Recent reviews by Uroboros

A simple goal. Descend.
A simple mechanic. Grappling.
Three deadly opponents. Rushing too much, hesitating too long, and "oops".

It isn't the most complex game in the world, but it does what it set out to do and really well.
Grappling mechanics can be some of the most satisfying kinds of traversal in videogames, and this one is a great example. It takes only a little while to come to grips with, it doesn't leave you feeling robbed if you fail, and whenever you lose you tend to understand why you failed.

It's fair. It's spooky. It's low in price.
Is it short? Yeah. But it's also fun, and the grappling is there for you to revisit as much as you want.

I managed to beat normal mode in an hour.
Not normally one for challenge modes, I immediately wanted to try nightmare mode (and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ close on my first try there). Looking at the achievements tells me there is another mode, and then what appears to be an ascent mode which is gonna be a doozy, no doubt requiring more use of momentum and swinging to get some verticality.

For this price, it is absolutely in a sweet spot, and feels like they're undercharging?
Heck, I would have loved if there was more to this game and would have paid more, but I suppose it's better to be short and sweet than overstay its welcome and spoil the winning formula.

Looking forward to what future things these devs get up to!

If you can get past the starting wall of reading through the absurdity the game initially presents you with, you'll find a charmingly weird combo of match-3 puzzler and autobattler.

Definitely try the demo before you buy, and make sure you're in the right frame of mind to begin with some reading, and you'll be good to go.

Installed this demo without looking into the store page's "about" section. The game itself gives no indication on what is supposed to be done nor the controls. Initially I thought you would be visiting various floors with different contents and you had to determine if it was a likely threat or likely safe. The first area I visited had gore everywhere, wall-signs copypasted across the corridor with their text reversed, two ' 'scary' ' dolls, a teddybear, random corpses, a dude on a chair. Like someone just picked random horror content tropes. This was, strangely enough, a 'safe' instance. That was the point I learned it was an 'observation' style game, only where everything is apparently supposed to be a bunch of random ' 'scary' ' looking stuff?

Okay, cool. So I got it wrong at first. No big deal I suppose. A weak start but maybe it'll have more content?
I went for a walk around the second time to try memorise thing... and got a pointless seemingly random jumpscare? Just, an overlaid random person teleported in front of the camera (attached to the camera itself rather than an object within the level), immediately yelling in my face, and then vanished instantly after a moment.
For... no apparent reason?
I gave it a few more floors but this just feels like chaff.

Horror needs more than just cheap jumpscares, and front-loading a ton of ' 'scary' ' idle things just feels, I don't know, pointless? I think a different approach should have been used, as there is no genuine tension or fear here, as overall it gives the impression of a bit of a slop/chaff game even if I can't tell if there are assets flipped here.

Sorry, even as a horror fan this really does nothing for me.

Surprisingly good. Tense. Hammy. Just how we like our nostalgia-bait styled horror.
My main criticism is that the fail-states are cheap easy jumpscares (thing suddenly zooming on the screen with a random unfitting yell noise). It wouldn't hurt to have the patient-waking fail state to have more animation behind it beyond a face phasing through the panel at you.

Seeing a patient break through the glass or yank its way out of the restraints would be far more effective, IMO. Hearing the Angels thudding footfalls charging your door at the last second then getting to hear it rending the security door to get at you would be just as tense, making you choose between looking back in horror or trying to finish your last patient.

Hell, if the instant jumpscare is necessary, having the patients arm lunge through the glass to grab your throat would work, and it'd give a perfect moment to see the creepy entity yanking itself free and delivering a blow or some horrible injury before you black out. I'm not a fan of jumpscares for jumpscares sake, but if you must have them then at least give them some love, y'know?

I hope the surgery minigames get some interesting variance too. One way to induce dread is to subvert expectations, and if you went in with the claw minigame but then found once you reached the bottom the object was lodged and needed an unannounced minigame to pull it free (simple mashing), or a weird growth actively grabbed the arm and doesn't let it go? Development of new wounds, etc. Then again Trauma Centre spoiled me on how even the simplest of gesture minigames can surprise you.

Aside from that, cool game.

I installed this demo thinking it was a new entry to the original "Dreamcore" game, which was an example of a liminal space game done well. Sadly it seems to have no affiliation, and that makes sense given there is really nothing to see or do here in DC:RH.

Liminal space games are hard to get right, because for a game, if there is nothing but repetition with nothing new to see or interact with, all you're doing is hold "walk forwards" and waiting for something interesting, and in this game, that doesn't come. You get a few little set pieces for the intro, then thats it, it becomes a "Hold W to Win" waiting game. Attempting to nosey around the recurring environment results in nothing except for a few invisible walls.

To contrast with the other game I mentioned (Dreamcore), that did have repetition and vaguely 'featureless' areas, but each area was 'featureless' in a liminal way, and they differed. It was labyrinthine and it followed its own discreet logic that you could either memorise or follow on impulse to see what was around each turn, door or corner, and you actually progressed in a manner more than "hold W and sigh, hoping they finally do something interesting". That game was by no means perfect, and had its own tiresome issues, but it was more than just a setpiece at least. I felt engaged as I tried to recognise patterns, or discern what logic or indicators were being used (if any).

This demo doesn't inspire confidence. No interactivity, deliberately slow to the point of testing your endurance for the sake of it, and just... yeah. The tags of 'psychological horror' and 'exploration' are deeply misleading. Nothing to explore, a linear path with randomly scattered chaff assets on a patterned base.

And if I'm not mistaken, those wooden-sounding voices in the intro may be AI/TTS.
Perhaps I expect too much, and am just very let down after I realised this demo has no affiliation to the other game with the main name of Dreamcore, or maybe I was led by the tags to think this was something more involved. I hate to be a nay-sayer on something not yet released but this just doesn't really... do anything.

This game's gonna be dangerous to your free time.
It has the makings of something quite addictive, you have been warned!

Went in mostly blind (only saw the letter grid and clicked install) and was pleasantly surprised.
Cute muppety characters, chill vibes, broken decks, and the casual agony of building the most humongous words you can.

Definitely worth keeping an eye on!

Got this when offered as a 'Free To Keep' period.

As with all 'anomaly detection' games, they live or die on their fairness and whether they expect you to memorise excess detail. The best ones should be more organic, noticing things awry rather than having memorised the hex code of colour or the line count on a piece of metal grating. While I have not discovered all of the anomalies, so far the vast majority have been common-sense, but also easy to overlook, putting it in a sweet spot for paranoid detail scanning.

I'm not a fan of cheap jumpscares in horror (earned jumpscares are different!), and while I did encounter some startles from audio stings and unexpected occurances, I only encountered one that felt somewhat 'cheap', but otherwise the scares were inoffensive and worked mostly on eeriness instead of cheapshots.

Overall, the game strikes a good balance IMO, and has its charms without being particularly elaborate nor overstaying its welcome. For a free grab, this was a genuinely pleasant surprise, and I'm someone is only able to stomach the anomaly detection genre if it operates at the level of "The Exit 8" or better. Here's hoping the dev keeps it up!

Seems like the idea has potential but this demo is a mess and leaves a bad impression.

Jump King. That's what you get.
Doesn't respect your time, doesn't feel rewarding for pulling something off. I suppose like the original?

If you liked Jump King and want to scratch that itch, and don't mind what you're going to be staring at for your many, many, many, many falls? Go for it I suppose?