An EXTREMELY pleasant surprise and a game I really wasn't expecting too much out of but manages to wring every penny out of its probably meagre budget and elevates itself significantly from its very limited setting to make for something memorable and interesting.
The game isn't that much of a looker and you're confined to a single house for its entirety but it manages to make every part of the house fairly interesting with a bunch of notes and actual environmental storytelling. There's also ways the gameplay itself shapes the house that I'll get into later. The voice acting leaves a fair bit to be desired sometimes but is mostly serviceable. This isn't a theatre play or some grand tale. It's just a bunch of people living in a house for which the voice acting is adequate. There's not much music to speak of and the game is mostly quiet but the ambient sound design works wonders in keeping you fairly tense.
On the gameplay side of things, you're working in first person and working your way through snippets of the events that transpired in the one house before something pivotal happens. You're required to investigate a timeline and see the sequence of events that led to what happened and also explore what happens when you force changes in some of the decisions. The game is pretty much strictly this so if you've played something like Tacoma then this would be right at home. I found a good deal of polish in how you navigate through the timeline, especially the cool way in which it shows you all the events that are changed by the decision you just made which was a massive help. This even changes the placement and presence of items in the house, for example, you could have posters up on the wall in the present depending on if you asked the landlord to clear the stuff from the old tenant away which is neat-o. There are a fair few issues here though, especially the lack of a conversation log, requiring you to continually walk up and down the house, no playback options for the events and some minor lack of polish with triggering them. I found it quite annoying how much walking I'd had to do and wish there was an easier way to get around the house and view the events.
The story itself is not a particularly complicated one. It's mostly the lives of a few distressed folk who're trying to get by and you sort of have a hand in how they're going to react to the situations they end up in within the house to try and make their "ending" better. Most of the conversations flow naturally and feel like people talking rather than any stage direction though the voice acting does let it down in spots. It's a simple story told in a complex way but the delivery makes it much more engaging to discover all of it. It's also just fun to watch the characters sometimes since most of them are very likeable and have a fair few things going on.
I didn't expect to like this one as much as I did, especially when the initial hour is a bit of a slog and the timeline looked extremely daunting. But the game lets you in slowly and I found myself entertained all the rest of the way. If you're a fan of games like What Remains of Edith Finch and Tacoma, this is a solid recommend from me.
The game isn't that much of a looker and you're confined to a single house for its entirety but it manages to make every part of the house fairly interesting with a bunch of notes and actual environmental storytelling. There's also ways the gameplay itself shapes the house that I'll get into later. The voice acting leaves a fair bit to be desired sometimes but is mostly serviceable. This isn't a theatre play or some grand tale. It's just a bunch of people living in a house for which the voice acting is adequate. There's not much music to speak of and the game is mostly quiet but the ambient sound design works wonders in keeping you fairly tense.
On the gameplay side of things, you're working in first person and working your way through snippets of the events that transpired in the one house before something pivotal happens. You're required to investigate a timeline and see the sequence of events that led to what happened and also explore what happens when you force changes in some of the decisions. The game is pretty much strictly this so if you've played something like Tacoma then this would be right at home. I found a good deal of polish in how you navigate through the timeline, especially the cool way in which it shows you all the events that are changed by the decision you just made which was a massive help. This even changes the placement and presence of items in the house, for example, you could have posters up on the wall in the present depending on if you asked the landlord to clear the stuff from the old tenant away which is neat-o. There are a fair few issues here though, especially the lack of a conversation log, requiring you to continually walk up and down the house, no playback options for the events and some minor lack of polish with triggering them. I found it quite annoying how much walking I'd had to do and wish there was an easier way to get around the house and view the events.
The story itself is not a particularly complicated one. It's mostly the lives of a few distressed folk who're trying to get by and you sort of have a hand in how they're going to react to the situations they end up in within the house to try and make their "ending" better. Most of the conversations flow naturally and feel like people talking rather than any stage direction though the voice acting does let it down in spots. It's a simple story told in a complex way but the delivery makes it much more engaging to discover all of it. It's also just fun to watch the characters sometimes since most of them are very likeable and have a fair few things going on.
I didn't expect to like this one as much as I did, especially when the initial hour is a bit of a slog and the timeline looked extremely daunting. But the game lets you in slowly and I found myself entertained all the rest of the way. If you're a fan of games like What Remains of Edith Finch and Tacoma, this is a solid recommend from me.