Stalked

[code]Curator page here-->[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37670120/] DaRevieweD #196 [/url]<-- [i]New review every Weekend[/i][/code] [h1]"AN INSTANT REPORT WITH THE VICTIM!!"[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2866179340 [u] Here's The Thing:[/u] You are Sarah Garrett, are you not? Err- I mean, ahem! You are a journalist of sorts about to get on home from the office. It’s yet another vacant walk to your place from the parking lot except you feel that there are prying eyes on you, shadowy figures at the street corners and a stillness in the neighborhood that makes you want to die. [h1][+] PROS;[/h1] [b]:) MY LONE & ONLY YOU~[/b] Stalkers are all the craze lately, case in point, [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/DeadeGuard98/recommended/1843090/]The Closing Shift[/url] and [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/DeadeGuard98/recommended/1671340/] Fears to Fathom: Home Alone[/url], both of which are fine contenders of and could be said to have served as muses for this finished product! It’s wedged someplace in between those two, in that it has you strolling in a semi-open public space but you’re also confined to a well-known environment. This thriller unpacks itself as part walking simulator, part escape room but overall is under the guise of an unsettling and unshakable experience where you are indeed being followed by someone or something! True to its word, there are no second-rate jumpscares, but there will be shudders all the same. What I dug the most about it- provided you have keen instincts, is that it went the extra mile to put little and subtle, yet far from minor signs of intrusion which have you think twice as to how to proceed. In the vein of a visual novel, it has six bad or “wrong” ends and only ONE definitive true outcome. Therefore, that tallies to around 1.5 to 2 hours in estimated stalking duration, if you so decide to go for them in a single run. Unlocking each one means you are in for some serial killer factoids that will unleash goosebumps! Beware, there are no conventional saves here, only checkpoints that will vanish without a trace once you quit the game or return to the main menu. [b]:) HOME IS WHERE THE HURT IS?[/b] There is a plainness to the general appearance of the surrounding houses that is equal measures off-putting and disarming. It’s just like a section out of your everyday neighborhood, which ramps up the discomfort because it could just as well have happened to you, someone next door or a few houses over even… I settled right in Sarah’s home and learnt an awful lot about their household through precariously placed personal effects. Imagine if someone else had gotten their hands on them! A weird observation I had was that the music you’re subjected to, is so understatedly creepy and keeps to the background half the time. So much so that every single noise that approach you, be they murmurs, crashes or footsteps receding take center stage and you are the lead whose screeches fill it so shrilly~ [b]:) JACK AND THE BEING-STALKED![/b] As shi* hits the fan, you are already spinning and panic-stricken, but they’re nowhere near as burning as the “who” or “what” questions always at the back of your mind. There’s an overbearingly bad taste in your mouth, your stomach churning like the first time you viewed [b]The Strangers (2008)[/b] and the proclivity to survive never once exits the premises. An endless stream of thoughts floods your head. Is it just the one assailant? Was it something you did or were about to do…!? But hold up, does knowing the “why” actually do anything? Will it make things any more reassuring or better?? It’s similar as to how the wife was dying to know the reason behind the home invasion, and dreadfully lets out a “why are you doing this” towards the conclusion of that film only to be met with an indifferent response… Lastly, how familiarized are you with your house? If someone was to break in and nudge a pencil by an inch, would you notice that! Okay, that was maybe a ridiculous example, but think about it- maybe it’s a case of [b]Within (2016)[/b] and you’re so caught up in your life goings-on. Then you start to leave your laptop unattended, your drink sitting out…! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2866179669 [h1][-] CONS;[/h1] [b]:( I AIN’T ONE TO S-TALK BUT…[/b] There is something amiss with the programming, and obviously I am not qualified in the slightest to be judging… But it’s just so awkward and it couldn’t hide that fact, not even if its life depended on it. These moments are most tangible when you want to incur the endings. For instance, a car supposedly means to run you down but when it is triggered and where you stand do not compute with one another. So, I should have been dead several times, but due to mistimed setups; I had to manually walk up to them to actually meet my doom! There are a bunch of these minor oversights that do not amount to anything individually, but when clumped together they start to water down scares, soften the blows and come off like it is the stalker’s first time, you know? Which reminds me, it is indeed the dev’s debut title- and that makes sense because the issues I speak of originate more from being inexperienced and not out of laziness or a desire to get the game out ASAP, so there is that smidgen of relief~ [b]:( SARAH-IOUSLY!?[/b] When you actually lay it all out, the premise is quite basic and plays out like your stereotypical home-invasion thriller. In fact, I wouldn’t have minded that as much, but what it ended up turning into was very weird and incomprehensible… The “twist” is not so much a shocking development that no one saw coming as per the meaning of the word, but instead it literally twists your head with information gaps whose answers were nowhere to be found. Supposed connections that the final girl shouldn’t have arrived at after the obligatory “expository” portion. To worsen matters, there’s another [i]twist[/i] (with a pinch of salt) thereafter which transformed that which already had [i]less sense[/i] into even more [b]nonsense[/b]. Maybe it is just me, perhaps I am missing the bigger picture and my mind is broken from too much of the horror genre, but I highly doubt it~ [b]:( SOMEONE CALL THE PAUL-ICE.[/b] 9 times out of 10, when brightness is highlighted as an issue, it’s usually that the game is too dark… Well here, it’s the exact opposite! The mobile phone light source is fine for the most part in poorly lit areas, although it sometimes can come off underwhelming and the light rays seem like they were cut off intentionally. But the problem is that if you shine it at a wall (or any surface really), God forbid it be a white one, you are essentially staring at an eclipse or you’ve reached heaven! The complication multiplies tenfold when you are to interact with the white prompts that become one and the same with the light. The interface is just madly inconsistent, from the font colors down to the size of the prompts. Trying to turn a doorknob is more like figuring out how to open a cookie jar where you often have to come at it from an angle~ [h1]BUGS:[/h1] x Froze once, but from what I could tell it was totally random. Hasn’t happened since! x Tweaked graphic settings are not applied correctly. x Breaker interaction prompt glitches from afar. [h1]NITPICKS:[/h1] ~ Too many unnecessarily inconveniencing invisible walls. ~ The shift between sprinting and walking is almost indistinguishable! ~ Shoddy closed captions. ~ Voice acting falls short of description. [h1]"BUT… GET OUTTA HERE! I BEG OF YOU~"[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2866184769 [u]Last Words?[/u] Like a stalker admiring prey, here’s a thriller seen as capable from afar. But get closer, while its good qualities are accounted for, its flaws stick out and follow you… Still worth pursuing though~ [h1]6.7 / 10[/h1]