Those Who Dwell

I'm tossing my hands up in defeat, as I walked through a door and was returned to the main menu. Continue doesn't load anything up, and I don't have it in me to run through the game again. Looking past that frustration this was really a mixed experience. The story is relatively light. You're going into a mine/cave system where some folks disappeared. You can find notes in various places that shed some light on what happened, but not enough to really give you firm answers. I didn't get an ending, so I can't tell you if it comes to a conclusion that wraps things up and gives you an answer. I can only point you in the direction of a Kevin James shrug meme. Despite the disappointment here, the writing is rather good. I was certainly interested in learning more about what happened, and finding notes was always a happy moment of learning something new. The light system... It's the 90s. A flashlight would've made way more sense than taking an oil lantern with the hopes you'll find fuel for it as you explore. I also found no reason to push back the dark, aside from an overall inability to see anything if you don't have fuel in the lantern. Easily fixed with some increase to brightness, which I opted for because trying to navigate the maze of a cave left me doubling back and repeating my steps far more often than I'd of liked. The atmospheric tension is mostly there. The vibes are good. It's got that eerie cave/mineshaft vibe going on, although there's nothing that really puts you on edge. There are some... Shadow people, I guess. They might give you a little spine shiver the first time you see them, but afterwards they just kind of exist and never say hello to you. The environmental storytelling is limited. You have notes, some cave paintings, some candles/lights, cave-ins, and a handful of other things that you'll run into. The notes give you snippets of what happened, some minor clues that didn't seem to lead anywhere most of the time. But, they do serve the purpose of keeping you engaged and wanting to push forward. I liked that. The cave paintings were cool but needed more information to go along with them so it wasn't just your interpretation of what they meant. There's a bit of backtracking you'll have to do because you need to reach certain points before realizing you need something you passed earlier. There are only a few times this happens, but after the first it just seems silly. You pass by a shovel that you don't need. You push forward and find a cave in where the lightbulb in your brain goes off and you realize you need something to clean that up. It's the shovel, obviously. Later on the same thing happens with a handle. I get that it's possible for the main character to not look at this stuff and go "Hmm, I might need these." But there's certainly a disconnect because as the player I'm connecting the dots already. I'd rather be dumber than the character I'm playing, than have the character I'm playing be dumber than me. 3 different endings sounds nice. I can see how at least 2 of the endings might come together, but my ending was just a kickback to the main screen. Which... Might not even be an ending. I doubt it is. I'll never see the ending, I imagine. It's like walking up a mountain where there's a really cool coffee shop, but when you get there it's empty. Or closed. And you'll have to walk up that mountain all over again if you want to try for that coffee shop. The coffee shop that might not even be open or have coffee. And, unfortunately, I cannot bring myself to do that again. So, in the end it's really just a mixed feeling experience. Looking at it as a chill experience in a mine/cave or whatever leaves me feeling like it was a fairly decent use of my time. If I put my focus there, I think it's a good experience for people that like walking sims without any real threat. Your mileage may vary. The developer has been pretty prompt with fixing bugs and active in discussions, so I have no doubt they can improve on the experience for those who come after.

I really like the game its good just dont know where the key is when I get the lever I dont know if its a bug or not here's my youtube to see what im talking about Besties_ForLife 2022

A descent into the dark. Shifting shapes, ominous ambience, a VHS camera, and the fight to keep alive your dwindling light. There's a lot to praise here, but not without a few knocks to the experience. I enjoyed the VHS aesthetic and the growing static as a diegetic indicator of your lamplight fading and the subsequent increasing danger. The writing in the historical letters scattered throughout the world was tight and evocative (I'd have liked to see more of this parallel historical story through gameplay!). In terms of chapter progression, I did enjoy the escalation into the strange and the growing mix of apprehension and curiosity the environments evoke. I enjoyed the nebulous ending I received -- there's a mechanic of corruption versus revivification that contributes to your ending, which was a good concept (if needing a little more signposting to understand the consequences!) -- I think next time I'll have to corrupt my way through ;p (I did encounter some bugs, and required some puzzle assistance at times, but the dev was very responsive and swiftly pushed patches) Ultimately, this was a good experience crafted by a skilled solo dev, worthy of praise -- if you like thick, dreadful atmospheres and a story of strange entities, cults, and lost history, then check this one out :)

The VHS style is what called me to this game and the unnerving atmosphere it brings. At first I was a little confused on what I was doing but with some help from a fellow streamer, everything made sense and from there the game only got so much better. It's also really awesome to see like weekly updates from the dev. 10/10 recommend trying this out!

The idea is really good and the environment is well built, i'm enjoying the exploring and getting to know the lore and back story of what happened.... Can't wait to explore more of the game world.

Atmospheric and beautifully crafted, Those Who Dwell delivers an immersive, folklore-rich horror experience with engaging story and eerie cave exploration. While it could use more tension, danger, and audio variety, it still stands out as a captivating indie adventure. But overall an amazing game that I have and will continue to recommend to my friends to purchase and play! Rating: 7/10 Watch my playthrough here: [url=https://youtu.be/4kXk9O5n8Ho]Playthrough[/url]; Read my full review here: [url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/145397511?pr=true]Full Review[/url];

Very atmospheric and creepy! I felt on edge when I saw the shadow people and felt a real rush to try and find more oil to relight my lantern. It's easy to get lost in some of the winding mine tunnels which puts more pressure on, as the lantern will run out and the scary shadow men come back! I really like the variety in the different levels, just visually and the different puzzles per level, it's clear that a lot of thought has been put into that. I absolutely love that controller support has been added, as that's my preferred way of playing first person games. I found a couple of minor issues, but it looks like the dev is actively fixing things pretty quickly so I can't really complain! I will be trying to get all the endings eventually..

I haven’t managed to finish it yet, but I think I’m close. Even though I didn’t really feel a sense of looming threat, the setting is interesting and the atmosphere drew me into the narrative exploration. It’s a simple game, but if you enjoy first person walking simulators and mystery, it’s worth playing.

There's quite a number of bugs and the gameplay isn't really the best, basically an unpolished walking simulator to put it bluntly. The gameplay is just not fun and unscary, you walk around in the dark just constantly doing fetch quests; looking for some specific item to progress while getting constantly whispered to, which was mostly annoying and cliche. There was nothing to be scared of; no enemies to kill you or force you to hide. Maybe I just couldn't get far enough in the game (literally couldn't, door not opening). I like the setting though, reminds me of Penumbra Overture. I plead the devs to work on their horror/gameplay in future games, for I see some potential. Most major bugs I encountered were: no darkness in the part where you must build a bridge & not being able to use any keys at the door to the ladder, which blocked me from progressing in the game at all. I remain.

This was a really interesting game it took much longer than anticipated and i did spent about 20 minutes looking for a light source which was not apparent and I could already see a lantern icon. I have fed this back to the Dev who is implementing something so watch this space. I turned off the VHS and thankyou for the flashing lights off too. Would have been great to have a toggle crouch and run, something that maybe be seen in the future also. I enjoyed seeing the story unfold even if still a little hazy at the end as to what exactly had happened and not really fully understanding if what i was doing was having an impact or not and on whom or what, the game is more a walking sim where you need to protect yourself although there is light areas, those make no odds to those who dwell, I suppose they got used to that sort of light? I was left at the end of the game feeling a little like I missed something, did they try to stop something getting in or getting out and what exactly had they uncovered, what had i uncovered. I got ending 1/3. Overall an interesting game, and with a few small tweaks will be even better.