Emerging from a pod you awake unaware of your surroundings. Through following a series of breadcrumbs distributed in the form of data logs you'll quickly learn the area well. At the start death feels inevitable when the step meter reaches 0, however after only a couple loops(deaths) you start to survive, thus preserving your integrity bar. I have a lot of playtime and I'm still on the same save after plenty of accidental, experimental (I wonder what would happen if I jumped from here?), and the likely inevitable deaths that come from exploring for the first time. So while the threat of save deletion exists if your integrity bar reaches 0, I wouldn't worry that much about it.

I earned my first ending around 4 hours in, which was delayed due to searching many times over for something that didn't exist. In all that searching though I became aware of other elements that are part of different endings. Returning to loop again with that information seemed promising, however another 8-ish hours later I've yet to earn another ending. I'm out of hints, I think I'm missing some secret item, but I've done everything I can think of. Even after coordinating a series of steps that culminates to trigger a major event I was sure a new ending was destined for me. Alas that was not the case, again I received the same ending I got 8 hours of playtime ago.

13 Steps is a fairly scaled game in terms of difficulty if the player takes the time to explore the area and uncover the upgrades that are hidden throughout. Players should find some locations challenging to begin with, but via trial and error make light work of them in the end. One location in particular at the "end" of the game was surprisingly much more challenging than the rest and will truly test your ability.

There's quite a bit here to uncover, various threats roam the environment, and pacing for what will likely be your first ending feels good. Gameplay was very smooth with the exception of some minor hiccups that can occur (granted the game only released a few days ago). Overall I would say it surpassed my expectations slightly.

Emerging from a pod you awake unaware of your surroundings. Through following a series of breadcrumbs distributed in the form of data logs you'll quickly learn the area well. At the start death feels inevitable when the step meter reaches 0, however after only a couple loops(deaths) you start to survive, thus preserving your integrity bar. I have a lot of playtime and I'm still on the same save after plenty of accidental, experimental (I wonder what would happen if I jumped from here?), and the likely inevitable deaths that come from exploring for the first time. So while the threat of save deletion exists if your integrity bar reaches 0, I wouldn't worry that much about it. I earned my first ending around 4 hours in, which was delayed due to searching many times over for something that didn't exist. In all that searching though I became aware of other elements that are part of different endings. Returning to loop again with that information seemed promising, however another 8-ish hours later I've yet to earn another ending. I'm out of hints, I think I'm missing some secret item, but I've done everything I can think of. Even after coordinating a series of steps that culminates to trigger a major event I was sure a new ending was destined for me. Alas that was not the case, again I received the same ending I got 8 hours of playtime ago. 13 Steps is a fairly scaled game in terms of difficulty if the player takes the time to explore the area and uncover the upgrades that are hidden throughout. Players should find some locations challenging to begin with, but via trial and error make light work of them in the end. One location in particular at the "end" of the game was surprisingly much more challenging than the rest and will truly test your ability. There's quite a bit here to uncover, various threats roam the environment, and pacing for what will likely be your first ending feels good. Gameplay was very smooth with the exception of some minor hiccups that can occur (granted the game only released a few days ago). Overall I would say it surpassed my expectations slightly.