SANRI

The game is not a user-friendly experience. I have played obtuse or difficult games, but this one has you struggling with unintuitive game design that does not lend to a playable experience. It is completeable, but the time spent lolling about looking for the next place I am supposed to be or the unexplained button/mechanic that I am supposed to complete was horrid. The game is essentially a collection of jumpscares and nothing else in terms of it's horror, with the entire reliance on them diminishing the story itself. No spoilers, but the story is far weakened by the lack of actual horror psychologically, and the lacklustre ending is probably designed to invite thinking of the events that transpire, but instead make me want to give up thinking that, so far, the game has not shown me anything actually gripping to care if there was some deeper explanation to the ending, and it most likely just being as superficial as I expect it to be. The game also fails to explain game-mechanics or controls, and instead relies on you doing the worst part of old point-and-click type games; randomly clicking on things and blindly shuffling through the map with no direction until something happens (a jumpscare, of course). Once you figured out every action basically came with a jumpscare, the horror is all gone and instead you are just wandering to the next plot-point that is intended to scare you. A headless woman chasing me? Oh no. I can't wait to get to the next point in two minutes time to see something else like a loud noise suddenly playing behind you. The worst offender for me was the unexplained controls for putting a key in a door. I even went to the menu to find controls or options, but there were none. It's right mouse button. Unexplained. Spent a long time clicking random doors with a key in my inventory and unable to open any of them. Left mouse button 'tries' a door, right mouse button 'unlocks' a door. The graphics were alright. Nothing too amazing, though I was taken aback by the super high quality models of some objects when they really needed not be considering it has no reason to be quality when I can see the open void of the map in some sections of the forest, as well as two dimensional trees. The interiors were nice. Overall, if being harsh, an atrocious waste of my time and I am only happy that it was gifted to me. If being kinder and more supportive, the game needs to not waste it's time on making candles be simulated in the wax melting and more time spent on crafting a story that I can actually care about; the rest is superfluous nonsense when you are dealing with a mental health issue like the one in the game.