Things Too Ugly

The unsettling tone is good and the idea is good, too. The execution is just a bit.... narrow. There are no interactions with characters; you just get given messages that frame the puzzles. There are no branching narratives, just a linear progression of right/wrong answers culminating in a slightly broader puzzle at the end but still one that offers little insight into how to approach it. This wriggle room at the end makes it *feel* like there should be Easter eggs and alternate pathways to explore, but the UI isn't conducive to exploration. Other have said it feels too short to be worth the price tag, which I agree with, but I also feel it's too short to really feel like a full experience. The lack of save points mean that replays are laborious unless you write answers down to re-use, in which case you're not really replaying in a way that is likely to yield any new info. I've got one eye on the forum in case I've missed anything - it's entirely possible all this is down to me being too dim to play this game - but based on what I've picked up at 12/14 trophies, I just don't think this is worth the £7 price tag. See if they knock it down to £3/£4 and it might be worth it just to play through a couple of times, but if you're playing properly and you're used to this type of game it's going to maybe have you playing for maybe 4-5 hours tops.

[h1] When money isn't the driving force behind a project, and you put a lot of passion into it [/h1] these gems emerge, lights for other developers/artists to follow. 44th, and this is the most amazing game I'm playing this year, and one of the best I've ever played. Using an old computer with an outdated Veri-FI OS while writing spaghetti in a corporate program at I A.M. might be a good idea. It feels like a StingerOs (though not as intense as tunnelfoxing in Vitriol - my little Astronaut)... But since my time at Sec-9, I haven't found a DEO work this innovative, fun, and absorbing. Even if you don't like the depths of the Mississippi, it's a great game that keeps you tense without scarejumps, with fun mechanics and a good plot... and at a ridiculously low price. There are many experiences in the world of video games, but rarely do you get to feel the thrill of not knowing what's going on and whether it could all be just a trick of your mind. Was that Sofia in Painscreek? Few games make you question where the path will lead or if you'll be able to navigate it, difficulty (KSpaceExploration!), emotions (Hate or Aweesoomesauce!/Love or Cathy--> Hasta luego/Until Then), maybe you don't want to see what they teach you, but you already know NTK. Almost none of them teach you skills and manage to excite you like this one... you can't see the seams... and they manage to make playing/teaching and counting come together in an incredible experience... to the point where people look at you strangely because you know how to use JohnThe or name 10 tributaries of the Mississippi... I've lived many lives. Great work, Professor. Now in my world, you are a LEGEND! Continue this path!! Thanks: [spoiler] Paco Menendez & Juan Delcan, to whom I owe my interest in video games and his code. Pope for showing us that there's more to the world than AAA, Golden Idol, which reaffirmed that. Harlan communicates more with video games. Agents Alice & Anshell for teaching me the skills that allowed me to scratch the surface. GoogleEarth, oh those gloomy photos of K.L. On the Kickapoo River, serendipity or not, I might have lost my mind. And why not Dave... I learned about many types of fish from him. [/spoiler]

A lovely Afternoon game that paces itself well, keeps the creature a mystery, and doesn't reveal anything until the end. Very enjoyable, cozy horror game that is much more suspenseful than a lot of games out there, and really gives the vibe of "Finding out stuff you really shouldn't know"

A fun little puzzle game with a horror tinge. I really enjoyed it. It's well written, well voice acted and has a great soundtrack. The puzzles are interesting and intuitive. It really felt like I was reading into something I shouldn't know about. My only complaint would be the lack of saves. It's only about 2 hours to complete the whole game with both endings but my first sit down I ended up not finishing and had to start over when I had time to finish it. Other then that it's an awesome little game and I really recommend it.

Short but terrifyingly great, this horror bon mot is well worth putting in a couple of hours to experience a tightly spun narrative, mixing corporate cover ups and ancient horrors. Highly recommended!

Nice short little puzzle game with a cool story and interesting game loop. Make sure you pay attention to all the clues. They are all important.

[h1]Things?! What things?!?![/h1] [b]This review contains no story spoilers[/b] [h3]Intro[/h3] Step into the exciting world of a Risk Assessment Data Processor for Terebro, Inc as you Take the night shift examining the file of a case sent to you by a supervisor who you only communicate with Via intercom. As you pour over the details of the case, you uncover a sinister plot at the heart of the companies Past. One they'd very much like to be kept buried. [h3]Visuals and Art Style[/h3] Visually the game is basic, there's a desk with some crap on it and a nice, nighttime cityscape to look at. Other than that the whole game is confined to this office desk. As the game is set in 1986 it has a nice retro feel to the computer and the radio. It reminds me a lot of Stories Untold (a game you should check out if you enjoyed this). The documents you examine are a mixture of handwritten notes, typed redacted reports and photographs which are unsettling at times and, overall, add to the gradually building tension in the game. [h3]Sound and Music[/h3] Sound plays a large role in setting up the atmosphere because, let's face it, there's not a whole lot else going on that'll help. You have two radio stations to listen to for music and another for a solution and that's pretty much it as far as the music goes. Good thing the two stations are quite well done, mixing the ambient music in with the usual banal radio announcements and adverts. What's not well done is the lack of variety in them, over the course of even an hour long playthrough, you'll hear one of the DJ's stories about her car breaking down around seven times. But the radio does fade into the background and doesn't intrude on the gameplay. [h3]Storyline[/h3] There's not much of a storyline in Things too Ugly. In part, because it's so short and in part because there's so much left unsaid. As such, I'm going to have to try quite hard not to state any spoilers because it's so easy to ruin whole tracts of the story with a few stray lines. The story has a lot of vague inferences, shadowy motives and hidden agendas. These two things work against each other to leave the game a but of a hollow experience. You aren't left with much left to mull over after the game ends and what is left could really do with some additional texture. I'm not saying that everything needs to be spelled out but there's so much you're left totally in the dark about. For stories that have as much, if not more, of the narrative left to the players imagination then you have to leave enough explanation in for the imagination to gain traction on. Confusion and bafflement do not inspire any further thinking. The creepyness progresses throughout the cases builds nicely, a bit too quickly, and it could've done with a few more to really nail it. The denouement is both anti-climactic and yet perfectly fitting with the rest of the game due to it's brief nature and lack of any explanation. [h3]Gameplay[/h3] The gameplay is basic. You use the arrow keys to look around, and use a mouse and keyboard to examine the files and type in the answers. The puzzles are more complex than your usual standard but aren't anything too taxing. The solutions are made easier to determine as the form the answers take is provided to you. For example, a question asking About how to extract an object using a wave generator will ask the verb, the waveform and the frequency stated in the report. A big decision on the gameplay side is the lack of any saving, you fire up Things too Ugly, you've to finish it or redo the whole thing at a later date. This mechanism, for me, didn't ruin anything because the game is so short and has no replay value at all, there would be no need to sit through the whole thing again after you're done. [h3]Conclusion[/h3] In conclusion, It's difficult to assign any sort of conclusive opinion on a game that's this short. It's, at most a two hour playthrough, I've heard that it's supposed to be a 2 to 5 hour experience but I couldn't imagine anyone spending 5 hours on what little content is here. That said, that little content is really good and definetly left me wanting a lot more. But the unsatisfying ending somewhat spoils what could've been a nice short creepy adventure.