Cryptic, tragic, suspenseful, and a loving homage to PS1 survival horror. I’ve seen the critique that this is anti-communism and, no??? It reads more as a condemnation of a totalitarian and militaristic nation which wants to reduce people solely to their role or profits. Governments that have done this are communist in name and name alone, using bastardized, extremist forms of that ideology. It’s moreso a critique of totalitarianism and weaponizing any ideology to fit it, and the metaphorical, or literal decay that is a product. It’s the same as when someone reads 1984 or Animal Farm, and concludes Orwell to be viscerally against Communism, which is simply not the case when the man was a Socialist who spoke against totalitarian states who would weaponize such ideals through his writing. In the case of this game, any indulgence is all but forbidden, or characterized as a fetish when Replikas indulge. When people are characterized only by their function and gross output in a society, love and happiness are luxuries. That’s the message I feel is here. And it’s a haunting one in a story where we have to piece so much together. I don’t think the game is PERFECT, and I wish the gunplay was better, with me finding aiming cumbersome at times. Great game, though. I understand it won’t be for everyone with how its storytelling can be vague, but that’s the intent.

I do think there’s a conversation to be had about its use of DDR iconography (the devs are from Hamburg), but to say that that’s its full message feels inherently wrong, and there’s more to it than that.