Definitely one where the story feels a bit to vague to add up to anything more than some cool vignettes and vibe. Which the game has both of! Getting chased by deer is awesome, figuring out to chase them, the cuts are fun and cinematic of course, I like to think about mushrooms, the aesthetic nails what it is going for and a few more things I'm probably forgetting. But like a long list of cool things barely substantiating a review, so how I feel about this game ( not so bad a thing for me in the end).

Clearly, whatever it is most people on the site and the steam page got from this game was lost on me. I get what it was going for but I didnt feel engaged or intrigued, mostly annoyed and bored. I only have a vague understanding of the plot which I'm sure was intended, but really with these types of non linear-ish storytelling styles you'll either be excited and stimulated by it, trying to piece it all together or, well, bored and annoyed.

I came across this game thinking it looked a bit like "it comes in waves" which I really enjoyed but whilst there is certainly a comparison to be made, that one didnt pull all the cheap "lets cut away every 30 seconds" bullshit which probably works a lot better in film. I saw someone comparing this to the Lighthouse, which I can sort of see, but then Im not really sure why I liked that and disliked this.

At least it was only an hour long, but it felt twice that length to me. Maybe this sort of thing is more enjoyable on a second playthrough when its easier to piece it all together, like Paprika, but again I found the game to be insipid, so I am not too inclined to do so.

A fantastic thriller that sets you out in the cold wilderness with a distant, peculiar stranger who's hired you as a navigator. Your only other company is a pack of loyal dogs. Its pacing is perfect, worldbuilding is fantastic, and story is engaging. If I had to draw parallels, it definitely reminded me of Paratopic in presentation, and its themes somewhat reminded me of The Lighthouse, but it is wholly unique in what it is trying to achieve. It could be considered short; my playthrough took me an hour and thirty minutes. Though it is absolutely the perfect length to experience in one sitting.

Part of me really wants to talk about the story, but I don't want to spoil anything, honestly. This is a game worth experiencing on your own, and drawing your own conclusions from. It is a very methodical game, and though it has horror elements, it mostly plays out like a traditional adventure game; albeit in first-person. There are a few moments of tense action (which I really enjoyed), though they are a fraction of the experience. If you're don't usually like this style of game, this one wont win you over, but otherwise, you're likely to have a great time.

Genuinely outstanding, mixing cinematic language into an experience that never compromises it's identity as a video game; with a clear world and lore but still begs to be interpreted, simple yet effective art design and surprisingly engaging gameplay - but most of all, it's absolutely dripping, no, POURING with atmosphere, every line of dialogue, every tonal change to the excellent soundtrack, every abrupt scene change will have you on the edge of your seat.

It's a good thing this is only an hour long, or I'd have been up all night, no way I'd be able to put this down and come back later.

HIGHLY recommend, I know I'll be playing it again very soon.

Falters towards thee end, limping along losing a bit of its mystique by leaning too heavily on its own narrative rather than allowing its literal bone-chilling setting to do most of thee heavy lifting. Which, thankfully, that atmosphere does for a well majority of its runtime. Are you lost? You are lost.

Sharp corners, a seemingly endless sheet of a white void; trees that look the same; sled dogs that might very well turn on you without a second thought but never do; a friend you're unsure is a friend. Who are you? Are you you?

Of course you are, but you are lost.

For an hour I really liked it and especially it’s presentation and how it connected through gameplay even though it had a really obnoxious level that I’m pretty sure everyone will know immediately once they reach it and you can get lost quite easily in some occasions although it does do it’s best to redirect you and give hints without feeling in your face obvious but other than that I really liked how it all came together at the end although it does feel a lot like a one-off thing honestly don’t see much point in replaying it until I forget everything.

Novel, interesting… goes on roughly twice the length it should. When I started playing I was rather quickly impressed by how the sled dog gameplay made movement feel: the deliberate finickiness of the anchor whenever you wanted to stop and start, how important it is to lean your character in a particular direction to prevent the sled from tipping over. I also love how expansive the areas you go through are, and not only how easy it is to get lost, but how easy it is to find your way again, the poles all over the arctic wilderness installing a sense of familiarity and direction and allowing you to make it to your destination from anywhere. I liked the way the story was presented: how quickly you cue into its non-linear nature, how you start to piece things together, how the mystery builds up to what feels like a major reveal… and then the game keeps going for 30 more minutes. You’re put into new section after new section, each one feeling like ‘okay, the game has to end here, right?’ and then it keeps on going. And it never really feels like you actually get anything out of these segments, no extra context, nothing you haven’t already learned. Maybe if there was more added to the plot, or maybe if the reveals felt staggered throughout the game rather than the last one being about halfway through, it could’ve ran its runtime better, but as is it feels like it peaks early and then it’s just going through the motions from that point on. Willing to give this game a bit of the benefit of the doubt given that I played it right after another game put me in a rather foul mood, but I think even if that hadn’t happened I would’ve had the same takeaway: neat idea, executed well, but also this does not have the runtime to fill an hour. 6/10.

That Which Gave Chase is such a loathsome experience that the only way for me to bear through it was to turn into He Who Did Not Give A Shit.

The developer does show a fair bit of command over prose, but not over storytelling. That Which Gave Chase feels intentionally vague, rambling and meaningless to encourage audiences to make their own 'theories' about it and spread word-of-mouth. Why should they ever do that when clearly even the guy who made it has no fucking clue what the game is about?

It only shows how low standards for indie horror games are that this game is praised for its 'atmosphere' or 'cinematic feel.' Again, for what? Because it waxes fancy for 45 minutes and uses a jump cut effect that was cool once before the developer got insanely trigger-happy with it and made it annoying?

While I don't expect much from the gameplay in a walking sim, what's here does feel downright amateurish.This is a game where you have to get off your sled (that in no way obscures your vision) to interact with blank signposts that simply say, 'This way,' to progress. This is one of those game design choices where having absolutely nothing in its place would be an improvement. Just let me keep sledding.

The Steam page for this game is a hoot. Its features section promises 'physics-based dog sledding.' My message to all developers who make such games is this: your main audience is people who play games, not people who make them. A basic part of what makes your game work is not a fucking feature, something to include on the marketing blurbs. Any game that involves movement is physics-based, aye? It's the equivalent of saying, 'clicking the Play button makes the game run.'

That Which Gave Chase is utterly barren in any way you can interpret that phrase. It proves that sometimes a game isn't greater than the sum of its parts. The ceaselessly ambiguous narrative makes this game feel pretentious rather than intriguing. The jump cut effect, unique at first, quickly becomes annoying and overused because the developer has no sense of proportion. And the 'haunted PS1' aesthetic hinders rather than enhances the experience.

That Which Gave Chase looks miserable due to a lack of care beyond making the models - what few objects there are in this wasteland of a game are sparsely animated and noclip into each other with regularity, breaking the immersion that would give this game some of that 'atmosphere' people talk about.

This is just a bad game, and even more damningly, an insidious one. See, this game charges money for a lesser experience of what other, better-known games it apes provide for free. It ticks all the boxes - PS1 aesthetic, theory-bait storyline, and even a fucking 'you can pet the dog in this game' moment - that an indie horror game needs to get coverage, to get YouTubers play it, to make people buy it because their favourite content creator played it. Basically, a cash- or notoriety-grab with no sincerity. Of course, I can't say it is that way intentionally. But it's still the kind of indie horror slop that grabs the attention that better games deserve more.

It's nice to see a deft application of cinematic language, a barrage of smash cuts, gurgling sound design. To then add the special language of video gaming--"hey, there's the sound of hooves behind you, wanna turn around and look?"; "Don't blocky PSX-era graphics creep you out in some unspecified way?"--and blend it all smoothly is another achievement altogether. But I'm still waiting for something that marries these aesthetics to a gripping story and/or sense of place, and unfortunately this game wasn't the one to do it. Like Paratopic, a similar game in sooooo many ways, this game's obscurity feels more like a distraction than a source of meaning. David Lynch would never.

pretty good indie game

my background:
1. Love PSX graphics
2. Hate walking sims
3. I like small indie games

So I saw this game on steam and imediatly bought it cuz it reminded me of NakeyJakey imaging a game about dog sledding. And cuz it looked fucking good

So, the goods:
1) graphics and artstyle - amazing, one of the best psx inspired games out there. Really love how it looks
2) Sledding gameplay - deadass reminded me of Death Stranding. Not a lot of mechanics here, but once again, it's you versus the terrain and it's fun, especially on the dear chasing level
3) Sound and music - cool and atmospheric

The bads:
1) Story - sorry but im too dumb for this type of storytelling.
2) By the end of it there is a lot of walking and not a lot of dog sledding :(

Overall it's a unique experience and very good-looking with some interesting gameplay that can be explored more