So after much prompting from folks I finally played through this title. I can't give this title a one star rating in good conscience. It's not all bad, so let's start off with what the game does well.
Setting: The setting of the game is pretty cool. The basic idea that there is an old-school cartoon come to life by way of evil magical ink is neat.
Presentation: The constant sepia effect combined with vintage film grain works in my opinion. Artistically there is a lot to like about this game. I got the vibe that the art direction had way more thought put into it and was more fleshed out than any other part of the game.
Voice Acting: Surprisingly this title had some really solid voice acting. The audio logs that help you piece the story together and gain your bearings on your current situation were well done and the crew involved should feel good about what they accomplished. There is no shortage of horrible voice acting in games these days.
Finally we arrive at what kept it from gaining any more than two stars in rating. The game itself. Seriously, this isn't meant to be a joke. The game itself is executed in a manner that totally undermines the artistic merits that it holds. There are so many fundamentally bad design decisions made in this title that I actually find it hard to believe that they had any playtesting done out-of-house. The final chapter in specific is the worst part of the game. It literally takes everything that is horrible about the previous chapters and then mixes them together for one big final slog. From the "beat an endless wave of enemies because we need filler" section to the absolute waste of time mini-game that was "navigating through the tunnel on a paddle boat that keeps having problems while being chased by a boss that one-shot's you", it is a parade of archaic design flaws that have since been fixed long ago by better developers. The final boss battle is an absolute joke. The amount of "find the switches" sections is egregious considering how easily everything blends into the background with the sepia/film grain art design. The story is the typical "give them enough to keep them asking questions but not enough that we ever have to actually explain what's going on because we don't know either" horror game stuff. I would love to see this idea done with a competent design team, but unfortunately I don't see anyone attempting to do so in the near future. Great idea, horrible execution.
Setting: The setting of the game is pretty cool. The basic idea that there is an old-school cartoon come to life by way of evil magical ink is neat.
Presentation: The constant sepia effect combined with vintage film grain works in my opinion. Artistically there is a lot to like about this game. I got the vibe that the art direction had way more thought put into it and was more fleshed out than any other part of the game.
Voice Acting: Surprisingly this title had some really solid voice acting. The audio logs that help you piece the story together and gain your bearings on your current situation were well done and the crew involved should feel good about what they accomplished. There is no shortage of horrible voice acting in games these days.
Finally we arrive at what kept it from gaining any more than two stars in rating. The game itself. Seriously, this isn't meant to be a joke. The game itself is executed in a manner that totally undermines the artistic merits that it holds. There are so many fundamentally bad design decisions made in this title that I actually find it hard to believe that they had any playtesting done out-of-house. The final chapter in specific is the worst part of the game. It literally takes everything that is horrible about the previous chapters and then mixes them together for one big final slog. From the "beat an endless wave of enemies because we need filler" section to the absolute waste of time mini-game that was "navigating through the tunnel on a paddle boat that keeps having problems while being chased by a boss that one-shot's you", it is a parade of archaic design flaws that have since been fixed long ago by better developers. The final boss battle is an absolute joke. The amount of "find the switches" sections is egregious considering how easily everything blends into the background with the sepia/film grain art design. The story is the typical "give them enough to keep them asking questions but not enough that we ever have to actually explain what's going on because we don't know either" horror game stuff. I would love to see this idea done with a competent design team, but unfortunately I don't see anyone attempting to do so in the near future. Great idea, horrible execution.
Reviewed on May 28, 2020