Why is this a video game?
I feel kinda bad because there are glimpses of really interesting things in this game but at the same time, this is an unapologetically bad game. So get this, this game uses horror elements to tackle a character's struggle with their past actions by visualizing their psyche. Pretty interesting I don't think any other piece of media has done this before. I'm really tired of this trope being used all the time, it is overdone and makes the story extraordinarily predictable (but don’t tell the writers that, they’’ still always treat each story beat and revelation as if it is a twist). It never won't feel like they think they're smarter than their audience and need to spell out each detail to them while their own story has less complexity than I'd expect out of a high school creative writing class. That being said this game does hint at some intriguing ideas that I wish they would develop and build upon, but they don't.
In terms of art direction and visual fidelity, it's quite impressive but that might be heavily aided by how linear the game is. People are calling this a walking sim and frankly, I find that a bit insulting, to walking sims. This is more like watching a movie on a free streaming service where every few minutes the movie stops and you have to watch an ad for 30 seconds, just replace watching the ad with pressing forward on the left joystick. I'm going to talk about the "actual gameplay" in a second but first I just want to touch on the theme/context of the game. This game is about suicide, kinda, it's about depression more accurately. You don't need me to tell you that though the game will remind you every single second.
The full story (spoilers I guess but it was obvious from the first no-joke five seconds of gameplay) is about how trauma can define us, blinding us to the world, allowing us to only focus on ourselves, and that you have to learn to accept your trauma so you can move on and no longer let it consume your life. This is a complex and important thing to talk about that demands nuance and care if you want to handle it in a way that can deliver this message in a meaningful way. This game gives none of that and genuinely feels disrespectful. Side note the live-action scenes were stylish and had actual direction and the in-engine ones were incredibly dull in comparison, maybe they were trying to further the main character's disconnect from the world considering she is the only human in the game that's not shown in live action but I think that's giving this game too much credit.
The gameplay is a maze you run through while you avoid an instant-kill monster. I get what they were going for narrativley here but that doesn't change the fact that it's just really boring to play, not frustrating or unfun just boring. I felt it was an obvious choice to have the player eventually act against the rigid structure of the game and instead turn around to beat the game, you know mirroring the narrative, but no, it really is that linear just because, oh and the character instead of course just develops in a cutscene.
The scariest part of this horror game is realizing that if you mess up you'll have to play it for even longer. The last gameplay section sees you playing Slenderman, having to collect a bunch of items to unlock a door. You don't know where the items are and are moving so fast through this maze because if you aren’t you’ll be punished, getting reset and having to find all the items all over again, because of this you cannot get a good spatial image of how the maze links together. It was such a stupid idea that I dropped the game and watched the ending on YouTube instead. The fact a free-to-play game that is less than two hours long failed to compel me to complete it should say enough about its quality.