Gahhhh I hate horror games so much! I just, can't even. ;-; Got this free on mobile, but then noticed I have it on steam. Was contemplating on if I should play but then decided to give it a go since monthly theme fits it.

Honestly, I don't even know where to start......I played half of the game muted(when I anticipate there'll be a jumpscare), but it is still pretty scary. The whole story is unique in a way, but also super cliche. Cliche in that whenever I arrive at a new area, my thought is always "Oh great, another old apartment/cabin in the woods/shady hospital/drug filled apartment cliche". It's just, idk, expected yet I get annoyed at it. Unique as in the main character needs to seize properties from others(how do you call it, property agent or something? ), but I partly disagrees with what it's trying to convey. You see, this is how our society works, you work, you get paid, you get better life. If you borrow money from others and put your property as a mortgage, you should expect it to be taken away when you can't pay up. Or else why would they lend you money in the first place? Their money didn't come for free either. They worked for it(legal or illegal it doesn't really matter, although if you're talking about illegal money by my moral standards it'll depend on which kind of acts they did). Yes, there's always a reason for them not paying up and what not, and yes there are some cases that we sympathize with them, but imagine, if you allow them to keep extending the due time of their loan, what would happen? The company you work for will go bankrupt eventually. How can you tell if the person asking for extended due time is telling the truth or not? Yes, the bosses shouldn't be so rude to the people that called them, but I also could imagine they'll be getting these kinds of calls all the time. It's either harden your heart or go crazy, like the protagonist did I guess. So, I suppose the entire game is the struggle of the protagonist's conscience and stuff.

Maybe I'm just nitpicking cuz I don't like horror stuff >.> but the story doesn't really justify all the horror. Gameplay is pretty generic walking, interacting, solving things with items you get stuff. The green drug mechanic is pretty cool tho. I like it, although it hurts my eyes a bit. So, subjectively speaking, I dislike this game, but objectively speaking, it's a pretty ok game.

Found this free visual novel type game from Akantha's review when I'm uploading them to my BLAEO review finder. Found quite a bunch of interesting free games that I've either downloaded or added to my wishlist by just looking through the reviews. x3

This is a game about a college girl with anxiety issues and quite anti-social. And your task is to choose the correct decisions to help her go to the communal kitchen, successfully cook oatmeal as dinner and return to her room. I personally don't have anxiety issues, so I can't really understand some of her thoughts and reasoning, although I can still very much relate to her in that she's like me that overthinks way too much, while caring too much about what others think about ourselves. That's why although I feel like some of her worries are silly, I can't help but feel like perhaps my worries look really silly in other people's eyes. But they are so real, and they stop me from doing some things that I think I really should do, but I don't want to do because of doubts.

Another game from Akantha's review.

I really really like the art style of this game. It's the highlight of the game imo. It's intricate and visually pleasing to look at. Gives an ancient vibe that it's suppose to. The movement of the totem is also super cool in that the totem itself briefly disappears when you jump, with a dark red trail indicating where it's heading and then it reappears at the end of the jump.

As for the story, I don't really get it. I think this one is largely based on a certain religion, I want to say Buddhism since some parts look like it, but then the godly figure doesn't look like it that much? Maybe it's one that I'm not really familiar with. Not a religious person myself. The background music also gives out this ominous feeling so at first I thought it's gonna be a creepy scary game and I'm not really down for that(tried playing a bit of Year Walk before this game. A huge nope from me for Year Walk. Too scary. ;-;)

I did get some frame rate issues tho, sometimes it'll have slight slow down lag which makes movement not as fluent. But overall I enjoyed this game.

Third free short game. :3

This game is great. I haven't laughed so much in ages with anything, not to mention a videogame. I'll resemble this the closest to Stanley Parable, only that it's funnier, but it's more linear. However to me, this one is far better than Stanley Parable due to the fact that I enjoy games that make me emotional, whether it be laughing, crying or anything really(except scared, I don't like horror games). Stanley Parable has some moments that's funny, but the majority of the game focuses on the choices and the, I can only describe as fresh and coolnest of the game. I felt like "wow, that's kinda neat" through out the game, but that's it.

I think it all comes down to the narrator's voice. Stanley Parable's narrator is always in a high authority place. He's usually calm, distant and narrating or giving instructions to the player. The narrator in this game however, sounds like a real person is talking to you through a speaker. I suppose it's their fault so he can't really stand on a high ground, but that really made the difference. Like always, not obeying is really more fun in these types of games, but in Stanley Parable, you felt like, although you're misbehaving, the narrator is still mostly in control. In this game, the narrator can't do anything about it if you misbehave, and he'll genuinely sound annoyed when you do(props to the voice acting work). That, puts the power back on your hands(at least it seems like it although the story is linear). I think it's human nature to want to have power in their hands, and to feel joy when you see someone else's mishap(just like when you watch those videos of people tripping over something and fall, most people will laugh), especially if that reaction is caused by you(look at all those prank videos and all the people that like pranking). Or maybe it's just me? Anyways, I had a good laugh.

Why the (7/10) at the end then you ask? Well, that's cause I tried to get all the achievements. I'm starting to think that when I try to get all the achievements and thus replaying a game(which was maybe not meant to be played more than 1 or 2 times) I always tend to notice more and more of the mistakes and what the game lacks in. I still don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, since I get to thoroughly examine a game, but then my nice first impression usually gets tramped a bit. The problem with this game, is indeed the linear story line. It really wouldn't be a problem if I didn't need to go back and replay the game, and it wouldn't be such a huge problem if the achievements really unlocked as they were intended. I got 2 achievements in my first playthrough. For whatever reason, once you get an achievement in one playthrough, the next one you do achievements won't unlock, unless you close the game and restart. There's also no save option, so for the rest of 4 achievements, I was forced to do 3 full playthroughs of the game. And, I did not know of this issue when I played the second playthrough so I wasted a lot of time on getting all the collectibles only to found out that only one of the achievements unlocked. And when I was doing my final playthrough, I freaking fell through the floor in one room and ended up having to restart the game. Like, really tho, if you're going to put achievements in these kind of narrative focused game where you have linear story line, either make them cool easter eggs like in Stanley Parable, or please make sure they work? And that doesn't only happen to me, I recommended the game to one of my friends after the first playthrough and he said this also happened to him.

Although there's problems with the achievements, I felt like it'll be unjust to give the game a 7 based purely on that, since my first impression really is fantastic. Thus, I recommend everyone to play it, although if you're an achievement hunter keep those things that I said in mind.