Got this game back on Steam and I must say it's an absolute joy to play through. The artstyle and animations are very smooth, making for big visual appeal with very cute and animated designs. All the dinos are very distinct and got lots of personality, making me fall in love with the world spun in this game. The soundtrack really helped as well, setting a good mood in every area and scene. The story I found very interesting and the interactions between Zniw and the characters around her were entertaining to read through. Puzzles in this game felt like the right kind of difficulty. It can be hard to gauge at times but no puzzle had me hopelessly stuck for too long. Only criticism I could give there is that some optional goodies can be permanently missable by advancing the story and there were two areas that I missed at first due to lacking context clues that I could proceed there. Overall though Zniw Adventure is an incredibly fun and charming game I can wholeheartedly reccomend.
Like previous Ice Pick Lodge games, particularly Pathologic and The Void, Knock Knock may be difficult to really classify. Alright, a short version might be "survival horror hide and seek" but all of that is accompanied by a story that is deepy wrapped in mystery. Over the course of the game you can find out more about what may be happening in the lodge but as with all good mysteries, most will remain up for interpretation, leaving all players to draw their own conclusions. As in the title, the atmosphere is brilliant and everything fits neatly together. The lodge is pretty old looking and run down, the forest outside has seen better days and even the main character looks like he is in desperate need for a vacation, causing the oppressive atmosphere to remain consistent over the entire game. The enemies also fit very well, apparently mostly themed around decay. The soundtrack is very fitting, if hardly noticable but I can very well imagine that being on purpose to get more focus on the many noises the player will hear during the game. Those noises range from sparks, emitted by broken light bulbs, occasional pounding on the doors to the creepy whispers of your guests. The gameplay itself is very simple. You can move around in the 2D environment, open doors, turn the lights on and off or repair them if neccessary, hide and close breaches in your house. Knock Knock is overall a very unique game, that every fan of horror and/or mystery games should check out.
What can i say about Pathologic? It is many things, making it kinda hard to describe. All around it is an interesting experience, everyone should check out. One strong point is the air of mystery about the game world. At first, everything seems very normal but the player will quickly learn that some supernatural elements are very active and present in the city and not all things are as they seem. Another strong point is the survival horror aspect. Not only will the player have to carefully manage his recourses, as enemies do a lot of damage and sometimes food can be scarce, especially if you want to help others too and the plague is genuinely intimidating, making you dread every time you need to go through an infected district. Where the game falls short is, that it can sometimes be cryptic even when it doesn't need to be, making some of the dialog sound a little forced. But if you want a game with great atmosphere and story, get Pathologic.
