izigame.me

Game Review:
SPOILER ALERT! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS EXAMPLES FROM THE GAME! DO NOT CONTINUE READING IF YOU DON'T WISH TO KNOW THEM BEFORE PLAYING!
1. Setting & Theme: The dark, gloomy autmosphere of the game really helped with the overall experience. It was well-made and did include details to express the theme of one's past and the expression of being bullied. As someone who has been bullied in school, and as someone who saw others get bullied, I felt a stab in my chest at some parts of the game, be it if I collected diary entries or if I watches the design of the game; Mean writings on the walls and the wooden dolls depicting acts of bullying. Still, having stuff such as fully functional soda machines did feel a little comical at times. 8.5/10 stars.
2.Gameplay: While using inhalers to heal and fighting monsters with a flashlight and a fire extinguisher (which somehow freezes enemies solid) was a fun concept, the game felt pretty easy once you've gotten the option to really FIGHT back. Some elements that make horror games immersive and exciting is the risk of danger and death. It was pretty good at first, but after you've gotten the upgraded flashlight, you could just pretty much stand and fight most enemies with ease, barely even dodging or running away from them since they stumble after detroying each weakspot. While having the option to kill enemies isn't bad, it should come at a risk of sort (for example, if the flashlight were to overheat or consume more light, that would make players think twice before they just decide to kill everything). Without such risk, and with the game having no difficulty settings, it felt dull at times. Not to mention that stealth-killing an enemy consumes around 30% of your battery, while killing an enemy head-on - only about 5%. Don't bother sneaking around, since you can just kill most of them. Some of the boss fights were also, to be blunt, quite lame, especially the one at the auditorium. You could bath in that monster's light for 10 seconds before actually being in danger. If you've just finished Amnesia: The bunker on hard mode and are looking for a similar nightmarish, challenging gameplay experience, this game might not be for you. 6.5/10 stars.
Story: I knew what I was getting to after reading the into message, but the story was pretty straight forward. Bullying has been around for many years now, be it in games or movies. The only real major twist that was experienced was the fact that Sally (the protagonist) was ALSO mean to Emily, at least by being ignorant. This is also something that you can only know if You've discovered the underground secret room. And speaking of secrets, discovering the diaries from the people who died down there explains some lore about the mining company and how people lost their mind while digging there. Even after reading all the diaries, I still have many questions as to how that parallel universe works? And how do the big bosses (who are named after emotions and feelings that one would experience while being bullied) change depending on the person? Sally wasn't the only one there, so how do the rest of the people see it? 7/10 stars.
4. replayability and length: The game's length justified its price. With no difficulty settings, no post-story challenges and secrets, your depended on getting all collectibles in the game to play at your fullest. And while the game does have different endings, only one of them had a special condition of getting all the ticket pieces, which you can actually do even after completing the main storyline through an option in the main menu. Imagine if the game itself has choices that affected the ending, This could have made people actually replay the game just to find out how to get them (or at least how to make a video online guiding others). 7/10 stars.
Overall, I would reccommand this game. I had fun with it, but after getting all collectibles and knowing there is nothing left after, I'll be moving on to the next title.