Ignore the outrage, but proceed with caution.

This is one of those games where, after completing it, I felt relieved that it was over. I did not want to stop playing. It took me a little while to get into it, but once I did, I was along for the ride.

This game goes out of it's way to set up a very dark, brooding mood. To put you on edge.

Walking Simulator is thrown around a lot as a pejorative. This is a story based gamed, with interactivity coming second. Your choice don't 'matter' all that much. There are a few missable easter eggs/achievements, and a choice to make at the end. But this game is not all that concerned about Gameplay. It wants to tell a story, in it's own way. Given the nature of the subject matter, any other approach would have started to feel tacky.

And the game DOES simulate walking around in a creepy, abandoned hotel, as you act out the main character uncovering some very dark secrets of her past in spectacular fashion. You can walk, very slowly, or hold shift, to walk slightly faster. The main character is ♥♥♥♥♥♥ at times, often to the point of being grating, but the story drops plenty of clues as to why she might feel this way, given her circumstances.

A play through will take you around 4 hours, if you are thorough. I racked up seven, because I started again, to get one last achievement. There is not much in the way of replay value here. So that's what you get for your money, if you are a value conscious gamer.

But it is a very intense, well constructed, atmospheric, immersive 4 or so hours. The art design is superb. The game is not a Triple-A masterpiece, but for an indie game, and maybe even setting that aside, it looks...well not gorgeous - this is a decrepit hotel. But it looks very much like that.

And the binaural beats - this is the first time I had fully looked into what they were. The sound design in this game is amazing. Voice acting is good throughout. Sounds effects are on point. And every now and then, you hear a creepy little sound, like a pipe groaning, or someone scratching in the walls. With headphones on, I thought these were coming from the real world.

Basically, the gameplay side of this is an experience Designed to be unpleasant, unsettling, but that is the point. The game is going that on purpose. I don't think everyone would see it that way. I got frustrated with pretty much every one of the above at some point. But having played through the game, I am glad I did, but I don't think I ever want to pick it up again.

Now, the story:

I don't want to spoil too much, but I have a few thoughts.

The game does deal in a few cliches. Horror 'tropes'. BY the end, things do get a little...Melodramatic I think is the right word. But given the set up, the premise, and how much they needed to wrap up, I can't really fault the game for this. I am happy to chalk the more over the top plot elements up to 'poetic licence', given that they serve so well what the game seems to want to say.


And what Does the game want to say?

Well, there is a lot of outrage among the reviews about this game 'Normalising' abusive sexual relationships. The Dreaded P word is invoked. But the girl in question is 16. So there are other names for that. And yes, I am pulling a 'Well akshually it's hebephilia'. This game tackles some very difficult subject matter. It is far from being the first game to attract disapproval, because of moral concerns. I am sorry, though, for all the would-be censors and pearl clutchers. I get why you had a strongly visceral reaction to this game. But that does not mean you get to be loose with your terminology. If you want to condemn a game for supposed moral transgressions, you have to get your facts very straight.

Does this game say Sexual abuse (Specifically, Statutory Rape) is OK?

No, not even close.

A lot of the out rage is about two points:

The secondary character (there are only really two characters featured significantly in this game), expresses, in flowery, somewhat romanticized words, that HE sees what happened to Rachel Foster as a positive. to some extent at least. Not sure he is entirely happy with how it all ended. Yet this character is a victim too. Not of the same kind of abuse as Rachel Foster. But he was sheltered, overlooked. It was not hard for me to understand, from his warped perspective, why he would think the way he did. I would not say I AGREE with his perspective though. But, as the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ main character says at one point (if you choose) "I am not ten years old" - I don't expect to fully agree with every fictional character I encounter.

The other problem most have is with the main character, that she did not LIKE Rachel Foster, and that this amounts to 'Victim Blaming'. But this is about a rivalry between two teen girls. At the time, Main character did not even KNOW what was going on. She was just a young girl herself. This is not what victim blaming looks like.

Anyone who plays through to the end of this game and then thinks 'Wow, A sexual encounter with an underage girl sure sounds like an attractive proposition', is already damaged far beyond what the corrupting influence of ANY video game could ever hope to achieve.

The game does not have a loading screen that says "Rachel Foster was a victim of sexual abuse, and that's terrible". This game did not insert a mouthpiece character, just to lecture the player about what is right and what is wrong.

This game portrays a couple of very broken people, and establishes through backstory a bunch of other characters. It shows an important truth about abuse - that the victims, direct or indirect, do not often come to see themselves as victims until years after the fact, if at all. It shows that this kind of abuse does not happen in a vacuum, and that it affects everyone around it, in various tragic and insidious ways.

I am reminded of the recent Joker Movie, all the Pearl clutching about how that would 'Justify' angry white man loner violence, even though it did nothing of the sort. I read an article about how Arthur Fleck had several of the most prominent risk factors for becoming a violent criminal.

I suspect that the majority of people who are outraged, or 'raising concerns' about the Moral Fiber of this game have little to no experience with actual abuse. Good for them. They are just standing up and demanding that we 'think of the children'. They need to sit down, pay more careful attention, and stop shooting the messenger.

It has all the trappings of a modern adventure game - Easter eggs, achievements, replayability, a 'show-everything button'. None of the puzzles are that hard, and are telegraphed clearly enough.

The Pixel Art is gorgeous - a good example of the style, and what can be done with it, beyond being an excuse to cut corners.

The writing and plot are where the game really shines. Plenty of Adult themes, told in a more or less coherent story. By the end, you get enough closure, and a happy, or bitter-sweet ending.

But the game presents itself throughout the playtime in such a slightly bizarre way. All the characters are kind of flawed, or weak, or at best unglamorous, but also endearing.

The overall mood of the game is kind of dreamlike - but not weird up to 11 all the way through - the game lulls you into a sense of normalcy, then has some sudden jarring cut to the next act, where they introduce some new character who is rambling about old moldy hot dogs.

It's a game that leaves you wanting more, by showing less, and letting you do and say little things throughout that go nowhere.

If you're a 'choices matter' kind of gamer who likes your plots locked down with all loose ends tied up, this one might not be for you.

But if you're the type of gamer that loves when point and click games get a little silly and surreal, and you're looking for a neo-noir(ish) story in a near future dystopian refinery town in decline, then this game is your Kink for sure.