I couldn't stop thinking about this game for weeks after first playing it. Everyone's already talked about its impeccable atmosphere and horror, and I agree with all of it and can't word it as well as others, so I wanna talk about the story aspects that have haunted me.

It has such... a like.. see its atmosphere would feel utterly hopeless in normal circumstances, I feel like, right? But it's not, somehow. At least not to me. Maybe that's because of the hope that underlines so many parts of it - but the thing about that hope is that it's false. And the thing about that, is that.. It's not presented to you like it is. It's simply presented to you as hope. It's up to you, the player, not the protagonist, to figure out that it's false. And I think that sort of deal with perception is really skillfully done.

I keep thinking about how interesting it is that you're playing a doomed protagonist. From the start you are infected and you know deep down from observing your surroundings that there is no getting out of that. You are doomed. Your only options are to die either a man or a beast - as much as you are able to control this, anyway.
Ex: you may know this, but you still witness the protagonist hoping and hoping to go home. You move him forward for the sake of that goal of going home. And you're never told this - but you know - What's waiting for him, if he does get home? He's already infected. That's not his home anymore. (you know this of many inhabitants, like the musician, and yet..)

I think the true ending encapsulates this very well... I like that the ending variation has nothing to do with the choices you made along the way. It has to do, rather, with whether or not you, the player, can see through the illusion of a happy ending. The epilogue is a mind trick on both you and the protagonist. It would make sense narratively speaking, after all-- this is the end. It's what you've been working for all this time. This is how stories go, you toiled and bled and now you're finally there; the happy ending. But you know. You know something's not right.

It's about whether or not you're willing to accept that. For the protagonist as well, I think ... And I think there lies the fact that keeps it all from being utterly hopeless - if you can bring yourself to accept that your story has no happy ending, you can put an end to all the suffering and horrors you endured so that no one else has to suffer the same bad end you did. And that, in itself .. feels more like hope.. It wasn't all pointless. It wasn't all suffering for the sake of suffering. It wasn't fair, but you can put a stop to that injustice, even if you can't see the fruits of your labor yourself...

I'm also a big fan of the environmental storytelling. I love things being left to you to put together like this, how many things you're given all the pieces for but aren't pointed out to you directly by the narration or protagonist or anything - like being shown how the Being creates mushroom copies of its inhabitants, and then seeing later the trader's belongings all mirroring yours and bearing that same sticky, bleached, warped appearance, and so many things about his existence and presence clicking into place within your own head from this quiet, optional presentation to you - so many things are presented to you like this, and it feels more like uncovering a mystery than cryptic weirdness without a meaning, which I really enjoy.

...Also, I liked that the easy mode made it so even a dumbass like me who sucks at video games could play it through to the end, but still retained its fear factor and difficulty. I think this was the best horror experience I've had in recent memory, maybe ever.

(also also, I really like the Being's behavior being so much like a giant mushroom taken to an extreme, in multiple forms. It's really cool to realize in hindsight and then see how that shows throughout everything.)