Just finished .esc and while incredibly short and it a testament to the love and care Nate puts into his worlds. The tank controls were surprisingly fluid and intuitive. Being that the game has tank controls it surprised me greatly to find all of the camera angles were diagetic.
There were a few stealth sections in the game that were just fine, there was no real consequence to being seen other than having to wait a little bit longer for the camera to move.
the story is very simple, man wakes up in facility and tortures himself to escape.
The visuals were actually my personal favorite thing this game has to offer, since all camera angle are diagetic, all the camera angles are actual cameras within the game world. So we are watching as the player tries to escape on the facilities cameras, And being that we are watching on the cameras, The screen we view the character on has CRT scan lines. So at the end of the game when you are thrist into the first person perspective, I was floored with how good the small bit of the world looked. It was a very very cool thing to experience.
The game is tagged as horror, but I found it was mostly horror in theme rather than by nature ; self harm, torture, some mild psychological horror. But nothing really intense. Definitely a good game to dip your toes in to the horror genre with
So while this game is very short. It is a real gem. It is so lovingly crafted and a treat to experience. The visuals are great and the sound design considering the size of the studio was top notch. Nate has a future in gaming and I look forward to trying his future games.
edit: Holy shit the game is technically in the 2nd person perspective. fucking bravo dude