The Patient

This game has so much potential, a PS1 style horror game where it's a race against the clock to figure out which of the 10 patients has been accidentally injected with an experimental substance that will turn them into a grotesque roach monster. Being the 90s and all that, patient data in the hospital is transferred via floppy disks, as the hospital is experiencing outages due to weather. And because of this weather, it's causing electric problems that keep switching on the lights in the patient rooms, aggravating them and accelerating the substances effect. The gameplay loop is, head past the patients to load the floppy disk, check for lights in their rooms, head to your office and mount the disk. While it loads, check on patients once, return to your computer. There is where the game ultimately becomes disappointing. You are told that the patient records room is locked by a 4 digit number, that can be found in the patient data you are collecting. The substance of the patient data you load is completely irrelevant, you're just looking for glitches that appear in the data. You treat the door pad like you would your old NOKIA phone. So if the letter T has a glitch, you know 8 is one of the numbers for the door. The problem is, you have 30 minutes to find these glitches in the patient data, and it is completely random as to whether a glitch will appear or not. So if you return and the file doesn't have a glitch, unlucky, go load the disk again. What this means is that your runs are entirely determined by RNG and there's ZERO deductive reasoning to be done in this game. What's worse is that we had to go through the community discussions to even figure out this is how the code worked. It's such a shame, it would've been fun to find clues in the patient data, and there was so much opportunity to have more happen when you check on the patients, such as looking for warning signs. I'll change my review if there's positive changes to the game, but currently it's simply RNG simulator. The only time I was able to win was by restarting the game and guessing over and over. Which actually turned out faster.

Extremely short, but a nicely made horror game with a unique idea. The visual design made a really good first impression, I play more expensive indie games that don't handle the texture and grain that well, the only problem is that it's like 5 to 30 minutes depending on the ending, and I suspect you can accidentally pick the right patient, so you may not even have to play the game the way it was intended. Additionally you can die in a few different locations which I guess the game does not count as one of the 2 endings, but it might be worth experimenting with it because the death scenes were pretty funky. The game has a simple premise, one of your patients has been infected with some experimental substance, but you do not know which one, you can either take a blind guess, or keep playing the game, and try to figure out which one. The game is essentially on the timer, you do not want the individual to fully mutate, and exposure to light will accelerate the mutation so you have to backtrack around and keep turning them off while you doing a side objective. I actually wasn't able to solve the puzzle, although it seems I may have accidentally picked the right person, 1 in 10 that is, not sure if it's me, or maybe the puzzle needs to be more intuitive. A big thing for me with retro-themed games is that use of texture and good sound design, I don't want to see solid coloring, and honestly I think for what you going for, it was perfect, granted you didn't have many locations to work with, but at least the locations that were there were nicely made. Good use of sound effects, felt like they had the right amount of distance, overall very moody experience. I like the use of a few cutscenes with a bit of melancholy, kinda reminds of me of the trailer for Silent Hill 1, although I wish you had a little more of that. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) I think you nailed the retro look, it's about as good as I can expect from a retro-themed indie games, texture looked correct, the pixelation was good, the models looked nice, the coloring and detail were decent as well. The only problem is it's just a very small game, so you kinda put a lot of effort into a very small space. (+) Didn't have any issues with the immersion, I thought you handled the sound distance very well, the game was a bit spooky and had overall nice vibes to it, as well as a bit of mystery. (+) I liked the slightly unique premise, a bit different from what many horror games do these days. Nice use of cutscenes, reminded me of melancholy from Silent Hill when you zoomed on her at the table, probably could have used a bit more of that. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] - I had some glitches, you may have to restart the game if you get a softlock after the death cutscene - It seems I got the right patient by accident, but still never solved the puzzle. I am confused by the hint, why does the number of glitches switches between runs. Maybe a little more help there because I feel like i am being mislead by the game. - I kinda wish the people in the cells would make some noises too, especially when you reposition them, maybe saying something to you, or hitting the door at times - Overall if you making a short game like this, I think it would help to have some achievements, maybe 2 for each ending, 1 for each death in every location where you can die, maybe a few optional events. [b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b] Kinda reminds me of games like NightsLink, there is not enough of a game to really care for me in a long term, it's just kinda something you might play and still enjoy it for 20 minutes, just because it was something different. Visuals and sound were great, I think you should maintain that use of cutscenes going forward, I would like to see a longer game with the same level of quality from you. A bit too short, but not actually bad, I enjoyed it. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

My god I'm so f*cking sick of trying indie horror games and realise that you can't run in most of them for no reason other than to make play times longer but more miserable. Especially in The Patient where every second count, why is that ret*rded dumb b*tch not running? I guess she didn't get eaten for so long the cockroach from Men In Black doesn't look that bad for her but what a dumb c*nt. The guys that manage that hospital are ret*rded too, so you only have one disk. You can't copy several different disks on the spot once, come back and look at all of them no, you absolutely have to do round-trips at snail pace several times while closing the lights in the cells. The computer take a really long time also just to read the disks to force you to go close the lights even more. The worst is the puzzle. It's just my guess since I didn't manage to beat the game but if that's how it really work, that's just bad. [spoiler]Get 4 glitched disks. You find the password by looking at the glitched numbers in the disks in order when they flicker but the problem is that they're unreadable since they just show up for a very small fraction of a second. If that's how the game work you would practically have to record your gameplay and go frame by frame just to see the flickering numbers well, that's dumb.[/spoiler] Yeah, I was very close to refund this one, but it does exactly what it say in the description, it's just that's a very tedious gameplay. It really felt like I was just wasting my time, I didn't have fun playing this. I think the idea for the game is really good, but it would have been way better imo as a deduction game.

I like the concept, but the execution was just off when it comes to the gameplay. Walking at a casual pace all the time makes the entire experience feel bogged down and mismatches the urgency of the situation. There's also way too much text to sift through in a timed challenge with no ability to run. I understand part of the gimmick is quick thinking, but I felt like I didn't even have time to properly evaluate the information I was given. The devs are obviously talented and I hope they continue to create, as I'll gladly purchase their next one. I just wouldn't recommend this game with what I think are its current faults. ATTEMPTED PLAYTHROUGH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysFSfOrW784

Wcielamy się w dr Ellen Reed, która ma nocny dyżur w szpitalu psychiatrycznym. Otrzymuje ona informację, że jednemu z pacjentów omyłkowo podano eksperymentalny lek. Mamy pół godziny na to, aby odkryć, który to pacjent, zanim zamieni się w istotę, która rozerwie nas na strzępy. Dodatkowo musimy dbać o to, aby w 10 celach dla chorych psychicznie nie paliło się światło, które przyśpiesza transformację. Ogólnie ścieżka wygląda tak, że czytamy plik, udajemy się po dyskietkę z danymi pacjentów do serwerowni w podziemiach. Po drodze pilnujemy, aby u pacjentów nie świeciło się światło. Wracamy do biura, kopiujemy plik, zapoznajemy się z jego treścią i obserwujemy, czy w tekście nie ma anomalii w postaci migających liter. Cztery takie cyfry pozwolą nam odkryć kombinację do złamania zaszyfrowanego zamka do archiwum, w którym znajdziemy dane nieszczęsnego pacjenta. Ogólnie jest tutaj ogromna powtarzalność. Latamy między piętrami, wyłączamy światło i zapoznajemy się z plikami w poszukiwaniu anomalii. Niemniej trzeba oddać, że atmosfera niepokoju nie daje nam odetchnąć i na każdym kroku odczuwamy, że jesteśmy na krawędzi życia i śmierci. Klimat potęguje oprawa audiowizualna. Świetny dźwięk, elegancka grafika w stylu PSX robią robotę. Z drugiej strony można było grę rozwinąć jeszcze bardziej. Potencjał na to był (i jest) ogromny. Zanim odkryłem właściwego pacjenta zginąłem trzy razy w różnych momentach, ale w końcu się udało. Gra jest krótka, ale tania. Ja polecam 6/10

[u]Tl;dr:[/u] [i]Good atmosphere and decent PSX graphics, but extremely tedious and boring gameplay.[/i] It hurts me that I cannot recommend this game. It really does. There are most certainly good things here. The PSX style graphics are very well done and, combined with the subdued ambient soundtrack, provide some effective atmosphere. The game concept is also fairly interesting: You are alone at a hospital late at night where, due to a simple spelling error, one of your 10 patients was mistakenly injected with an experimental, mutagenic drug. It is your task to figure out which patient is compromised so they can be "dealt with" before they turn and go on a rampage. Now if you think this all sounds like an exciting idea for a horror game, [b]you'd be right![/b] Unfortunately the gameplay does not live up to that potential. It is boring, tedious and success is largely determined by RNG. [b]Buckle up, I have a lot to say and will spoil the entire game. If you still want to support the developers, buy the game. Despite the negative review, I want to encourage it so that they can learn and do it better next time.[/b] This is how it works: In order to figure out which patient will become the monster, you need to find a 4-digit code for the room with the medical records. To do this, you need to leave your office and head down to where the patient cells are. At the end of the hall is a small room with a floppy disk drive. Load a single file to the floppy, head back to your office and upload the file to your computer. This will take a while, so it's best to head back down and check if the lights of the cells are all still turned off. They will periodically turn on, which you do not want as this agitates the sleeping patients and accelerates the mutation process. Keep the cells dark. Get back to your computer, check the file for any glitches that give you a hint for the code, then head back down to get another file. Go down, get file, go up, upload file, go down, check cells, go up, check file, [i]rinse and repeat the exact same process until you figure out the code.[/i] Input code, get the file, kill the correct patient. Oh, and you are on a time limit! Even if you are diligent with turning off the lights, you have roughly 35 minutes before the patient mutates and kills you anyways, at which point you have to start all over. The files you get are also entirely random, so you could get the four digits you need right away or you just do not receive them before the timer runs out. It is simply not a fun experience. Now I will say that my experience in the first attempt wasn't too bad. Like I said, the atmosphere is pretty effective at building tension before you figure out how the game actually works and the monster itself has a pretty decent design, with a variety of kill animations in different places. Opening a cell door hatch to see the face of a disgruntled patient silently glaring back at you is also a pretty effective scare the first few times it happens. Having to periodically check the patient cells is not the issue: It's the lack of engaging tasks to actually win that is. Perhaps the game would've worked better if we had to conduct some (possibly unethical) experiments on the patients to find the compromised one. Or if we do need to search files, have us cross-reference information between different rooms or something else more proactive than just waiting most of the time.

Despite what a few of the players on here have said about the game in regards to being able to run, the game is beatable & can be quite addictive if you push yourself hard enough. While it would be nice to have a run button for the people who want to save that extra bit of time, I think the real issue lies with how the game makes it mandatory to find all 4 codes before you are able to access the patient records. This may seem a little nit picky but for me, the game is purely based on RNG, so expect to die a lot before you finall are able to figure it out, which is why I mentioned that perhaps you should be allowed t guess the code if you want to. It is possible however to guess the patient if you really want to try & speed run this game, but I don't recommend this. The game is very well presented with very good replication of the PSX era with dithering, affine warping & more. Overall, despite it's rather (sometimes annoying) flaw in the RNG, I do recommend picking it up. The devs have clearly put a lot of effort & time into it, and I hope they expand on the game in the future. Not only this, the price of the game is cheaper than a cup of coffee & I think anyone arguing over the price needs a reality check. This clearly has a lot of effort put into it which makes the game worth much more imo.

Roaches.

This game is definitely not meant for everyone. It is NOT a walking-sim horror game. It's a game that requires a bit of thinking to solve one major puzzle (the code). However, it is possible to guess the right patient without finding the code. There is a lot of repetitive, linear movement (a lot of walking back and forth). So, if all of the above isn't your thing, then this game is probably not for you. Length: The goal is fairly simple, but it took me 3.5 hours to figure out the "puzzle." Again, you can speedrun this by guessing the right patient. Bugs & Glitches: It does have a few glitches, but they do not affect your gameplay. Overall: Is it the easiest game to play? No. Did I find it satisfying after figuring out what I was supposed to do? Yes. I personally would give it a 7/10. But again, I can also see someone easily rage-quitting this.

it's short and seems like you can replay it once or twice I guess if you fail, since it randomizes the solution. the bad ending is kinda lazy though, it's the same as if you took too long.