SPOILER WARNING
(I speak in vague terms, but it's better to be safe than sorry, isn't it?)

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I've been thinking about this game quite a bit since first playing it not too long ago. My initial thoughts, born directly following exiting the game upon completion, were largely of bewilderment, and since my thoughts have been a conflicted ebb and flow of opinions both highly positive and highly negative. But now I think I've reached something of a conclusion: This game is alright.

Yeah. It's alright.

Given I am a solo game dev myself (and this experience was free), I don't wanna come across as overly negative, hyperbolic bashing of something that took very little time out of my life and left me festering with ideas of my own on how I'd approach something like this, but I do think this game largely relies of spectacle and subversion over more potentially interesting narrative ideas.

Once you remove the camera tricks, the 4th wall breaks, and the general meta-messing, whats left is... nothing, really. From the minute I read the tagline on the top of the itch page I had a good idea as to where the game would be going and found myself mostly disappointed by the fact I had been right by the end. What you think is happening is more or less exactly what is happening. Something of a last-moment twist does occur by virtue of the player being directly communicated to and partially thanked/blamed for the events which occur (a la OFF) but it kind of rings hollow. I don't get the sense that my input made much of a difference as to what the girl would have done if I was the one steering or not. The general graphic style is (usually) too simplistic/toony to properly convey anything beyond mild discomfort, and the analog-horror-esque images work in the moment (barring the monster, who just kinda looks like a Russian guy to me) but haven't managed to stick with me in the slightest.

Of course, I don't think any of that was really "the point" to this game. I imagine this is largely an experiment of sorts, testing the more high-concept function and meta ideas moreso than something which was attempting to tell a narrative. And in the sense of subversion and playing with meta concepts to create dread and discomfort, this game succeeds on a level I haven't encountered in awhile (Party 2! comes to mind, but that game is over 7 years old and leaned much heavier into the abstract side). Everything this game does on a mechanical level, from something as subtle as the seconds-long pauses before events to the sticky controls making you sometimes unable to tell if you moved the girl or she moved herself, to the big things like the camera zoom or darkening cabin.

Bar none however, the best moment of this game is the shortcut. The main protagonist, after largely seeming to talk to themselves for the experience up to that point, suddenly turning to face the player and speaking directly to them, followed by running off somewhere out of view of the camera, while the player is (seemingly) stuck in the spot she used it be, is perhaps the single greatest "what the hell just happened" moment I've ever experienced or seen in a game before. Nothing could have possibly prepared me for that moment. It conveyed the idea that "something is wrong" better then any amount of spooky faces or sudden blood trails ever could have.

And, in a way, that is my biggest issue with this experience; its meta ambition so far outweighs everything else that it almost feels wasted. I love what this game does, but I don't like everything that surrounds it, it feels standard and excepted in a way that bogs down something that could be truly next-level. Normally a game feeling like it isn't doing anything too special or ambitious doesn't bother me, but here? I mostly just wanted more.