Though it was a rather short ride, what a ride it was. I bought this game on sale for 3$ and can say it was definitely worth at least the standard price of 30. It was a gamble, purchasing the game, watched the trailer after seeing the funky character that's pushed into the focus, claiming survival horror as the main genre. I can't agree too much that it's "survival" or "horror", I would consider it more a psychological thriller with slight gunplay. Using the guns is fine, but you start to learn quickly that your main way of using your guns is with destroying barrels and boxes to get rid of enemies, and the shooting isn't exactly the best (Probably has one of my least favorite shotguns, only behind Doom 3's) but I'm willing to overlook that for how stellar literally /everything/ else is. The music, sound design, level design, environmental details, story, it's all soooooo good. The only analogous game I can relate it to would be It Takes Two, each level adding a new mechanic and running with it for that entire section while incorporating some from the previous equipment gained. This is by far its strongest feature, right next to its charm, taking very specific concepts and full sending it without trying to spread itself too thin. There's stealth in the game, but it's so minor, you don't ever /need/ to stealth, same with gunplay, technically, you don't /need/ to do anything except solve the puzzles and mysteries of everything in the level, you're just using what tools you have to achieve that. I will say though, the game loves to treat the player like an idiot sometimes, quite literally spelling things out to you for a puzzle, despite it really not being hard to grasp, while other times not explaining enough, usually in regards to how new equipment works or can work. The narrative of the game was wonderful and I loved the themes it explored, a very emotion heavy game, and it's only highlighted by the music they had made for it, leading into my points about the music. The Living Tombstone was an artist I followed back in the early days of the MLP fan growth, the only bit of the scene I could really care about, and I enjoyed his music. Over time, his sound became rather stagnant, relying on his usual trappings of similar sounding kicks and snares, dubsteppy synths, yadda yadda yadda. If you're expecting that from this soundtrack, you're out of luck, because he actually created some nice, new, and interesting tracks that I completely jive with, each song can be found and listened to in-game, giving you something to collect after each story segment. I think TLT did a fantastic job with the ambient music and was crucial for setting the mood when you're going about the game, I would say it's almost on par with 2017's Prey in terms of how effective it is with conveying the world. I don't think I could give this game enough credit with how much of a great experience it was, and even though I could never see myself playing through it again, I'll never forget the way it made me feel. 8.5 out of 10

Though it was a rather short ride, what a ride it was. I bought this game on sale for 3$ and can say it was definitely worth at least the standard price of 30. It was a gamble, purchasing the game, watched the trailer after seeing the funky character that's pushed into the focus, claiming survival horror as the main genre. I can't agree too much that it's "survival" or "horror", I would consider it more a psychological thriller with slight gunplay. Using the guns is fine, but you start to learn quickly that your main way of using your guns is with destroying barrels and boxes to get rid of enemies, and the shooting isn't exactly the best (Probably has one of my least favorite shotguns, only behind Doom 3's) but I'm willing to overlook that for how stellar literally /everything/ else is. The music, sound design, level design, environmental details, story, it's all soooooo good. The only analogous game I can relate it to would be It Takes Two, each level adding a new mechanic and running with it for that entire section while incorporating some from the previous equipment gained. This is by far its strongest feature, right next to its charm, taking very specific concepts and full sending it without trying to spread itself too thin. There's stealth in the game, but it's so minor, you don't ever /need/ to stealth, same with gunplay, technically, you don't /need/ to do anything except solve the puzzles and mysteries of everything in the level, you're just using what tools you have to achieve that. I will say though, the game loves to treat the player like an idiot sometimes, quite literally spelling things out to you for a puzzle, despite it really not being hard to grasp, while other times not explaining enough, usually in regards to how new equipment works or can work. The narrative of the game was wonderful and I loved the themes it explored, a very emotion heavy game, and it's only highlighted by the music they had made for it, leading into my points about the music. The Living Tombstone was an artist I followed back in the early days of the MLP fan growth, the only bit of the scene I could really care about, and I enjoyed his music. Over time, his sound became rather stagnant, relying on his usual trappings of similar sounding kicks and snares, dubsteppy synths, yadda yadda yadda. If you're expecting that from this soundtrack, you're out of luck, because he actually created some nice, new, and interesting tracks that I completely jive with, each song can be found and listened to in-game, giving you something to collect after each story segment. I think TLT did a fantastic job with the ambient music and was crucial for setting the mood when you're going about the game, I would say it's almost on par with 2017's Prey in terms of how effective it is with conveying the world. I don't think I could give this game enough credit with how much of a great experience it was, and even though I could never see myself playing through it again, I'll never forget the way it made me feel. 8.5 out of 10