Is Simon There?

An interesting game. The core concept isn’t anything new, but it is well executed. The jumpscares are well placed and the atmosphere is strong throughout. The story isn’t particularly special, it feels familiar, but it still fits the game well. The overall flow is better this time. You still occasionally wander around a bit without clear direction, but it’s nowhere near as frustrating as in the previous entry. The amount of blood on the walls felt a bit excessive, and the same goes for the monster. It is shown too often, especially when the lights are on, which unfortunately reduces the impact of the jumpscares and makes them less scary overall. There are three different endings and, thankfully, a checkpoint system has finally been added. That was really needed, since the games become quite repetitive when replayed multiple times. Overall, it’s a solid entry, not the developer’s best, but definitely not the worst either.

[h2]Is Simon There? A lackluster TurnVex experience[/h2] I've come to know TurnVex as someone who churns out games that are always in the range of good to great, thus it saddens me to say that Is Simon There? disappoints me majorly. The concept is alright and a staple of TurnVex's P.T. esque gameplay loop of going back and forth in a small, enclosed house like space and triggering different events one after another. Where the game falls completely flat, in my opinion, is the horror. There is basically none, and the moment it tries, it just tries too hard and ends up feeling goofy. A clear example is the design philosophy behind the monster. Monsters in horror usually work in one of two ways, when not both. You either make a monster as scary and grotesque as possible, or make it symbolic of something. TurnVex tries the second one here, with a monster symbolic of guilt. From there, a developer has to decide whether to use the monster as a show, don't tell device or the other way around. Especially for a symbolic monster, the preferred approach would be the first, and that is what TurnVex does. Sadly, that's also where the flaw lies. The character of the scared man is in no way creative or unique enough to justify such a heavy presence. The full model gets shown half the time and is looked at for multiple seconds at once. The game simply overdoes it, and it kills all tension. Another weird point comes in one scene where the house is filled with him. For a few seconds, you can see a beast like creature in the bedroom. I have utterly no clue what that was supposed to represent. Maybe the wolf that killed our son? It's not made clear in the slightest. It almost feels like TurnVex had a spare model and just wanted to throw it in. But it's not all bad. The first scare with the intruder standing behind the closet was pretty standout and definitely set an atmosphere. Sadly, as mentioned, it didn't last long. Which brings me to my final point, the story. It's pretty alright, actually. It's a run of the mill guilt story, but that's nothing to scoff at. It gets delivered alright and is a good premise. Especially standout is the psychological toll of having his friends call now and then and how that rips open the wound every time. Overall, out of all the TurnVex games I've played, Is Simon There? is the weakest experience and sadly falls under the threshold where I can recommend it with honesty.

ало, симон ты йобаный

よくわからん、分かりづらい。

This is one of my all time favorite indie horror games. I love the easter egg and appreciate the game design and jump scares. This dev has always delivered on the atmosphere and the scares. I recently returned to the game to get more achievements and was not disappointed. I found new things and even got a new ending. This is well worth the price tag and your time!!

3.2 At it's core I find this gameplay quite weak, just a bunch of occasional jumpscares that didn't really 'hook' me. Outside of those it was just wandering around trying to find what the trigger was, generally leading to just walk back and forth from one end to the other each time. Narratively I found a part of it quite interesting but I don't feel that it properly went in on the topic as much as it could especially when instead it felt like instead the choice was to use almost unrelated asset pack monsters. Especially one near the end it felt completely out of place, especially considering the core story which could have instead lead or had other kinds of trauma, that I just don't feel were represented or if so was done in a different avenue that I felt missed a bit of the mark.

Overall Rating: 4/10. I know a lot of people liked this one, but the story line was super weird. Was also not a big fan of the back and forth through the house trigger gameplay, with little guidance. The ambiance was there and the game is definitely creepy, but not one I'd rate near the top. I'd say it's worth a play for the price if youre a horror fan.