Another exceptionally well realised home run from Narayan Walters.

From the moment you cauterise your wounds, Endoparasitic makes it apparent how much one can do with less. The remaining arm is as much a resource as time and your bullets. It is your sole means of movement, of fighting, of managing your inventory, of interacting, of healing. The careful player will ensure their weapons are loaded before an encounter so as to not fumble around with reloading in a fight. Yet fumble you will as you juggle your guns for maximum efficiency. And one cannot even be too cautious due to the ticking clock element of the parasite in your system. Just as in Wrought Flesh, battles have a wondrous balancing act of risk and reward, where clearing an encounter more quickly offsets gradual degradation, but it can lead to an exacerbation of disadvantages. When shit hits the fan, you are stuck with the decision of crawling away or standing your ground, and never feel like quite the perfect option.

And I love that nothing feels like the best choice! In stealth segments on the brink of death you wonder if you should make a break for it, or pray you have enough time, or simply shoot those watchful sentries. Is it better to leave cocoons untouched along with their spoils, or should you crack them up for loot and risk enemies spawning who might start a domino effect? When the hunter arrives, will you run? Shoot? Use it as a weapon? Which ammo will you keep on you for the trials ahead? Do you really want to potentially endanger yourself by using your crossbow with its cranking reload?

It all synthesises beautifully, and once you get a hand on the mechanics your triple amputation hardly feels like a burden. Being controlled entirely with one hand on the mouse makes everything feel so natural, the digital body becomes an extension of the self. Maybe you were the parasite all along 👻

Endoparasitic is part of a survival horror renaissance taking place far, farrrrr away from the grotesque, triple-A decadence of the recently released and upcoming remakes of survival horror classics. This is a tactile and sweaty game that captures the elemental tension of what defined this genre in the first place, and it is as refreshing to encounter after such a long period of time as the game is just exhilarating to play. The entirely mouse-based control scheme is charming and fun to play with, albeit maybe inaccessible to some people. It expresses the funny irony that is inherent to all survival horror games, the heightened giddy nervousness of the person who is willfully subjecting themselves to something that they might come to regret. That sinister mood we turn against ourselves feels like it has been captured by the slight storytelling the game does through text documents and brief voice acted cutscenes and narration by its scheming, arrogant scientist protagonist. What an ass he is, and what an ass we might become after placing ourselves into the simulated experience of crawling with one arm through this parasitized mars base. What odds do we really have to survive this? I'm not confident things will go alright, but let's just try it anyhow!

This is pure survival horror through and through, absolute ace work.

Endoparasitic is decently enjoyable and very atmospheric, but does end up being one of those games being more interesting to talk about than to play. It's a genuinely fascinating concept for a game: everything is done one-handed (both by the protagonist and by the player, who solely uses the mouse), making it impossible to do multiple things at once. If you want to shoot a weapon, reload, heal or open a first aid kit, then you're going to be unable to move for a few seconds while you work your way through the deliberately clunky UI.

That UI is a mixed blessing, and is probably the first thing you'll notice about the game. There's no 'reload' button, for example: if you want to reload, you're going to have to pick up the gun, open the inventory, pull the spent ammo out of the chambers one by one and then load in new bullets individually. It's a similar story with healing, and inventory management in general. This sounds tedious on paper and yeah, it can be. If you're in between combats and there are no immediate threats, it feels like pointless busywork. But in the middle of a fight it is extremely tense; for the most parts, combats are designed to let the player have just barely enough time to get in a reload if they're damn quick about it, and it genuinely feels very good to pull it off. Endoparasitic ends up being a remarkably immersive experience for what it is, and the level layouts and oppressive level of fog of war make it feel very claustrophobic in a good way.

I do however feel like this focus on doing everything one-handed doesn't quite work 100%, and there is enough jank in the controls to be noticeable and frustrating in the late game. Your character's one arm has some degree of physics to it, meaning is sometimes will get stuck on a table or something when trying to reach for an item and have to wiggle around a bit to try and get free. I found aiming to be weirdly inconsistent too; quite often the recoil from a first shot would send your arm right back into your torso, and the game would get confused by your hand being so close to your shoulder. Drawing and holstering weapons was always a bit awkward as well; where exactly you have to grab each gun felt pretty inconsistent, and there is no visual tell to show where you have to click to stow them once you're done. Endoparasitic makes up some points with it's movement; dragging yourself across the floor with your one hand ends up being much more fun than it sounds, especially when you get good at it and can just yeet yourself across the room.

Aesthetically, it's more of a mixed bag. I'm not really sure what tone it's going for; the plot, stark visuals and opressive atmosphere all make me think it wants to be taken seriously, but honestly the game comes off as more silly than anything else, in a B-movie kind of way. The voice acting is all extremely melodramatic and somewhat amateur, the main character is an idiot with bizarre priorities, and the things he manages to do despite his horrific injuries are just kinda laughable. But this isn't a problem per se, I enjoyed the cheesiness here even if it wasn't intended. As for the visuals, the UI feels pretty great (throwing smoking shotgun shells to the ground looks and sounds pretty satisfying every time), but the enemy design is a little uninspired and the environment design is extremely samey. And it's a minor thing to pick up on, but the sound the zombies make when they spot you just sounds... bored? It's a sound you hear a lot, and it just puts a dent in the otherwise great immersion this game manages to attain.

So overall, great concept for a game and I'm glad it exists, but there are enough little issues here and there that I can't really overlook them. I feel like the game would probably be better if it was about 2/3 of it's length, as it sorta feels like the dev ran out of things to add; the mid-game can get pretty samey, and the enemy types get less fitting and fun to deal with the later they are introduced. But Endoparasitic largely achieves what it sets out to, and ends up being a pretty memorable experience. Can recommend this one.

very fun game, but comes with the challenges of its own design. clicking and dragging with your one limb makes sense, but causes me finger pain. it is also very difficult to switch weapons and reload. thankfully, the enemy movement is slow because of this, but trying to do these actions quickly (especially equipping and unequipping the right weapon, and with the small holes to insert bullets in for reloading) makes the experience clunky. I'm not trying to trash on the game since the ideas are really cool, but unfortunately they do come at the cost of intuitiveness. good thing the campaign is also short, and has a replayable rougelite mode if you really wanna master the system. I do recommend this game because it has a great original gimmick and is also a short game to boot if it doesn't fully vibe with you.

brilliant idea done brilliantly, the one arm gimmick and all mouse control is unique, interesting and works well, and even ignoring the most unique part of this game its still a expertly crafted survival horror game, exploration is executed well, fun and tense at points and the gunplay with the manual reloading makes works really well in making this game immersive, the only problem i have with this game is the times i had where the gunplay turned from fun and interesting to annoying and janky, the mouse control is well done but not perfect and sometimes while shooting (especially while shooting an enemy close to me) the hand would move in weird ways that i didnt want it to which led to some frustrating deaths, that isnt exactly common though and you can work around so its not a major issue

Oynanış ve konusu açısından Endoparasitic gördüğüm çoğu Hayatta Kalma - Korku oyunundan çok farklı bir yapıya sahip. Öncelikle konusu açısından anlatmam gerekirse. Oyunun başlangıç sinematiğinde ana karakterimiz parazitli canavarlar tarafından saldırıya uğrayıp üç uzuvu kopartılıyor. Böyle trajik bir durumdan sonra ana karakterimiz sürünerek bir ütü bulup yaralarını kapatıyor. Hadi ütü yaraları kapattı da bu adam 3 uzuvu kopmasına rağmen nasıl sürünecek gücü buldu bende bilmiyorum. Bu sahneyi izlediğimde aşırı şok olmuş şekilde yaralarıma ütü yapmaya başlamıştım. Sahneden sonra oyunu zaten nasıl oynayacağımız gayet açık bir şekilde önümüze sunuluyor. Oyun bize tek elimizle tek kolumuzla tek yüreğimizle istasyonda hayatta kalmamız gerektiğini söylüyor. Ciddi ciddi oyun bu durumda hayatta kalmamızı bekliyor ve ana karakter azimle tek koluyla hayatta kalma savaşı veriyor. Oynanış kısmında tek kolumuzla her şeyi yapmaya çalıştığımız için biraz zor ve sinir bozucu olabiliyor. Her şey dediysem cidden her şey mesela kendiniz iyileştireceksiniz şırıngayı envanterden basmalısınız. Canınız yenilendi mi şimdi mermi doldurmanız lazım onu da detaylı bir şekilde tek elinizle yapıyorsunuz. Üstelik tüm eylemleriniz tek eliniz üzerine olduğu gibi bir de kaynaklarınızı bulduğunuz bulmacalı kutuları da tek elimizle çözüyoruz.

Oyun cidden "Tek El" ile hayatta kalma konseptini çok iyi bir şekilde benimsemiş. Çok iyi benimsemiş benimsemesine de oyun sonlarında biraz can sıkmaya başladığını söyleyebilirim.

Can sıkmaya başlamasının en büyük nedeni oyunun son birkaç kısmında Predator diye bir düşman beliriyor. Ulan ne kadar namussuz ve öldürmesi zor bir düşman tasarlamışlar. Tabii öldürmeyip zorlana zorlana kaça kaça bölümü geçebiliyorsunuz ama ben işimi garantiye alayım demiştim. İşi garantiye alamıyormuşuz bu canavar tam olarak yenilmeyip bir süre beklemeye giriyormuş. Bunu öğrenmek oyun içinde kıvranan ben için çok can sıkıcı olmuştu. Genel anlamda düşmanlar arasında en can sıkıcısı Predator'dı ama o da kadar kötü bir tasarıma sahip değil. Diğer düşmanlar ise oyunun temposuna hoş bir gerilim katıyor. Farklı farklı düşmanlar geldikçe elinize kuvvetli silahlarda geliyor. Böyle ilginç bir kafada oyun arıyorsanız kesinlikle Endoparasitic'e şans verin.

Eu quase diria que esse jogo é fraco ou esquecível, mas não posso negar a competência em aplicar uma mecânica limitante em um jogo survivor horror.
Ter apenas uma mão aplica um fator que geralmente passa pela suspensão de descrença quando jogamos.
Como nosso personagem ao mesmo tempo que está mirando, consegue abrir uma mala, reposicionar os itens e trocar de arma sem perder a postura?
Nesse jogo, não é só apenas a gestão de recursos, mas a utilização deles. Ter um Braço torna um simples ato de recarregar algo doloroso e muitas vezes punitivo, te levando a prestar atenção o tempo todo, o que, para mim, acabou sendo levemente cansativo.
Talvez eu goste dessa sensação survivor horror
Veja que aprecio momentos de respiro em jogos, não senti isso aqui, parece que morri numa maratona e quando estava no fim do jogo, me senti cansado... sorte que o jogo acabou, mas me deixou sem vontade alguma de jogar uma continuação (pelo menos agora).

A parte mais foda do jogo é indiscutivelmente seu conceito. A parada do seu personagem só usar uma mão e o jogo refletir isso usando apenas o seu mouse para atirar, se mover, recarregar e abrir portas é uma sacada de gênio. Não é perfeito, e isso fica evidente no final do jogo onde você tem tanta arma e tem tanto bicho que as vezes eu sentia que passava por pura sorte, destaque pro boss final que eu tenho certeza que foi RNG. A história é meio bizarra, o contexto do jogo, com os visuais meio cinzas meio depressivos dão a impressão de um jogo sério, mas pqp mano não da pra levar a sério uma história que começa com teu boneco se tornando um torso com apenas UM braço. E o teu boneco é meio cuzão também então ele interage com os poucos personagens e com as coisas ao redor de maneira hostil mas acaba parecendo muito mais tosco do que eu acho que os desenvolvedores queriam (pela condição peculiar do protagonista) . A trilha sonora é boa, mas não aparece muito durante o game, infelizmente.

Mas o conceito é realmente bem maneiro, gostaria de ver uma continuação expandindo com mas mecânicas manetas...