SHIATH

This game was a nice refresher from all of the AAA games that companies spit out now a-days. SHIATH was such a blast to play through, I bought it in a bundle with "Loan Shark", but I personally liked SHIATH more. The game as a whole felt pretty polished, minus the shooting, but its the end of the world c'mon now. The graphics and overall design had me and a couple of friends very impressed, the characters as well were also enjoyable. The pig characters were very interesting and were pleasant to voice! (I would LOVE to voice some characters if possible they're so much fun to voice.) Overall a 10/10 game, one of the BEST niche horror game I've come across on Steam. Keep up the good work and good luck on your new project!

"The world began without humanity and will end without it." A neat little horror game. I'll see you on the next one dev.

[i]Shiath[/i] is less scary as it is meant to disturb, but it didn't stick as well for me. For all of it's allusion to something horrible happening, I felt a bit let down when it inevitably happened. It was a bit of a "that's it?" moment for me, followed by [spoiler]"You didn't let the dog die, that makes you at least a kind of good person!" Which... really didn't land for me because even Hitler loved his dogs[/spoiler], it felt like an unearned effort to redeem the MC because it really didn't cost anything to do. Then to come to the store page and see there's an AI disclosure I didn't see until after I completed it really sours it for me because it feels antithetical to the implicit themes within the game itself, at least from what I understand of them. I don't hate it, but I don't feel like this game really fully reached what it was trying to do and it fell a bit flat for me. Granted, it's $2 and beatable in less than an hour so YMMV especially if you're easily spooked. Imo, it's giving [i]Squirrel Stapler[/i] without enough oomph to make the thematic threads all tie together.

It's not much more than the demo I played originally but its alright. This lives and dies on atmosphere, mechanically the game is pretty weak, the platforming is extremely jank but you don't really need to go anywhere more than once to my understanding. The fishing is novel but awkward, it took a while to fish for what I needed once or twice (ludonarrative harmony I suppose), and I threw myself into the water way more often than could be attributed to reasonable error. I suspect this alludes to a strong statement more than it actually has one, its a little juvenile in that regard but it does have a unique charm. The way the game loads when you press start and the sun sets in front of you is genuinely great. Also, obligatory AI disclaimer, using AI generated 3d models seems like the worst possible return on value with (legitimate) built in pushback. I'm more confused than anything, frankly. Its a soft recommend but I did enjoy my time with the demo and I looked forward to completing the whole thing even if it was extremely brief.

I think the idea was really cool, like seriously I don't think we have a game idea like this, but the execution i found to be way too preachy. The characters constantly say "YOU DID THIS" and "YOU COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING DIFFERENT", like im not even joking every time dialougue happens its about how you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the world. I think the game would have benefited from being more subtle than constantly belittling the player. Also about the dog, what was exactly the point of adding him if your not going to do much with it? Like halfway through the game for me he just disappeared like he said "You know what ♥♥♥♥ this im done" I think if we did more with the dog the game would have been leagues better too! Like what if the dog could travel with you, or you could pet the dog? I feel like this game has good potential, the ideas are great, its just the execution i believe was poor. But hey at least it was $2, most other games would price it at like $12 for a 2 minute experience. Idk, i just think it should maybe be more subtle, I think if you made it so that there was no weird pig talking to you and belittling you I think the impact would have been way better. But hey its $2 so I'd say give it a shot, but like, don't expect anything more than a obvious global warming message.

Do not kill the dog...