Recent reviews by Toaster Enthusiast

TL;DR Good game, just needs refinement in character development/establishment and possible mechanic reworks.


Atmosphere and tone is absolutely wonderful. Ambient noises keep you on your toes as you creep around derelict, or not so recently abandoned homes. Lighting from your flashlight works well enough that its malfunctioning properties are persuading you to upgrade to keep it reliable vs the supernatural interference than it just not showing you the barest minimum like so many indie horror games do. The music shifts dramatically when enemies are encountered and only ups the ante.

The controls themselves don't feel overly clunky but not quite exactly as precise and expedient as one might hope either especially after using the dodging action. However if you have played Helldivers, that is an apt reference on its responsiveness. The keymapping is a godsend for those who have very particular ways of playing and I would recommend using them if you want to enhance your own personal experience as if feels like some of the hotkeys were afterthoughts.

The story is... well its a story, I haven't delved too deeply into with what little there is. It's a rather rough draft, and while the art for the comic styling lends to the overall feel of it all, the dialogue absolutely needs work. It's not an RPG and I won't put it up to such lofty standards yet that doesn't mean the lines the characters have anything substantial in them aside from jobs to give you. It is very barebones, and I believe a way to alleviate this going forward is to take the shadowrun method and have some thought into describing the environment but also in what the other characters are doing, give the whole place a bit more life instead of the bland point A to point B and murder ghouls and spiders.

The gameplay itself isn't bad at all, its good a mix of terror and fun as you fight giant creepy crawlies, angry ghouls and DAEMONS while investigating paranormal occurences before summoning the Boss to take them down. Cycling through your tools to investigate, setting up traps, gearing up with the proper equipment to in a witcher-esqe fashion is great. My problem is that during the investigation that is when you run into serious BS. I can understand the falling for the traps. its just certain ones that no matter how carefully I tiptoe about just absolutely ensure I die or reduce me to next to nothing at the very least. The Nephalim specifically because theres no warning and no counter. The Ghast as annoying as it is, can at least be protected against, it just really annoys me when I cant do the same for the former. I do find it cute if a bit on the nose that penalties to your wallet on failure is 666.

On a final note, the game is worth the money, and if you catch it on sale? Even more reason to get it.

First and Foremost this game is still not finished so obviously there are going to issues. I will not beat a dead horse by relisting all of the issues the most common of which are the Control Scheme, Frame Rate issues, and RNG BEING A JERK when you hack things. Inferno locks can go screw themselves but I dont see an alternative to them just yet that would be just as difficult but still easy to master with the hacking sequence they have. I personally enjoy them.

There is no real tutorial aside from a few texts in the AARM Tab that give you a very rough gloss over. They are... adequette but one thing they could be clear on is that at the moment they do not have a "crafting system" up yet. So if you are getting this purely for basebuilding aspect, dont do it. This game focuses far more on survival horror and in that aspect it does this BEAUTIFULLY.

You wake up knowing nothing, left to your own devices you must scavenge and forrage to survive in what was once a utopia, plagued by enemies who were at one time very human like yourself. Some look as if time has simply done them in as this plague has set into their bones, rendering them weak but they dangerous in numbers. Others hold a shocking torch to their roots, if it were not in the middle of some of cataclysmic proportions you would think them as the impatient people waiting for some next gen product they must have. However their sharp agressive motions once sighted upon them, their howling and spitting curses as they rush you show the one thing they are wishing to happen quickly is your death. Lastly is an enemy whom I will not spoil, I will simply say that if you see something remotely human, that has red glowing appendage, run or hide from it. Unless you have the weapons and armor to back up your confidence in such an altercation. As you explore this dying city you slowly begin to piece together, or at the very least develop theories on just how exactly everything went sideways, trying to figure out the difference between a sympton and the root cause of this disaster.

It does a wonderful job of nailing the atmosphere of a dying utopia, it kept me on the edge of my seat for the first few hours as I got my bearings, it did not hold my hand for which I was thankful. Once I grew familiar and confident in the first area and wished to explore further, I found the familiar feeling of anxios joy settling back in as I jumped into a new area I hadnt ever explored before, ready for some afflicted citizen to jump on me when I wasnt paying attention.

Some have complained on this game being too hard or lacking a sense of direction, and in that capacity I can understand to a point. It could improve on guiding the player, on where to go or find certian items. I am use to games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne which gives you about about as much direction as Trinnimortal makes you feel straight with his booty shorts so I myself did not find this too difficult. Frankly the enemies in this game are far more forgiving as you can just run right past them, you miss out on the chance of loot by not killing them and some of the harder enemies drop worthwile things that you may need in a pinch so think Risk Vs Reward when coming across enemies.

TL;DR It's early access, there are problems but devs are working on it. Horror survival done well in a fresh setting of utopian future. Game does not hold your hand, but dont let it discourage you, I implore you to give it a chance.

Edit: This review was made prior to playing the patch on 3/29 so take that into effect as it fixes many issues most of them background bugs not explicitely mentioned.