Fun little "horror" puzzle game.
The Exit 8 wants to get into your head, and it does that pretty well. While most anomalies are pretty in your face, some of the anomalies are pretty hard to notice (I managed to miss one). So a lot of fail runs feel like the game is fucking with you for no reason. Very easily was I tricking myself into thinking something was or wasn't wrong, and often did I create rules I thought the game abided by but didn't in the slightest.
Once you get a feel for what kind of things to look for, it gets hard to notice some things you would have otherwise. It feels almost like Papers, Please but instead of being told exactly what to do with 1,000 conditionals you are told nothing and have to find 1 of X conditions. This is really great, honestly. It gave a good amount of difficulty to a game that isn't hard. Had I not been so in my head about what kind of anomalies there would be perhaps I'd have finished it faster.
The game is good. I wish the tutorial was a bit better, but a lot of this game is figuring stuff out for yourself. It is a puzzle, after all. Had the game been more upfront about how it works are perhaps I would have saved myself a bit of stress but again, I partly think that's a part of the game.
If for one thing, I would have appreciated more "horror" to the game. Liminal spaces only go so far and once you've seen each anomaly a few times the fear factor wares off, given most of them are just jump scares. At some point it just feels like you're walking through a UE5 demo of a subway platform with the occasional black ooze.
For $4, it's pretty alright. Nothing exactly groundbreaking, but nothing to sneeze at either. Worth the play if you're interested.
The Exit 8 wants to get into your head, and it does that pretty well. While most anomalies are pretty in your face, some of the anomalies are pretty hard to notice (I managed to miss one). So a lot of fail runs feel like the game is fucking with you for no reason. Very easily was I tricking myself into thinking something was or wasn't wrong, and often did I create rules I thought the game abided by but didn't in the slightest.
Once you get a feel for what kind of things to look for, it gets hard to notice some things you would have otherwise. It feels almost like Papers, Please but instead of being told exactly what to do with 1,000 conditionals you are told nothing and have to find 1 of X conditions. This is really great, honestly. It gave a good amount of difficulty to a game that isn't hard. Had I not been so in my head about what kind of anomalies there would be perhaps I'd have finished it faster.
The game is good. I wish the tutorial was a bit better, but a lot of this game is figuring stuff out for yourself. It is a puzzle, after all. Had the game been more upfront about how it works are perhaps I would have saved myself a bit of stress but again, I partly think that's a part of the game.
If for one thing, I would have appreciated more "horror" to the game. Liminal spaces only go so far and once you've seen each anomaly a few times the fear factor wares off, given most of them are just jump scares. At some point it just feels like you're walking through a UE5 demo of a subway platform with the occasional black ooze.
For $4, it's pretty alright. Nothing exactly groundbreaking, but nothing to sneeze at either. Worth the play if you're interested.