The Flayed Man

Kurz, wirksam, wunderschön gepixelt. Debut-Spiel eines kleinen Teams, auf dessen zukünftige Titel ich mich nun SEHR freue!

Great concept

I don't usually write reviews, but something about this game specifically compelled me. It is a strange little game, and the whole thing felt quite surreal to play. I knew nothing about this game going in other than the Steam page itself. I am a big fan of niche games, indie games, pixel art, and horror; this game happens to hit every box. It is a beautiful game. The artwork and the character designs are gorgeous and fascinating. Every scene, every background, every character model is engrossing (and just regular gross, but in a good way). There aren't many rooms, there's only three(ish) characters you get to see, and there's just a handful of cutscenes, but this game maximizes them all to make the most out of them. It's all quite visceral. The story itself - which I will not spoil - is relatively straightforward with simple to understand themes, but it lends itself to various interpretations that give it further depth. It leaves many unanswered questions, but I don't mean that in critique. I think the ambiguity of certain details actually strengthens the possibility of multiple interpretations of the game, which is commendable and plays into the atmosphere well. It also features two major endings (with some minor differences in routes to get to them) which is always a nice touch. The gameplay itself is fine. It's short - my first playthrough was about 40 minutes - and I didn't find any of the puzzles particularly frustrating. I don't think its anything particularly new or exciting, but it's not something I ever found annoying or confusing. It's a point-and-click; just remembering to click items onto other items and try literally everything. I promise you can figure it out. The only thing I could possibly critique is that there isn't a whole lot of replayability, and that plays a part in the short runtime. It took me about an hour and a half to get all of the achievements, and it definitely got repetitive in spots because it is just the same thing with maybe a few different dialogue choices. Still, I can't fault the game too much for that as the blame falls on my own drive to complete the entirety of the content. If I only played it twice to get the two major endings, I probably wouldn't even have this critique. I also paid for the Supporter Pack because, hey, support indie developers and it's only like a dollar more. The artbook was really neat to see the creative process and the evolution of the vision, and all the other bonus content is a nice touch. At the end of the day, I mostly bought it out of support than anything it actually provided, but I would recommend it. You can probably add another 10 minutes or so to my time because of how I explored the content. You have to understand, this is a two dollar game (that sometimes even goes on sale for less) and you should temper your expectations to that. In my opinion, you are paying as much for the experience as the game itself, and I think that experience was well worth a couple dollars. This game was even free at one point, but I'm not upset with the price. Again, support indie developers. This game is not trying to scam you out of your money, nor do I think this game is really about the money. Honestly, I'm surprised this game has as little reviews as it does. The primary reason I even decided to write a review was because I was initially skeptical about this game, and I'm not entirely sure why. Part of me was worried that it might just be a shock value, grotesque-for-the-sake-of-being-grotesque game. I also worried the short runtime might not be worth it. I write this now to try and push you to pursue this game precisely because it is far more than that and exceeded my expectations.

Short little point and click. Puzzles were a bit obtuse but it was still interesting for what it was.

ON NUMARA BEŞ YILDIZ, ÖTEKİ DÜNYAYI DA DÜŞÜNDÜRÜYOR. ATEİSTLER VE DEİSTLER OYNAMALI

Very well made game, made a YT vid about it and gave it a good review, will be playing other games in the future :)