This review is based on v0.2.2 and v0.1.9. You'll see why later.
Most reviews already covered the game's pros and cons, along with its features. I'll try give my take both as a review and as a journal page. Because there are a few perspectives or some opinions people haven't fleshed out properly or touched upon. I suggest reading other reviews first before reading mine.
Story Mode
I'm usually the type of person who goes in reading as little as possible about the game and try to immerse myself with what it has. Thus for this section I'll try to not spoil much.
Got the latest version, figured I should start with the story part. Based on first impressions it's pretty good. There are only 2 nights as of this review but I am hooked, I like the atmosphere, I want to find out more. The lore is lighthearted, but the horror aspect isn't compromised because of it. It reminds me of, for those who recall, Filthy Frank, who would make all kinds of over the top or silly amateur style skits and then out of nowhere you'd get shots with well-thought cinematography, filters, color correction and so on, or an unexpected life lesson. Same with this game. It has this conflicting duality that works.
That said, there were some gameplay problems. Night 2 in particular had two sections that needed a lot of trial and error to realize what you have to do without a guide. And not very forgiving for mistakes. I'm not a fan of handholding the player thru content, but when I'm in tight corridors where at any corner there can be an animatronic with instant detection, I can't take many risks. And I can't take things too slowly either. It makes me wish I could peek around corners or have proper vantage points to plan my actions.
Not long after, there was a vent part where not only was it tedious to know if I'm making any progress, but the first time I got stuck unable to move from a wrong turn where I tried to go upwards a slope.
Oh and some of the posters or notes had randomly turned in spanish despite the language selected being english.
Arcade Mode
At first I thought the story section is a sort of tutorial for the arcade mode. Sadly only the first night gives you some insight.
As of this review, I had to download a downgraded version of the game to play this part because this mode has been currently disabled. Which from what I saw also contained the scenes gallery. So you can't fap to old stuff you may have unlocked before unless you have a second downgraded copy of the game. This could be fixed if the dev just made everything of this nature accessible from the main menu as opposed to a specific game mode that got disabled, even if temporarily. I know the data is there somewhere because I have unlocked a Krampus scene from testing the Christmas special and it appeared in the old version after I booted it.
Overall, not a good sign regarding management and long term planning if something as simple as this is overlooked.
Everything in this mode is trial and error. And you have no direction other than survive, how to access the flashlight and the laptop. I would be fine with this approach. I like exploring and finding stuff. But this mode is a management game with a lot of time constraint. It doesn't give you the proper time to familiarize yourself.
I go easy mode because I figure this is the best mode to mess around. Obviously, still learning the layout and mechanics, I mess up one of the animatronics, and because I'm taking things too slowly it spirals out of control. I lose. Not a big deal. I have a better understanding of the game. Now I'll just try aga-
"-500$ for playing on easy".
Wait what?
"-100$ for missing all these tasks"
Yea I was working on it and-
"-150$ for the scene" ...great.
And based on the way you can get out of debt, this seems like a deliberate choice to bully the players early on. I get that the intent is to make you hate the boss more, but it's just not done well. There are better ways to approach this.
I think the dev thought it's obvious how to play the game and do the chores (speaking of which, took me a while to realize the wine bottle and condom machine part because I didn't realize, that out of all the place, the items were in my office the whole time), making the money reward based on how much you survive, then imposing a fixed tax if on easy mode. I think this should've been a percentage of what you earn taxed, not a fixed amount.
It's obvious this game mode is a sort-of recreation of the FNAF game mechanics with some tasks to do so you go out and have a reason to risk your life. While I haven't played those games myself, I have watched others do it. And I even saw a video about how the first game works at its roots. Long story short: RNG elements with increasing difficulty during gameplay where various rules for each animatronic are there so you don't try to exploit the game. There are stuff to learn from it.
In my opinion it's important to focus on the foundation and add mechanics that work together in harmony all while bringing a balanced gameplay. If the foundation is flawed, then the whole thing will feel flawed. For a horror focused game, unpredictability is a key aspect.
What we get instead is timers. On all animatronics. The approach is basically the same. Sure the activity to get more time before they go berserk is slightly different for each one, but the core is the same. And that makes it predictable. There are barely any RNG elements to keep you on your toes. Once you find the optimal route to take, every night becomes one of two very similar scenarios. You could let them out on purpose for a different experience, but you're not incentivized to do so.
Not to mention that you're not in danger if you just stay locked in your room. Farming for currency becomes similar to an idle game.
I have no doubts that the creator is a fan of FNAF 2. He really liked the management and stressful aspect of that particular game. In my opinion, the arcade mode needs to be revamped with unpredictable aspects that focus on the player's ability to plan a vague route and improvise when needed. The random electricity blackout is a good start but there should be both positive and negative random events. Make hard mode the one focused on upmost management and speedrun strats.
Oh, speaking of hard mode. It's not worth the effort. Even with the "diagonal" exploit of walking faster, it's a hard and unrewarding challenge. It's worth a shot if you don't have Bonfie unlocked yet. With her it's going to be chaos relatively early.
The scenes
Compared to other people, I don't see anything wrong for a game like this to have scenes on loss. That said I can see why it can be frustrating to have to choose between advancing thru the game and getting scenes. Usually you want to feel like you earn the scene, not a complementary reward for losing. From my perspective, I still make progress somewhere, be it money to buy items or more scenes to my gallery. That's why I'm fine with it.
A major problem however is getting the scenes that require extra, usually cryptic, steps. You may need to spend a few rounds of pure money making to afford the items. Then, even if you know what you have to do, if you rush too quick, you lose a lot of cash. Money that you may need either now or later.
I'm fine with grindy repetitive games. But only if the challenge gets easier and easier with the time I have invested. At the moment the grind is a time sink that's not rewarding enough. Luckily, you can cheat to get money as a last resort.
How fappable the scenes are, that's subjective. Personally, I like them.
Conclusion
Good presentation, but I have a feeling the dev bit more than he can chew. He is basically working on two different games in parallel. One focused on adventure and horror, the other being management and scenes. Free mode needs to be made so people can practice or mess around.
The Christmas special seems like a weird thing to add this quickly in development, at best servers as a testing ground for concepts.
Also, I shouldn't need a guide for the scenes. You don't have time to experiment. So, in my opinion, the game should have a hint system to point me in the right direction. Maybe buy hints with money. Exception should be Golden Frenni . It's fine for her be cryptic or convoluted.
I know the game isn't fleshed out to its fullest, but there are ways to add bandaids to the game to circumvent the limitations until the game reaches its full potential. That's assuming the developer doesn't get burned out or milk the situation. Time will tell.