I'm dehydrated now from how much my hand sweat I lost playing this.

The Kidnap has very uneven game design, and maybe too many jump scares. Apart from that, a lot of moments are genuinely fucked up and terrifying, even while using very rudimentary building blocks (simple 3D art and sound design abound).

I had a great time going through this with friends on Discord, and I'll remember it fondly even if it is somewhat corny in the end.

It's all about the mood.

Animal Well, to me, really distinguished itself with its atmosphere. The almost total absence of music, replaced by a myriad of sounds and wobbles. The sparkling colors and dancing smoke effects moving across the scan-line post process. The weird animal designs and encounters where random otters can jump on screen to mess with your plans.

It also has very interesting power-ups which are all thematically consistent as a toolkit and really creative in how they shape your relationship to the environment.

It's a bit of a bummer that the game offers almost no tools to hunt down all the remaining secrets once the game is over. I would have loved to get to the true ending, but there's no way I'm scouring every inch of a gigantic map (where it's tough to fast-travel) with no pointers to get to that point.

It still is a fantastic little game for what it is and I'll mostly remember it for it's unique art direction and thick ambiance.

Bramble has a strange rhythm. It plays its cards very close to the chest for a long while, and keeps all its best moments for the very last quarter. I really thought I wasn't going to remember it much, but it truly brings out magical and awe-inspiring moments at an increasingly quickening pace as you move through its dark world.

It is close to something like "Little Nightmares", but it did feel a little barren for most of its run-time. The main gameplay verb is "holding the joystick to walk or climb". Being a very experiential game, it's what's going on in the background that matters more than your character walking, but it did lack a little something in the Game Design department.

It has a super dark and original universe though, which is where the game really stands out (and what makes you want to look at those backgrounds). The boss battles are also a huge standout. Some of them will be burnt in my mind forever.

Quite a powerful game in the end, even if it isn't perfect at all and a little shallow gameplay-wise.

Oh and can we agree that Olle is a terrible player character? Such a gross little "cabbage-patch kid" looking boy. Liked what they did with his model throughout the game, but not the character. It might just be a me thing though !

What a fantastic and creative horror game.

I can't remember the last time my hands were so sweaty playing a game. Greener Grass Awaits has a bunch of genius little game design ideas that add up to a fantastic short game. And it's bone-chilling at that.

It is a bit too hard and can't quite find a way to balance scares and ease of play, but it's better than most horror games were a monster chases you around that can be fooled by running around a table.

Genre fusions rule.