Jack Holmes : Master of Puppets

**Not Recommended** I really wanted to like this game more than I did. The first part actually had me hooked. The atmosphere is creepy, the psychological horror works, the jump scares landed, and those giant spiders... yeah, absolutely not. They did exactly what they were supposed to do and made me dread moving forward. Then... the game completely lost me. Without spoiling too much, it starts throwing so many different ideas at you that it honestly felt like I was playing a completely different game every hour. One minute it's psychological horror. Then you're in this strange circus-like area with these weird Animal Crossing-looking creatures. Then it feels like you're inside some cyberpunk simulation. Then it suddenly turns into DOOM with heavy metal blasting while you're unloading ammo into everything. Individually, some of these ideas are actually pretty cool. Together... they just didn't work for me. It felt like the game couldn't decide what it wanted to be, and every time I started getting immersed, something completely different would happen that pulled me right back out. There were also a few sections that just dragged on way too long. I remember sitting through one of the boat sections wondering if I was actually doing anything or just waiting to get to the next area. It completely killed the pacing for me. The disappointing part is that I honestly think there's a really good horror game hiding in here. The atmosphere is strong. The sound design is good. Some of the scares genuinely worked. I just think the game tried to do too many different things instead of focusing on what it was already doing well. I can absolutely understand why some people enjoy it, especially if you like horror games that constantly change things up. For me, though, it was less surprising and more distracting. By the end, I wasn't scared anymore. I was just confused about what kind of game I was playing. --- If you're into honest gaming reviews and first impressions, I also cover games over on my YouTube channel, **RawImpressions**.