"Mouthwashing" Game Review
Take responsibility for your mess.
I'm a big enthusiast of classic survival horror gameplay. While I respect that not every game needs to be a 1:1 copy of that play style, I can't help but feel that at a certain point we have to be able to do something more interesting with the horror genre than just doing random tasks in a walking sim before you're shunted into the next obligatory incoherent pastiche of Lynch, analog horror aesthetics, and Silent Hill 2 where there is no actual threat or stake at hand. Nothing here holds any weight because every objective is there for five minutes to arbitrarily funnel you into the next dream sequence to shotgun symbolism at you. If you want this to hurt, then make it hurt.
The fanbase of this game seems to treat its message (which will be plastered across your screen multiple times in case you happen to miss it) with a deadly seriousness that is immediately undercut by their desire to buy cute plushies and draw art that sexualizes a victim or ships her with her abuser. What are we really doing here?
Credit where it's due, the visual and audio design here is great, and there are some standout moments. The sequence where you're drawn into the medical room painting is evocative and tense, the body horror is gruesome, and the atmosphere of the Tulpar is thick when you aren't being halfheartedly haunted by Freddie Fazhorse.
There's craft here and I won't take that away from the developers. I just wished it was focused into something with some mechanical weight that doesn't need to continuously signpost itself as an experience more novel and revelatory than it really is.
2.5/5
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