Scary new year

Screw the general introduction that I give in most of my reviews; DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF OVERPRICED GARBAGE. This is quite literally the worst game I've ever played in my entire life, and I used to be a gamerscore hunter back in the Xbox 360 days... needless to say, I have seen some crap in my day!!! Lo and behold, the most enormous turd in the gaming world, Scary New Year. Released on January 25, 2018, the only thing scary about this title is how much of a SCAM it is. I'm astounded that the developer had big enough balls to send me a key through Curator Connect. Take a couple of minutes to watch the trailer, notice how there are no monsters? That's because there ARE NONE!!! The in-game instructions says to find a weapon as soon as possible, but there ARE NONE!!! Why? Because there are no monsters to fight with weapons. Alternatively, the store page says that the flashlight is your weapon. On the contrary, the flashlight is your only real freaking enemy, it's completely useless and fights against you. Take a look at this screenshot, you wouldn't think I had the flashlight on at all; you can barely see the illumination in the left-middle bottom. https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/938307758568381135/CCD6C94E19357FAEC25787B93E599202CD9E4E14/ This "game" literally consists of trying to find your way around in the darkness to the escape boat on the other side of the map, all the while battling an absurdly short stamina meter that takes ages to refill. There are no landmarks, sans a couple of buildings on ONE map and a car on another; there are four maps. It's just endless walking, running, and waiting for the stupid stamina meter to refill, all the while you hear "creepy" noises out in the distance. Additionally, the game's menu only works when it wants to, and after managing to escape the button that would return you to the main menu doesn't work either; also, the achievement doesn't pop, so that's broken as well. How in Satan's hot hell does SimplexGameStudio even believe that Scary New Year is worth $14.49 CAD? HOW? I've seen early Alpha gameplay that's better than this. I am utterly blown away by how absurd all of this is, and quite honestly I'm waiting for them to pull a Lord Kres response of "oh we uploaded the wrong version of the game". I have reviewed some pretty awful turds in my time, but buy ANY one of those before even considering throwing money down on this release. Jesus Christ on a cracker, I thought things would get better with the abolishment of Greenlight. [h1]Rating: [b]0.0/5.0[/b] - WARNING. Scam developer. Abandon all hope, ye who enter.[/h1] The Horror Network [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28221963/]Curator[/url] | [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/thehorrornetwork]Group[/url] Click for Gore [b]The developer provided a free copy of this game for review, through The Horror Network's Curation page.[/b]

Yet another cheap, independent horror game in which the protagonist is holding a video camera for absolutely no discernible reason. (Hint to devs: in Outlast, the character didn't have a flashlight, so the camera was HIS ONLY SOURCE OF LIGHT!) This reason alone, however, isn't sufficient justification for thumbing a game down. So let's dig a little deeper, shall we? Environmental graphics: sh*t. Bare-bones and ugly. Sound: actually pretty atmospheric and scary, if you ignore the fact that floorboards INSIDE a building sound exactly like the wet, squelchy grass outside. Story context given: basically none. Clue as to where you are on a map at any given time: ABSOLUTELY none. In the menu, there's a choice of four maps. I choose the first one, in which I apparently have to escape from an island. I start near a virtually featureless building which has most certainly never been lived in; though it does have a radio on a table which, upon interacting with it, screeches something back to me about a flight being ready for take-off. I head back outside and wander for a bit. This is where the fun starts. I wander for MINUTES, and find no other landmarks. None. Nor is there a map, nor is there any indication whatsoever of whether I'm heading in the right direction or making anything which would qualify as "progress" of any description. Only being able to see a handful of feet in front of me with my meagre flashlight beam helps matters none. Run for a short while, get puffed and slow down. Walk in one solid direction: same open expanse of nothingness. Start walking in circles (for all I know!): same result. Absolutely no sense of space or direction; and the only "events" are the infrequent shrieking or growling of an admittedly scary-sounding monster or two. Which I never seem to encounter. Still, if it wasn't for these intermittent shrieks and growls, it'd just be me, the grass, the pretty flowers, and the rocks. I'm not even sure I saw any trees. So I'm almost grateful for the "company". After five minutes or more of such aimless, uneventful walking, I decide to restart. Same map, only I'll go the opposite direction from the building this time. Ah, some trees at last! Good. Maybe I'm finally going in the right direction? Or at the very least: A direction. A direction is surely better than none. Repetition soon sets in again. No, wait...ANOTHER BUILDING! I'm actually excited. Maybe this will get good after all. Just a slow starter, that's all. Holy jumpscares, Batman! A full-screen image of a horrifying she-thing, complete with obnoxious noise. I DO jump. I AM scared. But I'm also disappointed 'cause, er...there's nothing in this building, either, except for an "old telephone" (game's exact words) which just beeps impotently at me. Exact same jumpscare on the way out. F*ck me. Got me again, you cheeky rascals, you! Back to the walking, then. You've heard of "walking simulators", right? Well, this is like a "walking-with-occasional-jumpscare" simulator, with sub-par graphics and nothing to actually look at. So far, so not-so-good. Several more minutes of walking. Enough of this sh*t. Let's try another map. "Butcher Beach" sounds like a laugh and a half. Ooh, that's interesting! A cracked-video-screen effect! Complete with technical glitches (the red-tinted patches of grass are especially eerie)! Already the graphics look "better"; we're finally taking advantage of the game's low-res visuals, turning a negative into a stylistic plus. Nice. And unless I'm mistaken, the monsters sound a bit closer this time. Tense, it most definitely is. But it's also boring, before long. This time I'm sticking to one defiant direction, but again don't seem to be getting anywhere. For something to do, I intentionally follow the sound of the monster noises. Might as well say "hello". Alas: no monsters want to meet me. Oh well. Enough's enough, really. I give up. Can't see myself stumbling upon any "exits" from any levels at THIS rate. Not bad for a "tech-demo"/"proof-of-concept"/"getting-lost-in-the-incredibly-dark-woods" simulator, I suppose. Undeniably atmospheric. I look forward to the day that this dev decides to make an actual GAME. (Oh, and by the way, that price? Yeah, ahem...RIGHT.) Verdict: 4/10. (PS If you enjoyed this review, feel free to check out my two Curator pages: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/9284586-ReviewsJustfortheHELLofit/ http://store.steampowered.com/curator/10868048-Truly-Horrible-Horror-Games/?appid=398210 Cheers!)

(Spoilers if anyone cares) I bought this game for $8 AFTER reading the reviews so I was expecting this game to be pretty bad if not a total scam as suggested by other reviewers. I only bought it because it was the only game that was (kinda) about the New Year. I recorded my experience for my YouTube channel, Diamond Surge (check me out lol). Not worth the price. Four MASSIVE maps. All very dark and very big. Lots of trees, grass and water. A few rocks. A couple buildings and jumpscares. A couple items to interact with that you can't pick up. A car. And one very slow monster that would often sound like its right on top of you but you have to go looking around to find it. Takes some hits before it finally downs you, then you respawn at the beginning with half health. However, even with half your health, if you get downed again.... nothing happened. I mean you respawn again but nothing else happens. You stay at the half health mark. You have a flashlight AND a camera. Not sure what the camera is for other than to zoom but the zoom is useless anyway as it doesn't really help you see much more. Whatever is on your screen just looks closer. There is also an inventory for whatever reason. Through all four maps, I didn't find a single item to pick up. You have LOTS of space for look, and slots for weapons. Didn't find a single thing. You spawn with the flashlight everytime so there really is no need for an inventory. I escaped the first map and that was it. I didn't even get the achievement for escaping. All of the other ones I was just aimlessly wandering around. So maybe I had to find the escape for one of the other maps for the achievement? Atmosphere was ok at first, then it got boring pretty quickly since nothing really happens in this game. You can jump a foot off the ground. Why? You can lean left and right. Why? The sprint meter drains quickly and refills slowly. Don't really know what else to say here. Again, check me out on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_0vO38NGf4&t=1s Buy at your own risk! I rate this game 1/10 since I didn't get that cheevo, at which case the rate would have been 2/10.

This game was one of the scariest games ive ever played i didnt know walking could be this scary.

Scary New Year ist ein Spiel, was leider noch nicht ganz fertig ist. Die Idee hinter dem Spiel find ich einfach großartig und hat viel Potential. Solche Spiele wünsche ich mir öfter auf dem Markt. Allerdings ist di Umsetzung noch nicht fanz ausgereift. Man läuft also über eine Insel und versucht irgendwie irgendwas zu erreichen, was einen von dort wieder weg bringt. Andauernd hört man gefährliche Geräsuche, kann aber nicht erahnen, wie weit die weg sind. Soweit so gut. Allerdings hat sich das ganze Spiel bei mir wirklich gezogen. Die Atmosphäre was sehr gut aber ohne irgendeinen Hinweis, war es mir leider nicht möglich den Ausgang zu finden. Von irgendwelchen geährlichen Kraturen habe ich auch nichts gesehen. Die Idee ist wirklich ganz groß und wenn jetzt noch mehr "Action" in das Spiel kommt, lohnt es sich vermutlich auch. Für den Preis ist es aber doch einfach zu teuer. Ich werde immer mal wieder reinschauen ins Spiel. Vielleicht ändert sich dann ja auch noch mal das Review. Aber so kann ich es leider nicht empfehlen. Ansonsten ist es wirklich gut gedacht für die Leute die gern nachts auf einer Insel, mit vielen gefährlichen Gräuschen, einen Spaziergang unternehmen. ;D Wollt ihr mal einen Einblick ins Spiel? Hier könnt ihr euch das mal ansehen und selbst entscheiden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoF3QVP_5EQ&list=PL7C9ee7AR94Kosgx30VSSOiFXtjlJ7wXT