It seems like a fun lil game, i just can't play it bc my screen keeps TURNING UPSIDE DOWN?!! Is that supposed to happen or?
spacelasers
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A member registered Jul 13, 2019
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I know darkness is supposed to be ~spooky~ but I literally can't see anything, including key items (sometimes even with the flashlight). Also, something seems to be weird with the trigger in the first section because the transition-jumpscare doesn't always trigger? Like to the point where I was just stuck for the longest time in the first area and thought the game was broken.
This game seems like it'd be interesting but as it stands I have no way of knowing bc I physically can't progress.
If I had to take a guess, it's the "born in the wrong body" narrative that rubbed Andraoise the wrong way (and tbh it annoyed me a bit too), but considering the game's setting, I ultimately didn't mind that much. (Obviously YMMV)
For those unaware, the "born in the wrong body" narrative is an essentialist way of describing trans people. It assumes that there is a rigid male/female sex and gender binary (which excludes/disregards intersex and nonbinary people respectively), and that trans people must have always expressed the desire to be the "other" gender and behave according to the norms of their gender identity.
eg. (According to this narrative) A trans woman is just "a girl in a boy's body": she always insisted she was a girl when she was young, she experiences physical dysphoria over her body and will transition in all the ways that are available to her to correct this, and once transitioned, she will completely conform to female gender roles.
There are absolutely some trans people who describe themselves this way, but it's generally associated with an older understanding of sex and gender (which is why it bothers me less in this specific context: Marie is from the 1920s, where that kind of understanding of trans people was more common).
I don't know if the creator(s) of Marie or this game are cis or trans, but generally it's frowned upon for a cis person to invoke the "born in a wrong body" narrative for trans characters because it's a very oversimplified way of describing the trans experience.
"I don't think he was a bad guy" He's responsible for like 11 million deaths dude. Plenty of abused and homeless people who don't wind up killing millions of people, so that's not an excuse for Actual Genocide.
The ethical dilemma here is can we hold someone accountable for actions they have not yet committed? The only way we would be able to even consider this is if time travel is possible, but that brings in the question of how time works, which is a whole other topic I don't feel like getting into rn. So for argument's sake, time travel is possible, and what you do in the past has a ripple of consequences in the future.
If we regard the events of Hitler's life as static, then killing him as a baby makes sense because there is no way for him not to grow up and, y'know, become Hitler. Of course this also kinda throws a wrench in the idea of free will, but that's also not important rn bc once you're there, in 1889, you're not staring at Adolf Hitler, head of Nazi Germany, you're staring at an infant. Who's... an infant. A baby, hasn't done much yet, good or bad.
Is it justifiable to kill that baby because of the man he becomes?
(I'd argue if you can go back in time to kill a baby, you can also go back in time and teach the baby to not be a xenophobic asshole, but if the goal is kill Hitler while he's vulnerable, baby's a good time as any to do it.)
Personally, on the one hand if I was going to become a monster and someone came to me from the future I'd rather try and Not Do That instead of just being shot for Future Crimes... But on the other hand, Hitler and the Nazis are why several branches of my family tree are missing and I don't care how cute a baby is, if I know that baby will grow up to do that I'll pull the fucking trigger.
Fun fact: Hitler had a host of physical ailments in the last 15 years of his life and the healthcare he received was not only terrible, but so fantastically terrible that it actually gave him an even greater cocktail of problems. Think 5 hour energy vs Nyquil but on steroids (and with steroids lmao).
I still don't feel any sympathy for him. It's the least he deserved imo. But I'm aware that I'm coming from a biased position.
I'm a bit confused tbh. You could really benefit from a list of controls and a clear explanation of your game mechanics. I accidentally skipped over the intro the first time I played, but honestly it didn't tell me much, either in story or gameplay.
Also while the fog effect is really interesting, because the game is in black and white and very simple, with a lot of similar looking graphics, between that and the size of the map I got completely lost. Either a smaller map or more distinct landmarks could help with this, possibly an in-game map somewhere if you're feeling generous. Maybe a way to know where you've been before? idk
As it is right now, it feels like a less scary version of Slenderman.
There is no indication that you need to go so fast with the book puzzle, to the point where I'm guessing it's a bug? That and the final puzzle were the most annoying (the latter more because while I knew generally what I had to do, the specifics of it aren't really seen in most point and click games, so it was unclear and frustrating).
The musical note puzzle was clever though, and it felt great when things finally started falling into place.
There was no clear connection between my actions and things happening. I have no idea what the not-street-lamp objects were supposed to be (phones?) and the environment is boring and repetitive. There's a dead body across the street that's much more interesting!
When I received the picture of my door being unlocked I went back to check but there was no point. You really are just supposed to walk in a straight line at a snail's pace until the stalker or whatever gets you?
Not particularly scary as a game, just confusing and frustrating.
This game ate an hour and a half of my life. 90% of it is dialogue, almost none of which you can actively participate in. This dialogue is unskippable, by the way, and always has a weird pause at the end, even at the fastest reading speed. There's very little interacting with the environment either, apart from one puzzle that was just a bunch of red herrings until you found a date and simply input that to solve the puzzle (seriously, what was the numerology paper for?).
I counted 2 choices you could make, and i'm not sure if selecting a different option would have really made much of a difference.
The slow pace and lack of engagement made the game less scary and more frustrating for me. I'm also fairly certain I'm missing several important story pieces, but the thought of playing through all that dialogue again is dissuading me from playing through it again to find out.
It's a shame, because it seems like there's a really interesting and complex story going on, but I wasn't able to get any definitive answers about anything.
The style of storytelling you're using would fit better for a visual novel, or even a webseries of some sort imo. Video games are designed to accommodate player choices and interaction with the characters and environment, and you don't really get that for this game.
*Potential spoilers ahead, be warned*
Your chase scenes are way too finnicky. I barely managed Dumpling's and cannot get past the worms. It's a shame because your concept is really interesting and the art is phenomenal but if you can't forgive a single missclick of a key (or the keyboard/game not responding appropriately) without getting a game over, it makes it nigh impossible to advance.
Either slowing down the enemies or at least shortening how long you have to run from them would help.
Also an overworld sprint function of some kind would be nice, especially when you're going through the same areas again (like leaving a character's house).
Other than that it's a very cool game! I love the contrast between the first and second playthroughs and the subtle but very obvious hints that something isn't right in the town.