Sometimes you find a game that is more substance then style. You find yourself diving into layers and layers of lore or clever puzzles or even smooth as butter combat. Sometimes you find more style then substance and after you've played for a while, you start to get bored for how little is offered. And then you find a game like this... when there is this little content, literally all you have is style.
Story: You are the last human left alive, the only one to survive a plague. And you have decided you are done living here in this apartment in this crumbling city. But before you leave (one way or another) you want to talk with the raven who's curse brought this plague one last time. Why did he do it? And what can you do now? This is the question and the only question this game really offers. It is also incredibly short so you will likely get to an ending in a matter of minutes. Yes, there is a little bit of meat you can uncover, but it is incredibly limited. Still, you have four ways you can end this game, each noted by a different conversation to end it all. But that's about all there is to it.
4/10
Graphics: This is one of the more unique looking games I have played in a long while. At first glance, the game looks like someone sketched and scribbled everything with pen, giving it a very old-timey look, and yet the title screen confirms the world is rendered in 3D. Your character is sketched the same way, both exuding a dark-toned detail and yet leaving your mind to fill in the blanks a pen on the move simply wont. You yourself are drawn in a long coat with a plague-doctor mask and a top hat, pretty much leaving any identity also in your head (well, besides your name). Like the story, there isn't a lot more here for me to talk about, but what is here, is beautiful in it's own dark and stylized way as it lives to remind you of an art not normally used in today's world.
8/10
Sound: Much like every other category in this review, there is simply very little to the sound of this game. There is no real music to speak of, but rather just ambient noise. There is also no voice work, but just text you can read when you come across it. In fact the entire soundtrack to this game is ambient noise and a hand full of sound effects. You will hear your steps as you walk, doors creak as you open them, and a few other sounds to go against the ambient and oppressive noises that make up what's in the background.
Do not get me wrong, the game sounds great, but there just isn't a lot here, and the reason will make perfect sense in the next section..
8/10
Gameplay: This is an incredibly short game. Basically consists of you wandering around your apartment, which itself consists of only a couple of rooms. You will find a sparse few objects you can pick up, a single puzzle you can complete if you choose and a few potential object interactions you can find before you ultimately unlock the balcony window and talk to the raven of the title. What you picked up and what you did will decide which of four endings you get and any one of them can be reached at a leisurely pace in about 5 to 10 minutes if you know what you are doing. Discovering all four endings on my own took me about 40-50 minutes total.
5/10
Bugs: While I could not find a bug while playing, I did notice the graphical prowess the game displays came at an unusually high cost as this game was putting some serious heat out of my graphic card. This is a game that while darkly beautiful is not pushing anywhere near the fidelity I would expect to push a graphic card as hard as it does. And based on the steam forums for the game, Im not the only one.
Overall: Technically this is a game, if an incredibly short one. It is competent at what it does, but there is just so little meat I have a hard time finding much to talk about. Yes, I understand it is a free game made originally for a game-jam which heavily limits the time available to design and develop the game, but that does not change the end result. If the developer had charged anything for this, it would be insulting. But even as a free game, I just can't see enough here to warrant recommending it.
Score:
5/10
System Requirements:
- 2.5 Ghz quad core processor or better
- 6 GB RAM
- NVidia Geforce GTX 970
- 200 MB hard drive space
- Windows 10
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
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