, everything looks pretty much the same, and at first you don't really know where to go or what to do. After a while you realize that there are lanterns sprinkled around, and your character speaks when reaching them. Those lanterns don't really make any sense there, and I've found it to be the most immersion-breaking thing in the game, but you also need them to actually find your way around. You go from one to the next, until you reach some landmarks, and then something else replaces lanterns as your main guide. But up until the ending, there's not much there, other than a pretty cliched, story. In spite of this, the ending makes it almost worth it, and the atmosphere is definitely very lovecraftian. The walking almost aimlessly and slowly through the forest could even be on purpose, to get you to actually feel lost and helpless (and you do), but I think it's not the best way to present it in a game. Some polishing could really help this wonders. Regardless, the payoff was nice enough, so I'll recommend it, but only on sale (heavily discounted, as it is also extremely short) xD

Intense. The games of David Szymanski fascinate me and I'm glad I just discovered the work of another madman.