I think my opinion of this game is a tiny bit inflated because I adore the media it is aping. Friends of mine who've played this but have never seen Twin Peaks found the tone too weird. But when you get the references a lot of the bizarre choices read more as jokes than clumsy writing. Alan's monologuing genuinely had me chuckling. A pitch-perfect self-obsessed writer who's been sniffing his own farts for too long.

Gameplay is admittedly a little annoying if you're not great at shooting and have bad eyes. I could have gotten away bumping up the brightness on my TV. Still, the ambience was at times legitimately scary, despite monsters essentially being dudes in flannel.

I can't wait to be able to play the sequel. Alan Wake was prescient in it's references to prestige TV, given the thru-lines in Twin Peaks The Return. Can't wait to see Remedy take it a step farther!

Calico's been in my itch.io library for a while. I generally like to play games like this on my laptop and I was immediately confronted with a truly bonkers control scheme. Saying a game is made for controller doesn't mean you can just screw over people using other control schemes! The most glaring of these issues is the camera. I found myself frequently looking at the walls of a building I wasn't even inside while passing by. Cameras are a deceptively difficult to make, so some jank is expected with an indie game, but I would consider this untenable.

I hesitate to be too harsh as it's clear this was made by a tiny team. The animal animations are very cute, character designs very distinct. But when it's hard to control and navigate, It's difficult to want to dive in. I hope this team gives it another go in the future!