NaissanceE

I'm 34yo, and in 20 years of gaming this game has earned multiple places in top 10 worst designed mechanics I have EVER seen. I'm not reviewing this as a "free game", I don't think being free exempts it from any critique, that'd absolute horse malarky. I'm reviewing it as "a game". I'll start with what's good. The music in this game, and visuals on the other hand were some of the best artistic pieces I've listened to and witnessed. That's it. Now lets talk about what's bad. A lot of these things were missed by players, but were awful for the few who ran into them. I played the game, then watched 2 friends play it, so I got most of the spectrum of the pain. 1. Optional location closing your game. Literally not a crash, it just closes your game for exploring and being curious. Message pop up telling you should of listened that there was nothing there, and closes your game. Not even in a cheeky fun way; it just feels tiring the way it does it. 2. A trap that sticks a player in an infinite stairwell. That's it, literally. You can escape it, but it's not instantly intuitive how to do so. 3. Multiple dead-ends that take minutes to get to, only to say screw you, to the player. You can walk for several minutes in a direction, and only to be rewarded with it being a dead end and you're an idiot for going that way. There isn't any curious over there, little easter eggs, or bits of environmental story-telling to reward the player. Just, you're a fool for going the wrong way. 4. Design philosophy contradictions. [b]Example:[/b] Head towards light while in the dark, or go down to continue forward is repeatedly betrayed at multiple points in the game after being established. And the most egregious middle finger to the player was establishing fall damage, and falling a no-go; only to make the desert solution that is full of interesting landmarks to be... IGNORE THEM ALL, and JUMP OFF THE MAP. This was conveyed by a structure in the center that shows a little dude falling down, and jumping off through a 4 story slideshow. It's not immediately obvious, so if you didn't understand that, you wander forever exploring interesting little gloried art installations in a desert. Yep, there's literal jump puzzles, and interactive parts in the desert, as to make you not immediately think to just jump off. Some players get stuck here for over an hour. 5. The worst of all thing that this game does is: two photo-sensitive puzzles. A blinking puzzle that rapidly goes in and out of existence, and it's optional and does nothing for the player. The other being a blurred screen of awful black/white shader gimmicks that are incredibly awful to look at depending on your computer. My other homie has a huge monitor, and HDR and it was easy to navigate, whereas for me and another friend it was blurring our screens, and constantly blinking (by design btw). I'm not describing a visual-glitch. It's just an awful experience you can read about in the comments below. 6. No audio settings. Lol wtf. Push an update for audio settings; It's 2026. I'm sure I missed several more paint points, but in the end I'm actually going to recommend this game. Only because I think the visuals and music make the game somewhat okay to play. Other than that, this game is marred by some of the worst design I've ever seen. It's free, so enjoy it for what it is.

Thanks for the D*umbChoice hint ;)

better than undertale

Good game. I like.

genuinely such a hauntingly beautiful game that felt so surreal with such cool visuals the way the game manages to touch upon so many phobias omg i felt so stuck and claustrophobic and just so tiny compared to everything else the music was also really good and matched the game so well and the atmosphere was so eerie and just so good the puzzles... ofc i was bad at them and had to get a guide but thats besides the point my only problem was the breathing mechanic was a bit annoying at some points and dont get me started on the meaning of this game (or my interpretation at least) it definitely felt like a metaphor for mental health with the game getting more and more surreal as if going deeper and deeper into the brain and feeling so stuck and tiny ugh omg i love it and somehow this is free??? like i would pay for this

Got photosensitive epilepsy from the stroboscope puzzle, loved it!

El mejor juego que he jugado en mi vida, y que de seguro no volveré a jugar un juego así jamás. Es como estar en un sueño drogado pero buenísimo. Nunca había visto paisajes tan bonitos...