This game seriously consumed my life, I spent all my free time playing this game recently. I really liked it for a reason I never thought I would find in this game, the reason being this game in its essence is a Resident Evil Survival Horror with a different flavor, this sounds ridiculous since there are no enemies or combat in this game but let me explain.
The core gameplay of Survival Horror games is Route Planning, Resource Management and Execution, IF the player is willing to partake in the gameplay it is designed for. In RE games, hoarding and clearing are options that players can take if they want but are considered suboptimal by design, players need to learn the map, remember resources and enemy spawn points, plan their route to solve puzzles and improvise on the fly if anything goes wrong, which is basically what players are doing in this game replace enemies with disease and addiction, then add resource vendor and currency.
Players have a short-term goal, pick up resources that are needed for their current goal and survival needs, avoid hoarding everything, improvise their route to drop off excessive resources at various vendors and workbenches, stop at their home to store rare items and sleep, then take necessary resources when meeting the requirements for quests or tenement renovation, exactly the same format as in RE games, just replace quests and renovations with puzzles and bosses.
In this game, players can reach the same goal without failure by hoarding and unnecessary backtracking, but by playing like this they basically turn the game into a chore for themselves. Players get satisfaction from optimizing every trip in the city of Obenseuer. Every inefficient decisions drain more resources and currency while forcing additional detours and errands. Disease and addiction work in a similar way. They are not direct equivalents to RE enemies, but they are persistent problems that can snowball into major setbacks or even kill the player character if ignored. Like bad encounters in RE games, they are usually manageable if player knows where are the additional resources, and can often be avoided entirely through proper preparation. First time I reached mid game my character's health keeps dripping down and I have no idea what's going on, then I went to the doctor and diagnosed SMV(fungal disease), it almost soft locked my game like a surprise boss encounter when I'm low on resource, I poured all my resources and spent next few days just to combat SMV, after that I learn how to avoid SMV and what items and actions can help suppress SMV during early stage, it all become part of the planning. The game gradually opens up with more scavenging routes, vendors and workbenches which create more and more options and activities for players to plan and optimize. This is the gameplay that got me addicted, every trip makes me choose what to pick up and where to swing by, every progression gives me an urge to restart the whole game so I can do it better and faster this time.
Currently the game is still in Early Access with lots of incomplete quest lines, the UI needs improvements, disease and addiction needs more thought put into them, tenement resident interactions are still bare-bones, but I have no idea how long this game will possess me in its current state and how much it will ruin my life when it's finished.
