WORLD OF HORROR

This is a really fun, creepy game with a cool aesthetic and some surprisingly deep strategy, with random roguelike elements that don't feel out of place in a world that's falling apart at the seams. The roguelike parts add some replayability, which is why I was able to clock 20 hours in it, but unfortunately the game is designed around mysteries, which, once you've solved once, you already know how to solve in the future (and they're not really much of a "mystery" anymore once you've beaten them once). The idea of going around solving mysteries works really well with the overall idea of the game, but unfortunately not very well with the formula of a roguelike game that's meant to be endlessly replayable. The random events that pop up as you play through are unexpectedly engaging, with the game borrowing the idea of skill checks from other RPG games like DND. You can often make choices in your playthrough depending on what skill checks you think your character is more likely to succeed on. Many of the outcomes do boil down to "take x amount of damage" but this is just how the world is designed, you're supposed to be desperately holding on to health and sanity as the world dies around you. The combat in this game is the weakest part by far, there's very little to be engaged by. It's turn based, and you have many options to choose from, such as attacking, defending, dodging, etc. and you get to take multiple actions per turn as long as you have the stamina for it. But the enemies always do the same thing every turn, which is "do x amount of damage," so there's not really much decision making involved, you usually just find the best sequence for dealing with that specific enemy and then spam it until it's dead. The game is definitely creepy, but I feel like it lacks the ability to be truly "scary." I think it might be another issue with the combat; the mysteries and creepy events build up a sense of tension, but then your encounters with enemies in this world essentially boil down to swinging away at a PNG until it falls over. I don't expect a fully animated cutscene for every combat encounter in an indie game like this, but it's certainly an area that could be improved upon. Overall though, the game is incredibly fun despite these faults, and I look forward to playing any future updates to it.