Serena is a “horror” “PnC” that’s neither scary nor enjoyable; a mediocre piece of shovelware representing yet another failure of the Greenlight program. At a 30 minute run-time and $0.00 price tag, I felt ripped-off, annoyed, and in desperate want of a refund.
Given the very short length of the game (and my ultimate un-recommendation), I won’t invest much time into a fleshed-out critique. The premise is you’re an @sshole mourning the departure of his ex (the titular Serena) after she left him for greener pastures. To the game’s merit, a ton of dialogue has been scripted to flesh out the guy, with each line enveloping the spiderweb of emotions most of us experience when processing a complex thought. Unfortunately, because the lion’s share are optional and non-linear, you never get a sense of build-up or even chaotic compendium, making it hard to invest in the storyline.
To add insult to injury, the voice acting for the main guy is timorous, the high gain of his shoddy mic amplifying his soft tones into Meatwad territory. Credit where credit is due, he does fare better during angrier moments, and Serena’s actress is outright good, making me wonder what went wrong for the leading man’s quieter scenes.
SFX is entirely asset-rehashed. On the plus side, the few music tracks you hear are good in a gothic chamber manner.
Visuals are the game’s high-point, the eerie cabin an assemblage of dark oak panelings and dusty paraphernalia. The setting definitely evokes the kind of desolate, tired atmosphere Senscape was going for.
Unfortunately, any poignancy is brought down by rote gameplay somehow made tedious in spite of the short playtime. You’re technically supposed to click on a series of objects in order to trigger the next major event, but the problem is the game gives no indication or hint as to what kinds of items need to be selected or when. Whether this was done to artificially-prolong the length or force players to randomly grasp every object, I do not know, but let’s just say I did not regret beating Serena with a guide. A shame, considering the existence of a shifting poem on one of the walls would’ve been the perfect opportunity to incorporate some clues.
So yeah, in the end, Serena is not worth a second of your life. To call it a tech demo would be insufficient, its contents more resembling a proof-of-concept project some ludology student submitted for graduation that ended up unintentionally gaining steam on, well, Steam. Avoid.
Given the very short length of the game (and my ultimate un-recommendation), I won’t invest much time into a fleshed-out critique. The premise is you’re an @sshole mourning the departure of his ex (the titular Serena) after she left him for greener pastures. To the game’s merit, a ton of dialogue has been scripted to flesh out the guy, with each line enveloping the spiderweb of emotions most of us experience when processing a complex thought. Unfortunately, because the lion’s share are optional and non-linear, you never get a sense of build-up or even chaotic compendium, making it hard to invest in the storyline.
To add insult to injury, the voice acting for the main guy is timorous, the high gain of his shoddy mic amplifying his soft tones into Meatwad territory. Credit where credit is due, he does fare better during angrier moments, and Serena’s actress is outright good, making me wonder what went wrong for the leading man’s quieter scenes.
SFX is entirely asset-rehashed. On the plus side, the few music tracks you hear are good in a gothic chamber manner.
Visuals are the game’s high-point, the eerie cabin an assemblage of dark oak panelings and dusty paraphernalia. The setting definitely evokes the kind of desolate, tired atmosphere Senscape was going for.
Unfortunately, any poignancy is brought down by rote gameplay somehow made tedious in spite of the short playtime. You’re technically supposed to click on a series of objects in order to trigger the next major event, but the problem is the game gives no indication or hint as to what kinds of items need to be selected or when. Whether this was done to artificially-prolong the length or force players to randomly grasp every object, I do not know, but let’s just say I did not regret beating Serena with a guide. A shame, considering the existence of a shifting poem on one of the walls would’ve been the perfect opportunity to incorporate some clues.
So yeah, in the end, Serena is not worth a second of your life. To call it a tech demo would be insufficient, its contents more resembling a proof-of-concept project some ludology student submitted for graduation that ended up unintentionally gaining steam on, well, Steam. Avoid.