GHOST at DAWN

Il gioco è meno cattivo di quello che vuole far credere. Credo che ci trolli parecchio. Però a me è piaciuto molto il gameplay e anche la grafica particolare. Chi apprezza i giochi alla RE vecchio stampo secondo me deve giocarlo. Unico difetto qualche bug... a volte anche fatali nel senso che ti obbligano a riavviare il gioco, ma fortunatamente il continuo autosalvataggio rende sopportabile questa cosa. Non dovrete rifare pezzi lunghi, ma respawnerete sempre all'ingresso e dovrete raggiungere di nuovo il punto in cui eravate arrivati, ma con tutti gli oggetti presi nel tuo inventario. I combattimenti contro i fantasmi non troppo complicati, a parte nei momenti in cui ce ne sono molti tutti insieme e dovrete essere un po' più "tattici". Per il resto, la sola presenza dei fantasmi farà scendere la sanità mentale (non ci sono cure per danni fisici ma solo per la sanità mentale, anche perché se i fantasmi vi toccano siete oneshottati, dovete combatterli da lontano). L'unico problema che potrete avere sarà la carenza di munizioni. Quindi quando si può, meglio risparmiarle. La gestione dell'inventario può essere un po' problematica all'inizio finché avete 6 slot ma può aiutarvi il montacarichi dove depositare gli oggetti che in quel momento non vi servono per poi recuperarli. Il montacarichi è situato nella stanza Staff che fa un po' la parte della stanza di salvataggio anche se, come già detto, il salvataggio è automatico. I comandi non sono comodissimi ma neanche scomodissimi e inoltre c'è già preimpostata l'automira. Per chiudere, vi consiglio di giocarlo (io l'ho terminato in circa 3 ore e mezza) e di non farvi spaventare dalle cose che vi dice il gioco tipo "nessun aiuto" o cose simili.

First of all - let me start by saying how active and responsive the developer is. They are putting so much effort into making sure this game is bug-free and playable (there will always be something but the fact that support is consistent is all I ask for). I will continue to play and test out this game to help the developer have honest and concise bug-related reports as I know detailed bug reports help address issues quickly versus someone saying "The game is broken, fix it!!!!". The game isn't 100% bug-free but as a community, I think we should be encouraged to help the developer(s) stay vigilant in making this game the best it can be. I say all this to spread awareness of how passionate the developer appears to be based on previous discussion topics I've seen them on. Now for the good stuff: The game mechanics reminds me of the first Resident Evil game which I love. It doesn't feel clunky to me though it has been the primary cause of my character's death... (I ran into the arms of a ghost, they held me tightly until I DIED LOL). The music is great and eerie which I feel adds to the whole vibe. The inventory mechanics are well done and the items you pick up interact well when they are used in the right place (ex: keys to locked door - you don't have to constantly click on the key then the door and back and forth... SMOOTH I tell you LOL) I haven't had many gaming hours on this but I will be playing it more and more now that I see how active the developer is. All in all, it is worth playing and I highly recommend giving it a shot. [Update as of 4/16] After numerous updates by the developer, the game is smoother with minimal bugs. I have played through this game several times and have been reporting fewer bugs each time. Good work Dev! [Update as of 6/1/26] 19.2 hours in. Worth every one. I recommend this game Ghost at Dawn does exactly what it says it will do. You explore an abandoned hotel, solve puzzles, manage your sanity, and piece together what happened to Emi Kosuke. It's a love letter to 90s survival horror and it delivers on that without apology. The graphics aren't going to blow you away. That's not what this game is. What it is is atmospheric, carefully built, and genuinely spooky in the right moments. If you grew up on games from that era, you're going to feel it here. That nostalgia isn't cheap either. It earns it. I put in 19 hours. When I finished it, my first reaction wasn't relief. It was wanting to know what comes next. That's the real review right there. What pushed this from a good game to one I'd recommend without hesitation is the developer behind it. One person built this. One person owns every bug, every patch, every update. I've watched them respond to issues fast and fix things with intention. That kind of accountability is rare in games made by teams of 50, let alone one person working to meet their own standard. The bad reviews exist. Some people bounced off it. I get it. This isn't a game for everyone. But if you go in expecting a AAA title, you're missing the point. If you go in as someone who wants to get lost in an investigation, feel the tension of limited resources, and support a developer who genuinely cares, this game delivers. Recommended. Especially if you want to back someone who is doing the work for the right reasons.

Why the hell is this game not more popular? It's a legit 10 to me.

I pet the cat on my last candle ♥

This one is certainly one of the more unique survival horror games out there, from it's ultra stylized visual approach in both UI and in game aesthetics to it's clever spins on item boxes, limited saves and player feedback, there's a whole lot of playful boundary pushing going on here without ever straying so far as to make it feel like anything but a genuine survival horror game. There is so much to discuss here. I really enjoyed how even before you have gotten started, the game manages to challenge genre conventions with things like denying the player an easier difficulty (although I think the limited lives on/off toggle is a little confusing and could be worded more clearly). I think the maps were quite nice, but I'd always prefer to be able to have them marked to reduce aimless running around and rechecking the same room over and over again just to remember "oh yeah there's nothing in here". Generally the level design and game progression was all quite nice, and I loved discovering all the little twists on the genre staples such as the dumbwaiter being the only item box and having to summon it from floor to floor (even though the little cinematic should probably be skippable but oh well) and how stackable items only give a vague indication of how much is left rather than a strict numerical value much like the classic survival horror health system. Speaking of the health system, this is sort of a mixed bag. On one hand, I adore how low health is indicated through increased hallucinations and depressive written commentary while looking at items in your inventory - very clever and engaging...however the damage system feels very weird to me - your health/mental state drains more and more as enemies draw closer, and you simply die if they ever make contact. It does work for the game for the most part but it's one area where the shirking of convention feels a little shaky as it simply doesn't feel good to lose health just from fighting enemies. It does all make sense within game of course and the game is largely balanced to accomodate this consistant draining of health...would be nice if low health didn't limit mobilty so much though. I don't like to get into the story much in my reviews, but I will say the story was a lot darker than I anticipated and I quite liked how it all comes together. That said, the tone was pretty hit and miss for such a dark story. For me, the brash in your face "too cool for school" sort of delivery of the narrative had a tendancy to clash a lot with the actual conent of the narrative itself and had the result of taking away the power of some of the heavier topics by trying to strike a more playful tone when it seemed a little inappropriate to do so. This is of course totally subjective, I still think that the story told here was a lot more interesting than many survival horror games have to offer, but as always, with a higher quality concept, the delivery becomes that much easier to scrutinize, so it's a curse and a blessing. Another curse and blessing in Ghost at Dawn, for me, was how musical it is. 75% of the time, the music was really nice and stood to distinguish the game from its peers...but I think a little bit more atmosphere would have done wonders for the tension in the game, rather than having near constant songs playing as you explore and fend off ghosts. Many of the tracks are very chipper, which works extremely well in a more surreal game such as Alisa, where that WAS the environment and the atmosphere and it really served the game...but here, there were times when it simply felt like the wrong music was playing. When it lands it really lands, but when it doesn't, it just doesn't really feel right. I know some people get put off by the whole "permadeath" thing, but it's really not as punishing as it sounds. The game is built around it, and even though there are certainly some cheap deaths, I didn't find many all that frustrating. The only real frustration came from not having a chance to escape when an enemy gets close enough to kill you. Overall, despite my issues, there is something really unique here that stands out among the crowd both visually and mechanically. If you are a fan of the classic fixed camera and tank control style of survival horror, then I'd see this is one you shouldn't skip, there's a lot of cool stuff going on here and I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more love. For more 3rd person survival horror games of all shapes and sizes, check out my curator page - https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45050657/

I LOVE the game, but there's a game-breaking bug preventing me from playing it: There's an invisible collider in front of the Talent Only door (found in the rising sun lounge), so I cannot climb the stairs to reach the door. Please fix this! I'll be happy to update the review if I can continue enjoying the otherwise super lovely game <3 Update: Bug was fixed in less than 6h, great job man.

A somewhat negative positive review here. It's clear that Ghost at Dawn was made with a lot of heart and hard work, and it's filled with interesting visuals and exciting, unusual ideas - and also some moments that made me want to drive an icepick through my eye and into my brain. So - mixed feelings. The initial presentation is just delightful - it initially presents as a pulpy noir post-WWII private detective yarn, complete with rumpled veteran private d❤ck driving to an abandoned hotel with a voiceover letter from his female client - begging him to find her missing sister. The game namechecks some interesting themes, such as the treatment of the Japanese populations of America in the war and post-war period, and of the sleezy trades and transactions that are conducted behind the crumbling facades of Seattle hotels of this era. These topics are only touched upon lightly, however, and never given the attention or gravitas they deserve, and so their inclusion comes off mainly as a dash of cheap sensationalism. But then, it is pulp...! The narrative pace is initially brisk and interesting, establishing Ben (the detective) and the hotel inhabitants with voice-narrated letters and notes dotted throughout the environment. There's some decent drama and characterisation here and it very rarely lapses into lore dumps - everything feels grounded and suitably gritty. Unfortunately, after a while, the game becomes rather one-note - trudging around and shooting ghosts, picking up clues and solving inventory puzzles. There's an effort to celebrate the death of named antagonists, but their characterisation is usually one dimensional and somewhat shallow, so it's hard to care that much when they shuffle offstage. You're the one playing these ghostly foes off, of course, usually through a lead exorcism. Attacking is mostly a case of holding down the 'shoot' button and occasionally switching targets and maneuvering so that the nearest advancing enemy doesn't draw too close to you. You defeat bosses by... doing the same thing, but for longer. There's a good chance the boss will kill you - in which case, respawn, run back to the boss and continue to shoot. Player health is modelled as 'sanity' and the effect of fear on the body - run out of sanity/stability and your character will suffer a heart attack or put a bullet through their own brain. Sanity is drained by spending too long in a scary location (the dark, near a ghost), by experiencing a spooky event (big ghost heads popping out of doors!) or by running directly into a ghost, which will kill you immediately. The game initially presents as a perma-death-threatening affair, but quickly relents (if you're as a bad a player as I am, anyway). Indeed, death and other sanity effects are usually mere inconveniences - but mere inconveniences stack up if you continually run into them, and eventually I found myself cursing the game and its developer for what felt like constantly wasting my time. Similarly, game presents dumbwaiters as a clever answer to item boxes, but waiting for these and elevators to arrive only serve to remind you that you have but one life and that the empty eternity of the void draws ever closer as you attend these delays. Ammo and other supplies are well portioned out, and the player is unlikely to find themselves without the means to dispatch the hotels army of revenants, as often as it seems a disastrous soft lock approaches. However - the game does look delightful. A sort of shadow-wreathed noir anime set in a seedy fourties hotel, where desperate marks play out their parts against inky blacks and cheesy, peeling wallpaper. Fixed multicam works well here, though there's some stronger emphasis on panning cameras than I would like (and an accompanying surfeit of whip-pan, unfortunately). I also like how the developer has apparently attached the depth of field target to the player character's model, so that there's some serious focus-pulling going on in nearly every shot. It's a cool effect, but somewhat overused, and as it adapts to the player's position, it reduces the opportunity to employ depth of field for some interesting shot compositions. Unfortunately the game's implementation of camera-relative controls are seriously borked, lacking a turning threshold on camera transition, a flaw which will often send you into the insta-death arms of your nearest ghost. Tank controls seem a little sluggish, but are otherwise fine. Special mention must go to the EXCELLENT music of the game, featuring some original compositions and folklore classics performed by the singular developer of this project, Brandon Roberts. These are all out of copyright, enabling trouble-free streaming of the game, but the songs chosen also deliver an often somber mood to Ben's investigations. At times the music will become unexpectedly chipper, however, and all the tracks will repeat and REPEAT, which can become wearing - I'd have loved some extended moments with ambient abandoned hotel noise. I should mention that the ghostly enemies of the hotel don't emit noises when not alerted, and sometimes they are repopulated near corners - meaning the player can spawn on a new life, run around a corner and immediately die as they come into contact with a spooooky boogans, which only adds to the gameplay frustrations. The game has a selection of maps of the hotel that you can collect, but does not bother to give the maps any kind of functionality (ie. highlighting areas with unfinished business), therefore lacking the checklist functionality found in the popular Resident Evil (1996) and Resi Evil 2 (1998) games. This can lead to a lot of tiresome tromping around the hotel, trying to find some means to progress. I've run into more than a few bugs in the game, but nothing that restarting from the title screen won't resolve - which is not too bad, as you'll be doing this multiple times while playing the game anyhow. Oh! Extra credit for implementing screen-space reflections in the game. They're not perfect, but it's nice to see someone using this effect instead of employing dull, non-reflective mirrors as most indies will. And another nice touch - the player character will detect if moving up or down stairs, and play the appropriate movement animation, which is cool and rarely done! Overall, Ghost at Dawn is a decent fixed multicam survival horror, with some genuinely interesting ideas and presentation, undermined by some aggravating systems, bugs and a long stretch of monotone narrative. I think better players than I will have a more enjoyable time than I had with it, but I can see that it has been made by someone with enormous talent. I look forward with great excitement to their next project, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2730280/DATE_WITH_the_NIGHT/]DATE WITH the NIGHT[/url]. If you enjoy fixed multicam games like GHOST at DAWN, be sure and check out the [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/fixedcamera]Fixed Camera Appreciation Society[/url]! We've got a great Curator with loads more titles like this one, and a very supportive Discord! Come join us!