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Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: Paris, 1990. Gloria is at the end of her rope. A struggling cabaret dancer dealing with the fraying of her relationships, career, and self-esteem, she takes on a new artistic endeavor sponsored by a mysterious benefactor. Would the generous proposal be Gloria's lucky break, or somethingParis, 1990. Gloria is at the end of her rope. A struggling cabaret dancer dealing with the fraying of her relationships, career, and self-esteem, she takes on a new artistic endeavor sponsored by a mysterious benefactor. Would the generous proposal be Gloria's lucky break, or something worse?

    A survival story with layered psychological stakes, Decarnation explores the contrast between battling limitations in the physical realm, and the subconscious landscapes one can't escape.

    Decarnation is an emotional, startling story-driven experience that will keep you on your toes until the very end.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 14
  2. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Jun 27, 2023
    87
    Decarnation is an incredible and well written video game, supported by an intelligent and always engaging and impactful storytelling. Furthermore, the play structure fascinates and surprises. Must have absolutely.
  2. Jul 6, 2023
    80
    Ultimately Decarnation is incredibly thought-provoking. Gloria’s life in the physical world is slowly falling apart, which in turn has a significant impact on her deteriorating psyche. You’ll find yourself thinking about this game even when you’re not playing it, and there can be no greater praise than that.
  3. Jul 30, 2023
    80
    It's quite hard to recommend Decarnation, because the game itself is rather bleak, depressing and melancholy-inducing. But then again - that's the whole point.
  4. Jun 6, 2023
    70
    Decarnation is not about the gameplay, but about the journey. And that journey is wrought with existentialism, Lovecraftian horror, and psychological quandaries that may be trigger inducing. It will grip you, refuse to let go, and entrap you until the end of its story. Should you play Decarnation, you will be opting into experiencing horror through the eyes of a protagonist you may, or may not, empathize with. Should you play Decarnation, you should also avoid sharing its execution of horrors that should remain unspeakable. In other words, avoid spoiling whenever possible.
  5. Jun 15, 2023
    70
    Decarnation is a unique horror puzzler that tries to make sense of the main character’s emotional breakdown in ways that don’t make sense. It effectively keeps players off balance throughout, but also in ways that knock the gameplay off balance, unfortunately.
  6. Jun 7, 2023
    70
    Decarnation’s story is thrilling and unsettling, and every point the game gets is because of how well-crafted the winding nightmares are in relation to the overall progression of Gloria’s life.
  7. 50
    Decarnation is a game with a lot of potential that it just doesn't realize. There are absolutely good points to the game, such as its fantastic sprite art for the environments around you or the grotesque monster designs you encounter throughout, and the plot is also at times very relatable to anybody else going through a similar downward spiral in life, but this is not enough to counteract the overly long minigames or the unfortunately lackluster puzzles. This is made a bit worse by the fact that the game hits the point where most stories of this type usually end, and then keeps going for upwards of an hour, doggedly refusing to roll credits in favor of a drawn out series of epilogue scenes. I really wanted to like Decarnation–it was near the top of my list in terms of most anticipated indie titles for the year–but sadly it just did not deliver the experience I had hoped. It is not what I would necessarily call a bad game, but it is one held back by its multiple missteps along the way.

See all 14 Critic Reviews