Shout out to over the top meta indie games
Gotta be one of my favorite genders

Really liked the humor and writing
Disliked the optional mini game that I 100%ed nonetheless
There's still a lot of content, but I finished it in 3 hours

It's a great little game, go play it

OutCore is a meta adventure game about a girl named Lumi who visits you inside your computer. She asks you to recover her memories, which takes you through various minigames and even your own files and folders hidden around your operating system. It's a neat illusion that used its tools really well to create something I've never seen before, even amongst fourth-wall breaking titles like Pony Island or Doki Doki Literature Club. Similar to those games, OutCore borrows light psychological thriller/horror elements which almost felt out of place here. The game works more in its comedic and parody moments, and finds interesting ways to play with expectations. The actual gameplay varies from moment to moment, but a solid third of the experience is a set of imprecise sequences of action-platforming, which felt floaty and not stable. It was servicable to get through the story but some bigger setpieces were made slightly frustrating due to the less than airtight controls. All that said, OutCore is a title that is worth giving a shot. It's free on Steam and it's worth booting up just to see a browser buddy pop up within your screen. Whether you stay to finish the story, your mileage may vary.

Outcore is not only extremely charming and full of heart, but also inventive and puts all its separate parts to their best use.

It's genuinely a very strong contender for one of the best free games you can play on Steam!

I can't say too much without spoiling some important parts of the game that are better experienced blind, but what I can say is that in its ~4 hour runtime, the game manages to tell a compelling story, switches up its gameplay without it feeling jarring and presents you with easily lovable characters and strange personalities. I also adore the music in this game.

The only real complaints I have is that the controls for the platforming sections are a little slippery and sometimes the reference humour can be a bit much but other than that, it totally captured my heart.
I loved playing through this one a lot!

It's free, 2 hours long and very creative, definitely give it a chance if you have the time and/or are looking for a game that plays with the fourth wall. I have a few caveats though, first of all the controls in the platform sections can get a few adjustments, to start the jump is very floaty witch can be a disadvantage against bosses that demands precision (Which explain the option to skip them) and the dash really could use a pointer when played with mouse, this is obvious in the race, when is easy to lose the track to where are we pointing at. Also, the plot can get a few adjustments to make its message more clear I'm not going to say what to avoid spoilers, because I really encourage you to play this game