See the reviews and the forum. At least one (final?) update is missing up until this day. So as interesting the game is to me, I won't buy an abandoned product.
- As for others in the forum, the main menu is invisible for me, so starting the game requires some blind keystrokes that may also just quit the game. - Pressing ESC in-game pauses the game and makes the picture become greyscale. Should there be a menu, too? - The standard key controls aren't convenient for me, but because of no menus, I can't change them or even tell if I *could* change them if the menus were there. I stopped playing after ten minutes and deleted the game.
Seriously, even in 2016 games had key rebinding for decades! I substracted 2 stars for this alone, because I normally don't use WASD, and also because some of the addintional keys like Z and X for some additional functions were very inconvenientl placed. Thus, I was very annoyed by the controls the whole time playing this game. The extremely slow movement without a run key (that I could find) also added to a very tedious experience. The game is very short and consists only of a handful of rooms and one other location that is very annoing and tedious in its own regard (I don't say more to avoid spoilers.) Apart from these fun-breaking flaws, The Guest is quite a nice if overall mediocre puzzle game that seems more like a demo than a full game because of its short play time and very small locations. I'd recommend to buy it on a heavy sale like 70+%.
Just look at similar games of the last three decades in the arcades or on consoles. Most of them have 2P coop gameplay. Playing them together multiplies the fun for me, so I'll pass on this one, although it looks very nice (two stars for that).
15 months ago, the Steam version got the Fellowship Sanctuary update with online co-op. One of the devs promised it also for the GOG version, only to fall silent shortly after that despite several inquiries about the progress. So, I'll have to conclude that they abandoned their GOG customers. Shame on them. If online co-op is remotely important for you, don't buy this game here. My second star is only for the nice single player and local co-op experience. But I despite empty promises and two-class society behaviour, so I can't give any more.
My first impression was very positive, because the graphics and overall presentation are really nice. But it quickly shifted into being negatively surprised: Fixed controls in 2021, really?! And the toggeble "CRT filter" just blurs the picture like if you're long-sighted and misplaced your glasses. So, instead of a nice retro experience, I only have the choice between blocky or blurry. Both parts are signs of extreme negligence in polish, and diminish my playing experience to a significant extent. It's unfortunate, since I would've liked to like or even love this game, but controls and (here: retro) visuals are such central elements of a game that I can't just overlook them. All that said, I still like the rest of the game, and the native Linux support couldn't be praised enough. If some future update would add customizable controls and a better CRT filter, this game could actually become a really gem to me.
And no, I won't buy this game anywhere else with DRM to get the co-op. The devs won't get any money from me.
As others said here, the game mixes hack & slash with bullet hell. While a nice idea in theory, it results here in too many buttons and both analog sticks used, so you'll have to change quickly between too many controls for my taste, e.g. the right thumb alternating between the ABXY buttons and the right analog stick. And it's made even worse by not allowing free button configuration for the game controller, but only a choice of a handful of presets – in 2016! (up to 2019 when a fourth (!) preset was added by update,) I got bored by this in the first boss fight and asked for a refund. A shame, because aesthetically, the game is a real gem.
