izigame.me

Well, that was kinda disappointing. I don't know, maybe my expectations were a bit too high for this one since I had been following its development ever since they announced it.
It's so short, and feels like it's unfinished. The way they chose to do the animation for the characters feels very off. If the game world was 2D as well, it would have fit better, but when you're surrounded by 3D objects and watching 2D characters talk, it just doesn't fit exactly right. After awhile, I got more used to it, but it still felt more like a development build to me personally, like this was more of an idea rather than a finished product.
That's kind of how I felt about the game as a whole: an unfinished project. The story, albeit simple, is somewhat interesting in certain parts, but does not really feel fleshed out, it feels more surface level. It felt very "after school special", a lesson with vague details.
The environments are really nice, however. The lighting and detailing is honestly pretty spectacular. I enjoyed seeing different objects scattered about and figuring out which items were pertinent to the story or not. I didn't mind that certain items couldn't be held up.
One of the mechanics that felt very bogged down to the experience was the "Hey, Mom!" interactives. I totally get why these are there, but there were certain times where I just wanted to discover things on my own, piece together certain things, and THEN talk to the Mom. But instead, each item that has this interactive, you have to go ahead and start dialogue which yes, furthers the story, but interrupts the player portion of the game too often.
It could be that I am so used to games like Gone Home, Tacoma, and Life is Strange to allow the player more freedom in their interactions, but I just felt like this only hindered exploration of the environments.
Overally, I'd give this game a 6/10. It was somewhat enjoyable. I did like the hotel portion for whatever reason. The graphics for the environments were highly detailed and quite stunning, but the character animations in this environment just felt odd to me. Hopefully Fullbright gets more freedom in their next game, with less stressors in the workplace.