Welcome to the Game III

[h3] TL:DR: [/h3] Audio, balancing and game pace are terrible. Wait for the game to get updates and probably be on sale, probably one of the weakest games in the (now) Trilogy if not the weakest one (Details further down), 2.5/10 and as I will begin saying, some things could be a skill issue, but definitely not all of it. [h2] Audio and sound cues [/h2] (in the game are genuinely horrible) [list] [*]Hack sound effect still overpowering pretty much everything else, the [*]The only sound cue I can actually get on a normal basis is Tucker's song, [*]I have died to both tanner and lucas multiple times with no idea on how they got to me [*]A thunder storm always happens and makes sound cues harder to hear [*]Tanner’s voice lines seem to be tied to the pause menu sound bar [*]The motion sensors don’t seem to always work, making Lucas and Tanner harder [/list] And that's just what I remember for only the audio [h2] Difficulty and balancing: [/h2] (I know I don’t have much play time and I may try to play a bit more) [list] [*]I’ve only ever ran into three of the [b] SEVEN [/b] killers, [*]Noir did get an update though I still haven’t seen them [*]I tend to forget Cleatus or the Kidnapper even exist cause I’ve never seen either of them [*]The breather can be avoided by just not going to the bridge and getting gear [*]Which may or may not be possible. [*]Tanner has very very quiet sound cues [*]may not have one when he’s running to the front door [*]Tucker as far as I’ve seen only spawns on red wifi box things and can be too easily avoided [*]Lucas is the only one who seems slightly fair [*]Though the breathing mini game is tedious to do. [*]Lucas getting in though a locked door makes sense, tanner doing so doesn’t [*]Lucas also doesn’t seem to have really any audio cues unless your nearby [/list] So sometimes the game feels too easy and sometimes you can get stuck on one hour and have to potentially reset. I would talk about the hack but its really not worth it as they have the same problems really, just really loud. [h2] Lastly the progression is terrible: [/h2] [list] [*]You build up crypto very slowly even if you go for the higher paying ones [*]If you can get a good amount of crypto going everything is so expensive you may not be able to do much anyways. [*]Getting Reputation is really difficult as the only way I know of is through beating hacks, [*]But if you lose the hack then you lose reputation. [*]Keys don’t seem to always appear on functional sites, [*]at least not the always open ones, making the hunt take even longer than it should. [/list] I’ve had a game go for nearly an hour and have only found a fetch file, was rep level one and not even half way there and barely enough crypto to be able to do anything except get a back door. I’ll be honest, I can’t and won’t mention everything as there's probably some things I haven’t even seen yet, the only thing I kinda enjoy is the fact you’re up against others, though they are NPCs.

the one guy who could have been normally countered was tanner. of course a patch was released that it punishes u for checking him, and he has no sound cue either, lucas can come when hack is active aswell as when other threats are active, making it impossible to do anything. the game was delayed for almost a year and still, half of the endings arent even there, but make sure to add 70 tanner skins to milk money. i do not reccomend, the 8 years of waiting were NOT worth it, my fix is add more dlcs for tanner that will do.

idk, I don't know if this games for me but regardless as someone whos pretty new to the series I still feel its fair that I critique it in some form or fashion. Firstly, I couldn't seem to survive past the first hour, and the only time I did, was cause Tanner didn't spawn and immediately instakill me, the enemies aside, its the least of my worries in comparison that to all of the other mechanics that require your attention. Dearest reader, I have a question for you, How are you suppose to: Make DOS, if you have to surf the web and chat with viewers in game, but when you surf the web, your internet goes out in 4 minutes, than while your fixing your internet, your power goes out, so you have to go to the power patch panel and flip the power back on and then fix the internet patch panels, than go all the way back to your desk and sit down only for your internet to go out a 2nd time 40 seconds into your dive on the computer. You get up, to repair it, get ransacked of your meth, but survive. go back to your computer, get hacked, than your internet goes out again. How many inconveniences can you experience before something doesn't feel like its worth even trying for anymore? This game, has a pacing issue, is what I'm getting at, and somehow thats the worst part of this game. There is a lack of balance and delay between inconveniences that knock you over the head, both physically and metaphorically. The wierdest part is that it seemingly only happens to me, cause I'll watch other people play and they seem to get pretty far but everytime I boot the game, I have to fight my internet service provider more than the psychotic killers on the streets. Worse yet, I'd say my 2nd least favorite part of this game is the audio balancing. Shock or Jumpscare horror is cheap, and miserable, I prefer games like Amnesia (the bunker) Darkwood for their atmospheric approaches to horror that build dread instead of hitting you over the head with it. This game could be like the two I just mentioned, but instead, it relys on some of the worst audio balancing I've seen for a video game, to get a cheap scare out of you. Worst yet, Audio ques are key to staying alive but you have to basically subject yourself to the risk of going deaf to hear them. After seeing V4H's review of wttg2 and watching his entire interview with adam, I had nothing but interest in checking out this game. I even wanted to attempt to beat it. I still think deep down that its possible that this game can get into a state where I could beat it. I know bro wants it to be hard. good for him. But its not in a state where i feel like I could beat it.

sound design is really really rough when it comes to detecting killers, THE GAME IS FUN do not get me wrong but i wish i could make literally any progress without dying and thinking "wtf i didnt even hear any sound cues" this is to the point that i refunded the game because i couldnt tell if it was a glitch or not. tucker and tanner are the WORST about audio cues, you can barely tell or have enough time to process if a sound played before your dead not to mention the audio mixing in the game means that if ANY other sound is playing even if its super quiet it will drown out tanner and tuckers audio cues. love the game and love the concept but i really really cant play or recommend the game in its state, the game is allowed to be "difficult" not borderline impossible. even during the very start of the game the checkpoint for the tutorial was before the threats document was even ON the computer so every time i died to cletus without knowing what to do i was punished for DUH not having the guide to what he does and you just RESTART desperately trying to get it back, very hard to start even just playing the game

Atmosphere is brilliant, both the sound design and the look of the game. Finding keys feels rewarding when you stumble across them, it's very fun to figure out what websites are open and at what times, feels good to survive threats, and sending links and files to people is a good addition for DOS. A good base level of skill and learning to do that feels rewarding. However, the RNG-heavy aspect of the game sucks a lot of the life out of it and lessens the rewarding feeling of skill-based gameplay. I don't specifically mean the threats popping up, I was fine with combatting that in a vacuum. Sometimes you could start with barely any DOS to mine, so it encourages restarting until you get what you want. Same with the ACRS. Sometimes you could immediately find people who wants links/files that you can access quickly, sometimes it takes much longer. Upgrading the VM Grid does not feel rewarding due to the RNG aspect of what you can mine actually being available to you. Judging the AI players' progress is also something I found puzzling. At times they can have almost no keys, and then within the hour have around 5. It's confusing when to dedicate a significant amount of DOS to sending a hitman after them, and I've had runs where I kill the one that steamrolls ahead, only for another within the hour to surpass even that. Not game-breaking at all, just wish as a player you could glean more info without moving time away from the main gameplay loop of searching for keys. On top of that, if another AI player is programmed to catch up to where the dead player was, then it doesn't feel rewarding to actually spend DOS to kill them, it almost feels like a waste. Lastly, bugs are a very big issue. I will give credit where credit is due, the developers have been quick with hot fixes and bug patches for bugs, but the amount of either run-ending/soft-locking bugs, does dampen the mood and suck some fun out, but I'm sure, given more time the game will work more consistently. However, right now, it feels like it needed more time in the oven to become more polished and ready for release. Other than that, it's a very fun game.

If there was a neutral recommendation for this game, I would put it as that. I had fun but a frustrating time with this game. A lot of the mechanics in the game can get really irritating after playing for some time. This was my first WTTG but had played Scrutinized and Dead Signal in the past. The game is fun, to a point. You sit down at your PC, get your software to mount into other PC and browse the dark web when suddenly your power goes out. You go outside to fix the power, you go back inside, sit down to browse for keys again. Then the internet goes out. So you get up again to go outside and fix the internet. You hear a shuffle behind you, you stand still for a few moments until you hear again. Good, I fixed the internet. Time to go back and look for keys and whilst you're in the middle of that, you get hacked. Then as you're in the midst of your hack, maybe even just as you are being hacked, your motion sensor starts going crazy meaning Lucas is coming. It's fine I've turned off the lights to reduce his search time. So you go hide in the laundry basket. Oh b*llocks, I forgot to turn my PC off because of the hack, Lucas stole my DOS coin (Does he bring a USB key with him??) so I'm set back after just getting enough to buy another mine tool or grid upgrade. As you leave the laundry basket, the sudden twang of a banjo calls upon you to go look for the motel room door with the ace of spades on it. Better run out there and into the room until I hear the triumphant fanfare! You sit back down to finally look for some keys after scouring countless website and beating numerous hacks, you forgot something. Drugs. GUESS I'LL GO LOOKING FOR METH. You get your drugs, great, that's one less issue to worry about. You hear a rustling on your left meaning Tanner is lurking and going to bum rush the main door, you hold him off by pressing the panic button (Gonna be honest, did not have much of an issue with Tanner or Lucas because of the way my motion sensors were setup). He's gone, back to looking for keys. After dealing with that over and over again, you finally have about two keys. You gotta scourge the ACRS chat to find someone to drecrypt them for you (and you gotta wait on that) and to find the 2nd and 3rd wikis, all while in the process of still dealing with the power, internet dropping and threats. Meanwhile threats get amped up when you find keys. Oh you forgot to check the other players. Bitstriker and Bikerq4 and getting there pretty fast with their keys and it's only 12:30. Better hire a hacker, doxxer and then a hitman to get rid of them, which means saving your money, hoping you have enough equipment to get you through and of course you have some trusty meth on standby, whilst ALSO hoping you get the RNG that someone can show up in the chat to do those. Scouring for keys on websites can be pretty tiring and it can be pretty easy to gloss over where exactly a key is because you missed a clickable word. That was more frustrating than searching the source code or just the key being right in front of you. It was more of a relief to find keys than it was exciting to find one. If you find one and you die, the key will be on the same website just in a different area and it will still be the same string of numbers and letters (Use steam's notepad or windows' notepad even though some might consider that "cringe"). I did enjoy it to a degree. I like the atmosphere of ReflectStudios games because they feel tense, seedy, ominous etc. The only other game that has an atmosphere that reminds me of it is Ready Or Not. And I am a bigger lover of atmosphere in games, so I enjoyed that. It was fun for a while looking for keys, then it just became tiring. The tension in the beginning was also fun. Not knowing when things would happen or kick off. I'll be honest and say I didn't have much trouble with the threats. Once you figured them out, they were a non issue and anytime they got me, was because I messed up. The threats just become a case of "Would you just f*ck off" after a certain amount of time and were really annoying. Same with the outages. I kind of wish there were more creepy or erieness to the threats. Like maybe you see Tanner peaking out at you from the windows/doors of the motel rooms or he'd be creeping behind the cars in the yard or he was hiding in one, behind the trees etc. Maybe you find Cletus passed out on one of the beds. The breather walking down the road, or maybe you catch a glimpse of him in the woods, stalking the place or like WTTG 2 where the Noir appear in windows. They kind of just become a gimmick or nuisance after a while. So overall would I recommend this game? Kinda? It's frustrating and tedious. I did get annoyed/frustrated with it a lot. I did spend 4 days in a row playing it. It is a time consuming game. If you've played the other games, you know what you're getting into. If not, you better have some patience within you.

The game is a massive downgrade in animations, graphics, gameplay and overall quality, based on the previous games. It should be marked as early access as it is unfinished, buggy and extremely unbalanced. It feels vibe coded at best.

Broken mess on lunch. Unbalanced af. Unavoidable instakills. Bad game design used as artefical difficulty. Not worth playing in its current state