Long Night

Not recommended. Could dig the oldschool survival horror in general, if the execution weren't so terrible. If you still want to get it, note that this is only episode 1, and there is no continuation after the cliffhanger ending of this VERY short episode. The premise is classic and compelling - haunted camping grounds, Native American ghost legends, with a nice dose of personal psychological horrors the character/s has/have to deal with. A camping trip with friends, a local urban legend, a spooky dare gone wrong, and our protagonist finds himself alone and scared, looking for his friends and hunted and haunted by a ghostly woman. So far, so good. The added effect of monitoring the protagonist's fear-level and dealing with his asthma (?) to reduce it seems a nice touch, but lacks in effects and ends up looking more like a poor attempt to emulate similar elements from better games. The gameplay suffers primarily from stiff, occasionally bugged controls and repetitive elements. While I don't mind the often surprising and - with a few unintentionally comical exceptions - rather unforgiving attacks and opportunities to die so much, given that it's rare you'll make too much progress without coming across a save point (use those whenever you see them - you'll often backtrack to older ones, but there aren't that many in the game), I do mind their unoriginality. A few "bad choice" deaths and a slightly more interesting though very railroaded boss fight notwithstanding, the primary threat is the aforementioned ghost woman, who will upon your entering an area occasionally appear, scream, and begin to chase you down. Once or twice you may be lucky and she will disappear before reaching you (she also seems unable to enter certain areas, making it easy for you to lose her depending on your positioning) but for the most part she will insta-kill you upon reaching you. To evade her, you may simply dodge into one of the designated hide spots, and it is generally very easy to lose her, unless you happen to be badly positioned, such as trapped by a dead end. The game therefore presents mostly frustration-deaths, forcing you to backtrack a little and try again, hoping for a better angle this time. The faulty controls may also do you a disservice here if you enter an area from the wrong side and directions are mirrored until you let go of your movement keys for a moment. Not so convenient when you're running for your life. My greatest problem with the game is, however, that it is insultingly short. Yes, even for the price, even for an "episode 1". If you're an idiot like me and need forever to understand that no, you really can't/shouldn't taunt the ghost and lead her on a merry chase, you may spend up to two hours on it. I like trying things out, and I can be stubborn when I think a boss fight should work the way I want it to work, what can I say - entirely my fault. But more than likely, you will be done much quicker. All in all, there was some real potential for an indy game here. I don't mind the rough edges such as some (!) issues with the controls, the mediocre graphics, or the nostalgia feeling of a somewhat rough and tumble, simple third personal survival game. But with the complete lack of conclusion or real explanation of the setting (you may piece it together from notes you find, if you care to read them all), the short duration, and the additional flaws of repetitive gameplay and stiff, buggy controls, I can't even use nostalgia as an excuse to recommend it. You may think "It's only five bucks!" or "It's on sale!" but for that money, you'll be left with what feels like nothing but the barest prologue to a game. I'd completely change my mind if it were finished, but it isn't, and from the looks of it it won't be, so I can't recommend this game. To the developers, it'd be prudent to finish the game and move away from the episodic release. For everybody who has already bought your game, they have already overpaid for it. Not that I imagine that will happen, but here are my two cents.