tldr: if you have any sort of interest in liminal spaces and all that, you should play this, I really enjoyed it BUT I think there’s room for it to improve in future chapters.

-Spoiler warning for the rest of the review-
I think it this game has the potential to be the quintessential liminal space experience, it does a fantastic job of capturing that feeling sometimes and then it just kinda loses it in certain areas. The movie theater area is great, starting in an empty mall and ending up in the theater, love that. The Family Tropical Resort is absolutely the highlight of the game, I think every area within this level fulfills the “liminal” feeling in different ways, starting out almost relaxing and ending with the most traditionally scary area of the game. It’s absolutely the best part of the game and the music that plays in the water park is fav track from the game. The soundtrack overall is fantastic, I love that it’s all diegetic, especially when the music gets drowned out because you’re too close to a light source and the hum overshadows the song. Endless mini-golf is a brilliant idea for a liminal space game but this level is where my main issue with the game begins to show. There is a large part of this game that to me, feels like its missing a final coat of paint. A coat that would add little things to the levels to make them feel more real, like they were once lived in. (Although I can understand that might contradict with the plot?) Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a graphics issue, the game is beautiful throughout. My issue is little things in the maps that should’ve been there, the movie theater could use a menu at the confectionary stand, an empty popcorn machine, cashiers, fake movie posters. The empty store fronts could have more garbage left in them, more furniture. Some levels needed this more than others, with the movie theater and water park it feels like it’s so close to perfection, but in levels like the Conference Center as well as the final blacked out level? I would say the feel like filler with how empty they are. They’re far too vacant, not really feeling like liminal spaces, they just feel unfinished. The conference center could’ve had rooms filled with chairs, maybe a room with office cubicles, anything at all to make the level more than just, white empty rooms with different floor types. I would much rather have a well designed but shorter experience over these long empty rooms that drag because they’re auto-generated, it almost feels like padding which is sad when the game has areas like the water park. Not every level has to have the same amount of events and set pieces as the water park, that’s understandable but when there’s nothing of note like in the conference room, it’s almost better off for it to not be there at all. I don’t understand what the final level is supposed to represent, maybe it is a classic backrooms type of environment? I’m not entirely sure but I think while the conference room had potential to improve, this level should’ve just been cut. If you were to play the game in order of cheapest to priciest level (which is the best way to do it imo) you would go from the fantastic water park and its chase sequence to a level with no notable set pieces that can be beat in less than 5 minutes. The game would end much stronger if the last thing you do is the chase sequence, then you see the ending cutscene. The last level adds absolutely nothing, it ends too quickly for that. Both the intro sequence and hub world are pretty good though, I just wish we could see more things like the closed out food stand on the 2nd floor of the hub world, those are the little things this game need more of. The ticket system seems to be a very big issue for a lot of people, I don’t understand the complaints of not being able to find any and getting stuck though, they’re pretty bright and the levels are mostly empty, I never had trouble finding them. (I had enough to get through the whole game by the end of the conference room level). I would realistically prefer for the game to have a set level order to allow for things like say, the water park to be towards the end as it fits as a good climax. The story I had no problems with, the voice acting worked for me. We’ll just have to see where it goes in the future. I will say that the main character should either have more dialogue or less, it almost feels like the game is scared to commit to the protagonist talking (I don’t mean in the sense of VA I mean lines in general, text or VA) . Certain levels don’t get any lines and then the water park gets a good amount. I don’t mind it being there, it’s just strange that he doesn’t react at all to certain levels. Overall, I can say I’m excited for future chapters, I really enjoyed my time with this game, I just hope to see that extra level of polish/worldbuilding (whatever the right term is in this case). I felt spooked, I felt isolated and got goosebumps a few times, so the game definitely succeeded in the aspects I hoped it would :)

I liked sitting under the mushroom water umbrella, good game.

this game adds nothing new to this series other than the poison mushroom and a wind mechanic thats never used again. Its got horrible game design that laughs at the player for trying to follow the rules set by smb1. by all accounts this is an unfair, lazy mess of a game.... and yet

put the clip of walter white saying "i liked it" here

it really is awful though i left the game unfinished for 2 and half years because 8-4 sucked so much