This game is an underappreciated gem. It's very similar to Nightmare of Decay and old school Resident Evil Games, and it mimics the 90's style very well. I would highly recommend anyone who enjoyed either game to play this one, although I would advise playing on normal or even Journey (easy mode) for a first play through, as the game is actually quite hard. I got stuck halfway through a normal mode play through myself and had to reset on Journey to beat the game. I'm glad I didn't just rage quit the game at that point, as the game is really at its weakest in the earliest parts of the mid game.
The game offers a good variety of weapons, good map design, fun game play, and the ability to draw things on the map. Letting the player mark the map themselves as they go along was a great idea that more games ought to implement. The game was well polished and even had a few nice tracks to boot. Other quality of life elements like stamina only being activated during combat is a nice touch, and there are many minute details in the game that the player might miss if they aren't paying attention. Even the setting is rather interesting too, in my opinion. It is a phenomenal experience for 5 dollars and seriously needs more attention than what it currently gets.
My only complaints about the game are:
- the knight boss is actually unfair. His attacks are unavoidable and he attacks very quickly. His attacks are very powerful and he does not have any "rest" animation after an attack like most bosses do.
- Movement is far too slow for such a long game, especially with all of the backtracking.
- The hedge garden section, although short, is actually broken because enemies can phase through the walls that the player normally can't go through. This and the previous two are the only major issues in the game as far as I can tell.
- Grenades, although powerful, are difficult to use properly because it's difficult to tell where they will land when thrown. Grenades are also the rarest ammo type in the game, with only maybe half a dozen or so being find-able throughout the entire experience. I'd say there is 3 times as much magnum ammo as grenades
- The double barreled rifle is overpowered. Obviously the real life Elephant Rifle that the weapon is likely based off of is extremely powerful, but the rifle here is essentially the best weapon in the game given its ammo being relatively common compared to the magnum. It's not game breaking of course, and really isn't a problem or even a flaw of the game from a certain perspective. Being able to get double and triple kills with every shot is very satisfying. Dev, if you fix only one issue on this list, please don't let it be this "issue".
- The Demonic Handgun is a weapon that takes an immense amount of effort to obtain and upgrade, which makes sense given its raw power. However, there is never an opportunity to actually use it except against the final boss (which is mandatory to defeat the A Route final boss by the way) because it's obtained so late into the game. It's a real shame for such a cool weapon to be so underutilized. The only incentive to even get it is to complete the A Route and get the good ending.
- There really should have been a New Game +, in my opinion, so that the player could have enjoyed all of the upgrades and weapons they obtained. Most survival horrors do something like this, also allowing you to have cheat codes such as "infinite ammo" or the like. The game has multiple endings, but there isn't much of an incentive to play again besides speed running despite the game being surprisingly configurable. This isn't so much a "flaw" as it is a "would be nice to have" though.
Beyond that, the game is excellent through and through. 9/10 easily.
