The Red Lantern

game to cure loneliness & i love dogs but i hate killing animals here

Beautiful game, cute dogs and companions. But some questionable design choices. It's worth it on a discount: I got it very cheap for less than a dollar (4 BRL). The gameplay loop is OK, I liked the main character. You'll die like at least 4 times before you win, but it feels good when you do. This is what I like: Scenery. It is all very detailed and every part of the map is, well, beautiful and unique. Part of my choices for GEE or HAW (left or right) were made based on where I wanted to explore. The sky. Beautiful Alaskan skies, night sky, morning sun, etc. Very, very beautiful. The dogs. Cute! They're very well done and unique. You get to pet them. This is a big plus! It is a very meditative and reflective game. If you put yourself in the shoes of the character and develop empathy for her, you'll be very happy once she progresses and overcomes the challenges. Now, i'll go to the things I don't (and you probably won't) like. Some might enjoy the game design more than others and you may have a completely different reaction to the things say below. - Bark becomes useless once you get flint. - Game becomes too easy after the 4th or 5th run when you get dog booties + 2 med kits, I think. Because the game won't throw more than 3 hurting events at you in one run, and then like, 10 food is enough to last you the entire run. - Some repeated events. I get it, Chomper, your arch nemesis is the squirrel. Ok. - You barely get to sleep ingame, I think I slept only twice or thrice when I won, but camped more times to feed myself and cook. - You can't even WASD to move the sled around and freeroam. Could have been a more interesting choice if done right, especially after reaching the house. - This is the worst one: Scripted events with no player agency and just straight negative consequence. This forces you to lose if you're unlucky. You're telling me you have a gun and, even if you have bullets, you just stand there while the bear tries to shred your dogs to pieces! What?! Then the bear attacks you, and you can't do anything? To complement: - There's a specific event that I got twice, an owl flying by, and I remember distinctively that on both runs the outcome was the same no matter my choice, I just got run through by a moose. It was obvious (or seemed obvious) that the game was trying to kill me by hurting me, just so the character could pack an extra med kit and I could survive it the next time. - With this, I feel like the game forced me to lose around 3 or 4 times, but maybe I was just unlucky. - Might have a bug or two. (I tried to camp near the middle frozen lake and my camp spawned empty, I couldn't feed myself unfortunately I don't have the screenshot for it, but thankfully I managed to get back on the sleigh by pressing and clicking the screen randomly.) Well, that about sums it up. I liked it overall, there are some things I think could improve, sure, but every game has them and it woudn't be enough to downvote it. I enjoyed the gameplay.