While I am glad this release is here, however not my cup of tea, I did have to have a third cup of straight black coffee in order deal with the lack of energy GoG has put into this week so far. Not to mention last week.

C'mon, spice it up GoG. Bring on those juicy releases and re-releases. You're dragging imo.

Hopefully the upcoming Halloween sale will spice things up.

Honest question - is it just me, or is something wrong (and not in a "it's a horror game" way) with the characters? I mean, I'm trying to put aside my general lack of enthusiasm for new games with pixel graphics, and still the characters are these stick-figure spidery things. It doesn't help that everything is very brown-gray-ish and sort of bleeds together.

The pixel graphics may seem crude because the camera is zoomed in very closely, but they are neither blurry nor lacking in color. All relevant objects and 'enemies' are clearly distinguishable and stand out from the background graphics, so that's not an issue. In addition to the characters appearing very thin, they look much fatter in-game, and there are also some very overweight characters. Imagine a fat, bearded lady who is seven months pregnant. The explanation for why they look the way they do, in line with their graphical representation, can be discovered while playing.

What's more important here is the story, which has captivated me from the beginning. I want to learn more about the characters and their shared past, to know what might be coming next. The horror aspect has been somewhat understated, at least up to this point. Yes, there are certain scenes, but it doesn't seem to be the primary focus. Instead, it's the psychological aspect, the narration of horrifying events, which are depicted in both conversations and the main protagonist's diary and continually updated, that takes center stage. So, there are no cheap jump scares.

The survival aspect is not a major obstacle, even on the higher of the two available difficulty levels, which is the one I'm playing on. Another aspect that could be significant is the control method, which can be done with a controller (the recommended input method) or exclusively with the keyboard. The mouse is only available within the main menu. There is no voice acting, and the game is rather text-heavy.

It's worth mentioning that the number of items the protagonist can carry is limited, so you need to think about what you currently need and where things are located. It may happen that items you don't currently need are lying around. Backtracking is generally a dominant aspect of Vlad. On the positive side, the diary keeps track of where the deposited items are located.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that manual saving of game progress is not possible. I couldn't find any bugs after around 2 hours and 35 minutes of gameplay, and crashes didn't occur either. Nevertheless, I would generally recommend creating regular backups of the autosave game progress. The save files are located in the following directory: C:\Users(your username)\Saved Games\Vlad Circus.

If all of this doesn't deter you, and you're willing to overlook your limited enthusiasm for pixel games, the graphics, and the perceived monotony, you might have an interesting game in front of you that could provide you with several hours of entertainment.

Thanks for all the info. Unfortunately, it sounds like someone tried to make an adventure game I would hate, despite my love for the genre. No manual saving, no mouse, lots of forced backtracking... it's like a checklist of things that would make me use the clip of Kevin Spacey shouting "WRONG!". I can overlook graphics I'm not too fond of (I loved Darkside Detective despite the huge pixels), but this is evidently just isn't for me.

You're welcome. :)

I also prefer manual and quicksaves over a single autosave file. Considering the relatively high auto-saving frequency, a limited number of incremental save states would have been better because it significantly lowers the risk of losing progress when a crash occurs. Besides that, manual or quick saves allow me to replay the game from a certain point.

Using a single autosave and wiping it when it's played at the highest difficulty would make sense if this were a survival or rogue-like/-lite game. While there are survival aspects and the protagonist can be "killed" or lose his mind, the only consequence is that he will wake up close by, not knowing how he got there. If there were more "enemies," this mechanic could be exploited to get around the house faster or back to it.

The excessive amount of backtracking doesn't feel forced. There are only so many locations to explore in and around the house, but the short gametime makes it doubly felt and can negatively impact the experience. I can only think of one reason to endure it, and that's the story. There are no items, collectibles, or dialogues to miss by not going back to a location to talk to characters more than once. After dialogue choices have been exhausted and due to the game's linear progression, there is no reason to do it until another plot point has been reached and new dialogue options become available. Add: Backtracking doesn't feel forced in Vlad. It simply becomes more apparent since the game itself isn't very long.

Without any inherent motivation and incentives to keep playing, I would not have put up with any of the shortcomings of Vlad or Sally Face. Both have many things in common: no manual saves, no way to rebind keys, only a single autosave state... all those things no one really likes in games. But in hindsight, I can confidently say that both also had the same strengths: an interesting premise, a story that, for the most part, kept me hooked and made me want to learn more, topics I can relate to and understand, and that alone made it easy for me to look past and accept what can't be changed to see it through to the end.

Please understand that with what I have written, I'm not trying to sway you to give Vlad a chance where you might not otherwise.