SAVEN

I have played multiple games from this dev, and this is my favorite of all of them. But even so, I almost didn't recommend for reasons I will get in to, which has less to do with the game as a package and more with bugs and design. So, the presentation is creepy and I loved the atmosphere. The phone message, the old house, the unsettling quiet. I think just the vibe of it is a really effective horror vibe. The mechanics of the game are basic but really in service to telling a story. It's a vehicle to get you to explore the house, and as you do and the days go by, you find out more and see more of the house. Not going to get into specifics of the story because it's relatively short, but suffice to say that the house is not normal. But for this mostly simple gameplay, I was also impressed with how striking some of the scenes were; flashbacks with figures mostly in silhouette, or the warm glow of burning papers in the house, just little touches that gave the game a lot of character to me. There are also multiple endings and I found the choice to be compelling and very well thought out. This feels more like a complete experience than some other indie horror games I have played and I think that's why I happen to like this one more. The game itself is relatively short, but I have a lot of hours logged for a couple of issues, mostly getting stuck in a few places and not knowing where I was supposed to go or what I was supposed to do. There was also an achievement bug that did not pop for me despite it being something required for you to do to progress the game. But it's pretty easy to be able to get back to that point again and retry and I did eventually unlock everything. The flashlight in the game, while it highlights everything fine, only covers a small circle in front of you, and it kind of gave me a headache when playing, like I was straining my eyes to gaze through a pinhole in paper or cardboard to see, and that wasn't super pleasant. The rest of the review contains spoilers. [spoiler]The two issues I had progressing were the "Block Puzzle" and the basement sequence. The Block Puzzle, because it was so dark, I didn't see any indentation above the safe, so I had no idea anything was supposed to go there and I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what to do. There are letter blocks in the small bedroom, so I kept returning there thinking it was related to that but obviously it wasn't. And then the basement, I did find the shovel, but the "X"s on the dark floor are black and didn't stand out. You also have to be claustrophobically close to items to interact with them, so even though I looked around at the floor in the basement because it seemed like I was supposed to dig, I wasn't right right on top of the graves so I never saw the prompt. In the basement, while I appreciated how the alter there looked like a ghastly face when I looked up and it creeped me out, it also wasn't clear that I was supposed to bring the doll there. I don't think I would want it spelled out with text like the tasks to fix the house are displayed, but I wish somehow there was more direction for those things. Some of them are just visual issues, and it highlights how limited visibility can really impact game experiences. I know that scary games are supposed to be dark, but I have to be able to see. One thing that really struck me is how the flame from the burning papers were brighter and provided better visibility than your flashlight, which seems backwards.[/spoiler] Tip for the bugged achievement: [spoiler]You have to do them slowly. Sometimes there are multiple of them clustered together and my first time I was clicking on as many as I could find as fast as possible. To get the achievement to unlock, I recommend waiting until you see the text on the screen appear that says "#/10" before you interact with another one. If you do them slowly, one at a time, waiting for each paper to finish burning and update the total before you interact with a new one, you should be able to get the achievement to unlock.[/spoiler]