This game isn't what it looks like. On the surface one might think the game is a creepy story about something mysterious that happened in the house. The cover art looks spooky and the description leads you to believe there is some great mystery to unravel. The game is a lie.
You arrive home from a trip abroad in the wee hours of the night/early morning amidst a coming storm to find outThis game isn't what it looks like. On the surface one might think the game is a creepy story about something mysterious that happened in the house. The cover art looks spooky and the description leads you to believe there is some great mystery to unravel. The game is a lie.
You arrive home from a trip abroad in the wee hours of the night/early morning amidst a coming storm to find out that no one is home and note posted on the door telling you in no uncertain terms to not try to find out what happened. You then proceed to find out what happened by walking around the empty house into dark rooms, through locked doors, and in the midst of lightning crashes. During the silences you only have your footsteps as company as you traverse the mansion as you discover... your sister's lesbian love.
You read that correctly. This game is dressed up like a spooky mystery and delivers a teen angst homosexual love story. It like picking up your glass of milk, taking a big gulp, and discovering you have lemonade instead. I think I made the same face when the game ended.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with a story like this. My disappoint first and foremost comes from the fact that I didn't know what I was playing. There was no indication to the game's true purpose in the description, the cover art, even taking my first steps in the creepy looking mansion when first starting the game. It screams spookiness but never actually delivers. So, if you're looking for some kind of scary, spooky, or just plain tense game, this is far from it. Nothing of the sort every actually manifests itself beyond thunder cracking. People actually need to read reviews about the game before they play it in order to find out what kind of game it is. It's one thing to read reviews so you can get an idea of the pros and cons, but one of the cons should never be something like "it's a scary game that isn't scary and has nothing to do with being scary even though it looks like it should be scary." What happened to going to the store front and getting interested based on the cover art, description, and even title? All those points on this game amount to click bait. Just sad.
The second disappointment is the actual story. We learn what happens with your character's little sister throughout high school. But, very, very early on you can piece together where the story is going. The developers thought of the most clichéd, propagandist message regarding homosexuality and teen love and gave that to us. Teen angst? Check. Girl meets girl? Check. Girl wants to join the military during the "don't ask, don't tell" controversy? Check. Homophobic parents in denial? Check. Even the little sister's lover is a Hispanic descended minority. The game has it all and they make use of these elements in the most basic of ways: voice acted journal entries. No, you don't really piece together anything that happens in any kind of detail. It's told to you. You aren't really lead anywhere to discover anything important. Any discoveries you have barely flesh the story out and only show how clichéd and boring the weak story actually is. There's no philosophical message, no lesson learned, only a throwback to past times in which people could be considered less enlightened.
The only good part of the game is the atmosphere. It's unsuitably creepy and has you looking over your shoulders and being hesitant going into rooms with their lights off. Unsuitably is not a mistype, though, as the story doesn't match the atmosphere in the slightest and is an entire lie. Things around the house seem to be only added to increase how spooky the game is supposed to feel. Again, nothing comes of it except for a couple jump scares from thunder. That's it. You play music in a tape player and walk away. It stopped! What happened?! Oh, the tape ran out, so you can play it again. The basement lights don't work! Why is that?! Oh, no reason, just a bulb out or something. Nothing to see here. Red splatters in the bathtub! Someone died! Oh, wait, it's just hair dye. The entire game is like that in that it teases you with something potentially scary then stops just shy of saying "just kidding! lol!"
In the end I can't recommend this game any more... as something someone should pass up. The game is a lie. Had all the creepiness in the game been removed and replaced with a daytime setting and advertised as a light mystery about teenage lesbian drama, the game would have been a thousand times better. Had all the junk story been removed and replaced with something less propagandist and more spooky like actual ghosts or cult happenings, the game would have been a thousand times better. Instead, we're given milk and lemonade, both of which people like and were told, "we mixed these things you like so now it's even better!" Except, we weren't told that. We were told it's milk, given the mix, and are now expected to appreciate it because the idiots at IGN and Gamespot tell us we should.… Expand
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