Endless Dark

I figured this would be a wild ride just based on the trailers, but nothing could have prepared me for the actual secrets this game was hiding, or the emotional rollercoaster that it would take me on. The minute-to-minute gameplay is mostly just reading and picking options from menus, and yet this still managed to be one of the most stressful games I've ever tried out. A+, I wish I could rip out my memory core and experience it for the first time again.

Sometimes I felt like I was abusing the games mechanics, that I found a strategy that made me as efficent as possible with ship maintenance while keeping my little custodian tireless, stress-free, and (relatively) sane. A perfectly efficent strategy. [b] Other times I felt the games mechanics abusing me.[/b] Due to the culmination of my insanities; I would dread to open any door, as my custodian might begin to spaz out screaming, gaining stress and leaving oil spills everywhere, which I would have to clean up, gaining fatigue, which can give even MORE STRESS. My custodian gained a need for destruction, I would break vital systems of the ship, then fix them immediately after simply because I NEEDED TO break things or it would become too resource-draining to repair. My map became useless, my task list became useless, My HuD TeXT becAME USELess, MY CUST00DIAN TURNED INTO A D00R, MY BREAKERS F0R THE D0ORS TURNED INTO DOORS, ALL MY SYSTEMS TURNED INTO D00RS. STRESS WAS PILING AND P1LINg UP, RISKING TEMP0RARY SHUTD0WN, I RAN OUT OF PARTS TO REPAIR THE SHIP, SO I HAD TO RELY ON EMERGENCY REPAIRS, WHICH WOULD GIVE [b] EVEN MORE STRESS!! BUT I NEED TO FIX THE ENGINE OR WE WON'T MAKE IT TO THE END IN TIME, I NEED TO FIX THE ENGINE, THE EMERGENCY REPAIR FAILS, MORE STRESS I NEED TO FIX THE ENGINE THE EMERGENCY REPAIR FAILS MORE STRESS I NE- [u] DO NOT ENGAGE IN INDEPENDENT THOUGHT [/u] 01010011 01010100 01001111 01010000 00100000 01010100 01001000 01001001 01001110 01001011 01001001 01001110 01000111

Delightful roguelite that has kept me on my toes every game! Rarely do I feel like things are easy or 'solved' and I can coast to victory. Each character has its own set of decisions to make and strategies can be very different for each of them. Balancing risk against reward or possible negative effects can be a nailbiter. Especially if problems pile up and you start having to make choices between only bad decisions. I have played through most of the story arcs at the time of writing this review, and am slowly working through to the conclusion. In roguelite fashion, there are various perks that are unlocked through completing objectives or specific feats of strength. Some are even negative to allow taking even more- and there is an interesting 'continuity' between runs, which can make things quite interesting. I have not done too much as far as 'pushing the difficulty' though the Real-Time Mode has been siren-calling to me that it cant *possibly* be that bad, whats the harm.

I don't think a game has ever made me feel such intense emotions as this game. The hope of the last arc, the crushing despair of the other arcs as I somehow barely scraped by while finishing the arc to keep progressing (Thank you dev for making it so that finishing the arc but not the voyage still counts, I think I would have actually lost my mind if it didn't) The only two real complaint I have is that 1: random damage really, really sucks sometimes but the next update (1.2 - Which is currently in public beta) is removing that entirely for a different system 2: While the music is amazing in my opinion it gets slightly repetitive after a few hours, but it was never so repetitive that I turned the music off to turn my own on so kinda minor in my opinion but I felt it should still be noted Robbie remains my goat, through and through

I don't think a description can do this game justice. Instead, if the idea of a "existential horror game" clicks in your head, buy this! There are no jump scares, just atmosphere. Existence is the horror.

Didn't expect this to be survival horror walle

A dark philosophical horror. Is it better to sacrifice yourself, sacrifice your "goal", or recognize both are flitting illusions?