I was recommended this game by a friend on the basis that 1) it's a free roguelike, and 2) it was influenced by Dead Estate. That last bit was kind of a fib as this game is way more strongly inspired by Cave Story and OMORI, but that's beside the point. The point I was leading with is that the game is absolutely free on all platforms, and while that's awesome I also sometimes feel like free games have this sort of expectant shield from criticism because "well, I didn't pay any money for this, so I can't be too hard on it!" And the objective of this review is to provide my honest feelings about the game, so I'm going to try to avoid that.
When first booting it up, Rabbit Hole does not leave a particularly strong impression. My first thoughts upon starting the game were "Yep, this game was programmed in Scratch alright", as there is a noticeable amount of jank to the game's controls and design that can't really be well-disguised. It's nothing crazy or game-breaking, but it's small things like how enemies will teleport to being on top of a platform if they skirt underneath one or Mermis causing the whole game to briefly lag whenever they submerge themselves. Most of its other aspects are...I'll say average I suppose. The combat is fine, the artstyle is fine, the music is fine, the roguelike mechanics are competently made, etc. But overall there was this pervasive feeling of amateurishness permeating the whole experience that made me grow pretty disinterested and feel like quitting. But the same friend who recommended it to me really, really likes it and kept encouraging me to keep going, even taking the time to watch me play over Discord, so I kept playing for his sake. After all, I've played a ton of games and seen a lot of media in general where it takes a second for everything to click, and I get unreasonably annoyed when people quit playing Dead Estate before it starts getting really good, so it's only fair that I stick it out.
Undeniably, the game's strongest aspects are its overall story and sense of humor. Maybe at times the humor will feel a little too "Lol memes" to you, but at least to me a lot of the references are funny and the general quirky vibe lends a lot to wanting to see more of what the game has to offer in that regard. From the moment I started I found Shopkeep's relentless flirting with Disc hilarious, not only because of the Terrible Pick-Up Lines but because I knew Shopkeep was based off of Cordelia from Dead Estate beforehand and yet was given an extremely unique identity despite that. Where Cordelia is this shameless flirt who knows how sexy she is, Shopkeep is alright to look at but is incredibly horny, almost like she's moreso desperately trying to fulfill the archetype of the "Sexy fanservice character" to attract women rather than embodying it naturally. There's a ton of other hilarious moments that I won't dwell on in too much detail since they work best as surprise laughs, but suffice it to say it's a very goofy game that isn't afraid to embrace the sillier aspects of its Alice Allusion.
Oh yeah, I should probably get to describing that story, huh? It's really unexpectedly dark and substantial. Like, nothing about this game indicates it being about coping with ennui and anxiety until you start playing, but it ends up handling the topic in a really interesting way that only gets more cutting the more you read up on ShortCake's exact intentions behind the game's messaging, and you start reading between the lines to figure out the motivations of every single character. And I know I know, "le quirky indie game about depression" is practically a badge of shame at this point, but maybe so many depressed indie game creators wouldn't be making games about their depression if it didn't seem like such a rich subject to mine for meaningful existential ruminations, huh? What I'm saying is the game's story is genuinely hard-hitting, and wanting to figure it all out ended up becoming the biggest driving factor for me 100 percenting it.
Oh my, I completely forgot to describe the central gameplay in detail. Well, it's a pretty competently made run-and-gun game, but it certainly doesn't soar past my expectations of "a solo programmer made this in Scratch". I will say the combat started to feel much more fluid and natural once I realized that melee attacks are much stronger than I initially thought, and incorporating them into your moveset feels substantially less clunky than only moving and shooting. The bosses are enjoyable and have neat designs, but their attack patterns also aren't randomized, meaning after a certain point they become more of a memory test than anything. It certainly has that key roguelike element of "any run could be a winner if you put in the effort" and I appreciate that, but it also only has four levels and no side paths or alternate endings, so its replayability is entirely determined by your interest in grabbing as many achievements as you can and seeing every character's personal arc unfold. In my case I was invested in the story and I'm already a pretty strong achievement hunter so that was no issue, but if you're the type of person who beats a game that is obviously meant to be replayed many times exactly once and then uninstall it (*COUGH* Dead Estate *COUGH*), you won't find a lot to convince you to stick around.
All that being said, DO NOT, repeat DO NOT attempt to beat this game as Mr. Bones. DO NOT even THINK about attempting it. Do not even think about NOT attempting it. I have over 90 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hours in this game and probably around two-thirds to three-fourths of that time was just trying to beat it as Mr. Bones. You can see every single meaningful thing this otherwise very enjoyable 30 hour roguelike has to offer without subjecting yourself to weeks upon weeks of ♥♥♥♥ and ball torture trying to make your way to the end of this game with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Joke Character that has terrible movement and who straight-up can't clear some rooms normally. I am a trained professional and regularly subject myself to these sorts of challenge runs, and even I was stupefied by just how miserable the experience of playing Mr. Bones is. Yes, he is a very funny character and probably the funniest part of the whole game, but he is funny in a "Wow this character sucks, time to never do that again" kind of way. Seriously, you only need 40 achievements to get 100 percent and that is not a hard threshold to clear, so there is no reason to beat the game as him unless you have way too much time on your hands (guilty).
Rabbit Hole is in an interesting situation for a free game. It has a ton of replay value for a game which costs nothing on top of a meaningful story that is worth checking out, but it also definitely feels like a free game. Not necessarily in terms of length (games by vanripper are top-notch but only obviously free because of their brevity), but in the sense that it's a very ambitious project from a very small developer that was more concerned with putting his stuff out there and making something of artistic value than getting paid for it. And I feel like that's reflected in how the game is rough around the edges and doesn't have the sort of polish you would expect for something that costs even five dollars. I'll certainly keep an eye on ShortCake_Cafe's projects going forward, but I think if he wants to create the sort of sweeping masterpiece that resonates with me for years, he should code it in something other than Scratch.
