Endoparasitic is part of a survival horror renaissance taking place far, farrrrr away from the grotesque, triple-A decadence of the recently released and upcoming remakes of survival horror classics. This is a tactile and sweaty game that captures the elemental tension of what defined this genre in the first place, and it is as refreshing to encounter after such a long period of time as the game is just exhilarating to play. The entirely mouse-based control scheme is charming and fun to play with, albeit maybe inaccessible to some people. It expresses the funny irony that is inherent to all survival horror games, the heightened giddy nervousness of the person who is willfully subjecting themselves to something that they might come to regret. That sinister mood we turn against ourselves feels like it has been captured by the slight storytelling the game does through text documents and brief voice acted cutscenes and narration by its scheming, arrogant scientist protagonist. What an ass he is, and what an ass we might become after placing ourselves into the simulated experience of crawling with one arm through this parasitized mars base. What odds do we really have to survive this? I'm not confident things will go alright, but let's just try it anyhow!

This is pure survival horror through and through, absolute ace work.