A senior friggin' citizen finds himself in a small area that is preventing him from leaving until he accomplishes certain things. Until the ending, which for me and many others hit us right in the feels, you don't actually get much context at all; something that will either intrigue you or seriously put you off. For me, it was the former. I don't blame anyone for whom it is the latter. That's part of why I put it here at the very start, so you'll know before spending any money or at least time on it.
This is one of so far only a few titles by Finnish Jesse Makkonen, the one man studio who I hold in high regard after playing Distraint 1 and this. I have tremendous respect for how different these two are from each other and will be comparing and contrasting them throughout this review. Honestly, other than who made it they have almost nothing in common at all. Only that they're both amazing, they wear their hearts on their sleeves, and are clearly saying something that he actually does believe. They go against what a lot of people think about the subjects that they cover, trying to change the world for the better by convincing people to improve, clearly communicating great values and what each of us individually can do better.
The puzzles are infinitely more varied here, something possible because the interaction is now with the mouse, not WASD, one key for use, and another for bringing up the inventory. Basically, you are always clicking. Sometimes you're using a rotary phone or adjusting a radio. There is a lot of manipulation of stuff like tiles pulling and pushing adjusting things. Some of them have a timing element, maybe a limit. And though you have to manipulate many different things it's very intuitive. There is occasionally slight input lag. I couldn't tell if it was intentional in order to further test you or that it was something he couldn't quite get right. It's frequently nearly impossible to brute force. There are often hints that you have to discover for yourself. Some have disliked the amount of these and how they are handled.
They both have only one brain teaser that was frustrating to me and some others, which is impressive considering there has to be over a dozen, maybe two or even three in each. In that it tended to be clicking on different things in the right order locating and applying items in the right static locations. Both have a great balance between streamlining that prevents the tedium of slowly assembling an entire sentence piecemeal in order to accomplish anything without it getting to a point where it feels like you can just randomly click your way to Solutions whilst barely even trying something that sadly does happen with some stuff these days in part because there is a not entirely undeserved reputation for the youth to give up on stuff that they don't excel at from right away.
In both these, challenges as well as everything else perfectly communicates the themes that they are going for. And let's keep in mind that these are extremely different in this as well. That is a morality tale where you go along with things that you know are deeply unethical. This is about finding yourself near the end of your life and struggling with memory. Both have incredibly thick atmospheres that last all the way through. That is essentially Silent Hill inspired without combat elements, especially elements from the second and Origins, crafting a baseline of creepiness that every so often escalates to nearly overpowering intensity with the occasional burst of graphic bloody brutal gory violence. This is much closer to something like that chunk of Pixar's Up where it reflects on all the things that the protagonist has lost. I mean it's kind of hard to come up with two properties that are any less alike.
Where that has retro pixel graphics this goes much closer to photo realistic never quite getting there, frequently showing things not quite in crisp focus. Not in an amateurish way it is after all telltale. One of the first things you learn is dealing with that sort of thing; rather, it's clearly purposeful evoking a sense of someone struggling to completely perceive the rest of the world; it's never in a way that is unpleasant to look at. That has music that keeps you permanently anxious, sometimes plateauing into the equivalent of panic attacks. This uses its piano notes to deliver a haunting minimalist score. That has gnarly sound design that has you appreciating every single time a once living body whether animal or human is being mauled, crushed or otherwise destroyed. In this, it's usually the various things you are using to progress and all of it sounds as though it could exist for real, even while it clearly has traits that make that seriously strain credulity past the breaking point - and yes, it is meant to.
That has a few handfuls of characters that you talk to by necessity. So as to not spoil this I will merely say that for a lot of it there is only the one you play as, who doesn't express any personality. He is elderly rather than young. That has maybe 100 lines of dialogue that appears for you to read. This has almost zero; it conveys things wordlessly. Overall, I spent 65 minutes on this, got 10 out of the 14 achievements and was completely happy with having invested that into it. I did not even attempt the speedrun in part that's just not my kind of thing(I have no problem with anyone where that isn't the case), but also, I saw some that attempted it and found it extremely frustrating because the momentum is killed every time you reach a cut scene, and those are counted as part of the overall, which obviously is significantly less appealing. 8/10.
This is one of so far only a few titles by Finnish Jesse Makkonen, the one man studio who I hold in high regard after playing Distraint 1 and this. I have tremendous respect for how different these two are from each other and will be comparing and contrasting them throughout this review. Honestly, other than who made it they have almost nothing in common at all. Only that they're both amazing, they wear their hearts on their sleeves, and are clearly saying something that he actually does believe. They go against what a lot of people think about the subjects that they cover, trying to change the world for the better by convincing people to improve, clearly communicating great values and what each of us individually can do better.
The puzzles are infinitely more varied here, something possible because the interaction is now with the mouse, not WASD, one key for use, and another for bringing up the inventory. Basically, you are always clicking. Sometimes you're using a rotary phone or adjusting a radio. There is a lot of manipulation of stuff like tiles pulling and pushing adjusting things. Some of them have a timing element, maybe a limit. And though you have to manipulate many different things it's very intuitive. There is occasionally slight input lag. I couldn't tell if it was intentional in order to further test you or that it was something he couldn't quite get right. It's frequently nearly impossible to brute force. There are often hints that you have to discover for yourself. Some have disliked the amount of these and how they are handled.
They both have only one brain teaser that was frustrating to me and some others, which is impressive considering there has to be over a dozen, maybe two or even three in each. In that it tended to be clicking on different things in the right order locating and applying items in the right static locations. Both have a great balance between streamlining that prevents the tedium of slowly assembling an entire sentence piecemeal in order to accomplish anything without it getting to a point where it feels like you can just randomly click your way to Solutions whilst barely even trying something that sadly does happen with some stuff these days in part because there is a not entirely undeserved reputation for the youth to give up on stuff that they don't excel at from right away.
In both these, challenges as well as everything else perfectly communicates the themes that they are going for. And let's keep in mind that these are extremely different in this as well. That is a morality tale where you go along with things that you know are deeply unethical. This is about finding yourself near the end of your life and struggling with memory. Both have incredibly thick atmospheres that last all the way through. That is essentially Silent Hill inspired without combat elements, especially elements from the second and Origins, crafting a baseline of creepiness that every so often escalates to nearly overpowering intensity with the occasional burst of graphic bloody brutal gory violence. This is much closer to something like that chunk of Pixar's Up where it reflects on all the things that the protagonist has lost. I mean it's kind of hard to come up with two properties that are any less alike.
Where that has retro pixel graphics this goes much closer to photo realistic never quite getting there, frequently showing things not quite in crisp focus. Not in an amateurish way it is after all telltale. One of the first things you learn is dealing with that sort of thing; rather, it's clearly purposeful evoking a sense of someone struggling to completely perceive the rest of the world; it's never in a way that is unpleasant to look at. That has music that keeps you permanently anxious, sometimes plateauing into the equivalent of panic attacks. This uses its piano notes to deliver a haunting minimalist score. That has gnarly sound design that has you appreciating every single time a once living body whether animal or human is being mauled, crushed or otherwise destroyed. In this, it's usually the various things you are using to progress and all of it sounds as though it could exist for real, even while it clearly has traits that make that seriously strain credulity past the breaking point - and yes, it is meant to.
That has a few handfuls of characters that you talk to by necessity. So as to not spoil this I will merely say that for a lot of it there is only the one you play as, who doesn't express any personality. He is elderly rather than young. That has maybe 100 lines of dialogue that appears for you to read. This has almost zero; it conveys things wordlessly. Overall, I spent 65 minutes on this, got 10 out of the 14 achievements and was completely happy with having invested that into it. I did not even attempt the speedrun in part that's just not my kind of thing(I have no problem with anyone where that isn't the case), but also, I saw some that attempted it and found it extremely frustrating because the momentum is killed every time you reach a cut scene, and those are counted as part of the overall, which obviously is significantly less appealing. 8/10.