๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฉ๐จ๐จ๐ค๐๐ฒ ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐จ๐ง
#๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ
After a few days of sitting on the game I wish I had more to say about it but I donโt really have anything I wanna go super in-depth with.
As a whole I think the game is pretty good with an amazing style that goes well beyond a stylistic gimmick and does some pretty unsettling body horror imagery with the rotoscoped pixel art, on the story front however is where Iโm more uninterested with and have no strong feeling one way or the other. The game is split into 3 chapters and each chapter follows the events of a preacher trying to save the life of a possessed woman enraptured in a sinister cult. Now that is a super simplistic breakdown of the story and there is a lot more meat to find in the game through lore logs and secret enemy encounters but to be honest I find possession narratives and evil cults like the least interesting stories in the horror medium. Not to say these stories are bad; hell Exorcist and Hereditary are some of my favorite horror movies of all time, but outside of the rare few exceptions they mostly follow the same story just with a new gimmick. Possession are over done to death and personally I think evil secret cults are the lamest antagonistic force you can have for your story, like think of a time where you really liked where a movie or story is going and then you find out โoh all of the events that are happening are because of a evil satanic cultโ it feels like getting all the fun just sucked right out of you, and if Iโm being honest thatโs how this game made me feel too.
Apparently the game was released chapter by chapter and I can see that in the story because it FEELS like it was being written as it was going along. Iโm sure the lead dev had an idea of where he wanted the story to go over time; but there isnโt a good narrative flow going from chapter 1 to 2, and especially three.
Chapter 1 feels very much like a story reaching the end with the player only having a small idea of the greater narrative, chapter 2 gives a little more context of the events in chapter 1 but starts introducing new shit that was never felt like it fit into the pre-existing narrative, and then chapter 3 just goes full in on the cult stuff and then when I honestly stopped paying attention to the overall narrative because like I said before I personally donโt like it when stories throw in evil satanic cult where they really didnโt need to be there, Iโve always just seen it as a lazy story trop.
Before you ask why I felt like it had a bad narrative flow when what I describe was a kind of basic sounding 3 act structure; well it technically is, but chapters 1 and 2 are full of so many pointless red herring that go nowhere and serve no purpose to the main character arc or the overall story; the only explanation I can think of for why their in the game is the lead dev had ideas and plans for these plot threads but didnโt fall thought with them for one reason or another; which is fine if true and to be fair can be natural problem when it comes to releasing a game episodically, but it still leaves the game feeling really unsure of what the overall story is trying to be all the way up too chapter 3.
I know it sounds like I didnโt like the gameโs story and while I donโt like cult twist or most possession stories I could honestly care less about the story, I was never as invested in the gameโs story from the start so when it started going down the evil cult road I just kind of accepted it and stopped paying as much attention as I was before. I know that makes a lot of my criticism disingenuous since I really didnโt see the game on its level after awhile but Iโm just writing what the game made me feel and I feel apathetic towards the gameโs narrative. Thatโs honestly why I donโt like qualifying my more recent stuff as โreviewsโ more so just personal thoughts on games Iโve been playing recently. Now with all of that being said; Iโd still recommend the game to people who are interested in the game, manly because most of my โissuesโ are not with the game and more of a personal thing, plus the game is oozing with so much style and talented work that Iโd be crazy not to recommend it to someone if it at least looked interesting from a passing glance, after all thatโs why I decided to play it. Iโm sorry if this reads like Iโm writing my thoughts as I go along, itโs 3AM as I write this and Iโm about to go to bed so to make a long story short; this is one of those case where itโs not the gameโs fault for me not fulling vibing with it, itโs just a me thing.
Trust me this has happened more than once and I kinda hate it, especially when it was something I wanted to love.
#๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ข๐ญ๐ก: ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ
After a few days of sitting on the game I wish I had more to say about it but I donโt really have anything I wanna go super in-depth with.
As a whole I think the game is pretty good with an amazing style that goes well beyond a stylistic gimmick and does some pretty unsettling body horror imagery with the rotoscoped pixel art, on the story front however is where Iโm more uninterested with and have no strong feeling one way or the other. The game is split into 3 chapters and each chapter follows the events of a preacher trying to save the life of a possessed woman enraptured in a sinister cult. Now that is a super simplistic breakdown of the story and there is a lot more meat to find in the game through lore logs and secret enemy encounters but to be honest I find possession narratives and evil cults like the least interesting stories in the horror medium. Not to say these stories are bad; hell Exorcist and Hereditary are some of my favorite horror movies of all time, but outside of the rare few exceptions they mostly follow the same story just with a new gimmick. Possession are over done to death and personally I think evil secret cults are the lamest antagonistic force you can have for your story, like think of a time where you really liked where a movie or story is going and then you find out โoh all of the events that are happening are because of a evil satanic cultโ it feels like getting all the fun just sucked right out of you, and if Iโm being honest thatโs how this game made me feel too.
Apparently the game was released chapter by chapter and I can see that in the story because it FEELS like it was being written as it was going along. Iโm sure the lead dev had an idea of where he wanted the story to go over time; but there isnโt a good narrative flow going from chapter 1 to 2, and especially three.
Chapter 1 feels very much like a story reaching the end with the player only having a small idea of the greater narrative, chapter 2 gives a little more context of the events in chapter 1 but starts introducing new shit that was never felt like it fit into the pre-existing narrative, and then chapter 3 just goes full in on the cult stuff and then when I honestly stopped paying attention to the overall narrative because like I said before I personally donโt like it when stories throw in evil satanic cult where they really didnโt need to be there, Iโve always just seen it as a lazy story trop.
Before you ask why I felt like it had a bad narrative flow when what I describe was a kind of basic sounding 3 act structure; well it technically is, but chapters 1 and 2 are full of so many pointless red herring that go nowhere and serve no purpose to the main character arc or the overall story; the only explanation I can think of for why their in the game is the lead dev had ideas and plans for these plot threads but didnโt fall thought with them for one reason or another; which is fine if true and to be fair can be natural problem when it comes to releasing a game episodically, but it still leaves the game feeling really unsure of what the overall story is trying to be all the way up too chapter 3.
I know it sounds like I didnโt like the gameโs story and while I donโt like cult twist or most possession stories I could honestly care less about the story, I was never as invested in the gameโs story from the start so when it started going down the evil cult road I just kind of accepted it and stopped paying as much attention as I was before. I know that makes a lot of my criticism disingenuous since I really didnโt see the game on its level after awhile but Iโm just writing what the game made me feel and I feel apathetic towards the gameโs narrative. Thatโs honestly why I donโt like qualifying my more recent stuff as โreviewsโ more so just personal thoughts on games Iโve been playing recently. Now with all of that being said; Iโd still recommend the game to people who are interested in the game, manly because most of my โissuesโ are not with the game and more of a personal thing, plus the game is oozing with so much style and talented work that Iโd be crazy not to recommend it to someone if it at least looked interesting from a passing glance, after all thatโs why I decided to play it. Iโm sorry if this reads like Iโm writing my thoughts as I go along, itโs 3AM as I write this and Iโm about to go to bed so to make a long story short; this is one of those case where itโs not the gameโs fault for me not fulling vibing with it, itโs just a me thing.
Trust me this has happened more than once and I kinda hate it, especially when it was something I wanted to love.