STRANGER

First of, I really admire that a single person was able to develop this game. This is really a great effort and achievement, and I find it fascinating to have such skills. Regardless of this aspect, I must say that Stranger is not really my game. The story of defending against a home invader is interesting and also a bit scary. However, the game concept is a bit too simple for my taste: You need to spot the Stranger, then place two locks on the side of the house the Stranger is coming from. When the two windows are locked successfully, the Stranger leaves, the clock advances by one hour, and a new 'round' begins. This process repeats until 6am in the morning. During each round, you also need to switch on the light again and turn off the television. This is basically it. For players who would like to finish a game on any level of difficulty, this is perhaps interesting, but I personally prefer rather playing a game in easy or standard mode but enjoying more content. And the content is just not really there in my opinion. Granted, the game is very affordable, but I would be surprised if anyone plays it for more than 2-3 hours. I felt like I had seen pretty much everything after 20-30 minutes aleady and will likely not return to play.

Simple horror game where your goal is to survive the night as a killer is on the loose. The whole premise of this game is okay but it's not really something that will knock your socks off. The atmosphere isn't particularly scary either, however, it does the job. Also the graphics are quite good. Another great feature is the fact you can mod in your very own killer which nice to have. I don't really know what else to say, if you like short indie survival horror games and don't have many expectations then it's not a bad buy.

VR Review: Made by one student dev, Stranger is an extremely frightening and tense game. If you've read the description and are intrigued, give it a try. I had to take a break because it had my anxiety through the roof. Note: Menus are on desktop and cannot be accessed in VR as of this review date.

Ordinarily, I'm not one for horror games. My nerves are jangled enough without adding jump scares into my life. However, STRANGER has a different focus. It's a tense experience that feels more like a tower defense. The horror comes from a steady build of tension as I listen for the killer's steps outside and guess which window he will try next. As the clock ticks toward 6 AM and the killer rattles at window after window, I really feel the seconds crawl. I'm playing in VR on the Quest 2, which allows me to interact in the world with a pair of grabby hands. I also feel a lot more immersed in all the sounds as I turn my head. While the game's menus are not in VR yet, meaning I have to click through the menus with the mouse then put on my headset to play, the core gameplay is great in VR. I wish that the game had more VR-presence elements, like openable drawers where bonus locks can spawn. The game acknowledges these limitations with warning screens and promises that future updates will make the VR experience even more immersive. A lot of subtle worldbuilding adds to the tension. Trying to call the police on the phone next to the clock plays a chilling automated message. The extra "permalock" spawns randomly around the house, forcing you to hunt for it each time. Looking at the killer through the window for more than a second will cause your vision to blur black. When the killer gets to the house, the lights will flicker. While there is a terminal jump scare when you lose, this can be toggled off for VR players which is a great accessibility option. One of the best features of this game is ease of replay. When you lose, it's very easy to get back in and try again with what you've learned. This game can be played on a regular monitor as well as in VR, and it's even recommended to play that way once or twice before playing in VR since there are more onscreen tips. For a solo developer who's trying to support both VR and regular PC play, this is a solid offering! I'm enjoying the experience so far, and looking forward to those planned improvements.

STRANGER is a game that I watched be developed from the ground up by Will from Lost Frame Development. I need to start this by saying I'm not only reviewing this because I was "asked to" or to "support a friend". I admire the product that has been created here and I hope to someday make something HALF as good! Loading into the game for the first time, it's not very easy to tell that the game was made by a SOLO DEV. In my eyes, STRANGER surpasses so many indie horror games because it doesn't focus on cheese jumpscares or cheap story-telling. STRANGER doesn't have that "jump out of your seat screaming" scare that you might find in some others, but that wasn't the goal. The goal of STRANGER, (in my eyes), was to make a game with an environment that pulls you in and makes you feel like you're really there; and trust me - play this alone at night once, you won't feel alone for long. I've waited months for this game to come out and have been on the edge of my seat since - the game has improved a LOT from the demo that I played a few months ago, and I only see it getting better from here. I am super proud of Will for making this indie horror! It may seem like some kind of "FNAF"-inspired project at first, but it's so different.

What doesn't kill you simply makes you stranger. As someone who has a lot of experience both watching horror movies as well as playing horror games. 95% of everything around horror is about the concept. Stranger has a strong concept where you try to stop the stranger from coming inside. Mechanics are fair and there is a power dynamic between you and your nemesis. And the game doesn't kill the mood with jumpscares. Allowing it to slowly build the tension and release it. You can't deal with the killer you have to accept the fact, that as long as he is outside, you can still hope to survive the night. A simpler game than some of those triple A games fail at is that it doesn't over complicate things and focuses on the tension alone. Something that is becoming even more rare in the industry. P.T. was the golden standard of the simplicity yet super scary. And this is that kind of game in the genre. Except that instead of easter eggs. You staying alive is the easter egg. I recommend it, for it's price is an experience. And that's how you should rate it.

This game is fun but I really do have problems with it. When you get to the harder difficulties specifically extreme it becomes annoying. at around 4-5 am on extreme the stranger pretty much teleports inside the house it takes 3-5 seconds and its completely RNG. I've seen streamers get lucky and have open windows and not die but it NEVER happens to me I die EVERY time he opens the window even if im right there and lock it before its fully open and after playing perfectly like a god IM DEAD and it pisses me off immensely. Another complaint is the sprint is so trash theres no way in hell im gonna get to the other side of the house in 3 seconds with this limp ♥♥♥♥ sprinter its complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. but uh yeah. good game.

STRANGER is a game about surviving a home invasion from a mysterious killer. You do your best to keep the killer locked outside of the house while they attempt to break in. Using a variety of methods to counter the STRANGER's entry into the house, your goal is to survive until 6AM, the time in which the police will be able to come help you. The game play is pretty good, and for a single developer I'd say it's even better than decent. The input isn't delayed, and interacting with the environment is straightforward and simple. I would prefer there to be a cross-hair to make picking up items easier, or at least for a cross-hair to appear while hovering over an item. The audio is decent, but could definitely be improved upon. The music is nice and seemingly plays at the right time to make moments even more suspenseful. Even so, it could be worse. The game itself is suspenseful as hell in the beginning, but you grow pretty accustomed to it later on. Sort of like Phasmophobia or Welcome to the Game. The graphics are cartoon-ish, but it still doesn't feel out of place. Reminds me a lot of Dead by Daylight graphics. The jump scare by the STRANGER is... only scary once. I feel like once you get over the initial fear of being caught the game can lose a sense of its suspense. I have yet to play the other maps, so I may be proven wrong here soon. More ways the STRANGER could scare you would be nice (i.e. hiding under your bed or behind a door). I do wish that there was something we could do as the player for when the STRANGER breaks in, but it seems like that's just a death sentence already. This game is still in its BETA phase, so don't expect too much out of it currently. As it stands, $9.99 for this game is decent, but you might as well wait for a sale. At least until the dev adds more content. I feel like this is more of a $5.99 experience, but I am hopeful for future updates bringing in new and exciting content. Overall this is a great game with a massive amount of potential. I can see this game being picked up by a team, or maybe the solo dev will assemble one themselves. This game, if developed with care, definitely has the potential to be as big a hit as Welcome to the Game. Here's some optimism for the game in that the dev will continue to nurture and add to this great concept.

2/10 i cant see ♥♥♥♥!!!! certain point where not being able to see anything just kills the entire game. ooh that was a jump scare??? i missed it!! just cant see anything not my kind of game. only 10$ get it if you want it

i can look past the fact that this is a student level project in terms of quality (albeit high quality in those standards) but a few flaws shine at the highest difficulties in the normal gamemode 1. because the stranger's movement is based on teleporting and it is a static model, there are few situations where unless you have two locks on hand (which is downright impossible with the speed it moves around in aforementioned higher difficulties) you will play a guessing game in which window to lock so as to not die. as soon as the window opens even if you are there to shut it it means you have lost. while positions are for the most part fine for me I don't enjoy playing a game of chance especially when this is a game that largely should rely on audio and visual cues 2. Movement in the house, especially the large one is meh because for some reason the dev has chosen to implement a stamina system that runs out after 2 1/2 seconds or so. good lucky getting to the areas you need to lock in time with little breathing space in between because pushing past the benefit of this claim there are no moments where you can catch a breath these are problems that frankly are even prevelent when other games in the horror defense genre push difficulty to the limits and strain the difference in AI difficulty. however I don't consider the content in this game to be enough to warrant putting up with these for enjoyment. If your a fan of these types of games, I might encourage you to give it a try because its a swell piece of work in some rights but don't expect the game to be fair in the later points