Gave this game a try because I love story simulators and puzzles/escape logic games. Seemed to be in my wheelhouse.
Unlike other reviewers, I don't care much about the AI generated stuff or generic assets used to populate the visuals. I also do not particularly care about the language/aggressiveness of the man making demands like a lot of people seemed to. The worst part of the dialogue is that it comes across as not actually functional to a story or helping you really understand the why and how even through context clues, and it seems to pull from a very limited table array at random, which means you can hear the same lines about how stupid you are or hear the same insult repeatedly. I can understand why this might be problematic for people, especially when there are no indicators that by engaging with the game you will be berated by a game speaking to you (your character, technically) very directly. I imagine this would be difficult for someone with a bit of a... history, shall we say, with authoritarian figures or domestic abuse.
Even so, I made it through the first couple rooms relatively easily but found myself rather profoundly stuck after the second bedroom scene. The game allowed me to inflict multiple methods of violence/termination to the figure, but I couldn't figure out what I was missing for the life of me.
Now, I don't want these types of games to be overly easy, but...
- The lack of even a basic dot or reticle to help you select interactive items made it super difficult to navigate, to accurately pick up the items for the place setting, etc.
- There are no visual indicators to help you know what you can and cannot interact with, including things like drawers in the same piece of furniture being able to open while others are unusable. It's fine if not all identical items function the same, but it is really frustrating that the game doesn't give you any cues whatsoever as to places you should consider checking, not even after spending several minutes doing nothing but running back and forth.
- There is an implied sense of urgency but no way of gauging that urgency. For example, setting the table... without visual cues to help understand where to click and how to get it to actually place items. Yeah, you get the list of items to complete so to finish the "unlock" but it's so awkward to figure it out that you easily reach the end of your time...
- Your character apparently experiences a fate that wasn't actually part of the memory you seem to be revisiting if you time out, as you can die? It's unclear as to whether the figure is a figment of memory or if the scenario is meant to be real time. Did he murder me over my clunky table clearing? Why not at least give me an idea of how long I have, how fast I have to work? I swear, the first time I died, I was simply trying to become familiar with the settings and explore a little, and was completely unaware that this would expedite my demise...
The hardest mechanic part of this other than the indistinct interaction targeting (reticle for orientation) and the cumbersome back and forth movement while only being able to pick up one thing at a time? The fact that if you picked up scissors or whatever, you can't just set it down on a table or something, you have to drop it... and dropping it sometimes resulted in the item fully disappearing. This was ultimately the cause of my ending this portion of my stream that day. I was navigating the bedroom murder or whatever, quickly wrecked the guy, but most of the items I inflicted upon his body disappeared or were no longer accessible due to some kind of assets failure with the bed. Yes, I had seem scissors and such disappear or stand on end when being put down, but the disappearing act combined with the absolute lack of guidance/indicators for how to solve the puzzle of that room took up a lot of time before I ultimately gave up.
Will I play this again? Probably not. Maybe it's a labor of love, maybe it's a foundation for a later grab for profit using DLCs, I dunno... But what I do know is that as it stands, I cannot imagine anyone would "fall in love" with this title deeply enough to want to buy any DLC or a paid version of this game. It comes across as a starter project for a developer that is trying to figure stuff out still, one that is a relative novice at game mechanics and abyssmal when it comes to storyboarding, plot evolution, character arcs, etc. Even though I was not particularly bothered by the aesthetic generative components and generic assets used here, I also would not be surprised whatsoever is this was actually fully generated by AI, voiced sparingly by someone who is clearly not a voice actor or sound engineer, and then sort of smashed together to make a "horror escape game" based on elements players loved in the genre overall.
As it stands, it is unremarkable in the broad sea of games just like it, of games in the genre, and I would prefer playing other titles... Both for my own enjoyment, and for the enjoyment of my audience while streaming.
Good luck to the dev team as you build your skills and consider what game dev really looks like for you, so that you can tap in to you strengths and rely on other resources to make up where you may be weak.
Much Love,
TeslaQoil aka Mama Lynn
