Decarnation is a story rich adventure horror game. Solve cryptic puzzles, fight disturbing enemies, explore a phantasmagorical world of dreams and nightmares, and face the most terrifying monsters from the darkest parts of your soul.
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What a short and simple psychological horror game that uses aging for its body horror. Case in point, the first scene of the game starts with the exploitation of the protagonist's body dealing a blow to their well-being. Surprisingly, the narrative holds well given its twist and I do appreciate a sincere ending for this genre. I do disagree with the epilogue though.
As for its mechanics and gameplay, it is quite lacking in both puzzles and horror. The puzzles can be unclear in their intent as well as monotonous to some degree where a sprint option would have helped to reduce this friction although I would have this over the monster rooms. Horror is subjective but I did find it weak in terms of its impact but not visuals. Perhaps I needed more scenes of body horror and maybe impact the protagonist during the fantasy sequences like flesh falling off and turning into enemies. For a positive point, I do like seeing more rhythm mini-games and the hide-and-seek mini-game is surprisingly fun. Overall though, this is the only reason why I think the game is brought down despite its small scale.
Still, its creativity and effort makes this an short indie gem worthy of attention.
As for its mechanics and gameplay, it is quite lacking in both puzzles and horror. The puzzles can be unclear in their intent as well as monotonous to some degree where a sprint option would have helped to reduce this friction although I would have this over the monster rooms. Horror is subjective but I did find it weak in terms of its impact but not visuals. Perhaps I needed more scenes of body horror and maybe impact the protagonist during the fantasy sequences like flesh falling off and turning into enemies. For a positive point, I do like seeing more rhythm mini-games and the hide-and-seek mini-game is surprisingly fun. Overall though, this is the only reason why I think the game is brought down despite its small scale.
Still, its creativity and effort makes this an short indie gem worthy of attention.
Really interesting adventure game of a person's psyche being broken down and reformed to cope with a horrible scenario. I say it loses half a star due to the following:
-Lack of a running button(You will walk the entire game.)
-Kind of broken collision in the last parts of the game(It really breaks when you are trying to get into the train car.)
-Didn't really like the dancing minigames(I know it was important to develop and show Gloria as a dancer. Just didn't find them fun.)
-Lack of a running button(You will walk the entire game.)
-Kind of broken collision in the last parts of the game(It really breaks when you are trying to get into the train car.)
-Didn't really like the dancing minigames(I know it was important to develop and show Gloria as a dancer. Just didn't find them fun.)
Está bien, pero podría ser mejor. Muchos puzzles innecesarios.
Decarnation apareceu pra mim em um dos momentos mais críticos da minha ansiedade. Com certeza essa semana vai ficar marcada por um bom tempo, assim como esse jogo. "Fugir é sucumbir ao medo. Encará-lo é incorporar a coragem."
My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined.
Had high hopes for this one, but Decarnation turned out to be a lengthy, preachy and uninspired drag. After a promising first act, the rest of the game leaves a lot to be desired. You would think–now limited to one room–the game would dial up its artistic merit, but other than a statue that spins 360° nothing will ever match the detailed and visceral body horror you have witnessed hours ago. The introduced dream world is barren; made out of ruins, broken statues, tentacles (?) and people with towels wrapped around their heads, it’s a pathetic attempt to visualise her deteriorating mental state. The set pieces as well as the ‘other selves’ she meets through this journey are nothing but flat, superficial caricatures of the themes the game is trying to dig in.
Minigames continue to be simple and mundane, but do not add to the monotony of her daily life or drive the point home that she was kidnapped and is being caged like an animal. It feels like the developers felt forced to include them for the sake of it being a game – the same can be said about the bare bones puzzles littered here and there, which once again carry only surface-level meaning to them, if even that. The little scene of her dancing until her face falls off in act 1 is truly carrying all the weight of what Decarnation wants to be.
Confused and anticlimactic, the game ends with a Dreamworks dance party that throws any serious messaging of Gloria’s harrowing experience into the mud. I was happy to uninstall this one.
Had high hopes for this one, but Decarnation turned out to be a lengthy, preachy and uninspired drag. After a promising first act, the rest of the game leaves a lot to be desired. You would think–now limited to one room–the game would dial up its artistic merit, but other than a statue that spins 360° nothing will ever match the detailed and visceral body horror you have witnessed hours ago. The introduced dream world is barren; made out of ruins, broken statues, tentacles (?) and people with towels wrapped around their heads, it’s a pathetic attempt to visualise her deteriorating mental state. The set pieces as well as the ‘other selves’ she meets through this journey are nothing but flat, superficial caricatures of the themes the game is trying to dig in.
Minigames continue to be simple and mundane, but do not add to the monotony of her daily life or drive the point home that she was kidnapped and is being caged like an animal. It feels like the developers felt forced to include them for the sake of it being a game – the same can be said about the bare bones puzzles littered here and there, which once again carry only surface-level meaning to them, if even that. The little scene of her dancing until her face falls off in act 1 is truly carrying all the weight of what Decarnation wants to be.
Confused and anticlimactic, the game ends with a Dreamworks dance party that throws any serious messaging of Gloria’s harrowing experience into the mud. I was happy to uninstall this one.
A stunningly harrowing game that explores the horrors of female objectification, stalking, isolation and accepting oneself and ones trauma. Using relatively simple game play mechanics that are incorporated in multiple ways, the narrative and vibe is clearly a higher priority than any sort of difficulty or oppressing game play. Comfortable enough to leave those things to it's writing and use of visual and audio art to explore such stress inducing ideas in such beautiful ways.
For the price, length and narrative I personally find criticisms of Decarnation being gameplay light incredibly odd. It strikes all the right notes of a horror puzzle game and that's all it needs. If you need something emotionally driving that you can simultaneously relax and experience anxiety through I can't recommend Decarnation enough.
For the price, length and narrative I personally find criticisms of Decarnation being gameplay light incredibly odd. It strikes all the right notes of a horror puzzle game and that's all it needs. If you need something emotionally driving that you can simultaneously relax and experience anxiety through I can't recommend Decarnation enough.