Recent reviews by MindMine

A story that gives vibes of Layers of Fear and Visage while having a fantastic stand-out story.

The environment is beautiful with great color palette choices that set the mood and great lighting design to go with it.

The story has great twists that highlight the horrors of the creative mind, while pointing out the pains of real life.

Some of the VO can get a bit annoying at times and it feels like it misses its' mark at times due to the translation quality of the script. It isn't terrible but the translation can get a bit rough or unnatural sounding at times (in English).

The pacing is really good and time can fly. It feels like you have experienced SO MUCH in a small amount of time.

Overall Score: 8/10

Gameplay & In-Depth Review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=batENLsmufw

This felt like an amazing combination of Plague Inc. meets Creepshow!

The pulpy comic book style was beautiful and worked so well for telling the story. For such dark topics, it did help make things much more vibrant without taking away from the creepiness of things.

The art style and themes are incredibly consistent throughout the game.

The stories are very interesting and revealed with great twists as well as timing.

Difficulty builds with different mechanical layers that keep gameplay interesting as well as challenging. It felt like this game was so thoroughly thought out!

Try out the demo for yourself as that is what got me into the game!

Overall Score: 8/10

Gameplay & Thoughts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIh7540iANI

A multi-layered story with a unique visual twist that intensifies the fear of the unknown.

The music is fantastic! The audio is great and so vital for a concept like this. It builds up so much tension and paranoia. So many small things made the game so much more tense and enjoyable.

There is a very intelligent design for how things visually change within the "Gloom".

VO is very good and adds some nice touches to the storytelling.

The NPCs aren't incredibly difficult but it is important to create a basic strategy for handling them. In the end, the biggest enemy was your mind.

This was a very enjoyable journey with engaging twists, where even negative twists feel enjoyable to experience.

Overall score: 7/10

Gameplay & In-Depth Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOARTmL4THc

This game has some nice levels of tension and creepiness. For a solo dev - there was A LOT put into this game.

There are some moments of quirk but it was an overall enjoyable ride.

It had some really nice sound elements and animations that helped to build out the experience.

There are a few puzzles that are fairly straight forward. They don't bloat the flow of the game and helped to keep pacing up.

This game makes me really intrigued on what games the Dev come out with in the future!

Gameplay & Review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeLr7gvqGoA

A wild ride that creates a fantastic atmospheric experience!

This game has good pacing. The devs do a good job of driving the player forward and making them feel tension. The jump-scares are earned rather than over-utilized.

The game is rich in story, especially throughout the environment, and how things subtly change.

Visuals and audio are constantly unnerving and built up paranoia well.

The game is highly impressive for a two person team!

Overall Score: 8/10

Gameplay & In-Depth Review:
https://youtu.be/bcXtOtu3wa0

A slightly lackluster ending with a great journey.

The Developer did a great job setting tone with the game and keeping it consistent throughout. This helped build up the tension set up jump-scares very well.

The story and changing of elements in the environment kept my attention and made it to where I wanted to know more.

There is some replay-ability with 3 different endings (the easiest to achieve being the bad ending). The game is fairly linear so it does make it more difficult to figure out what else you can do to get an alternative ending. After doing as much as I could to get an alternative ending, I still couldn't get something else (which felt a bit deflating).

The story is human and relatable. I can really appreciate it and it is consistent throughout the entire game. The things you experience as you play through the game ties in very well to the story the Devs are telling (rather than it feeling like a random experience meant to be scary for scary sake).

I believe this game is one of the first major games for the Devs. With that being the case, this is incredibly impressive and I eagerly look forward to what they will release next.

Gameplay & Thoughts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq-CO1uFz20

A fun ride with a great build of a world that I'd love to see more of!

The art is fantastic. The details in the world, details on the characters, and the overall creature design is so good! It creates a level of immersion and intrigue that leaves you wanting more.

The UI, especially during battles, is very clean and clear. It is very impressive as it is easy to use but doesn't put too much stuff on the screen so you can enjoy the world you're in.

The lore people, places, creatures, and things are all very well written and interesting to read through.

The combat animations are very well done. So well done I found myself physically reacting when seeing many of them.

I never felt like there was too much "bloat" in the game and I enjoyed the main storyline as well as the side stories.

The audio fidelity of the VO was there but the accents were all over the place which created immersion breaking moments and confusion as so many other aspects of the game were well developed.

There is some replay-ability due to achievements, different endings, side-quests you might have missed, and clothing items for the main character that you may not have had the chance to unlock.

There are some weird quirks with NPCs sitting backwards on chairs, walking into walls, etc. which can break your immersion and feel strange considering so many other aspects of the game are so well done.

Overall score: 6/10 (10/10 being impossible - the perfect game)

Gameplay + In-Depth Review:
https://youtu.be/n7z6bZw2Xo4

I had a lot of fun with this game and am very impressed about how all of the different elements came together for the overall experience!

The environment is very interesting and it has a very dream-like sense to it due to it having a mixture of organic and in-organic elements. The space almost feels like when you travel through an abandoned building and you see nature attempt to reclaim it. You can see the influences of SCP and Backrooms while also keeping true to Vidas' style of environment design.

The concept feels familiar enough when connecting elements of this game to games within the "Observation" / "Spot the anomaly" line of games while keeping it refreshing.

The sound design and music are really good. They add such satisfying layers to the gameplay loop / overall experience.

The VO is enjoyable and a great touch between different levels. This provides the carrot in front of the player to continue on. You not only play to overcome the challenges each level provides but also to uncover more story/lore about the Smile Simulation. (Shout-outs to Cheshire Jack and Kwirkee)

Each entity is unique from the other and the layering of entities at later levels make for a very engaging juggle in order to survive.

I am honestly so impressed by this game and really had so much fun with this. It was one of the better game experiences I have had thus far this year! This game deserves a lot more attention and reviews!

Overall: 7/10

Gameplay & in-depth review/thoughts:
https://youtu.be/SBoSarDVC7c

This game provides a great tense and gruesome survival horror experience.

I've had a ton of fun in co-op running through missions and taking in all of the amazing details of the environments. The world is incredibly detailed thanks to well layered visual and audio elements. These make the experience very immersive and exciting.

The layers of mechanics and attention to detail is absolutely incredible - especially for a multiplayer co-op experience. Thanks to these elements, it makes the gameplay dynamic and fosters an environment where the tide can change drastically with one wrong or right step.

The Primary enemies (like bosses of the mission or the main killer you have to survive against) are very unique and well developed characters that keep interactions with them engaging.

I love how there are multiple points of value that can keep you playing (Achievements, in-game cosmetics for your character and in-game room, lore, receiving higher performance scores at the end of each mission, unlocking new traits and tools/gadgets). This provides some really nice replayability, on top of taking on daily challenges.

This game, so far, has me wanting to continue jumping back in to take on the trials!

Overall: 8/10

Gameplay & review/thoughts:
https://youtu.be/bujXRK1Nunc

This game took me by surprise and it was incredibly fun.

The environment has elements of familiarity while also providing a lot of unknown, which builds up the tension and paranoia of your surroundings.

There is a lot of value in playing as you unlock a ton of really well-written lore about many different elements of the world you find yourself in as well as cards that provide different abilities and tools to assist in your survival.

You do play on the same map but so much is impacted and changes your overall experience (as well as style of play) based on new entity cards (think mutations in other games that alter certain elements of gameplay) that can appear each night (or each season i.e. 5 in-game days).

The balancing in the game is incredibly well thought out and feels natural. Nothing in the games feels super artificial and purely placed in the game for balance sake but feels like it belongs and makes sense (ex. moving slower through water and corn fields).

There are several impressive layers of mechanics that keep the gameplay dynamic and strategic.

The game, during each in-game night, ramps up in difficulty as you can also get stronger. It feels good and continues to help build tension and paranoia so it never feels "too easy".

Stealth and the ability to escape a chase feels great!

Overall: I highly recommend the game (8/10) It is an impressive and fun title.

Gameplay, tips, & in-depth review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgSGBdPIWSg