I loved the demo, I loved all the little side things and the multiple ways of doing a level, but the main game didn't really feel like it improved on that, it kind of feels more diluted and a less complete game.
There doesn't feel like there's much to explore or find and when there is something that looks like it's off the beating path it's either where you were meant to go later anyway or something that just doesn't really do anything, like a small room with a vending machine and a computer on either end with chairs huddled around it, Is it a reference to something, an inside joke? I just don't know and it's ... boring
The levels feel very one note, like the creator had an idea while they were out shopping, wrote it down on a piece of paper and made a level out of it, they don't have many alternative ways to finish them, you just do what you're told or implied to do and get confused about the point of the level when you finish it.
One example is the company mascot floor and I walked up to it, punched it because why wouldn't I, and proceeded to go to the elevator, but before going through I looked back and though "what's the worst that could happen? I'll have to do this minute long floor again?" and proceeded to walk into the chasing mascot, and... I didn't die, nothing happened, the mascot disappeared and I wasn't allowed to go back to the room we came from. I the floor was kind of just "don't hit this thing" "oh no, you did what I told you not to do" and then... just nothing, and it's not even like I expect something different to happen when you don't hit it, I fully expect the level to end without anything happening if you just don't hit it as that's kind of what happened when I went against how the level expected me to act on other levels, like with the waiting in line level where I just barged to the front expecting the narrator to tell me off for not waiting my turn, but ... no, the level just ended like they didn't expect me to defy the rules of the game, but that's why the stanly parable works, because it's made for you to defy the game, and maybe this game isn't meant to be like the stanly parable, but that just kind of makes it feel like the stanly parable if there was only one door. I get that the level premises are supposed to do the heavy lifting but to me they kind of just feel like setups to jokes and half of them just don't have a punch line, like anti-jokes, or the punchline is just kind of bad, like water the plants, so you walk up to a plant and it says water, so you click, and you pee on it, then in the side room there's a spray bottle that I only found after I'd "watered" most of the plants, and it's like "you weren't supposed to pee on them silly" which I half expected but at the same time my expectations had already lowered to the point where I didn't have a reason to believe that the level wasn't just peeing on plants
The level transitions were seemingly something the dev thought was cool or like they felt they had to add so it isn't just a strait walking sim, but in practice it doesn't really add anything, just a random task to do between levels with seemingly no impact or relevance to the rest of the game.
I kind of feel like the game wasn't really play tested that much.
The game also just kept on going and going, like it would never stop, just one seemingly pointless floor after the next.
Maybe I've just played too many games, maybe I'm just not the target audience even though I really like the material they were inspired by, I did really like the demo, but the full game just feels like a walk here, click on this, haha you weren't expecting that were you or you made an assumption based on the immediately available information but you were wrong hahaha, and it doesn't really do ... much. I kept trying to do anything off the beating path or find anything of interest.
It's tagged with horror, puzzle, exploration, and was probably meant to be a bit of a comedy, but it really doesn't feel like any of that. It just feels like a walking sim. And I guess the reason I wrote such a long winded review is because I went into the game really expecting to like it. Art and premise are really good though.
