First off, I want to acknowledge Game Overture's commitment to letting people experience their game. The developer was quick to respond to feedback and bug reports, even though the game came out some time ago. 

Clearly this was a labor of love, and I can't wait to see their further works!

Onto the review:

[h1]This bite-sized horror title starts out with such a spooky premise: [/h1]

You're chilling out in your basement when you get an emergency broadcast about some kind of lockdown in the area. 

• Don't go outside. Ok.
• Lock doors and windows. Gotcha!
• Don't investigate stuff. Well alright!
• Go somewhere secure. Sounds good.
• Don't look up. . .wait, what?

Like any good nosleep-style tale, the cryptic "rules" paired with the isolation in a local emergency set up a great urban legend feel.

From the get-go, you get the option to "look up." Is that the first thing you did? Me too! Insatiable curiosity and the temptation to blatantly disregard rules is an adventure-game staple. I'll let you explore the consequences.

In this game you can will die quickly and often, but it restarts just as fast. I spent quite a long time brute-forcing my way around just to see what could happen because the atmosphere is just so good.

I also found it crazy clever that you're given a few options just to play on your paranoia. "I mean, it's an option, I should try it right?" In a Bioshock kind of way, it plays on a player's tendency to try and read the developer's mind. Lol good luck with that.

For a game-jam title, it's clever and spooky. It had me wondering "Could I avoid looking at the ceiling in my own house?"
(Given typical suburban housing dimensions and standard human field of vision, probably not, we'd all be doomed. But suspend your disbelief!)

[h3]So, what could have been better? [/h3]

Being a Twine game, there are some inherent limitations in the engine, and Game Overtures does some pretty clever things with it...sometimes a little too clever.

While I understood the point is to play on your expectations, I felt like there were a few too many "gotcha" red herrings where many choices and apparent progress absolutely will not lead you to a successful conclusion. One branch presents you with many options, but is essentially already a game-over screen. 

It sadly does lead to a point of frustration where you might feel like you've tried absolutely everything to no avail, and I feel this would cause many players to give up too quickly.

One of the endings makes perfect sense, but requires you to wait on a choice screen for a bit. I wish there was a way to indicate anything was happening, or time was going by, because there's not any indication to the player that waiting on any screen will do anything.

"Wait" is just never indicated as a valid interaction to the player.

The other ending requires a few checks of a mundane element that seemingly already gives you all you need to know the first time you check it. So without any indicators, most players would have no idea. I'll give this one a bit of a pass though, as this ending seems more "easter egg". :)

Overall, a really fun experience, and great tension. It's worth a try to turn the lights out and put yourself in this scenario for a few minutes. (It's also great for passing the time at a mundane desk job.)

If you're reading this far into the review, you could've beaten it by now! Try it out!