Sour, rotten apple
Nostalgia is fine, but it's not necessary to mimic every mistake and hardware limitation of the past. The game would be fine, if not for the combat. You need to press two (!) buttons to attack - one "aims", though there is no aiming in close combat, but while "aiming", you cannot move, and the second attacks. Since the game offers no defensive action (block, backstep, nothing), all you have to do is to run around the enemy, provoking him to attack, then quickly turning, attacking, and running off until you are hit. Hit detection is, of course, bad, and since the game allows you to move in only eight direction, you won't be ever able to properly gauge the range of attacks. The fanboi will tell shout you down that it's "cool and oldschool", but it's just bad design. Moreover, the game does not allow you to customize controls, which is inexcusable in 2026 - even ZX Spectrum games from the 80s offered that option while having just 48KB space for the whole program, so why must be modern games worse?
The combination of pixel art and FMV is an interesting idea, but the pixel art itself is on the crude side, like early Sierra games - don't expect quality like Blackwell Series of Kathy Rain, and the animations are stiff. Everything else - the plot, the pacing, the NPCS - is mediocre, and the core gameplay - running through similar looking building corridors, and the awful combat with the same few enemies, getting stuck in the scenery while running from unkillable monsters, stepping over electrified wires - is awful. You are told everything in the beginning, so there is not much to discover, and there are games that build tension and sense of mystery far better.
If you want to play good pixel art adventures, play Abscision, Carnival, Blackwell series, Charnel Trilogy, and others.
Don't believe the hype
(Played the game on Steam, bought on release)
2 gamers found this review helpful