Much like the 2020 demo disc, this is certainly a mixed bag, but I believe this collection was more consistent than the year prior. I also absolutely adore the hub style as opposed to the standard 2020 menu.
Lowlights:
- That Which Gave Chase; not dislikeable, just much more disjointed and less full than the other demos. Was actually still very interesting.
- Walk; Love the style and concept, but the gameplay got annoying fast, especially with every aspect of the environment being incredibly vague for gameplay.
- Apolysis; Definitely an eye-catching art style, but is more of an unanswerable exploration than a more typical narrative or gameplay structure, which usually puts me off.
- Agony of a Dying MMO; Great concept, was not expecting it to centre around the more deviant-ish internet communities though and once it did it lost my interest. Also the undirected navigation and occasional unwarned teleportation are not very enjoyable.
- Still Ridge; It's a janky P.T. clone with a vaguely different story. Like, this is not a P.T. rip-off, it is literally almost every concept in P.T. with a slight twinge, down to the architecture and puzzle structure. All topped with comically executed animations and a baffling ending.
Highlights:
- Ghastly Goodies: Cute, fun, campy, and stylish candy collection game with nice environmental puzzling. Can't stress my fondness of the art style enough.
- The Lunar Effect: Overall a very interesting 30 minute adventure with great puzzle diversity and pretty graphics, just make sure to head straight for the dumbwaiter at the end.
- Mummy Sandbox: Holy shit
- Janitor Bleeds: Terrifying mix of tense gameplay elements all under an incredibly amusing anomaly, however I'm pretty sure the janitor never actually bled.
- Protagoras Bleeds: The first demo I played also ended up being my favourite! The characters, environments, horror visuals, everything was so intriguing and enjoyable, even though I am unsure why there are not one but two demos with the title "___ Bleeds".
Lowlights:
- That Which Gave Chase; not dislikeable, just much more disjointed and less full than the other demos. Was actually still very interesting.
- Walk; Love the style and concept, but the gameplay got annoying fast, especially with every aspect of the environment being incredibly vague for gameplay.
- Apolysis; Definitely an eye-catching art style, but is more of an unanswerable exploration than a more typical narrative or gameplay structure, which usually puts me off.
- Agony of a Dying MMO; Great concept, was not expecting it to centre around the more deviant-ish internet communities though and once it did it lost my interest. Also the undirected navigation and occasional unwarned teleportation are not very enjoyable.
- Still Ridge; It's a janky P.T. clone with a vaguely different story. Like, this is not a P.T. rip-off, it is literally almost every concept in P.T. with a slight twinge, down to the architecture and puzzle structure. All topped with comically executed animations and a baffling ending.
Highlights:
- Ghastly Goodies: Cute, fun, campy, and stylish candy collection game with nice environmental puzzling. Can't stress my fondness of the art style enough.
- The Lunar Effect: Overall a very interesting 30 minute adventure with great puzzle diversity and pretty graphics, just make sure to head straight for the dumbwaiter at the end.
- Mummy Sandbox: Holy shit
- Janitor Bleeds: Terrifying mix of tense gameplay elements all under an incredibly amusing anomaly, however I'm pretty sure the janitor never actually bled.
- Protagoras Bleeds: The first demo I played also ended up being my favourite! The characters, environments, horror visuals, everything was so intriguing and enjoyable, even though I am unsure why there are not one but two demos with the title "___ Bleeds".