it's kinda entertaining, but i wouldn't say it was novel or even worth being a videogame, since all the choice system is really used for is like, intentionally and comedically forced cameo segments? lol.

something about it feels stripped back to be a viable product. like, from a director who loves these goofy old fmv adv games, you'd expect it to emulate them a little more in modern day, but static visual novels like 428 live up to that concept much more, despite being almost nothing alike those old games. and no, i'm not saying "kodaka plz direct 428 tier gaming," that game was lightning in a bottle. i'm just saying it's unfortunate what ideas might have been lost in development on this one, cause 2020 fmvgame sounds much more incredible than it is in this case.

i have been reviewing the evil maths games with a repetitious and comedic tone that appeals to practically only 1/1000000 or so people. such is the nature of comedic writing.
i don't consider this an evil math game.
just something stupid that happened once.
but you might think it's an evil math game.
so i'm reviewing it just so you know what i think, even though you don't deserve it.

many games have too much Stuff in them. i know many people prefer more Stuff, as to them, the more Stuff the better. and, i mean, Stuff is nice, but the more Stuff you put in, the more your games Thing becomes its Stuff, and how much Stuff you're doing. you are entitled to loving Stuff like you do, but by having such Stuff stuffing your Stuff to the brim, you are limiting the possibilities of your Thing and Stuff alike. with so much Stuff, Thing is forced to take a backseat, as your game has become about Stuff. i believe developers should make a more conscious effort to limit their Stuff, or at least thematically cater the Stuff so that it coincides with the Thing.

of course, this isn't actually a problem if the Thing in your game is the Stuff, with maturity and awareness in design. this is a new favourite example for me of the Thing being the Stuff. i love this game's Thing.

when i first encountered





so yea

Feeling the wrath of wasting precious time in drastic measure-ups, despite cute dripping deliciousness.

Beautiful visuals, music, and aesthetic attention to detail, even some wonderfully unforgettable snark dispensers (i love those goober pumpkins so much.) Yet, if you hope to get anything out of this 10 hour stroll, you have to cope with symbolic density that struggles to keep up with stories made for children, and despite an engine upgrade, the game has a design devotion to RPGmaker, an engine that fumbles at carrying games half of this one's length. I give up on the prospect of replaying for more secrets and goodies when it could barely carry me through a single playthrough. The occasionally cool set-pieces don't really make up for how vapid the narrative design is. Little Goody Two Shoes really is a blessing in comparison, the "mysterious" imitation of the work of Lewis Carol is almost nowhere to be seen, and the changes in writing are characteristic of immense artistic growth. Also, it has video game design, and a less agonizing skip function. lol.

This isn't really much related to assessing my thoughts on the game, but I think the moment that struck me most that I wasn't enjoying my time was when you reach a library. Many of the bookcases you can inspect contain real life novels, poems and medical writings. This included works of Immanuel Kant and Philippe Pinel respectively. Not to imply anybody has to live up to writings of dead philosophers and physicians, but that this diverts my interest in two ways. First, the contents of and writers of the books are very tenuously reflective on the writing of this chapter, a very surface level inclusion. It would be inappropriate to assume, so I won't, I will only say that it wouldn't surprise me if most novels in this library were acquired through cultural osmosis, or at worst, a Google search. Second, is that it exposes the game's bad habit of showing it's hand too early in a way that inspires no interest from me. Game's being blunt about foreshadowing is perfectly fine or even entertaining, usually other elements make this interesting, but just from the titles of books and a little bit of Google translate kung-fu for the German ones, you can intuit the purpose, meaning and outcome of the chapter with minimal effort. This kind of thing is spread throughout the entire story. So, I drag myself through a series of obnoxious puzzles accompanied with poorly telegraphed deaths that set me back to before completing the puzzles, and a game that doesn't inspire feelings in me of which I already know the outcome basically just by paying attention at all.

All that said though, perhaps the excellent artwork is enough to carry you through the game. If I weren't me I'd never take my word for it. Or my not me's word for it. (this is a preview of the narrative)

the solution to all puzzles within this game are to smash physics objects into other physics objects, bunnyhop through corridors full of non-threatening nudists, or read a couple pages from your book.
it's very cool.

Anyway I've been doing a marathon of all Frictional's library of games, because the Penumbra games as well as Amnesia are all extremely memorable games from my childhood. While Overture definitely had more intrigue and mystery going for it, this game fucking kills it for me in terms of atmosphere and aesthetics. Where it loses me by comparison is the personalities of important characters. Red in Overture plays a convincing lunatic to the end, while Clarence and to a lesser extent Dr. Amabel make Black Plague feel more like a budget sci-fi movie with quirky dialogue. While Clarence is conceptually fantastic and contributes to some of the best scenes in the game (turning the corridors into a nonsensical maze while communicating your location to enemies), he also constantly interrupts your moody adventure with his personality synthesized from the films our protagonist has seen over the years. He represents a despair inducing threat to your life almost as often as he represents an obnoxious meta-conversationalist and quip machine, this can feel disruptive of the aforementioned great atmosphere. Dr. Amabel is simply an unfortunate victim of her one-liners, in attempting to make a nerdy but sane sounding female character they sorta ended up with somebody who sets the tone of all her interactions with her own brand of eye rolling quips, practically every time you answer a video call from her. What's supposed to represent your protagonist's only hopeful encounter in the entire story feels more like paying your taxes. Speaking of the protagonist, I love his characterization as an obnoxious adventure game prick being devolved into more of a braindead weirdo as a result of the horrors he's experienced, and his progressing infection. Clarence deleting the periodic table from your head will always be a classic.

Oh yeah, I also don't really find any of these games spooky in particular, though as far as spooky games go, they were insanely high concept for their time. Nowadays they feel more like campy adventure games with a neat story and stealth mechanics you can just choose to ignore.

Note: To maintain the review's previous integrity, I have to inform it's new audience on Backloggd.com that this review is taken directly from the Steam review page. However, in order to make playing the review both interesting and dynamic for newcomers and old fans of the review alike, I have elected to make TWO changes to the review's contents. Thank you and please enjoy.

i think perhaps something wrong with the guy who maked this one.
could be violent and dangerous? could like videogames? both terrify me to think about.

important note: i am morally required by the council of game ethics to inform that i know the guy who made this one. heh, this is but a taste of... my journalistic integrity... this right arm of mine, sealed within is an ancient power from times long since passed, imbibed insides me by the ancient sages's, me the wise knowledge to know how the game's ought to be judged. and let me tell you, this game is short and sweet, I like what it's going for quite a bit. Moment to moment got good chuckles out of me, particularly fond of the Tokusatsu character and how many heel turns it packs into it's runtime.