![]() There is this ever present sense of dread over the squalid levels you explore. It's weird and breathes and bleeds the punk aesthetic and philosophy. It felt necessary to keep a paper and pen near me to write down these long and sometimes convoluted passwords/puzzles.ĭespite the gameplay being simplistic and the weakest facet of the game, the writing and art style carries the weight. I felt that the passwords you had to memorize were a bit too long, though this is more of a quibble. This is a common issue with most point and click adventures. There wasn't really a coherent flow from easy to difficult as you progress through the story. Some felt unfairly obtuse while others were trivial. I thought the puzzles had sporadic difficulty. None of these are ground breaking from a gameplay perspective but it enhances the expressionism that permeates through every pore of the game. The last episode gets significantly more interesting with the mini-games and adds combat features which is still simple but makes the mini-games more engaging. The clear downside is the gameplay stays simplistic and never engaging. On one hand, it means they can throw a bunch of these at you and by keeping it simple you won't feel like a fish out of water. ![]() These mini-games are never long or complicated which is a double edged sword. The gameplay usually revolves around moving in the environment to an objective. The variation is a series of mini-games that are reminiscent of flash games such as what would be found on NewGrounds. It's full of puzzles, secrets and horror. It's sort of a point and click adventure, but instead of clicking you hold down a directional button and push an interaction button to pick up or interact with objects. The graphical style goes a long way in making it digestible while not pulling any punches in the graphic horror that unfolds. It's not for everyone and if you tapped out while playing the game I wouldn't judge you. It's a game I don't regret playing, but also one I will not revisit for a long time, if ever again (if a sequel comes out I will play this again before starting the new game). I would go so far to say that it was among the most disturbing experiences I had even in other mediums. This is a shockingly disturbing and a graphic horror game that delivered an oppressively bleak and griping atmosphere that dunks on all psychological horror games, including the great Silent Hill. An example of expressionism done with meaning would be Disco Elysium. There are examples of it in games, though it is rare despite the high prevalence of perspective based games such as first person or third person games. Can you define love or fear in a comprehensive or meaningful way using language alone and no emotional words (such as happy or scared)? Or is showing a better means of expression of your feelings around these emotions? Expressionism has been pushed and explored in meaningful ways in other mediums such as film and painting/drawings. While many games are arguably framed as subjective, in terms of perspective, this point of view is rarely pushed or utilized in meaningful ways to deliver an experience that language is inadequate to articulate.
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