TRAILCAM

Great game but after a while just NOTHING happened. I waited liek 20 minutes but absolutely nothing happened. I can't find anyone else with this glitch but it was rather boring just sitting around waiting for something scary to happen or at least teh motion decetor to go off but no, it was completely still. I got bored and left

Trailcam is a thrilling little 1+ hour jaunt that's half anomaly finder, half immersive sim. You play a wildlife expert stationed atop an Appalachian forest tower. Strange things have been happening in these woods: hikers going missing, gruesome remains turning up, beastly claw marks at the scene of the crime...but no bodies have been found. Ranger services suspect an animal is to blame, so you must monitor 5 strategically-placed webcams and correctly identify any wildlife picked up by the motion detectors. Stuttering VHS-style night-vision feeds give everything a spooky air, and make it hard to see clearly: luckily, handy prompts tell you which feed to focus on. All you have to do is switch to the appropriate live-feed, and press the correct button to upload a snapshot as either a particular type of animal, a false-positive (motion sensors are sometimes triggered accidentally), or "suspicious". You can abandon your feeds at any time to wander around the tower, where you can answer the phone, stare fearfully at the shadowy wilderness all around you, or tinker with the "bear scare" device left by the rangers. I found the game incredibly atmospheric, and became deeply immersed in the whole experience: the creepy black and white footage, the fear of spotting an unidentifiable "something" on a camera, hearing terrifying sounds from the woods, the bone-rattling fury of an incoming storm...the whole ambience of this game is electrifying. Its plot beats build up to an exciting and nail-biting conclusion, with 2 possible endings and couple of elegantly-executed jumpscares - but, to be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the end reveal. That said, I had a great time getting creeped out by this game, and I immediately went back to replay and get the other ending! A couple of things bugged me: there are a few compulsory phone calls that you'll need to take, and the dialogue for these is unskippable. It's fine the first time around, but it makes replaying for the second ending (as there is no manual saving) a bit of a chore. Likewise, each plot beat / progression point has a somewhat arbitrary trigger, which isn't always clear: you may need to wander out onto the balcony, for instance, before a phone call will trigger. Not a problem on the initial play: more an issue on the replay. It can be unfairly difficult to identify the creatures on screen; not often enough to be a deal-breaker, but when you only have 6 chances to make mistakes - with a risk of game-over if you make further errors - I can see some people getting frustrated by this. That said, there were only a couple of points where I just couldn't work out what I was looking at - the rest simply require a bit of time and observation to pick out key distinctive features. Finally, despite the description claiming otherwise, the game is linear (all of the "anomalies" are in the same order each play through) bar the ending sequence, making replayability limited...unless you keep getting them wrong, of course! (I'd also have liked there to be other things to do in the tower - minigames, making coffee, or whatever - but they're just nice to haves.) TL:DR - a fantastically creepy observation game with an interesting premise and effective direction. It can be a little slow paced, but that's part of the appeal: the gradual build-up of tension and anxiety to a nail-biting conclusion. The ending was a bit of a let-down for me, but I'll happily replay this again when I'm in the mood for a short, one-session horror stint. Well worth the sale price IMO (and I'd personally have been happy to have paid full price). I played this on a Steamdeck, and it worked perfectly. I look forward to seeing what the devs do next. If you enjoyed this, I'd recommend checking out The Cabin Factory, too.