Huge fan of this type of game. Atmospheric walking sim with very minor puzzle elements. A lot of the gameplay and some other unconventional puzzles are conveyed via navigation. Progress often feels like discovering someplace you're not supposed to be, which for this game is thematically appropriate.

FFO "The Backrooms" viral internet mythos/creepypasta which has inundated internet indie horror for years now, Anemoiapolis captures the original text's powerful ambiguity: "God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you".

Anemoiapolis DOES contain an entity of some kind, although not nearly as hostile or direct as Kane Pixels' interpretation (no disrespect, every interpretation has their own merits). For me, it really comes down to personal taste. I love the idea of navigating uncanny architecture, descending deeper and deeper into bizarre liminal spaces that seem to be manufactured for people, yet spring forth in impossible ways, creating recursive mazes of empty malls, movie theaters, indoor resorts, etc.

Yet, Anemoiapolis is still a game, and that necessitates some objective. Collecting tickets never became tedious, no backtracking to previous floors was required; yet some floors seem to demand much more time and effort than others.

The traditional "Backrooms," the final floor I visited (although you can pick these levels in whichever order you like), lasted about two minutes. Meanwhile, the "Poolrooms" segment took me about 45 minutes -- almost half of my total playtime -- and about 20 minutes of that was navigating the first maze, which seemed to be a never-ending procedurally generated series of similar rooms, often navigated through the water which slows down the player significantly.

The Poolrooms level does have the one bathroom maze sequence, which was one of the few genuinely frightening moments during my playtime; the ambience, sound design, and the ominous warning, "KEEP MOVING" genuinely made for a fun setpiece.

Anemoiapolis' horror is not exciting, but it isn't cheap, either. Its atmosphere is unparalleled. Its architecture is mesmerizing and unsettling. Although some players may find themselves bored within minutes, others will find themselves tourists in a series of genuinely unnerving liminal spaces, faithfully recreated and translated into an interactive medium.

But man, I wish somebody told me the golf minigame was optional.

EDIT 3/6/2023: Fuck this. I can't believe those dipshits added microtransactions to this masterpiece. Review dropped to .5 stars as a protest until they fix it. Original review still can be read below for archival purposes.
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"Oh, great... another joke game that was added to Backloggd and is now #1 in ratings," I thought feeblemindedly. "I wonder how long it will take until Disco Elysium fans bomb the ratings back down."

I'll admit, I was a doubter when I first booted up this game. See, in order to find the download link for the ROM, I had to go to a Youtube video that showcased the main gameplay loop, which mainly consists of reorganizing a list of numbers into the sequence "1216," one after the Magna Carta, just as Jimmy does in the show. To be frank, I was severely let down by this showcase. I sincerely doubted that I would gain any entertainment from this game.

I realize that I've already labelled this review with a spoiler warning, but I must reiterate -- I will be going through FULL spoilers for this game. I know that I've only expressed unenthusiasm towards this game to this point, but that's merely to demonstrate how much it shocked me as soon as I played it. Trust me, this game is best going in fully blind. I highly advise that before reading the rest of this review you've made sure to see at LEAST both true endings for Jimmy's and Mike's routes, as well as the secret ending.

Once again, this is your final spoiler warning.

After opening the game, I was greeted with a low-quality title screen as seen in the preview video. Fine enough. After pressing the touch screen, it gave instructions on the previously mentioned gameplay. That's it, one screen for all the tutorial information you'll ever need for the rest of the game. It may seem simple at first, assuming that sorting numbers is all there is. However, as I soon learned, there was so, so much more to this than what originally meets the eye.

Then, I instantly entered the infamous number sorting. Initially, this task may seem tedious, especially with Chuck yelling in the background every time I sorted the numbers correctly. "Couldn't be precious Jimmy!" he says. "Not our Jimmy!" I could do a bit about ludonarrative harmony here, where the player really feels the tedium and stress Jimmy undergoes in the show, but that would be disingenous, I feel -- the number-sorting part is just the opening act of the play.

Soon, the calls of "Not our Jimmy!" are recontextualized, as I progress into the later levels. Why am I still playing this? Am I expecting a reward for completing this? Is there even an "end" to these levels, so to speak? Or is it just like in real life, how there is no "end" to it all, only continuation through others and their memories?

After clearing level 10 and first seeing the "normal ending," I felt unsatisfied. Just a few minutes of gameplay had left me wondering and wanting for more context, more knowledge behind the true nature of this game. So, I rebooted it up and began playing through this level again.

Now, I'm unsure if what happened next was pure luck or intended. I couldn't imagine how a normal person would come across this without the help of a guide. The fact it happened to me may be both an accident and a miracle.

It was in the ninth level when I mistakenly swapped the second 1 and the 6, making the sequence of numbers "1261" just like the actual address for Mesa Verde. I've tested this on other levels, but this only seems to work with level 9. It was here when the real game truly began.

I was completely taken aback when it triggered the cutscene with Kim waking up in the Shrine of Resurrection. The dignified, yet sombre atmosphere really complimented my outright shock in a strangely effective way. This one cutscene alone completely immersed me into this virtual world, even without relying on cheap close-up shots of Kim Wexler's feet. That, on its own, is an outstanding achievement and demonstrated a level of humility and confidence from the devs that their product wouldn't need to rely on basic crutches to succeed.

I won't go into detail about my next steps after taking control of the character, since the open world allows you to go anywhere as your next step, meaning everyone will have a different, personalized experience from this game. Hell, you could instantly go the Mesa Verde complex or even all the way to Santiago as your first area.

I feel like I can't really go any further without talking about Better Call Saul DS's biggest controversial feature: the combat. To put it lightly, it has a very steep learning curve for players to overcome. Howard, one of the first bosses that most players will come across, has very unforgiving hitboxes all around, but especially on his giant boxing gloves. All at once, the player is forced to learn not just the basic attack patterns of enemies, but also various framerule systems that the game relies on for hit registry. Probably the most overpowered earlygame combo that is almost necessary for the player to learn early requires 2 frame-perfect inputs. Combat in BCS isn't something to laugh at. Perhaps it's another attempt to drive away any casual gamers that got past the intro. Regardless, this remains my biggest criticism of this game, which is still extremely minor in the grand scheme of things.

Finally, I'd like to quickly talk about that ending, which contained probably the best twist in all of gaming: the world that you've though was Better Call Saul's was actually not that at all. This entire time, Kim has been trying to escape the stomach of Huell Babineaux, who ate her off-camera after S6E9 ("Fun and Games") of the original BCS show, which explains why she wasn't present throughout the entirety of Breaking Bad. Additionally, the DS console itself is Huell, a twisted vessel to contain Kim's legal powers, and you, the player, were Jimmy McGill the whole time. The levels of genius on display here are completely beyond me. Bravo, William278.

In hindsight, it was certainly a controversial decision to hide such a beautiful game under an unassuming surface. I don't think it's unreasonable to call this the best game ever made, but the fact that 99% of people won't see past the intro is quite poetic, honestly. Is high art really something that should be available to anyone, or only to those who truly seek value and meaning from the games they play?