This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
It's bad.
Another indie walking simulator trying to masquerade as a horror game, and this one lacks good pacing of its story or any stunning visuals to go with it. I can't say if it's just the Switch version or every version, but visually it's one of the worst "walking simulators" I've played.
When it comes to the horror aspect the game resorts to cheap jump scares that only startle you and are more annoying than engaging. There's only one interesting visual sequence in the game.
During my playthrough, the gate I was meant to pass through after the rollercoaster ride glitched and I spent around an hour just trying to figure out what to do, turns out I had to restart the game.
Without spoiling anything - the story leaves little to interpretation and doesn't even keep you in suspense. While the main character sure likes narrating things the pacing of her dialogue is amazingly out of sync with what is happening on screen. One moment she is very scared and pleading for her child to come back, the next moment she starts narrating her "story" in a calm voice like nothing is happening. While this supposed to be a memory and the game heavily hints at it from the start it still does nothing for the experience, because the whole thing ends up jarring.
SPOILERS next. Stop reading if you care.
The protagonist arrives with her son at an amusement park and the boy runs inside. The man at the gate just lets her back in to chase him, after a short escalator sequence it's made obvious that the park is abandoned, something is happening inside the main character's head, and the boy isn't really there. She most likely chasing ghosts. Well, it's not my liberal interpretation - it's made so clear by the first few minutes that there is no room for doubt or interpretation to keep you at least in some kind of suspense. Right after the beginning, we have a very very VERY boring and slow ride in a tunnel with a story of Hanzel and Gretel playing on the walls in the most boring and dull way possible - by static shadows lighting up. While the story has narrative significance the ride is awful, way slower than it has any right to be, and the "SPOOKY" visual effects the game attempts to throw in with screen shaking and your vision going haywire really feels like the lowest of efforts to create atmosphere. Once the ride is over the walking starts, and you have to pretty much follow the linear path from one ride to another and take every ride you pass. The rides are not even slightly interesting, engaging or atmospheric with an exception of one single ride close to the end. Ever ride contains a bit of foreshadowing about the ending and flashbacks, but instead of being subtle they are very much "in-your-face" and that makes them also feel low-effort and lazy.
The last part of the game takes place in a final ride in the tunnel of horrors that goes into heavy flashback mode. Once again, this section is dragged much longer than it should've been, and while it has some interesting visuals - by the time you get to them the do very little to make up for the overall dullness of the game.
I really wish this game could be a proper horror, but it's not. There are no redeeming qualities.
My advice is to stay away, this doesn't worth your time even if it's on sale.… Expand
