This review contains spoilers
First playthrough; promise ending, 7 deaths, 60 saves (lol)
A flawed yet beautiful game. Love what felt like homages to silent hill and alien franchises, truly an amazing combo. Love some good robot space lesbians. Just a really visually beautiful game. Obsessed with games that set a rule, like Signalis' rule of 6, and then follow that everywhere they can. They did such a cool job following it in different ways.
I will say a little too much stopping the flow of gameplay to read notes, esp in the first half. Meanwhile the story was (purposefully) confusing which can be good or bad depending on what you want from a game. For me, it didn't do enough to immerse me fully into the story until 2/3rds through the game. I was just running around mildly confused, knowing the objective but not really absorbing the tertiary worldbuilding. It was a lot to take in! And none of it felt important until late game lol.
Some of the puzzles just being keys that unlock keys that unlock keys got old (only really one area in particular), but overall I reallyyyy enjoyed the puzzle gameplay. A lot. Environmental puzzles are so good, esp in a game style like this that built maps that were satisfying to backtrack through. Very satisfying.
Combat felt... alright. Purposefully clunky yk. I ended up running past as many enemies as possible, and never using the combat tools lol. I think combat was necessary for making this truly feel like a survival horror, but wasn't the shining achievement of this game for me personally.
My ending (promise) felt appropriate for what the game had set up. A story of sacrifice and pain? With an ending thats bittersweet, nihilistic, and depressing? Tonally appropriate for the game at large, even if a bit of a downer.
Overall, would recommend. Great game. Can't wait to see what this studio does in the future with the knowledge they gained from making this game.
A flawed yet beautiful game. Love what felt like homages to silent hill and alien franchises, truly an amazing combo. Love some good robot space lesbians. Just a really visually beautiful game. Obsessed with games that set a rule, like Signalis' rule of 6, and then follow that everywhere they can. They did such a cool job following it in different ways.
I will say a little too much stopping the flow of gameplay to read notes, esp in the first half. Meanwhile the story was (purposefully) confusing which can be good or bad depending on what you want from a game. For me, it didn't do enough to immerse me fully into the story until 2/3rds through the game. I was just running around mildly confused, knowing the objective but not really absorbing the tertiary worldbuilding. It was a lot to take in! And none of it felt important until late game lol.
Some of the puzzles just being keys that unlock keys that unlock keys got old (only really one area in particular), but overall I reallyyyy enjoyed the puzzle gameplay. A lot. Environmental puzzles are so good, esp in a game style like this that built maps that were satisfying to backtrack through. Very satisfying.
Combat felt... alright. Purposefully clunky yk. I ended up running past as many enemies as possible, and never using the combat tools lol. I think combat was necessary for making this truly feel like a survival horror, but wasn't the shining achievement of this game for me personally.
My ending (promise) felt appropriate for what the game had set up. A story of sacrifice and pain? With an ending thats bittersweet, nihilistic, and depressing? Tonally appropriate for the game at large, even if a bit of a downer.
Overall, would recommend. Great game. Can't wait to see what this studio does in the future with the knowledge they gained from making this game.