ideal horror game for my hungry ass; claustrophobic, dark, and draining.
heather mason is a protagonist whose footsteps trail broken pieces of a painful core. sure she's goofy and fun but there's a darkness in the way she's so accepting of horror, the way she stares solemnly ahead like she's been waiting for this to happen her whole life, and she knows the only thing she can do is keep going. she's had to for so long, after all.
in this same way, the only path forwards is through, and to that end you have to confront the area around you. this game is loud. you can hear every enemy long before you see it and you have to decide on the fly whether or not you can make it past. it's not about saving resources its about survival. every enemy is dangerous both left alone or dealt with, and the challenge comes when you make the wrong decision.
it helps that this game is absolutely gorgeous. heather is incredibly expressive, with her model carrying what the voice acting sometimes can't. everyone else is a little lower quality, but given you're pretty much always alone that can be easily overlooked. either way definitely play this with a crt filter if you can.
my only gripes are with the occasional poorly conveyed key item and touchy interaction range for the bucket puzzle. also the first puzzle on hard is the hardest puzzle in the whole game which is deeply funny to me.