I found the game to be overall quite enjoyable. It's definitely low-budget but that's okay. The story and characters I found to be compelling. I'd say this game is close to being a great game. It has some minor issues (both technical and story) holding it back however.
I'd say the worst thing about this game is the occasional bugs. When I set the game to my native desktop resolution some menu items appeared slightly off-screen. Not a big deal, but kind of annoying. There aren't any issues affecting playability in my experience.
I'd say the casual gamer probably won't like this game unless they're fans of the genre. If you are a fan of psychological horror games then give this game a try. I'll probably play through the game a second time, which I wouldn't be writing if the game wasn't at least somewhat descent.
Also, to address the other reviewer the game has a checkpoint system. The game auto-saves frequently enough. I promise, it's not an issue when playing.
In conclusion, give the game a try. I enjoyed my time with it.
2.5/5 5.5/10 (3/5 if not for analytics and a few very tedious things in game)
Be aware the game generates Unity analytic logs within unity's 'archived' folder.
Endgame story spoiler in the very last paraphrase.
A lot about analytics below for those that care about this, if not skip to the end for actual game related stuff..
Ive had enough of this in games and my data being logged, used or having background things generating and being 'on' which takes up resources and performance needlessly and I will start adding it in every game I find it in no matter what kind it is or how good the game is otherwise.
Information is the antidote to our data being used as a trade!
The unity analytics present here is among the gentler kind, but still PII.
It generate analytic logs which is stored within unity's archived folder, which can be used to send information about u and ur device to unity.
Exactly what is archived and if its even sent in this case Im not sure of, but it does generate and store them.
I know enough by now how it can all be used, the sneaky workarounds like hiding ads and analytics generator in another dll to prevent disabling and detection (which this game seem to have done since none of the unity analytic dll's are present yet it still generates logs, I wasnt able to spot where it came from, I spent hours on this btw).
And things like flawed legislations with loopholes etc.
This can all be easily prevented by going to the folder named Analytics, which is somewhere in ur Unity folder. I played it using Heroic, and on Linux it might look something like this:
home/urname/Games/Heroic/Prefixes/default/gamename/drive_c/users/urname/AppData/LocalLow/something/gamename/Unity/longweirdname/Analytics/archived
On wine default/windows its prob somewhere in ur appdata/local low folder.
For native games, (not relevant for this game) it hides in ur config/unity3d folder.
Right click the Analytics folder(or chmod it w/e method you prefer) and under permission revoke it so it only has Read access, no Write. You might need admin to change this. If you already played it b4 doing this, delete the archived folder within the Analytics folder first. It will no longer be able to generate them after this.
You can test this by restarting game with and without Write permission. some games generates a LOT of archived logs continously, this one only a few.
I dont want anything generating and analysing my gameplay to see where I suck or how long I take to beat this section, or what choices I make, end of story.
Note that not all devs is aware of this, always give them the benefit of the doubt first.
Many have no clue how to even disable it! (in ur Unity Services panel last I checked).
But also note that this game doesnt have the usual unity analytics dll's that generate analytics? Which to me means this is intentional and whatever generates them have been 'hidden' deliberatly. No config to disable analytic gen no matter what I tried.
For Linux devices unity analytics are, supposedly, now automatically disabled and no longer sent. We get no option to opt out b/c its 'off' for privacy/GDPR etc. I dont put my trust in this but nvm. On windows you 'should' have an opt out popup.
This is where the flawed legislations and loopholes come in, b/c this fall on devs to implement, not unity. And we know that doesnt always happen.
And we also know the value of gold and silver vs data these days. Why does it generate these in the bkground and why cant we disable analytics in a config file here in this case like I can in many other games?( I always check this, block write access for all the analytic dll's, delete crashhandler etc).
Anyway that was a whole lot of stuff not actually about the game, which I would have preffered to use it for.
If you care you can do as I did, if not play it and enjoy it for what it is!
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Its a decent game, I enjoyed part of it but was also kinda glad to be finished with it by the end sry.
I loved the grainy visuals and the entities. The story itself was decent, but sad.
Its a story about guilt, depression and loss.
The music is nice and omg ty for introducing me to Jon Worthy and the Bend's 'Please tell Me'!
Voiceover is decent.
Loved the parts where it switched bk and forth in realities, and some of the puzzles near the end.
What I didnt like, which drags the game down for me a lot combined with the analytics part (something I always mention and deduct If I spot it):
It drags out for longer than it should imo.
There is a LOT of lockers to open to find 1 item, a lot of boxes to move to find 1 item underneath, if any, to progress.
Sry but that was the worst for me, opening 20 lockers, or drawers, in several chapters, just to find that 1 item, or to check in case there was something you missed. Or opening 30 doors to find that one that lets u escape with her on ur tail.
It became so tedious with this after a while, and halfway through I stopped reading any logs and letters completely and just relied on the spoken dialogue.
The light switches are imposible to see most of the time, to the point where I was 100% sure there was no way to enter and there was no switch in that room and felt like I was back to back with the entities looking for it at but then in fact there was one, you just need to go really far into the room to see/click it. Or its hidden behind a box..
And its very dark and hard to see in many places as is.
Other things also drag out time, like the big maze and not being able to run when you hold a statue.
All this again coalign in any game with analytics, to get as much info as they can while you play it.
Its also a game where you are literally judge and executioner and have to decide who to spare and who to condemn eternally to hell. Something Ive found analytics love to know about.
Generally its not easy to know what to do much of the time, or your sitting there sure you checked everywhere and then look up YT and see it was in this dark hidden corner under a box.
Then you end up checking every box, every drawer, every locker, every painting, every door, pull out everything from the shelf but nothing was underneath any of it. That sort of stuff, which greatly frustrates me in games :s
End boss was so simple yet I had to look up YT where to go, b/c it was so dark and you automatically go for the lights for an escape. I only saw the floor gap b/c I looked it up after several tries. End stuff also has you working for it to solve that puzzle but it was okay.
Its got a lot of good stuff, good story, good horror too!
But then stuff like this which is a bit lacking of full dedication and felt a bit lazy.
Such as barrels you use as pressure on levers, but you can only place them sideways so they roll off it and away.
I ended up sitting with a YT playthrough for most of the second half of the game, both b/c I wanted it done with and didnt find it fun to check all these lockers etc for 1 key, and b/c some of it just wasnt easy to get, like going through the gap when it first start switching between realities.
But its still a good game despite all this and analytics, and I think many will enjoy it and will love the horror aspects, so be sure to give it a try
and judge yourself!!
Regarding below review saying you cant save, this is true, it saves at checkpoints.
I tested this several places to find out and its fine. The checkpoints are frequent enough and you dont loose much.
Spoiler:
The ending was a bit abrubt and lackluster but not bad.
I kinda thought his wife was dead, or at least they were split up, else why would she meet with another guy like we see in beginning? I also kinda go the impression he was either dead, in a coma or had a real mental issue. But then he just goes bk to his wife and they were apparently still fine and together? Maybe I missed something here b/c I skipped logs a lot, but based on the beginning, this didnt make sense to me :)
-Arch Linux EndeavourOS
Game started out great. Innovate plot, excellent graphics, and challenging puzzels. But those monsters are unbeatable, they have no descernable patterns as to their movements, and you have to start over if any of them get you. You spend too much time running and not enough solving the puzzles, which is the real appeal for meabout these games.
