Today Is My Birthday is sadly a disappointing and kind of bad horror, adventure game, so let’s get into the story. A young photographer named Thomas is depressed, today is his birthday, normally a birthday is supposed to be a joyous celebration. Unfortunately he has no reason to celebrate his father having passed not too long ago and not really having anyone to confide in.
So to cheer himself up he decides to go to wonder Park a theme park his dad used to take him on his birthday, even though the park has been closed for some time due to earthquakes, Thomas wants to go there just to snap some pictures and remember the good old days, but the moment he steps into the park he's going to have a birthday he'll never forget.
The likes, for the most part the story is pretty good, it has a good B horror movie charm to it, like if you watched old horror movies you can definitely see the influences of it from crazy cultists, cannibals and a deranged doctor, to even killer dolls it was quite good, although there were some problems with it that I will get to in the dislikes.
The opening segment was good as it told everything we needed to know about Thomas and why he was going to the spooky place in the first place and about the park itself. Also the hand drawn art for the opening segment, the loading screens and the pictures of the bad guys was pretty good and well drawn.
The graphics were nice with a good use of colors and scenery although it was too dark in certain places; the levels were good each one was quite visually distinct from the amusement park to the underground and the forest. The enemies were okay each one had their own nice look, also you probably seen them before in other games as their stock characters.
The soundtrack was okay, no real music just ambient sounds which was fine, the voice acting was okay some voice acting was good like for the doctor and the clown, some were okayish like for Thomas. The puzzles were okay, it is simply just a fetch an item or key nothing too complicated.
The notes were good as you know I'm a fan of notes in video games and these were good as they expanded some of the characters and story, especially loved the notes of the hammer guy I legitimately feel bad for him.The atmosphere was okay wasn't really intense, nothing to make you jump out, now is the game scary, not really it can be a bit more disturbing but I've seen better, it's just adequate.
The dislikes, there are some bugs in the game that can make it frustrating like the worst bugs are probably near the end like when you're fighting the witch I was having difficulty going up stairs to the point he had to jump around just to get up there and then there's the boss fight with her son and he glitched through the wall and I couldn't do anything, I had to just restart start the game. Also three achievements are glitched paparazzo, True detective and Return to video rental achievements do not unlock.
Now as I said for the most part the story was pretty good, but did have some problems with it, one: Some things were not explained like the living dolls, like how are they alive it's not like something our character is hallucinating, no everyone in the game acknowledges yeah these are dolls walking around and killing people, the best explanation we're given is a note talking about a doll factory burning down in the 1870s, but that's about it.
Two: I think the more horrific stuff in the game could have been expanded upon, like the doctor harvesting organs and the stuff with the chainsaw man; it could have been much more horrific and disturbing I mean yeah it is expanded upon a little bit in notes but feels like it didn't go far enough.
Three: The ending was pretty dumb, [spoiler] in the end we're saved by a guy in a truck only to find out he's the Mastermind, but the way we find out is after we give him our camera he's explaining his evilness while still driving and I'm like isn't that something you're supposed to do after your position is safe and the hero won't, you know grab the steering wheel and crash it, also in the bad ending when he pulls up to his henchman I'm wondering wait we have a gun and I know I've have like 12 bullets in it, why don't we just you know shoot him and his three henchmen that's outside the truck. [/spoiler]
Now finally some of the boss fights in the game could be annoying, the worst fights being the Witch's son he's so fast and he moves fast and if you're not careful he can kill you pretty quickly, he also has two guys with him which can also kill you and it’s pretty annoying.
Also for some reason while his two henchmen can be killed with bullets he's killed with a camera flash, I don't know why it's not explained like it was with the dolls boss. And finally I don't know if it's my computer, but the loading for this game is a real pain it feels like it takes forever to load up.
Alright with that said Today Is My Birthday is sadly a disappointing and kind of bad horror, adventure game, even those it does have a pretty good story, okay enemies and good notes, I honestly can't recommend this game especially since I've seen other games like this do it a whole lot better.
