This is like one of the craziest games I've ever played

This game has atmosphere like a motherfucker, genuinely when it started off I loved exploring the hotel, it was a lot of fun and very cozy, then when the game wants the exact same hotel to be terrifying it is. The slow arduous journey from the chapel to your bedroom was the most tense I've felt in a long time. The game's sound design is also on point. Except for the weird end credits song. That kinda sucked.

Anyways, all that comes at odds with this game's baffling story which, as the rest of these reviews will tell you, is hilariously bizarre and also mostly about how cool pedophiles are. This game fucking SENT ME.

The voice acting is honestly so perfect for the dialogue. It's awkward and stilted and also somehow brimming with emotion. Like everyone voice acting was constantly on the verge of laughing while recording, or having a mental breakdown.

So right, you start thinking pretty soon into the game that the father is actually gonna be a misunderstood good guy, like everyone thought he was having sex with a 16 year old (or as this game keeps saying a 16 years-old), but he was just a genuinely understanding man who actually understood Rachel when nobody else did, and that relationship made say her dad or little brother jealous and so they started a rumor about the whole pedophile thing when in reality he was just the only one in the small town kind enough and smart enough to understand her and they had like a parental child bond, or like even a mutual friendship or something, but no, the dad is actually just an ethical pedophile and his dumb idiot prude wife just couldn't handle him experiencing so much love.

Also say that you're a woman and you find out your near-50 year old husband has impregnated a 16 year old girl. I'd say that the more rational response would be to kill your husband, not the 16 year old, but that's the game's final twist, and it's hilarious.

Most of this game's story is setting up a romance between the main character, Nicole, the daughter of the aforementioned ethical pedophile, and Irving, a character who is supposedly a FEMA worker, but in a reveal that was all too telegraphed turns out to be the little brother of the 16 year old, the titular Rachel. By the way there's a moment before the reveal where Irving pretends to be talking to someone else, but it's so incredibly obvious that it's just him doing the voice of an old lady so like, for a really long time I knew some shit was happening with him, and Nicole just doesn't realize that it was obviously him pitching his voice up a little bit. Once again, this game could absolutely send me. Also, that romance was actually kinda charming because of how awkward and bizarre the voice performance is, and genuinely I wish this game's ending was just them unraveling the mystery and then just like shrugging to each other and then leaving to go on the date they sorta set up. Like, man this sure was fucked up, but like idk at least we have each other. I don't know, I know there's some dialogue relating to their romance I missed so maybe I wouldn't like it so much if I had experienced it fully. Maybe it was because at that point their relationship was the only part of the game's story that wasn't a total dumpster fire and would've ended the game on at least something I liked.

The puzzles in this game are all basic and I never got lost, except for when I wanted to, like it's all there for a basic simple walking sim, and that's what it is. But everything else around it goes fucking crazy by the latter half, it's amazing.

I haven't laughed at a videogame this hard in so long, and I will say, even though this game is basically just 3 hours of defending the honor of a fictional pedophile, it really isn't that gross of a game. Maybe it's just because of how silly it all is, or maybe it is the voice work which made me laugh at all the big emotional scenes, but it plays out more like the devs being like "Oh, you fool, you thought the pedophile was a bad guy? He was actually the good guy and you were the bad guy for being mean to your classmate when you were a teenager!" Then some creepy person telling you about why age of consent laws are tyranny, like they only made the dad, once again, have sex with a high schooler, just so you'd be surprised when it turns out he was actually the good guy, and that's just kinda funny.

So this game hints constantly at the fact that Rachel is still alive or like is a ghost, but it never confirms it, like it should have, until near the end when it's revealed that yes, she is in fact a spooky ghost and can do spooky ghost things like possess people and write stuff on chalkboards. This is very very funny, and also is so stupid and ends anything this game could've done that was remotely good. Like they would talk a lot about how love stays within the hotel's walls, or like Rachel is still with us, and you think it's metaphorical, but no it's all literal and the game ends with Rachel possessing Nicole and trying to kill herself, because she thinks Nicole killed her? Rachel calls Nicole her murderer near the end even though she isn't. Thinking about it, you do get the keys to your mom's car, who was the killer, right before that, so you think that her writing "murderer" on a chalk board was referencing your mom, but no she does try to kill Nicole at the end. I don't get it, but the game demonizes Nicole for being mean to Rachel when she was 16 and also for paying more attention to her Hockey Finales then to if her mom was present during parts of that game, which is hilarious, like most of this game's plot, but man does it really suck how this game had the potential to be unironically good, but now can only be enjoyed entirely ironically.

The setup is decent, the characters are poorly acted and poorly written, but incredibly charming mostly because of those two things, but then the game had to go and defend pedophilia. You don't ever come back from that.

All in all this is the most insane game ever made, and I think it may be the most perfect fit for "so bad it's good" or whatever you want to call it, but of course I completely understand how subjective art is and that this game surely isn't for anyone.

Never after finishing a game has my head been full of so many thoughts, it's like a shotgun just went off in my brain. Like, why is this game? Why would you make this game? Who would make this game? How did this game develop into what it currently is?

I'm not tagging this review as spoilers because it honestly doesn't matter and I think that already knowing how silly and awful this game is before going in will only enhance your experience. Play at your own risk. Seriously. What the FUCK is this game.

Fuck this game, fuck this writer. This game is a repulsive piece of shit with absolutely nothing redeeming to say.

The entire premise of this game is that you are Nicole, daughter of Leonard. Ten years ago, Leonard, then-39, had an affair with Rachel, then-16. "Huh," I hear you say. "That's pretty gross." It sure is! And it is acknowledged a total of once that that's kind of icky and then never again! In fact, Leonard is just a sad old man, mourning the loss of his sixteen-year-old girlfriend. The twist is that Nicole's mom killed Rachel, by the way, and Nicole sucks for, I dunno, being sixteen and jealous of another girl. Your takeaway is supposed to be "wahhh I'm so fucking sad for the pedophile and FUCK his BITCH WIFE".

Fuck you, Daniele Azara. Fuck you, One-O-One Games. Fuck every single person involved in creating this. I've never been angrier after finishing a game. And no, I'm not tagging this for spoilers, because I don't want anyone to play this. Thank god I didn't give this company money for this fucking atrocity.

I knew better than to pick this up, but I didn't listen to my gut. I knew very little about it and the title gave me pause; but I didn't want to judge without playing it. Now I'm here to say you can absolutely judge something exactly right before the experience. Somehow it's even worse than what I imagined. I am begging video game studios to stop writing about traumas they do not know. Or without any nuance. How this ever got published is beyond me.

And to reiterate from my experience with The Medium, you can tell dark stories with horrible events and horrible characters. I am not condemning that. Shit like this happens in real life. You can absolutely talk about it. But when it's so toxic, without discussion about the effect on the victims, and no discussion about why it's harmful, it's dangerous. Not a single voice in this game called out the harmful behavior shown here. It's one thing to have a horrible character do something, but when ALL the characters seem okay with the act, I'm looking at the writers. Because clearly they don't have a problem with the subject.

The ONLY thing that was a positive was exploring the setting, an abandoned hotel. As a typical walking sim, the playable character is painstakingly slow. But it was fun to walk around, even on day one to find hidden secrets. But that's it. Everything else? Pass.

You play as Nicole, who visits her family's hotel after being gone for a decade. She left with her mother when her parents divorced at 16. She is now the owner of the hotel and wants to sell it. First off, she comes off as a horrible...well, bitch. She's combative towards the one other character (Irving), denies her trauma, and essentially a miserable person. She immediately attacks Irving, that speaks with you over a cell phone. He's the exact opposite of her personality. Stumbling over his words, panicky, and constantly apologizes. You know the game isn't going to have outstanding characters or dialogue.

The real sin is the story. The awful, awful shit that did not need to be written or shared with anyone. I will be blatant with my words and that could be a trigger for someone. Please take care of yourself and don't read if you're not able.


I will try to summarize my disgust with the story. Basically, Nicole's parents split because her father had an "affair" with a 16-year-old high school student, Rachel. He was her instructor and he got her pregnant. Soon after, Rachel supposedly threw herself off of a cliff. Nicole's mother found out, took her and left her father and the hotel. The game starts with the mother's note calling Rachel a young woman. How her death destroyed their family. Nothing about the father's infidelity or, let's face it, pedophilia. It was all Rachel's fault the family split.

During the game, Nicole finds disturbing notes written by her father. His writings about how he "loved" Rachel. How she was a light in his life. A man nearing his 50s, talking about a 16-year-old girl. The fact this game is set in Montana is not lost on me. But there is no reason a man should be attracted to a girl 30 years younger than him. A girl still in school and his student no less.

Nicole says NOTHING about this. Not shocked at all the "woman" he had an affair with, was actually a girl her age at the time. In fact, she continues to reminisce about how he was an interesting and intelligent man. A father she very much looked up to. I thought, okay, maybe she's in denial after learning her father is a monster, a pedophile. That would shock me. Nope. Never. Not ONCE does she act disgusted by the fact her father groomed and raped a girl her age.

Instead, she has a memory where she viewed Rachel as "mature and elegant for her age." Excuse me? You were the same age Nicole. A child and a daddy's girl. But somehow this 16 year old is viewed as an adult? Further into the game, Irving talks about her father's and Rachel's "relationship." How her father was a good thing to happen to Rachel. He gave her strength. He guided her. Their love was pure. Fucking excuse me? He follows Nicole's behavior by putting her father onto a pedestal. Saying how her father was unfairly mistreated for their "love." The father, a pedo, is shown as a Christ-like figure. How his intentions was pure, and he suffered after Rachel's death. The entire conversation was all around fucking sick. They both missed this disgusting man, who was never punished for his actions. Rachel was the one that suffered. She was a child and she died because of it!

Later in the game, Nicole finds a horrifying room that her father constructed as a tribute for Rachel. A small room with a small child's bed, a chalkboard with the R-slur written on it, and toys: a rocking horse and toy blocks. There are drawings on the walls in crayon as furniture and windows. Despite Nicole earlier comment about Rachel being mature, she accurately describes this room as a child's room. This language is important because despite what the developers want you believe, Rachel was not a mature young woman. She was a CHILD. You can say Rachel was in a loving relationship with an older man. That she was "mature for her age" and could give consent. Yet here this scene shows me Rachel was, in fact, a child. Again Nicole does not respond to the fact her father was with a child! Always bounces around the fact her father was sick and had a sexual obsession with a child who could not consent.

Not one character with a voice in this game condemns her father and his actions. Not once. Nicole doesn't bring up the age gap or consent. Irving encourages the pedo behavior, saying it was pure love. The father through a recording, says he loved Rachel. The mother paints Rachel as a young woman who destroyed their family. You never hear from Rachel. How she felt, what she was experiencing through this. It's mostly from Nicole and Irving, who were not in this "relationship." The grooming is almost glorified at this point. Never says it's harmful. It's absolutely disgusting.

Then the big reveal. The big mystery. Nicole finds a hidden bloody blanket with Rachel's retainer and has a magical moment of memory and concludes her mother killed Rachel. Beat her to death. Then tossed her body carelessly over that cliff. Somehow made it look like a suicide. Now you found out, not only is your father sick, your mother was a damn murderer.

After all this talk, the game rewards you with one of the worst endings I have ever witnessed. Nicole decides, she better follow her father's and mother's suicide. By forcing you with a step-by-step suicide. You are placed in her car, in a garage, to die. You can stop at the very end; however, the ending with Nicole's suicide is considered the "good" ending because now she's with her family. Yep you die in the end. And it's not the guilt of what happened with Rachel, or finding out about her sick father or mother.

During her suicide, Nicole has a line of "I don't want to die!" as you are literally played to kill her. Then with the largest slap to the face, she says "I'm back home. And I'll stay here forever. When we see each other again, Rachel can come along." Fucking WHAT? Bitch your fathered raped Rachel and your mother murdered her for it. Why the fuck would she want to be with your family in any afterlife?? Are you shitting me right now?

Do not play this game. Do not even try for this short, easy platinum. It is not worth it. None of it is redeemable. There is nothing here but a fantasy of some very sick individuals.

The hotel is one hell of a place to explore, with so much interpretable history and personality. I got really scared, despite the fact that there was no mention of this being a horror game anywhere, but it doesn't matter because that fear was hella motivating. That all being said, they really butchered that ending. Nicole had absolutely no reason staying behind, or trying to reconnect with her dead parents at all. YOUR FATHER WAS A RAPIST AND YOUR MOTHER WAS A MURDERER NICKY! GO HOME!

Also the game's bugs were incredibly frustrating. A walking sim shouldn't fuck up a cutscene making you replay 30 minutes of story over again. This happened twice.