Contra Spem Spero

Офигенная игра. Очень необычное оформление новеллы дневником и фотографиями - очень понравился такой "геймплей". Атмосфера просто супер. Миллион всяческих отсылок - даже на мемы (во многих моментах смеялась в голос, но затем возвращась к той самой атмосфере..), да и не только на смешное отсылки есть... множество разнообразных головоломок, несколько разных концовок и сюжетных веток (рекомендую пройти все, чтобы ещё больше разобраться, что же всё таки за лес и что происходит). Я редко "охочусь" за ачивками в играх - в этой захотелось получить их все! Рекомендую игру! P.S. Мотылёчек лапотька <3

Машина главного героя ломается в лесной глуши. В надежде найти помощь мы продолжаем путь пешком. Кругом непроглядная тьма, впереди видим множество светящихся глаз. У нас есть только блокнот и фотоаппарат, конечно же мы решаем сделать снимок, чтобы вспышкой осветить мрак вокруг нас. Лучше бы мы этого не делали. Текстовая адвенчура с возможностью делать выборы с последствиями. Игра подаётся в виде записей и иллюстраций в блокноте главного героя. Иллюстрации локаций опциональная штука, чтобы они появились в блокноте, необходимо сделать снимок, но придётся потратить на это дело плёнку. Перемещаясь от одной локации к другой, игрок будет встречать различных персонажей, которые могут навредить, дать подсказку, попросить о помощи. Но стоит ли им доверять? В целом неплохой проект по невысокой цене. Из минусов могу отметить мемы, которые портят мрачную атмосферу.

An impressive debut! Strong visuals and decent writing, a great fit once the spooky season arrives. It's not as much scarry, as it is uncomfortable and, for the most part, oppressive, and as the game oozes with style, you can easily figure out if it's something you'd enjoy. My main issue is tied to to somewhat misguided bits of immersive UI. The "travel" button is more of an annoying leftover of an older design, than a method of convenient communication, especially when the cutscenes oftentimes don't use it, and it's not always clear when you reach an end of a cutscene, or a moment you are meant to flip the page. The last third of the game gets a bit grindy, weirdly enough for a horror tale, pushing you to keep flipping between the areas with exclamation marks to see if you missed anything, to gather resources, and to complete rather jarring puzzles inspired by the hidden object genre. But it does work well with the oneiric vibe of the main story. Very cool to experience it.

Open your journal and write down what you see, as you see it. Unlike other games, the attention to detail is refreshing. Everything you do, say, decide, are all counted toward your story. The sound design, character development, and overall replay-ability is Immense, even when completing one ending, you come back with numerous amounts of different routes and outcomes. The sound design played heavily in illustrating the forest, whenever I'm pulled into a scene, or explaining the sourroundings that is written in the journal. That added sense of audible attachement kept me drawn in to continue the adventure. In addition, the visuals, even minor, enhanced the dark nature of the forest, and the beings that inhabit it. ESPECIALLY THROUGH POLAROIDS, which not only develop the world building, but also give us as the player a grounded feeling as if we are the protaganoist seeing through the eyes of pictures, rather then in person. This adds flavor to the journalism part of the game, along with the text adventure. The art styled of the game is special, it doesn't attempt to be like anything else, it sticks with the genre and defines the game's horror, creepy, eery, feeling you get while playing. The game play mechanics, even though they were simple; health, spiritism (sanity), and inventory/resource management. The game also had plenty of extra objectives to complete; inner-mixing riddles, puzzles, and mini games with each specific location you encounter. Some are done outside of the journal, while others are categorized in their own section of the journal's UI. When you solve a riddle or puzzle, personally, I felt more accomplished, especially when knowing it unlocks endings. Though sometimes, I had to brute force through the puzzle due to there not being any hints to assist. Furthermore, sometimes the answer to the puzzle/riddle will be for a situation later down the map. So I ended up returning to a lot of the puzzle's origin locations, when I did not really need to. Resource Management, Definitely a step up from the Demo! It's always nice to have to pay attention to your health or sanity, knowing when it's time to stop and take a break (Save the game). Though the further along I was in the story, I realized I didn't really need 20 apples and 20 vials. This made me skip the resource locations more frequently once I knew I did not need to return. When it came to poloroids however, the idea of having to sacrifice items and spiritism really made the game more fun, especially when not knowing whether the next location/encounter will end my run. (Back to last checkpoint). Saving, it's a bit weird when it comes to saving... it all depends on time of day, whether it's apart of the objective, or how injured you are. I've had to go long distances without saving my progress because the game would not let me due to the time of day being too early. This lead to me having to shift back and forth between a couple locations until I could save again. Even though the game is a, 'complete one save, move to a new one where your last affected that save' works for this game. It would've been nice to know that I only have 1 save file per ending, so that I didn't waste most of my time on multiple objectives at once (even though it's a nice achievement to gain). Otherwise, all in all, this was an AMAZING EXPERIENCE that I will never get to experience from another game! WELL DONE🌹 ~Spoilers Ahead~ [spoiler]This is more personalized, but it has to do with the story. When getting further along the map, you encounter trinkets, notes, dates, and names. After doing some research, I noticed that a lot of the things found within the game relate to real instances. Found at Dead Flood: There were train tickets... "Benoit's & Farley's" - 1992 "Kerze's & Dunn" - 1990 It seemed like these all correlated to a 1993 music video titled, "Runaway Train" by Soul Asylum. Underlining real life person's/kid's who went missing. This video originally assisted in rescuing a ton of missing kids. Found at Ship Valley: There was an entry log with the dates listed: January 25th - May 21st, 1968. During that year, and in between the months listed, there were four major military ships/submarines that went missing... - INS Dakar (Israel), January - Minerve (France), January - K-129 (Soviet Union), March - USS Scorpion (US), May 21, 1968. Found at the Cliff: There was two interlocked carabiner with '1989' inscribed on it. I speculate that this incident revolved around the 1989 incident involving an 'S.O.S.' found on the side of Mount Sahi in Japan. Where bones of presumably, but not confirmed, Kenji Iwamura, was found stuffed inside a tree's stump. Furthermore, when Moth speaks of the forest, it is never written as a thing, but as a person, "Forest", never "The Forest". I believe this may be due to the forest being Limbo, where souls tread through the forest until they find their home, it being whatever "Forest" deems it. Then the soul becomes an Entity or Creature (Maybe reincarnation? or just moving on from death). We notice a ton of different lost souls around the forest, maybe they are still roaming, in the hopes to find their own homes? (Moving on) THIS IS ALL SPECULATION! I could just be crazy and mearly overthinking the story, but I believe that MOTH is the ferryman, guiding lost souls, and everyone else is just residents of the forest, finding their homes and moving on. The forest could also just be HELL. Who knows...[/spoiler] VERY WELL DONE GAME! — Thank you DADZINGO, for giving me the opportunity to play this game, and an enjoyable, Journalism experience!🌹 — THE FULL YOUTUBE WALKTHROUGH PLAYLIST WITH THE DEMO INCLUDED: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlcQMq-EKBW7pVArNSAPQqXcqP2E1NdVo&si=30953KcGVK9-cosN

Первый раз самостоятельно прохожу игру подобного жанра, и хочется сказать, что ожидания были оправданы на все 100%. Я получил полноценное погружение в интересную историю. Мрачную, мистическую, наполненную до отказа отсылками и головоломками, некоторые до сих пор ждут, когда их обнаружат и решат, а это значит, что возвращаться на уже знакомые, казалось бы, тропинки я буду еще не раз. Игра приятна не только своим смысловым и интерактивным составляющим, визуальная часть выше всяких похвал! Желаю ребятам удачи, неиссякаемого вдохновения и очень надеюсь, что мы еще встретимся на игровых просторах!

Прошёл\дочитал игру на хорошую концовку. Буду и на другие проходить

The devs weren’t kidding—it’s different. It’s not a typical text game or visual novel, you never really know what you’re playing, but I liked it. The [b]atmosphere[/b], forest ambience and nature sounds are amazing. The [b]visuals[/b] surprised me too, there are way more than I expected for a text-heavy game. And the characters all share that inhuman stare straight into your soul—love the style. Talking about the [b]characters[/b]: none feel like clear good or bad types, they’re actually hard to choose between. Slim’s probably my favorite just for the mystery (well, aside from Moth). [b]Writing[/b] balances dialogue and exploration without drowning you in communication like some VNs. The story's packed with references (to literally anything), hidden meanings, lore hints, and mixes horror and humor really well. Sentences can run long, but overall it’s very easy to read. [b]Puzzles[/b] are a fun change of pace, and mostly optional, which I appreciated. The small [b]details[/b] really shine: journal layouts, hand-drawn items, shaking hand, weather, changes on replay. Clearly a lot of thought went in. I’d say the game is more interesting than scary, but the atmosphere is heavy, sometimes desperate even, and at the same time weirdly comforting. Like it’s teaching you to accept whatever absurd or painful thing comes your way and to do exactly that—to hope without hope. With four endings, the game doesn’t want to let you go, and I didn’t want to leave either. [i]If I could change one thing,[/i] I’d like less environmental description and more dialogue. There are still lots of unanswered questions, especially about the characters (including the side ones and the protagonist himself). It almost feels like an intro to something bigger. Maybe too soon to ask for a sequel... but I’d love one! Some achievements can get a bit grindy too, though nothing unbearable. [h3]In short:[/h3] Finally a narrative game that actually cares about narrative. Surreal setting, memorable characters, puzzles that fit, tons of references, great mix of horror and humor. Would love to see more from this world. Here’s hoping the devs keep making more meaningful games like this.

Хорошо.

Amazing story. Not your average click-through visual novel, here you need to pay attention to everything that’s said. The more you notice, the more of the lore you understand. And I like that it can be interpreted in many ways.