The Immaculate Drag pulls you right into the melancholy of walking through a night city street with a hazy goal and a chance to meet like-minded souls. Most of them are out in the streets to take a breather, much like yourself, and next morning every encounter with them might seem like a distant dream, disconnected from a blazing sun of reality. Sometimes it's a reminder that you're not alone in your worries and painful memories, and sometimes it's a whole new perspective given as a casual remark from a total stranger that you're bound to never meet again. Same as this very night when you're out in the streets to move at your own pace towards the dawn is to never repeat again. Existing only here and now, flowing between every step and inevitably taking you closer to your next immaculate drag that might as well be the last.

I can't help but feel it was heavily inspired by El invierno en Lisboa (Winter In Lisbon) written by Antonio Muñoz Molina. It has the distinct smoky, jazzy, desperate love story vibe that dominates both the book and the game.

It's a sequel to Existentia. Still post-apocalyptic walking simulator, but now with a voiceover and multiple endings. It took me nearly 2 hours to explore everything the game has to offer (fixing the train took me longer than I should admit (//ω//)

Atmosphere is gray and dull, harsh and sad, defined by the tragedy, as it should be. Most memorable are locomotive rides (with unexpected companion even more so).

Getting all endings is a bit annoying without the save system, but at least there's chapter selection.

Gameplay: I got stuck in the beginning. Turns out, I had to touch some random rock to open the passage. Never got the hint though. Uh huh.
And then I got lost in the woods, trying to find some interactable object to open the next passage. All the while switching between blurry reality and some sort of "predator" vision (it gets everything red and more blurry alright, that's what it does). Sounds tedious and somewhat rage-inducing, trying to find non-existent clues as to what random object to touch? It's exactly how I felt getting through this walking sim.

Narrative: I listened intently to Sara's story, and the dark, harrowing undertones her narrative was laced with felt more vivid than the main "grim and sinister" revelation. The rest is not very memorable.

Overall: I would not recommend it to anyone, even the hardcore walking sim fans. Although the premise was alluring, it's just not worth the time with its' incomprehensive gameplay mechanics.

I played this title alongside "I commissioned some cats", and expected the same amount of joy from gameplay, but missed an important point. In the battle of cats vs. bees the winner is predetermined. Cats are superior, and that's the undeniable truth of the world we live in today.

Artwork is still great. The bees are much smaller and therefore sneakier, so I had to use the hint system repeatedly. And their bzzzzs could never reach the heights of meows. So I had fun with this title, but still prefer the cats version.

I do enjoy these cute "hidden object" games, especially when my mind is occupied with some heavy processing and I'm not ready to invest myself into serious gameplay. But this particular one is a disappointment.

- Clicking is often not registered properly. It's more annoying than you might think… when clicking essentially IS the gameplay.

- It's small and forgettable. It does entice you to buy level 2 to find another batch of 100 cats (paid DLC), even redirecting you to your shopping cart with the said DLC already added (without your consent). I wouldn't mind paying for DLC if I'd enjoyed the core content, but the said content consists of 1 low-res picture that I spent 10 minutes staring at.

- 2 out of 7 achievements are locked behind paid DLC. I find the practice of locking achievements behind paywall kinda foul, no matter the price.

If there's some competition in the "100 hidden…" subgenre, it's to be expected that someone would try to recreate the success in the lazy, low effort manner.