Posted December 28, 2017
Because GOG reviews have a very low character limit, and for some reason I still feel like sharing this.
**Spoiler warning, I suppose.
You play a very, very, very small child with a raincoat and no shoes that appears to be trying to escape from wherever it is. (The place where they keep small children which will later be turned into meals, I presume. Or something.) You escape by platforming, causing some shenanigans, and running away. It's a disturbing place for sure, and the graphics only reinforce the feeling of disgust in some scenes/places; there is certainly something very wrong here, and the atmosphere is spot-on.
It looks gorgeous in a way. The art style is quite memorable and a lot of things are deliberately (and successfully) disturbing. The puzzles aren't too complicated, one might even say they are quite simple, but it still feels good to get out of a room or situation. There is not much music, but what little there is only adds to the creepy feeling; sometimes it's actually better to only have sound without music. The environments are connected well and most places make sense, sort of.
There are some problems, however.
The platforming can be very imprecise, which might be due to the 2.5D graphics. Some things look like you can jump on them, but you can't, other things may look like background, but you actually have to interact with them to proceed. The small child does occasionally fall off things when you don't aim a jump or fall just right because it's a bit hard to see what you are doing. Doorways or holes that you have to go through aren't always obvious. Trying to stay on a straight path - like a pipe or the like - is a bit fiddly due to directions.
What's worse are the chase sequences and stealth sections. The gangly arm dude in particular gave me some grief because at times he would grab raincoat girl when she was well out of his reach, other times he literally lifted her up with his gangly hands but did not grab her. Chase sequences are quite trial and error, which ruins the well-done dreadful atmosphere of the game because you keep getting sent way back. I can see why the autosaves are where they are, but sometimes it only causes frustration à la "I have to go through this AGAIN?"
The stealth sections are somewhat similar to this. Trial and error; it's not always clear where you have to go, so you either try to figure it out with what limited view of the area you have, or you leg it and hope to survive. Timing on both stealth and chase can be very tight - more so on the latter - adding to aforementioned frustration.
The story, meanwhile ... I don't know, maybe it's just too deep for me. Raincoat girl is trying to escape, alright, but the game doesn't make it clear what exactly is going on. I mentioned before there are some disturbing parts, but it's never explained what exactly is happening - to be fair, I prefer that to huge exposition dumps, but if it doesn't make sense, you might need those.
Raincoat girl will occasionally keel over and seem very sick, so you have to find meat to eat - which at one point is a rat in a trap, and at another point is one of the adorable little pyramid heads you can find throughout the levels and hug - but I'm still not sure what that was trying to tell me. The ending is, again, very atmospheric, and I'm sure it would be interesting if it made sense. As it stands, however, it is just very confusing and not very satisfying due to that.
I wanted to like this game, and in a way, I do, but the gameplay - the important part - was too frustrating for me. It's not a bad game, I guess, but it has issues that I personally can't forgive, but would still recommend, though not at full price and only if you're not too proud to use a walkthrough sometimes (or if you're a genius of sorts).
**Spoiler warning, I suppose.
You play a very, very, very small child with a raincoat and no shoes that appears to be trying to escape from wherever it is. (The place where they keep small children which will later be turned into meals, I presume. Or something.) You escape by platforming, causing some shenanigans, and running away. It's a disturbing place for sure, and the graphics only reinforce the feeling of disgust in some scenes/places; there is certainly something very wrong here, and the atmosphere is spot-on.
It looks gorgeous in a way. The art style is quite memorable and a lot of things are deliberately (and successfully) disturbing. The puzzles aren't too complicated, one might even say they are quite simple, but it still feels good to get out of a room or situation. There is not much music, but what little there is only adds to the creepy feeling; sometimes it's actually better to only have sound without music. The environments are connected well and most places make sense, sort of.
There are some problems, however.
The platforming can be very imprecise, which might be due to the 2.5D graphics. Some things look like you can jump on them, but you can't, other things may look like background, but you actually have to interact with them to proceed. The small child does occasionally fall off things when you don't aim a jump or fall just right because it's a bit hard to see what you are doing. Doorways or holes that you have to go through aren't always obvious. Trying to stay on a straight path - like a pipe or the like - is a bit fiddly due to directions.
What's worse are the chase sequences and stealth sections. The gangly arm dude in particular gave me some grief because at times he would grab raincoat girl when she was well out of his reach, other times he literally lifted her up with his gangly hands but did not grab her. Chase sequences are quite trial and error, which ruins the well-done dreadful atmosphere of the game because you keep getting sent way back. I can see why the autosaves are where they are, but sometimes it only causes frustration à la "I have to go through this AGAIN?"
The stealth sections are somewhat similar to this. Trial and error; it's not always clear where you have to go, so you either try to figure it out with what limited view of the area you have, or you leg it and hope to survive. Timing on both stealth and chase can be very tight - more so on the latter - adding to aforementioned frustration.
The story, meanwhile ... I don't know, maybe it's just too deep for me. Raincoat girl is trying to escape, alright, but the game doesn't make it clear what exactly is going on. I mentioned before there are some disturbing parts, but it's never explained what exactly is happening - to be fair, I prefer that to huge exposition dumps, but if it doesn't make sense, you might need those.
Raincoat girl will occasionally keel over and seem very sick, so you have to find meat to eat - which at one point is a rat in a trap, and at another point is one of the adorable little pyramid heads you can find throughout the levels and hug - but I'm still not sure what that was trying to tell me. The ending is, again, very atmospheric, and I'm sure it would be interesting if it made sense. As it stands, however, it is just very confusing and not very satisfying due to that.
I wanted to like this game, and in a way, I do, but the gameplay - the important part - was too frustrating for me. It's not a bad game, I guess, but it has issues that I personally can't forgive, but would still recommend, though not at full price and only if you're not too proud to use a walkthrough sometimes (or if you're a genius of sorts).
Post edited December 30, 2017 by Crackpot.756