I was on the fence regarding this game, and although it does have some fun aspects, the cons sadly outweigh the pros imho. That said, once you get used to it, you begin to have more fun, only for the game to abruptly end because it's so very short.
[h3]PROS[/h3]
+ Great graphics
+ The ambience is on point, conveying a feeling of abandonment and regret, probably the game's strongest point
+ The soundtrack and audio effects in general are commendable
+ A big enough building and surrounding areas to explore freely and at your own pace
+ A satisfactory amount of achievements to hunt for
+ Although the game is very short (if you know what you’re doing, you can clear the entire thing in 20-25 minutes), the asking price is quite low
+ Two different endings, that require two different playthroughs
[h3]MEH[/h3]
? The story has been made a gazillion times before, nothing surprising let alone groundbreaking here. It does serve the game though, so I guess it's a pass, although the overall message is heavy-handed
? I would have loved to know what the many writings on various walls meant, but I couldn't since the vast majority of them is in Russian. That said, it does add a sense of mystery and adds on the already brilliant atmosphere, so I will let this slide as well
[h3]CONS[/h3]
- There is no manual save feature, and the auto-save checkpoints are few and far between. Which means it's very possible to wander around trying doors and exploring other locations, and collecting items (keys etc.), only to find yourself having lost a considerable amount of progress if you decide you've had enough for one session and quit the game to come back to it later. This was my biggest frustration. If manual saving was possible, I would be willing to let every other con slide and give the game a positive rating
- Super clunky movement, with a weird 'sliding effect' whenever you sprint
- There is a big delay between mouse movement and flashlight movement, which is frustrating, tiring and can be a bit disorienting too. You eventually get used to it, but this doesn't excuse the error
- Running speed is quite slow
- The jumping ability is utterly useless. Apparently your character can't jump more than a few inches, which is ridiculous, especially considering that your character doesn't really need to jump anywhere in the entire game
- Even with the settings on max brightness, the game is very dark in most indoors areas. [spoiler] Especially when it comes to the basement area, this makes progressing extremely difficult [/spoiler]
- Some puzzle solutions are obscure and don’t make a lot of sense
- The English translation (wherever it's available, mostly for documents) is full of grammatical and syntax errors, which unfortunately breaks the immersion quite a bit
- A couple of the achievements [spoiler] the alternate ending and the god of walking simulator [/spoiler] are really hard to get
All that said, this is a borderline negative review. The game isn’t by any means bad, it just lacked in certain areas that I personally consider kind of deal-breaking. If you’re all for atmosphere, mystery and beautiful surroundings and sounds, go for it, since it’s really cheap.
