Dead Exhale

Note: Ignore my Steam "play time." I probably only spent somewhere between 1-2 hours actually playing it my first session. The rest was spent paused talking to chat; the majority of my stream somehow turned into an extended yap session. TLDR: very scary, enjoyable and unique indie horror experience. 8/10 As with Mother Hub and Habilis, Seth (ODale Studios) nailed a very distinct and alluring visual style. Idk what premade assets he uses vs. handmade ones, but whatever he does consistently crafts a very unique and personalized style. As a horror game, this one is awesome. It had me physically writhing in my chair and actually craning my neck to try and look around corners and stuff. The sound design kept me CONSTANTLY on edge, looking over my shoulder, and second-guessing myself. It can be hard to distinguish between the ambience and actual monster noises that you NEED to worry about, and the palette of effects is diverse and unsettling enough that it takes a while to start picking up on which noises to dismiss and which ones mean danger. I loved this aspect of it. The monster's "footsteps" in particular were just AWFUL (in the best way!). Hearing the tip-tap of its skittering legs approaching was hair-raising. [I played on Normal mode, so I don't know how much things differ in the two higher difficulties.] It's not TOO hard to avoid the monster, but I can pretty much guarantee you will still die a fair number of times. I liked the progression aspect and the handful of skills you can develop over time--funnily enough, dying can actually be convenient (at least on Normal) because it brings you back to the beginning where you spend your skill points. I also appreciated that it didn't reset any progression when I died. This may remove the stakes and some of the challenge for some (and may differ between difficulties, I'm not sure), but personally I liked it because it allowed me to focus on the horror aspect of the game and enjoy the spooks and ambience. I find the traditional "run from monster while doing tasks or collecting items" format tiring and exhausting when you have to start from scratch upon death. I like feeling like I'm making progress even in death, and I loathe repetition in games. I like a more fluid experience, but then again I'm not a great gamer, lol. Leveling up skills is super simple: collect red gems and spend them on either run speed, crouch speed, or stealth (stealth just reduces your visibility to the monster). The breath mechanic took me a bit to figure out, though it should be pretty apparent to most (I'm not very observant, lol, and splitting my attention streaming doesn't help). Your character will intake a sharp audible breath, and the edges of the screen will darken a bit with some yellow "cracks" as a visual indicator. After a certain amount of seconds of your character holding her breath, she will exhale--loudly--and if you're still in the vicinity of the monster it'll hear it, so you'd better gtfo of dodge as soon as you start or be eviscerated. Microphone functionality is optional; I opted to leave it on for streaming, and it made it quite entertaining to try and "commentate" and talk to chat while whispering. Makes for a very immersive experience, but at the same time I found myself pausing the game a LOT more so I could keep up with chat. It's a tradeoff, but that makes having the option to toggle it quite welcome. I had to figure a few mechanics out over time through trial and error, but I appreciated the very limited tutorials and lack of excessive hand-holding.