The Pale Mimic

Atmospheric with nice sound design. More of a short walking sim and a "Firewatch" sort of game. Some parts are a very slow burn and could benefit from a few extra unsettling noises. The writing in the game is quite horrible, but the game itself had a satisfying ending. But, any game with a "Meat shed" is recommended in my book. Plus, you can pet dat dawg.

I'd say it's a superb and extremely impressive for a solo dev. Although my overall thoughts are; Extremely solid and strong graphics, especially with the atmosphere. sound ques and music is generally quite strong although the wisping wind loses its effect very quickly due to how loud and repetitive it is and (spoiler: the monsters voice was a bit strange to hear at first) Animations tend to go from quite strong to pretty weak and quite jarring although not to a ridiculous extent but it is noticeable. Story wise I feel the story is quite weak and struggles to figure out what it is trying to convey and suffers from multiple plotlines that try to not be vague yet are. Gameplay wise it's pretty repetitive although there is a few times you do a mini-game type of event. Overall it is a strong effort although it suffered the aspects of being a solo developer project that therefore lead to some areas being remarkably better than others. for a solo developer I'd give it between a 6-7 (unironically) for a stand alone game I'd put it more around a 3-4. It's not slop, and there clearly is passion and effort although I feel it does really strong in one area and then is let down in another. improvement wise, my personal verdict on horror is that we fear what we don't know. The monster being more elusive with a mix of encounters and clues I believe would of made it seems more distant and disturbing. Animations could do with being a bit smoother. Characters could do with more personality and personal motives or characteristics. The ending I believe needs to be revisited as it feels disconnected from the type of game its meant to be. The monster itself I feel is a bit to convenient for the character and the way it acts especially how it reacts to bullets and its timings feeling off for if it is free range, I feel I got it's lore how it became the way it came although I'd say it lacks motive and depth/understanding. Even though that juxtaposing my original point on ambiguity, I believe to stayed scared and interested you must add elements of uncertain understanding and certain understanding while showing through behaviour or external notes that the monster follows patterns or has a 'way of hunting', that could show its been watching and choosing not to attack or there is a timeline to its first contact and when it decides to get serious.

Very much enjoyed this one, nice slow burn and the dog doesnt die.

Рокки хороший мальчик

강아지가 너무 귀엽고 똑똑하다

This is a passion project, and it truly succeeds in that aspect. Spoiler, developer made this game for their dog, which is heartwarming in and of itself, despite the Alaskan winter theme of the game. I immediately recognized the cabin, but I didn't care. The story was amazing, I let myself get enveloped into it. I felt for Rocky, and did everything I could to look out for him. Pet him every chance I got, threw the ball, and just looked after him with love and respect. Where it lacked in sense of danger towards you, lied instead the sense of danger towards your companion. When this game first started out, I quickly realized the task at hand, which for me, was to protect Rocky over myself. Save the dog at all costs. Which in turn made me fear the creature and the possible discovery of my location by the feds 10x scarier. The creature may be jank, but nevertheless just the threat of something out there capable of hurting Rocky put me on constant surveillance over him, in and out of the cabin. Rare for a game to put me in this kind of mindset, and for that I award the developer. Definitely recommend this passionate game, even at base price.

I'll be honest, I think there are a lot of missed opportunities for an actual good horror experience and the overall game feels repetitive with little of consequence ever actually happerning. The sounds and threat of the mimic were far scarier than the mimic itself, so once it showed up all fear was gone. The encounters with the mimic felt boring, and the overall story of being a fugitive also went nowhere. There was the idea of a good game somewhere here, but I have to tell it like it is, at the end of it I did not feel like I got my moneys worth. In my opinion I felt like more effort could have been put into the game, lots of aspects (such as the lack of finding any mutilated or injured bodies) felt very lazy but their ommission. Worth playing on sale, a few moments of the game are spooky but there is a lot of slow padding nothing between those moments.

Boring "skinwalker" trope but nothing happens. You hunt a deer, hear something weird, and repeat the cycle like 5 times until you finally have a faceoff with the monster, but it's just a cutscene. I don't say it to be rude, but there just isn't anything to do in this game. You have such a beautiful environment, and it's completely empty. There could have been some other threats or something at least. There is some decent atmosphere, but that's mostly it. You can pet the dog though so...