Pitch a tent in it, I'm camped! There is a genius somewhere in here, likely taking form of innate complicity in being a voyeur to horrors for thee sake of capturing them in image(s). That in & of itself is a gut churner. Sadly, there are far too few opportunities to capitalize on such a theme. Limited interactivity is thee name of that game, baby, I would never ask for more control here. I would ask for more eroticisms, more moments for your eyes to be passive gashes. After all, its humor is intentional, the deathly sparse set designs are a complimentary nausea, but every facet of this game ends under-realized, even its finest strengths.

Much is to be said about not just encouraging, but forcing players through a near-identical second run in order to conclude its story. Critiques for this are completely valid, if not a little misled. This is not thee first game in its genre to pull this stunt, albeit not as well executed as others. But where its repeat run lacks in content, it makes up for it by recontextualizing tone. Not thee tone of its story, nor its horror, but in your tone. You know this house, you know these doors, you know (most of) these weapons. Your first run ends in tragedy, but you remember these halls, these puzzles, these answers, & maybe you can fix it. A silver coin might be silver all around, but each side yields a different answer; a potentially different fate.

Aesthetically perfect, mechanically stilted as good horror ought to be. A one-button heal-all can't exactly be excused, negating urgency of life. However, I urge you not to use it, if possible.

Fears not of its own secrets. No alternative playstyle or hidden level or walkthrough to reveal a sleight of hand. Quite thee opposite. Here, it's transparent of its own shocks & spooks & scares & unnerves. In fact, it goes so far as to proudly chisel a plastic plaque keeping numerical track of its own twists, encouraging players to see them all.

It's thee inverse of what I hold so dearly: mystery, unexplained. To have such confidence in these sometimes subtle, sometimes outlandish anomalies that thee developer is willing to forgo your curiosity in order to enjoy thee scares present is something I cannot condemn in thee slightest.

Rocking out is always possible even without any instruments at hand. You just gotta believe! or: Makeshift guitars through & through stir thee imagination. It's all in thee mind!

There is no denying thee simplicity of its charm. It's almost intoxicating how immediately easy it is to become 2D, grossly colorful popping reds & yellows, cool cool cool! You fly & spin, you jam & lam. Granted, to songs that aren't quite as infectious as its brotherly series, but with an equally endearing cast. Designs that strike as alien yet can somehow be drawn from memory after a single playthrough. Progression of character is stunted immediately after a familiar tutorial, which is soured with lateral learning. "It's all in the mind!" repeats in thee mind of Lammy to overcome fears, but flying, maternity, & putting out a ferocious building fire hardly feels in tune with what is deemed necessary in becoming a rockstar, opposite to what PaRappa aimed to achieve by thee end of his life-in-a-day journey.

Possibly oversimplifying each missions intent here, or maybe it's all in my mind.

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.

Current personal best, 406.897

Masterclass in design. A general & vague term wholly applicable in every aspect from thee leaderboard crawl, heat-sensing enemy proximity radar, blitzed out uptick scoring system; superbly playful despite a rather oppressing & suffocating field. Thee offense to Devil Daggers defense.

Look no further than thee lobby if you want to bear witness to thee harmonious elegance present. A player finds themselves surrounded by birds fluttering about, surrounding your respectively-ranked dagger which, upon touching, commences thee onslaught. Hours of mastering & learning new tricks until you face thee boss, hours more to learn how to defeat an angel, & said angel will explode into a frenzy of docile birds, allowing your dagger to appear once again. Without breaking sequence, simply touch it to begin again.

My two main gripes with this game are minor, in a way. First of which is being at thee mercy of RNG. At times, snakes will spawn underneath spiders, scuttlers will spawn within snakes. Higher level playing depends on a quality route & when that becomes muddled at a dice roll, it can feel as though some runs are simply wasting your time. Secondly, there are a couple little inconsistencies in some mechanics. Scuttlers seem to have priority during a rail ricochet despite your target being dead center on a spawner, etc. Stomping feels like a crapshoot, particularly with snake heads. Seemingly damning strikes, but ultimately these do not ever really become a problem until you're fighting for milliseconds. Thankfully, some of these faults can be easily worked around with some smart improvisation, which this game allows for a plethora of.

A vicious Sisyphean cycle.

Fingertips frozen to thee bone; crimson in my boots bring warmth to my toes. Pressure from this metal sheeted stomach pounds away at my fractured skull & leaking through my ears. Hand pressed firmly against sweat of my forehead, & my legs are becoming increasingly limp. Chest pounding, heart beating violence, shutter pressed lightly. My eyes are covered - I cannot bear to look.

Likely could have been granted a couple more oddities such as easter-egg sites, randomized triggers, & another gameplay mechanic (elevation control). For what it's worth, however, it is an astonishing little slice of manual labor & aquatic horror.

Normal human errands, including, but not limited to: eating, making coffee, driving, petting wildlife, sledding, walking, hiking, playing meat as instruments, going to church, eldritch strawmen, dreaming, quenching the thirst of the talking head of a goat, using the toilet, burning your hand, unlocking doors with a small figure of your grandfather, shooting an old rifle, collecting hay, making a pact with the devil, getting impaled on an icicle, smoking a pipe, drawing, collecting honey, navigating an old bunker by using the sprites of dead soldiers, seeing reflections of ghosts in water, riding the bus, painting, drowning, being paralyzed with fear, getting stung by bees, drunken comrades, abominable snowmen, giving toilet paper to a man stranded in an outhouse, solving tactile puzzles, & staring at yourself in the mirror until your very own vessel of flesh becomes contorted beyond recognition you don't know yourself anymore your quest is all but finished do not let the dark take you listen to the bell of the headless goat follow the sound sign the pact do not sign the pact the soldiers are coming you must hide take shelter do not give up fire when ready, & sleeping!