The August Before

Game breaking bugs, history of using GenAI, and some very suspicious looking (generative AI?) text in some of the images. Absolutely no AI disclaimer or tags to be found anywhere on the store page. The devs claim that they took out the AI posters but they also said they're not planning to stop using GenAI so.. do with that information what you will. Regardless of your stance on AI, the game just has too many bugs that are seemingly not addressed at all.

I really wish steam had a neutral review button. Overall, the game is cute. It's a narrative puzzle game about packing up your belongings before moving to a new stage of life. You're cleaning rooms, organizing boxes, and deciding what to keep as memories. I really like the puzzle design and the art style, they’re simple but fit the game really well. Unfortunately, I've never played a game with so many bugs. In the first chapter August's Room, I completed everything, but the game wouldn't register it as 100% clear, and the achievement didn't show up at all. I had to replay the entire chapter a second time and it finally worked......Then in Ivy’s Room, I collected every coin and deposited them all into the piggy bank, but the achievement still wouldn’t unlock. Even after a second playthrough, it still didn’t work...After my third playthrough about a week later, the coin achievement in Ivy’s Room finally worked, and I was able to unlock it. I’m happy that I finally got the achievement, but it was still frustrating to have to replay the same sections multiple times. The bugs really take away from what should be a relaxing experience. I like the concept and the storytelling, but the bugs make it frustrating to fully enjoy. I hope the developers fix these problems because the game has a lot of potential.

Learning of the AI usage was what tipped me over the fence into negative. To be clear, as of this release the generative AI images have been replaced with commissioned work, but I don't think (at least one of) the developers understand that [i]any[/i] use of it colours the perception of the game and perhaps your entire body of work going forward. Is it so janky and buggy because it was vibe coded? Was the story so midling because it was prompted? Maybe not, but now we can never be sure, especially since the response specifically said that they would be unlikely to stop using it completely. The excuse that indie developers can't afford to "allocate resources" to real assets is frankly pathetic. Shoestring-budget or even [i]zero[/i]-budget indie games have been made since before GenAI ever existed and there are a thousand workarounds to being unable to draw if you use your own human creativity. And when we decide to spend our money supporting the impoverished indie developers, are they just going to funnel it into subscriptions sold by the richest people on a planet they're actively trying to destroy? Anyway, if you don't care about that, and going forward with the assumption that there truly isn't any AI; the gameplay is generally fun and satisfying, but there is some classic puzzle game jank and clicking-everything-you-see and lack of intuition, along with some potentially gamelocking/breaking bugs. When you drop an item (whether on accident or because you can't put it in place yet) it's at risk of being flung across the room or falling under a piece of furniture and becoming irretrieveable. Depending on if it's an essential puzzle item or a literal piece of rubbish, you have to reset the whole room. This only really happened to me once and didn't bother me as much as it seems to have others so YRMV. Also: can someone tell me if my specs just suck ***?? Why did this make my computer burn up? It runs things like BG3 just fine lmao. But what I really wanted to talk about was the story. It's environmental storytelling and largely up to interpretation so spoilers might not be the right word, but here we go: [spoiler] The basic facts are that August and Beth are best friends, Ivy joins their friend group/starts dating August, Beth is so jealous that she doesn't go to August's/their joint? fashion show and their friendship implodes. August does... something wrong? And she and Ivy break up even though they were intending to live together for college. Beth and August were also planning to move in together at some point but it's unclear whether August chose Ivy over her and that's why Beth lashed out, or if Beth lashed out and that's why August decided to move on with Ivy. I generally dislike open endings and vague, interpretive storytelling because it's very hard to make me feel like the author isn't taking the easy way out. Whatever August did is the highlight of this one; it obviously wasn't something unforgiveable or even egregious, because Ivy is still clearly in love with her and actively trying to contact her. It doesn't seem to be a mutual disagreement/argument because only August wants to say sorry but is ghosting out of shame. There's a sticky note from Ivy saying she's sorry she couldn't be there for [unidentified thing], which couldn't [i]also[/i] be the fashion show because her e-mail to Beth says "I didn't take your friend from you, you were the one who didn't come to her show". August doesn't have enough character for us to guess what she might have done based on her flaws or wants or needs or situation. The way it's presented makes me feel that the author couldn't think of what she'd actually done either, and used the vague style of the game as an excuse to not have to. In contrast, I thought Beth's side was quite good. It seems clear to me that she has mental health issues or just an outright disorder; being this angry that your best friend is being "taken away" is extremely immature for someone who's applying to college, but not unrealistic. Even if it's because she's in love with her too, not turning up to the show and breaking her mirror are major overreactions. August says that "she can't wait for her anymore" and Beth hasn't yet submitted the college applications she keeps re-doing, perhaps implying she has issues with executive function. But as it is, this makes it feel like everything that happened is all Beth's fault with no recourse, despite August being blamed by both of them and feeling all the shame from it. It just kind of ends after that and I didn't really see what the point was. I also feel bad for Ivy because she clearly liked Beth or at least tried to be amicable with/include her for the sake of August, but that leaves her as an uncomplicated, characterless victim of these two girls. I did like the different types of media in each of the girl's rooms and what they told us about them. When I found Perfect Blue and Look Back in Beth's I thought "omg of course she would like those" despite how little information is given about her. Finding August's list of movies and it's like LESBIAN MOVIE LESBIAN MOVIE LESBIAN MOVIE as if she was being subtle was hilarious. Me too girl!! [/spoiler]

I liked it, until I didn't. So I thought this game was leading me somewhere, everything I was adding to Ivy, Beth and August's bags gave me a choice. Did I keep the important memories and let them go. I chose, what I thought would bring the 3 back together. But no, nothing happened. Absolutely nothing. The game ends just saying "All's well that ends well" but... nothing ended well? August is moving away for college, Ivy is moving to some place she and August were going to move to together and... I have no idea what was happening with Beth because it barely shows anything from her point of view. Very disappointing narrative, because you know about as much at the ending as you did going in.

Больно ли в это играть? Да. Пройду ли я ее еще раз? Да. 9 полароидных снимков из 10, один балл сняла только за то, что долго не могла понять, что осталось убрать в последней комнате до 100% (это были окурки в пепельнице).

Runs ok on steam deck but the controls are quite uncomfortable, not something I could deal with. It's a slideshow with proton on another desktop Linux system that is somewhere between the minimum and recommended specs. It's a shame, I really am interested in the game and want to play it. Wish I could recommend it but it just isn't playable for me. I'll update this review if anything changes.

慈善包中的遊戲 遊戲內容是整理房間 3D版的Unpacking 比較解壓 但是！bug太多了！修復好再改好評 不輕易給差評但是玩的過程真的體驗感非常不好 無法使用其中的一個物品導致第一個房間的任務都沒有全部做完💢

у меня были некоторые проблемы с получением ачивок, но в целом игра неплохая. немного грустная и спокойная, для того, чтобы скоротать один вечер - самое то

A really beautiful game!! As someone whos been in a similar place lately this game really resonated with me. I would LOVE to have more, because once I got to Ivys part I was a bit confused. What did end up happening in the end between the three? Did August and Ivy move in together? What exactly happened for them all to fall out? Either way I would recommend this to anyone who liked games like unpacking and the vibes of Life is Strange 1!!

потрясающая, глубокая, приятная. с удовольствием погрузилась в нее и насладилась геймплеем. рекомендую! 100 из 10.