Recent reviews by Blass Rose

quirky little game. Love the companion NPC. Whole thing isn't too scary/scares aren't deafeningly loud. overall does the tension well. There's a few places where it definitely needs some polish (places the player can get stuck, but also nonsense invisible walls, the textures refuse to load until the second level, so the intro is a blurry mess. The graphics settings are all over the place, and everything is pitch black unless you crank up the lighting all the way, but then you can see the lights and particle effects popping in, while reflections from your flashlight will travel miles into the darkness to blind you.)

Honestly: play it. It's a fun take on the genre, and much less about screaming in your ear because you failed something, which is something we need more of in the horror space. And it's free, what do you have to lose?

Really liked the demo, so I bought it, but honestly? Act 2 I was thinking about returning the game. It completely changes in tone and gameplay, and was completely unfun in my opinion. Act 3 is better, but aside from story reasons, it should've come before act 2 as it ACTUALLY explains and lets you learn all the new mechanics for Act 2. This just makes Act 2 frustrating on top of the fact that it's a complete departure from the gameplay of Act 1. Even through Act 3, which is closer in gameplay to Act 1, I was really no longer enjoying the game, and it overall left a sour taste in my mouth. The only reason I'm not refunding it now is because I beat the game while trying to slog through it to see if it gets better again, and morally I don't think it's okay to return a game you've beaten. I've found myself replaying act 1 and then restarting to try to get more gameplay out of it, but the game also punishes you for starting a new game without finishing your current run.

Act 1 is great fun (except for the required deaths.), but everything after it is just... bleh.

It's a very well-polished game. Even now, more than 12 years later, it holds up extremely well!
Yeah, some textures are a little low-res for today's QHD+ screens, but there's fixes for the most egregious ones (usually menus) in the workshop.
It still runs fantastically, even on outdated hardware. I average more than 120FPS on a computer I built 10 years ago in 1440p with HD mods.

Definitely my GOTY. Incredibly fun, deep storyline, and can be really challenging depending on how you play it. So many meta jokes it's not even funny (it's hilarious), and it NEVER forgets what you did. identical playthroughs may progress differently due to a previous run, even after a reset. reccomended play order: do a neutral route, then a pacifist route (don't kill anyone), then genocide (kill everyone until the game tells you there's nobody left). also: look at everything. even the tiniest things can give you great insights into the story. Don't be afraid to backtrack. hell, on my pacifist run, I walked ALL THE WAY BACK to the begining of the game to talk to everyone.