Anna is a game I found way back in 2012 when I saw the likes of Pewdiepie and Markiplier making Let's Plays on it. When I saw this on PS Now, I somehow remembered it and wondered why no one really talked about it much. After playing it, I can see why.

Anna is a puzzle, horror game. While there are many horror games that have these elements, the game is dedicated to the idea of puzzle more than anything. What I mean is that, this game is more of a puzzle game with horror elements than an actual horror game and not a good one.

This game is probably one of the most boring horror games I've ever played and I have yet to play Ju-On: The Grudge. While it has decent atmosphere, much like Ju-On (a literal haunted house simulator) nothing ever hurts you. Things just change around you, but nothing ever hurts or attacks you. In fact, nothing ever actually poses any sort of threat.

On the puzzle side of things, it's not all bad. Some of the puzzles are actually pretty good like the colored leaves puzzle. However, some are outright confusing mainly because they have no indication on how you would solve them. For example, there's a part where you have to clear dark fog in a room using a lantern, but it isn't pure enough to get rid of it. So, you have to take the two color leaves that you used in the previous puzzle, put them in a mantel, and crushed them up to create electrum dust to make the light more pure. In no way does the game indicate that you can use the leaves again as all the other leaves burned to ash.

I think the stupidest thing about this game is the story. You're suppose to unravel the story as you progress, but it's not worth it. So to summarize as best as I can, the plot is that a man with amnesia goes to a sawmill, where the man remembers killing his real wife after she defiled Anna's statue. At the end of the game he finds the statue, along with dolls of his children, in a small chamber. As the tunnel to the chamber caves in, he realizes that he will stay in the chamber forever, but he does not care because he has "Anna" with him. This isn't some joke, all this happened because a man fell in love with a damn statue, which is probably one of the dumbest plots to any video game. Now this is suppose to be the true ending as the game has eight different endings, but don't worry if you don't want to waste your time, the game isn't long as it takes about half an hour to beat if you know what you're doing.

With that out of the way, let's talk about the other aspects of this game. Graphically the game looks cheap, even on PC and looks like someone turned the resolution of the textures down. The soundtrack is decent and when I played this game, I thought there was only one track that plays, which was the same acoustic track over and over again. Upon further research, I found out that there are 11 tracks it's just that they only play one track while solving puzzles. And while it sounds nice and gives off a warm and calm atmosphere, I'd like to hear more than just that. The movement is sluggish as it feels like the character has three legs. Finally, the sound design is also bad as some sound effects sound too compressed or just a little too loud.

In short, if you want a puzzle horror game that's actually engaging, just play something like Omori, or Witch's House, or Mad Father, or Corpse Party, or any other puzzle-based horror game that's far more interesting than this.

Anna é um jogo de puzzle envolto em uma temática de terror, com diversos eventos sinistros podendo ocorrer para te assustar ou te tirar do sério enquanto você busca avançar no jogo - o que já não é uma tarefa fácil. Não vou mentir que essa é uma ideia de gameplay bem interessante e que facilmente me comprou na primeira vez que joguei.

Essa versão em questão é o jogo original, ele também possui uma versão expandida, com melhorias de gameplay e bem mais conteúdos. A versão original possui diversos pontos fracos que tornam difícil engajar ou se acostumar com a gameplay, além de cenários muito escuros que tornam difícil ver as coisas - isso em um jogo onde 50% do que se tem que fazer é sair por aí procurando itens e coisas para pegar e/ou interagir.

Porém, fora essas limitações, o jogo possui uma ambientação fantástica, com um tema de terror ala Bruxa de Blair, com elementos naturais anômalos (floresta, madeira, raízes, etc) envoltos em rituais pagânicos, o que é um cenário de terror que eu particularmente gosto muito, mas que quase não é explorado por jogos e filmes...

Vou ser sincero, não é um jogo confortável de jogar devido as limitações de gameplay e escolhas incômodas de mecânica de interação - você realmente ter que dar uma forçadinha pra se acostumar se quiser jogar. Mas fora isso, pra quem curte terror e, principalmente, puzzle, Anna é uma experiência de jogo bem interessante e atmosférica que vale a pena jogar.
E claro, se quiser a experiência melhorada, jogue a versão expandida.

Anna's 'Extended Version' is the definitive way of experiencing this game. It still has a lot of clunk, and it's clear that the development team behind it had more vision than talent. But it's tolerable and, once you're accustomed to all the jank, it can be a scary good time.

The same cannot be said for the original version of Anna. It was generous of Kalypso to package the original version of Anna with the Extended Edition, but my god, the original version does not hold up.

Here are some things that the original version of Anna and its Extended Edition have in common:
- Clunky controls
- Beautiful sounding music
- A spooky atmosphere
- ...they take place within a sawmill, I guess?

And that's it. Now here are the things that are exclusive to this version of the game that makes it the worst possible way of experiencing this game:

- A narrative that lacks any clarity whatsoever and relies far too much on being ambiguous than anything else
- Scares that don't feel handcrafted in any capacity and only serve to be an added gimmick for marketing material
- A frustrating interface that makes puzzle solving a chore
- Puzzles that feel so esoteric in design that it's genuinely baffling that they thought anyone would figure them out without either banging their head against a wall or resorting to a walkthrough
- Small, unrefined spaces that fail to make the most of the game's supernatural setting
- A lack of any challenge to be found

If you're really that curious, maybe check this out? But otherwise, stick with the Extended Edition if you're looking to play this.