I got this for free and wish I had my time back. While the presentation of the game, its pixel art and style and top down view is honestly impressive, a beautiful facade hides a complete mess that should go back into early access stat. The Detective prologue was actually awesome - balanced rooms with both combat and explorations, interactive story elements that would influence your sanity, just a couple deranged cultists trying to get you and a boss - gave me a lot of hope for a mythos based game. Sadly the devs completely forgot to actually make the game playable and the game devolves into a bullet hell with completely cluttered screens where you are unable to even understand where your character is before the ganging up begins. Enemies aren't content to shoot you with unavoidable attacks, but simultaneously inflict bleed, poison, mental damage, electricity and corrosion together no exception as you spam healing. The worst are the omnipresent TRAPS, even hidden by decor, so much you can't actually traverse some rooms or right where you enter the room with more unavoidable damage, the instant ganging up of an insane quantity of enemies in cramped rooms,enemies able to hit you behind walls, regenerate, multiply, summon more, and not being able to walk without tripping bleeding spikes, freezing vent, spider nests completely kills the fun. I unlocked the witch,a glass cannon killed in one hit facing late game earlier character bosses in the prologue, and I was done the moment chapter 3 boss had an army of unkillable phatom limbs with a room overrun with stun traps that make your character go insane. And that was after shoggoth bullet hells, getting stuck behind crates and having to restart, getting uncurable wounds like internal bleeding that just kill your run with little chance of recovery aside from very rare late game drops. It's like the devs heard "make it hardcore" and thought bad design choices were a substitute for fine balancing. What a wasted opportunity.
This game is a work of art in so many ways it's hard to pick one. Its art style and dark fantasy setting are reminiscent of titles like Dark Souls and The Witcher,while adding a unique twist in the tradition of anthropomorphic animals that could fit a Disney/Pixar movie : the amount of detail is unreal (which is ironic,since the game runs on Unity);and runs so smoothly that major publishers should be ashamed they can't run their triple A titles so perfectly. The balance of contrast and saturation is spot-on,creating a beautiful balance of realism and fantasy that is never heavy on the eyes,and the amount of detail is greatwhile not being overbearing,meaning you won't need witcher vision/eagle sight/search function to spot items you can interact with,and in case you're having trouble,the tooltip will let you know regardless. The gameplay is an odd mix of adventure,RPG and stealth : you are limited in violent options to contestual actions,like pushing a barrell to drop it on a guard,at least in early access,but the ability to hide in every nook and cranny and the speed at which you can outpace enemies are great tools at your disposal,together with quick wit and tool management. By doing quests and collecting items you can unlock abilities that will make your life considerably easier,and provide meaningful insight into the main story. The main quest is a bittersweet story that is captivating for both mature and younger players and deals with themes ranging from loss to relationships and racism,war and oppression,selfishness and selflessness,and despite the lack of voice acting the NPCs are interesting,often quirky and snappy,turning your seemingly clever answers against you. Exploration is the core of the experience,since all of the above are not very deep in their own way:there's no hardcore aspect,but it doesn't detract from the game in any way since it all wraps together. If you like atmosphere,adventure and like stories with uncommon protagonists,get this game.
