When playing games made for this jam I come with zero expectations, as should be from a jam called “So Bad It’s Good”, but I did not expect a fully voice acted parody of Bethesda RPGs on my doorstep.
Morrowind/Fallout NV as seen through the filter of old GMOD nonsense machinimas is a great combination, as it turns out. Also mildly reminded me of West of Loathing if it somehow made less sense. With this sort of premise it’s easy to milk the joke for as long as possible, but thankfully Stalewater ends when it needs to.
While the voice acting and intonation was a tad too slow in my taste, the game makes up for it with excellent visual gags and smashing high-quality PBR textures on absolutely terrible modeling.
As others have mentioned, the gameplay itself is underwhelming. I don’t know if the lack of feedback when firing guns was an intentional SBIG joke, a reference to Bethesda’s lackluster combat, or just because it fits with the theme. But really I found the combat more monotonous and frustrating than funny. Hitscan weapons require sufficient cover and design to not feel cheap, and “death screams” being akin to children losing a backyard game gets old very quality for example.
But hey, off with mechanics, we’re not GMTK. Content is king here. Bottom line, it’s probably the most ambitious game I’ve seen here, both in terms of content, the subject matter it’s parodying, and actual file size (seriously, I believe it’s possible to compress the game further in Unity). And just for that it’s worth preserving.