The game's first use of rotoscope during Amy's appearance made for a genuinely good scare, completely upending the player's initial assumption of an accurately simulated, low-fidelity Atari aesthetic. I really liked this moment as well as the further uses of the pixel rotoscoping technique afterwards as a way to up the suspense and keep the player guessing as to what else this game could do to surprise them with the retro graphics. I guess the developer liked these moments too because he added more in later versions of the game, like when you encounter Michael before going into the house in the first place. Personally, I think this takes away from the original reveal with Amy, and as cool as the fluid animations are I do believe that there can be too much of a good thing.

I really do like the quaint restraint of this first game compared to the more showy plot entanglings of the subsequent chapter. There's more of a commitment to the MS-DOS/Atari aesthetic, at least for the first half of the game. And the text to speech robotic voices are distinct, striking, and easily differentiated between characters, without being relied on too much. The plot is also easier to understand while still being delightfully open to interpretation. Chapter II does pull some neat tricks and go in some interesting directions but this first chapter still feels to me like a more complete standalone experience.