Scarlet Hollow — Episode 1

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☑ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☑ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☑ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if you care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☑ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☑ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☑ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If you have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☑ 10 ---{ Notes }--- I spent time 100%ing the first episode, and i must say that it was totally worth it. The amount of hidden secrets and foreshadowing in this game is amazing!

From the developers of "Slay the Princess" here comes...wait, this one came before her, scratch that. This short review is specifically for the first episode a.k.a. Free Demo, FYI. So far, it's good, the style of storytelling reminds me about the other mentioned project. The plot itself is very local, compared to the cosmic horror, obviously, but, it's intriguing nonetheless. No complaints so far, but one nitpick - skipping dialogues during speedruns doesn't work quite well(this glitch(?) migrated to Princess as well). Some scenes are skipped, some don't, and it's not clear why. Will buy the remaining episodes during the spring sale.

Anyone who likes the vibe of Slay the princess should try episode one of Scarlet hollow, i love it, the nagging unease at the back of the mind, the unique avenues the story can go down and its focus of detail from the start. I've played it for more time than a few other games in my library, its almost 1/5 the play time of slay the princess and i've only played it 3 times. I swear this is in my top three favourite games i've played this year, episode 1 is great cause its free, it lets you test the waters before jumping in so if you want to think before you act give the game a spin, you won't lose anything if you don't like it and if you do you'll get an idea of the full game.

Play it. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ play it. No amount of describing my experience with can encapsulate the seer quality this demo has. I'll buy the other episodes as soon as I have money to spend.

10/10 will play this on a plane to get on international tabloids. I think one of the secret achievements is bugged, though

Nothing that happens in this first episode is based in reality, physics, or sanity. No one would follow a stranger into a cafe, then agree to film a youtube video for them, then agree to follow them into the woods, then agree to remain in said woods with another stranger running around with a shotgun. This is one of the most infuriating 'choose your own path' kinds of games I have ever played. I want the option of saying, "Absolutely NO! I will not be going with you into any cafe. I don't know you and I don't trust you. I am leaving like a rational person would." Do not play this game if you are a reasonable person who makes reasonable decisions.

Really enjoying this. So much variance in both the text and art. Looking forward to picking up the full game!