A 20-minute game where not much happens, aside from some spooky ambiance it didn't make a big impression, there is essentially no narrative, no context, just 20 minutes of walking around and having some low key jump scares. It reminds me a little of PT but I might be giving it too much credit, instead of looping a house you loop a small part of the town, and sometimes you can access new areas as you progress.
It's not really a horror game either, the few jumpscares it has are either too cute or not very good, but to be fair I thought the look of the town was decent, and it had a few cool visual effects, with the warped tunnel being my favorite. I don't actually think the game is bad, sometimes you get cool vibes from it, I just figured you were going somewhere with it, instead of ending the game on a rather poorly made jumpscare with 2D ____ grabbing me. I suppose the game was maybe about an Onryo, but honestly I couldn't tell if that was the goal.
There were a lot of locked doors in the game so I kept checking all of them, hoping there would be some optional content or extra details, but most of them are cosmetic, and you should be rewarding that curiosity instead of having me click on everything and be disappointed. There are a lot of similar games on steam that also have the same idea where you explore a small area or a loop, but generally what makes them good is having more hidden content so you constantly on the watch for interesting places.
[h1] Pros: [/h1]
(+) The atmosphere was good overall, I thought the game looked interesting, and there were a few nice visual effects. Also I thought the sound design was handled very well.
[h1] Feedback: [/h1]
- the biggest thing I would recommend, if you make a small looping game, just try to add as much hidden content as possible, say you have so many locked doors, have some of them have hidden areas, maybe do more locations on the roof, make sure you reward that curiosity so the player can experiment with the environment. I got nice vibes from walking in that tunnel and on the fire escape, but you need more of that navigational escapism.
- at first I thought the jumpscares were cute, but that 2D grab didn't do much for me, I would try to make a retro 3D model for girl, do something more interesting with it, it came across very cheap looking
- overall the game was just too short, not bad, just not long enough to pay for it, given how simple it is. It's okay for the game to be ambiguous but not to a point where I am left with nothing in the end, I am not sure what the point of me playing it was, nothing to take away from it, you need at least something to make your game memorable
[b] Overall Thoughts: 5/10 [/b]
If this was maybe a 2 hour game with the same quality, I would recommend it, it has some neat visuals, but I feel like too many games on steam do it better, and more of it for the same price. I didn't hate the experience overall, but it definitely wasn't great, I am not sure why I even played it because the game had nothing to say really, what happened? TV girl maybe? Never seen that before.
[code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]
