Nightsoil

I wish Steam had "Mixed" option for this one, because it needs some tweaking. I decided to give it a thumbs up, but I suggest you read the caveats I list here before buying it (at least skip to the CONS section if you prefer). TLDR: Remember to give the horse hay!!!!! Overall, the idea is an interesting one. You play an old man who needs to complete quests (clean privies, collect chamber pots, water his horse, etc.), and on the way you discover his history. Motion controls take a bit to get used to, but overall I was very pleased. Privy ones, well... see the CONS section below. Tip: when driving the cart, think of the controls as follows: Holding A + D = long pull on the reins = stop. Tapping A + D = tapping the horse with the reins = walk/faster. PROS + Music is phenomenal. + Writing is excellent. + Very atmospheric. + Aesthetics are mostly historically accurate. The setting looks exactly like 19th century London. Even the pavements have the correct texture! (If you live in the UK, you'll know what I'm talking about). It really makes the game immersive. + Horse avatar is spot-on (they actually put a proper draft horse! Horse lovers will appreciate it).. + Cart driving feels realistic. But then there's a gameplay, and well, it has some issues... CONS: - Horse dies way too easily. Basically, every time you walk away from the horse (which is every time you go to clean a privy), he loses confidence unless you give him hay. If you forgot to give him hay, then he gets too stressed, at which point you better just start a new game. Why? See below. -It's almost impossible to calm your horse -flawed game design. If your horse gets tto stressed, he gets a heart attack and dies, unless you manage to calm him down. Calming him down requires a set of actions in a SPECIFIC order determined RANDOMLY, with ZERO clues. It's a pure guessing game, picking the correct action out of 4 actions, and if you guess it wrong 3 or 4 times, then the horse dies. When the horse dies, the game will reload and give you another chance to calm the horse down, but because the sequence is random again, you are likely to fail again, and again, and again. You can repeat this infinite times, but after 5 rounds of this I decided to start a new game. - Cleaning privies is either glitchy or... I'm not sure? Basically, you press E to clean privies. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, which means you need to press it multiple times. It's not a game-breaker (because eventually it works), but could use patching by the devs. Overall, if you look for: * A game to transport you back in time and relax with. * Something that is not very demanding and you can take on your own pace. * Something that has a nicely-written (albeit sad) story. Then yes, I'd give this game a try, as long as you remember to feed the horse hay.

A potentially interesting story, but the monotonous gameplay and awkward controls completely discourage anyone from exploring it. Why not make the controls WASD or at least mouse clicks? Why doesn't ESC close the map? It's a mystery. You have to approach the cart with mathematical precision every time to avoid mixing up the items. A couple of times, the keystrokes didn't work while cleaning the toilet (the keyboard is fine). By the way, the music and atmosphere of the world are amazing; I love this oppressive feeling of hopelessness. So far, only a 6/10. I won't be refunding the game. I hope the developers will listen and fix the particularly stifling moments!

Before I go into my own praises and critiques, I disagree with a criticism from other reviews. Someone mentioned how it's too much of a guessing game when it comes to calming the horse. I never failed this personally, as it's incredibly easy to remember and the reactions intuitively make sense. Horse about to buck? Press D to stand back. Horse about to bolt? Press S to hold. There are 4 response types corresponding with 4 different actions from the horse that are very easy to memorise. You only get a "negative" reaction if you choose a more obviously nonsensical response, like pressing A to pet your horse when it's about to buck. It is otherwise "neutral" (has no affect) or is "positive" (calms the horse). This is basic game design and it really doesn't need to be made any easier. You have an infinite amount of hay and can return to your horse at any point, so as long as you're patient, it's not that easy to get into the position where you need to do this and potentially kill your horse in the first place. I killed myself multitudes of times (was not very good at paying attention to the man's comfort bar) but never managed to kill my horse. I don't really think it is *super* repetitive throughout the whole game, though on the last section it did begin to feel very repetitive because I easily got lost in the maze of the sewers, and trying to find that last pile was a pain. Definitely could have done with more variety within sections, especially that last one, but there is a noticeable active effort to change things up between sections so it could be much worse. Like everyone else has mentioned, the atmosphere is impeccable. It felt genuinely spooky and creepy despite there being no actual threat other than your own comfort level and some obstacles on the ground. There are a lot of horror games out there filled to the brim with jump scares that could only dream of producing the type of eerie discomfort this game gives you. Outside of the spooky aspect, I genuinely enjoyed using the water sources as an excuse to ride around in my carriage more. Going around the streets of London at night by horse and cart just feels nice for me personally. Obviously, I wish this game was longer and was more elaborate in the story, Part of me wants to replay this just so I can go carriage driving around the streets again. Would have been nice to have more hours, more story and more exploration, but that can be said similarly about any good short game. If you are willing to expand the game, please do.

A hidden gem I cannot wait to finish. When horse game-fans say "We want an original horse game", THIS is what they mean. Every moment uneasy, your horse a consistent part of the gameplay, no glitter, no ranch to save - instead we're getting gloom, doom and the athmosphere of Poe's "A Face in the Crowd". Highly recommended, especially if you ended up here via the Horses-tag.

Did you ever want to drive a poorly moving vehicle through damn near impossible turns? Then this game is for you! The mechanics are so clunky that it makes any potential the game may have irrelevant

This game reminded me about the importance of cleaning the toilet frequently.

What an interesting and original idea. The atmosphere is really quite fitting: it is grim and hopeless to be a gong farmer. The music adds to this very nicely, and I really like how they have achieved this dark mood. What I don't like is the awkward controls. Driving the horse is really clunky and slow, and while it may be realistic that you can't maneuver a horse and cart easily, it makes for some pretty annoying gameplay moments. The other mechanics are fine and there is quite a bit of some challenging propblem solving necessary to advance in the game. There is also some mysterious events and sometimes you are thrown into a flashback about the man's past. Overall I do recommend the game, but I hope the developers take a look at the controls and mechanics.

Sometimes you see a game that seems so odd that you simply MUST play it. Nightsoil was exactly that for me! The game hooks you in with “relaxing task-based gameplay where you can just shut your brain off” pretty quick, and then reels you further in by introducing story to the mix. I wish it was longer, but if it was the game would probably need some additional gameplay content, and at the moment everything is in balance on both fronts. The controls can put some people off, as they can feel clunky, but personally I enjoyed them since they made me feel more immersed in the game, and simply making them WASD would have felt a lot more boring to me. It all comes down to predicting the environment and controlling the speed and turns of your horse. I'd also like to give my own opinion on the horse calming minigame, and say that I did not find it challenging at all. As long as you pay attention to how the horse is reacting, I felt like what option to pick was logical and even when I fumbled a bit I wasn't punished too badly for it. I must agree that the last area can be soul crushing, and is at risk of making people quit out of pure frustration, so perhaps some additional help or hints could be needed there. However, there seems to be a red arrow on the minimap view indicating the presence of a pile, so keep an eye out for those to make things a little easier on yourself! I didn't actually realize this before it was pointed out by a friend, even though I had used one previously to locate a pile. The game could still benefit from some minor polish, especially with taking and putting items away. One of the most frustrating times I had with the game was when I was trying to take/put away a specific item and stood too close to the cart, and the prompt simply wouldn't show up or work until I stood at a specific distance from it. Nice story, great atmosphere, 20/10 horse, loved the easter egg in the sewers. It also looks like my wish for achievements was heard so that calls for a replay!

A cute little game about being the saddest gong farmer in London. I quite enjoyed the game and think it's worth the asking price. However my only complaint is to due with the last area; the damnable sewer. I understand the idea of it being quite large and hard to find your way around but it just really sucked and it felt like half my game time was just being lost in it. It really needed either some landmarks or maybe a rough map that would only fill up when you explored the areas because it kinda killed my enjoyment trying to find some corner I somehow hadn't ran down to get a clue of where I needed to cleanup. But that was really the only thing that frustrated me, the horse is easy to manage so long as you play it safe with his thirst and hay. The only time I had to do the calm mini-game was when I was in the aforementioned horrid sewers.

Got my foot stuck in soil, chocked on soilfumes and petted a horse. That's peak gameplay right there.