The Carcass

The best part of this game is shining a light on an interesting genre and the old school vibe...I was sold on that. unfortunately, this game is AI slop. If you want to save your game PiqFocus- shut The Carcass down, give out refunds and go back to the drawing board WITHOUT AI. If your not up for that- sell off the rights to someone who will. If you otherwise persist in trying to market this game, you will give your company a bad name- who would want to buy any of your games? :(

I was so excited for this game. I love cosmic horror. And you can pretty much guarantee that I'll buy a cosmic horror game on day one. And that initial artwork won me over. So I bought this as soon as it launched. I played through the 20 minute intro on my Steam Deck, and it seemed fine. It was annoying having to keep bringing up and closing the keyboard manually to continue through the intro, but I gave that a pass. It wasn't Steam Deck Verified so I knew what I was getting into. The story and vibes seemed good, but the writing felt a bit janky. And there were often repeated lines. Like...A LOT of repeat lines. On the same screen too, which was very odd. Other reviewers mention it, which I didn't see until after I played it. It also didn't even occur to me that it could have been due to AI use. I don't always check for an AI disclosure. I had my cosmic horror blinders on I guess. But once I finished the intro, I went to check reviews. And boy it wasn't pretty. I won't repeat what everyone has been saying. But I will say that putting up the AI disclosure AFTER the game launches is pretty bad. It comes across very sneaky. It's possible it wasn't intentional, but perception sometimes becomes reality. And the creator had to know that. While using AI for coding or localization doesn't necessarily bother me (I've talked to a lot of coders who appreciate the time savings AI can bring in their work), once you replace actual human creativity with AI you're going to lose me. And that's what makes this worse. While the AI disclosure was posted AFTER release, it wasn't even a complete list! The music and art part of the disclosure were added later. It was bad enough before. But now it seems the ONLY content that isn't AI is the idea. It's not even a bad idea! But if that's all you brought to the table, and had AI create a game for you that you then sell on Steam, no thanks.