This is like one of the craziest games I've ever played

This game has atmosphere like a motherfucker, genuinely when it started off I loved exploring the hotel, it was a lot of fun and very cozy, then when the game wants the exact same hotel to be terrifying it is. The slow arduous journey from the chapel to your bedroom was the most tense I've felt in a long time. The game's sound design is also on point. Except for the weird end credits song. That kinda sucked.

Anyways, all that comes at odds with this game's baffling story which, as the rest of these reviews will tell you, is hilariously bizarre and also mostly about how cool pedophiles are. This game fucking SENT ME.

The voice acting is honestly so perfect for the dialogue. It's awkward and stilted and also somehow brimming with emotion. Like everyone voice acting was constantly on the verge of laughing while recording, or having a mental breakdown.

So right, you start thinking pretty soon into the game that the father is actually gonna be a misunderstood good guy, like everyone thought he was having sex with a 16 year old (or as this game keeps saying a 16 years-old), but he was just a genuinely understanding man who actually understood Rachel when nobody else did, and that relationship made say her dad or little brother jealous and so they started a rumor about the whole pedophile thing when in reality he was just the only one in the small town kind enough and smart enough to understand her and they had like a parental child bond, or like even a mutual friendship or something, but no, the dad is actually just an ethical pedophile and his dumb idiot prude wife just couldn't handle him experiencing so much love.

Also say that you're a woman and you find out your near-50 year old husband has impregnated a 16 year old girl. I'd say that the more rational response would be to kill your husband, not the 16 year old, but that's the game's final twist, and it's hilarious.

Most of this game's story is setting up a romance between the main character, Nicole, the daughter of the aforementioned ethical pedophile, and Irving, a character who is supposedly a FEMA worker, but in a reveal that was all too telegraphed turns out to be the little brother of the 16 year old, the titular Rachel. By the way there's a moment before the reveal where Irving pretends to be talking to someone else, but it's so incredibly obvious that it's just him doing the voice of an old lady so like, for a really long time I knew some shit was happening with him, and Nicole just doesn't realize that it was obviously him pitching his voice up a little bit. Once again, this game could absolutely send me. Also, that romance was actually kinda charming because of how awkward and bizarre the voice performance is, and genuinely I wish this game's ending was just them unraveling the mystery and then just like shrugging to each other and then leaving to go on the date they sorta set up. Like, man this sure was fucked up, but like idk at least we have each other. I don't know, I know there's some dialogue relating to their romance I missed so maybe I wouldn't like it so much if I had experienced it fully. Maybe it was because at that point their relationship was the only part of the game's story that wasn't a total dumpster fire and would've ended the game on at least something I liked.

The puzzles in this game are all basic and I never got lost, except for when I wanted to, like it's all there for a basic simple walking sim, and that's what it is. But everything else around it goes fucking crazy by the latter half, it's amazing.

I haven't laughed at a videogame this hard in so long, and I will say, even though this game is basically just 3 hours of defending the honor of a fictional pedophile, it really isn't that gross of a game. Maybe it's just because of how silly it all is, or maybe it is the voice work which made me laugh at all the big emotional scenes, but it plays out more like the devs being like "Oh, you fool, you thought the pedophile was a bad guy? He was actually the good guy and you were the bad guy for being mean to your classmate when you were a teenager!" Then some creepy person telling you about why age of consent laws are tyranny, like they only made the dad, once again, have sex with a high schooler, just so you'd be surprised when it turns out he was actually the good guy, and that's just kinda funny.

So this game hints constantly at the fact that Rachel is still alive or like is a ghost, but it never confirms it, like it should have, until near the end when it's revealed that yes, she is in fact a spooky ghost and can do spooky ghost things like possess people and write stuff on chalkboards. This is very very funny, and also is so stupid and ends anything this game could've done that was remotely good. Like they would talk a lot about how love stays within the hotel's walls, or like Rachel is still with us, and you think it's metaphorical, but no it's all literal and the game ends with Rachel possessing Nicole and trying to kill herself, because she thinks Nicole killed her? Rachel calls Nicole her murderer near the end even though she isn't. Thinking about it, you do get the keys to your mom's car, who was the killer, right before that, so you think that her writing "murderer" on a chalk board was referencing your mom, but no she does try to kill Nicole at the end. I don't get it, but the game demonizes Nicole for being mean to Rachel when she was 16 and also for paying more attention to her Hockey Finales then to if her mom was present during parts of that game, which is hilarious, like most of this game's plot, but man does it really suck how this game had the potential to be unironically good, but now can only be enjoyed entirely ironically.

The setup is decent, the characters are poorly acted and poorly written, but incredibly charming mostly because of those two things, but then the game had to go and defend pedophilia. You don't ever come back from that.

All in all this is the most insane game ever made, and I think it may be the most perfect fit for "so bad it's good" or whatever you want to call it, but of course I completely understand how subjective art is and that this game surely isn't for anyone.

Never after finishing a game has my head been full of so many thoughts, it's like a shotgun just went off in my brain. Like, why is this game? Why would you make this game? Who would make this game? How did this game develop into what it currently is?

I'm not tagging this review as spoilers because it honestly doesn't matter and I think that already knowing how silly and awful this game is before going in will only enhance your experience. Play at your own risk. Seriously. What the FUCK is this game.