I don't usually comment on things or write reviews, but holy shit this game deserves a mention. It's a survival-horror game similar to the RE franchise and Dead Space series, with seriously gorgeous graphics (in its own style, rather than following conventional graphics) and haunting atmosphere. It's got good animations, decent sound, and the basis of a great game here. It needs some work and polish (eg: a reloading animation, facial animations, crouch, etc), but overall it's pretty great.
So far, the game is limited in content, but still very fun. A single enemy type with a few good animations, a decently controlled character (though it needs some work still), an inventory system, and a gorgeous map. There's also a campaign, save feature (for survival mode) and character creation lined up for the future. The enemy type is very quiet, and *might* be blind/working off noise, which holds the potential for a stealth mechanic too.
I will say, this is one of the few horror games to actually manages to scare me, in a vein similar to Alien Isolation. Enemies try to grapple you, and you only get one chance to 'throw' them off, and you (so far) cannot do so again until after your character gets fucked. One time I was baiting an enemy into being locked behind a door (before I realized I had a gun) and another appeared behind me. That was
horrifying in a genuinely scary way, and I needed a good few minutes to calm down from the impromptu jumpscare.
I will add a few pointers for the game from here (as the dev has an f95 account and no doubt checks the chat):
- No grapple recovery is a bit of a problem, given that the current enemies don't do damage and only try to fuck the character. I assume this will change (given the addition of medkits) but it's annoying, especially given their penchant for coming up on you around corners XD! Maybe have it be a stamina/recharge system, where the PC can fight off maybe a couple of enemies, but has to let herself recover before she can do it again.
--- On this topic, the grapple always sending the player to the same one point on the map could become frustrating, especially with the one-escape-only system. It would be better if that only happened occasionally or at a certain point (maybe depending on a stat or attribute, perhaps how often the player's been fucked by enemies within a timeframe? It can be a secret stat, which would make things easier) as then player progress isn't always reverted - especially as you keep collected gear anyway. It would be cool if the enemy would fuck the character seamlessly from grab to sex, and then leave the PC on the floor, but I get that that can be challenging.
- Enemies seem to spawn when the player is nearby but not that close. This displeases me, as I enjoy killing everything (even though that's not the point of the game, also *insert evil laugh here*). Maybe have them respawn while they're further away, or otherwise emerge from a different area off-map (such as crawling out of a vent or one-way door that's been rendered such by damage), but ultimately one that doesn't put an enemy immediately in a player's blind spot if they weren't there before. This is one of the greatest limiters for the game for me personally (in conjunction with their somewhat high HP), the fact that enemies respawn often and close by -- However, if done properly, it could be used to offer the player different gameplay choices; sneaking past conserves resources; shooting uses up ammo but lets the player explore in relative peace for a time. This results in greater player agency and more replayabilty, plus more interesting gameplay. A stealthy player could fire a shot to draw away enemies and sneak past via a different route, for example. --
- Character's boobs clip through the floor. Just letting you know
- Enemies are a little bullet-spongy for my tastes. You have lots of ammo, but they require 6 headshots to go down (the stagger does help with this), and your character shakes like a leaf (which is understandable), though the accuracy isn't too bad despite this. Maybe drop them to 4-5 shots? It might be a little too early to tell. I've seen other comments saying it's fine, so maybe it's just me.
And a few suggestions:
- Clothing degradation. Mostly because I'm not too keen on going straight up nude immediately, but it can also play into the survival aspect if the clothes degrade over time as a result of 'close encounters'. Perhaps clothing mitigates some damage, and perhaps the presence of certain articles of clothing will prevent some sex animations from occuring, so enemies will need to remove that item first, giving you greater opportunity to escape. There might be a chance they rip the clothing off as you escape, or maybe you escape with it intact. If it's damaged already, it might rip easily, but if it's new, it could stay on permanently. If the character has a skirt but no panties, enemies might be able to fuck her straight away, whereas if she was wearing a bodysuit or those stocking things that go up to the waist, they might rip a hole in that first, which takes time. Maybe they'll just go for an oral animation? Lots of possibilities!
--- This also gives more resources to manage (beyond the current healthpacks, ammo, cards), which could add some depth. Does the player sacrifice inventory room for a clothing repair kit? Do they take the time to change out of damaged clothes in a potentially dangerous situation? Should they risk getting new clothes from a potentially hostile area? Just as some examples.
--- It could add depth depending on how much of an effect clothing could have. Maybe cargo-pants add storage space/carry room, while armour adds protection but decreases speed. Being nude could speed up the PC at cost of carry capacity and struggle. It would be fine if it had no effect tbh, and stay just a nice feature, so I wouldn't worry about this as a feature much
- Multiple enemies have joint animations - if an enemy grapples the player and another enemy is nearby, they'll grab her too. This makes it much, much harder to escape, and holds the potential for multiple-enemy animations, which can be fun.
- After-evidence of a sex encounter. Let's be honest, there's going to be some evidence for it, especially seeing as the game isn't pursuing a sex=gameover style (despite transporting you to a different area after sex, even if it's the same location each time, as you keep your gear and stuff). It would be nice to see a dribble coming down from her pussy, or splotches on her breasts if/when oral animations come.
- Different grab types - I believe Bioasshard has a simple style for this, where the animations (grapple and sex both) change depending on if the enemy that grabbed you was in front or behind the PC. Currently the PC spins around to repel the grapple, which is fine, but there's always room for expansion.
- A saferoom area. Simple enough, and fairly self explanatory, just to give players some breathing room if things get quite intense for a while. It would be a nice touch if enemies could get in if you were careless and didn't shut the door.
- And a personal plea - don't go down the pregnancy, inflation, vore, or gore/necro routes. They're just so common and honestly disgusting (yeah, so are this game's enemies, I know). There's a reason the phrase 'less is more' exists, and many games add them (apart from maybe gore) to seemingly pad the content. You can do so much with regular dicks and a bit of creativity.
---- And if you do add one or multiple of them, an option to disable certain fetishes would be greatly appreciated. I'm not huge on having blood in my sex, or seeing a character impaled by a cock that would physically kill a real person (like a lot of games do, for... some reason), but I can understand other people want their fetishes satisfied too and my opinion on this is probably not even in the majority.
I hope it doesn't do away with most of the horror aspects as the teaser is strongly geared in that direction and is, in my opinion, poised to be better at it than some full-release regular games. Yes, it needs a lot of work, but it holds such great potential, and it could be a killer horror game, while the game is less likely to be as good as an action-adventure game (if that makes any sense?) with the current setup. Not to say it couldn't work, just the teaser shows things going more in the horror direction.
--- It could appease both sides somewhat if the 'survival' mode is geared towards the horror more than the story is (as apparently the horror is going to be much more limited in the story mode, if I read things right), and might scratch that itch better that way. Though I would personally prefer a stronger horror element throughout the game, if done right, a 'cosmic' or 'existential' horror sense of things similar to Halo's flood. Warhammer's Tyrannids, or H.P. Lovecraft's work (which the author has cited as inspiration) could work really well as an alternative to raw horror, an underlying tone of hopelessness or inevitability could function amazingly with the increase in climbing/action/puzzles, adding an underlying tension to everything you do, even the most mundane things, if done right. Will your character escape and perhaps prevent the horrors from spreading further, or will she become just another victim, lost amongst countless others?
TLDR:
This is a fun game with some amazing potential. I am cautiously optimistic, as many similar projects seem to die out after some time (like Subject: The First Escape seems to have done) and this one holds great promise. I will be following this game and Mateydev's career with great interest
Edit(s) - grammar and spelling, adjusted and added things after finally reading some other people's comments and the dev's own goals for this, rather than basing it off my assumptions (as I don't do that much until after I play the game, which is probably dumb but oh well)
