Looks great, has a good concept but it's way too easy to run out of resources. People keep dying because they run out of food but the food in the inventory of housing units don't count. Buildings will say there is an issue with getting the resources to and from the building but won't tell you the solution. You jave to wait for workers to be born and grow. Upkeep price is on everything that gives additonal resources. Trade via the docks takes a whole game year to complete. Even real life colony building isn't this absurd. Why can't my hunters hunt? there is a literal bear roaming my city. Why can't my people pick herbs?? Why can't we order people to makke new people on command? Why do I have to HOPE they make lots of kids while my resources are high?? Why do I need a separate unit to make firewood and lumber? I wanted to like this game but it's a huge let down.
The kid will scratch his chin wondering what to do for 5 whole seconds if you Z on something that does nothing. Which would be FINE if there wasn't parts of this game where you have LESS than 5 seconds to move before you die. In some places the next step in the puzzle doesn't make any sense. For example there is a fire you put out with WATER but you still have to use a stick to move the remains. WHY? To avoid getting burned? IT IS WET. There are times when you KNOW what the next step is and will see the item you kknow you need but when you try to take it, nothing happens because it's not THAT item, it's the OTHER item that is THE SAME ITEM but without the hit box. There is no settings or controls section in the menu so be sure your sound is right before you start. Everything is keyboard controls which I kindd of get because it's simple but it begs the question why is there no option to click things if it's just a matter of Z? Which brings me to my next key point there are no options to customize controls. If you NEED custom controls because you are disabled, or can't use a keyboard for any reason, or do not have a gaming mouse, AVOID THIS GAME. If you have a lot of patience and none of what I mentioned above is a deal breaker, then go ahead and buy it on sale. It has an element of fun in trying to avoid death, figuring out the puzzles and watching the story unfold. The visuals are nice and feel very story like. There aren't any jarring jerky animations that makek you feel motion sick but if you fall far enough your eye does feel caught off guard. I give this a better rating than some of the side scrolling puzzle games out there but the chin scrathing thing that gets you killed for its length alone is what gives this game a less than 3 star rating.
I love it when games go on sale because it means getting to play something fun for less money. However even though this was .99 on sale and it is a game, I didn't have fun playing. There are so many items that are used throughout the game,, but the game only lets you pick them up when they are needed and no sooner. This makes it cumbersome more than inuitive. You have to try and hopefully guess where in the game you have to go to get XYZ items, even though intuitively there could be more than one option. For example, there is a wood plank you must pick up which is fine right? Well you can only get that one wood plank instead of the 7 others that are in the scene. Clicking things does not always work and nothing happens even though it was the thing you needed to click. Other things you have to double click and there is no indicator to let you know this. The NPC you interact with all game is constantly making the game stop with dialogue that doesn't need to be said. For example when you click anything in your inventory. Things you tried clicking before with become active, making your mouse cursor change, and the NPC will come up to let you know that you've clicked an item you don't need. There is a game within the game, which I usually love, but in this case it was a point and click puzzle in a point and click puzzle. This just felt exhausting after a few hours of trying to get through the main game. The game was so tiring in terms of feeling like I had no alternative methods to find solutions to the task at hand that it didn't even spook me like I was hoping. The few jump scares that were present stopped making me jump because they were all delivered the same, The music was only eerie up until the second hour and then it just became a burden on my ears to hear. Words can not express how much I did not like playing this game. I didn't bother to finish it even though it can be done in an afternoon, if that is any indicator to how much I did not like this game.
