Recent reviews by Vee

This game has me hooked (I like biology). Interesting concept where the player is the AI that helps MC navigates the world.

Amazing how immersive it feels with such minimalist visual, sound design is doing the weightlifting here. Still, I'm a fan of the aesthetics. Font size might be too small for some people though.

There's a learning curve on navigating and operating. This game really doesn't handhold the players. But I suppose it's fitting to the in-game lore. It's quite relaxing once I get the hang of everything. I think there should be tutorial or prompt to use keyboard for navigation at the start (only found out about it when I opened the pause menu)

The story is bittersweet with a hopeful tone in the end. Won't say much about it, but it kept me curious as I uncover the secrets.

The world-building felt thorough, especially the taxonomy entries. I really liked collecting samples, reading the entries, and looking at the sketches. Interested to get the DLC once I have some spare money :3

I recommend this game for people who are interested in narrative-driven game, exploration, and marine biology.

I have a lot to say about this game. Yes, it does have potential, but I haven't seen it coming to fruit at this stage. Since it's still an early access, I will put this as an recommendation and see how it develops.

Visual :
The best aspect of this game. Cute illustrations, good animations (especially for special characters), warm painterly color palette, and memorable artstyle. The game truly has cozy and warm atmosphere. Really liked how the devs did the map too. The visual is always pleasing to see. Good job on that, I'm interested to buy an artbook if you plan to release one. My only gripe in this is the awkward placement of the tips during transition screen, it's just there without much thought.

Gameplay :
I get that the appeal of this game is interviewing and hiring employees as an HR. At the start, we do that. But as time goes on, there's no longer the need to hire new employee because we already acquired the ones we need and trained them well. After that, it's just a matter of chatting the employee who was stressed, go on an outing every once in a while, manage Ummu's mood, and training them. During my playthrough I only fired one character and kept the other employees until the end (in total I only met like 5 employee characters then). While I did manage to 'win' the chapter by maximizing their training and managing their mood well, the mid-late game felt like a chore to do. The core gameplay lacks depth after early stages. Wish the devs add more dynamics to the gameplay loop.

Minigames :
The minigames could be more fun. I truly dislike the countdown minigame, even if it's easier to do than the demo by now (again it feels like a chore to do instead of being fun, I don't see the point of keeping this minigame for full release). The mathematics minigame is okay and I do look forward to it instead of the countdown. I like the cat minigame, the concept is super cute. The cooking minigame is ... meh, it's just putting the same things in order. Please put more thought into future minigames.

Control :
It's okay, but it's still clunky. Sometimes Ummu doesn't go where I want her to go and I had a hard time making the interaction boxes appear because of that. I think it would be easier to add keyboard control for her instead of clicking. Or Ummu can just walk automatically to selected objects (like clicking on an employee automatically makes her walk to that person). Speaking of clicking, I wish I didn't have to click on the chat box everytime, It will be easier if I can just use a button (like SPACE) to continue the conversations right from the start. I do notice that I can use SPACE button to continue, but it always requires me to click on the chat box first (which is very bothersome). Hopefully the devs can add more ease to this part of the game.

Sound design :
For me, it's important to have pleasing sound design in cozy games. People might not realize it, but sound design can elevate a cozy gaming experience by a lot. Be it in BGM, button sound feedback, footstep sound, loading screen sound, and everything else. Unfortunately, HR Simulator hasn't reached that level of sound design, yet. It needs more work and attention. For example, the sneezing sound in the loading screen feels like it's in a room instead of outdoor (honestly,it is also a bit irritating to hear after some repetition). You can also add feedback sound when clicking or hovering on interaction boxes, etc. Other than that, I do like the main menu and map view BGM.

Final note, I'm still interested to see how this is going to develop. Please don't rush the development that much, there are still a lot to be polished. Would love to know the roadmap and future releases.

One of the most interesting gameplay concepts I've seen. Instills the right amount of dread with just words and possibilities. Really great sound design, helps with navigation and also inspiring even more dread. I'm saying 'dread' again because that's what I feel for majority of the game. Lack of true vision and ability to navigate easily render me even more helpless.

It's short, but it's packed! A must-try for horror seekers and story-driven players.

There's a potential to this game. The visual art style is definitely outstanding compared to 99% simulator games. It's very warm, colorful, and the 3D elements are mixed quite well with the 2D assets.

I LOVE THAT CAT.

Since this is a demo, the gameplay is still very simple. Would love to see more features on the CEO other than chatting with him just to fire people (like maybe he can give temporary one-day productivity boost when asked?). I'm also curious what other areas will unlock in terms of gameplay. Hopefully we will know soon, perhaps a little teaser? :3

The training minigame is a tad too hard and frustrating. Out of 10+ tries, I only managed to get 2 wins. Consider adding more leniency or use a "bad-good-great-perfect" scale according to accuracy.

Playing laser pointer with the cat minigame is quite a cute concept!

I LOVE THE CAT.

Sound design could be better.

LET ME PET THE CAT.

last, but not least, the tutorial needs more polishing because there are things that I would've missed if I wasn't an explorer (i.e. the tutorial for saving the game, how to fire people, etc)

It's a game with potential to be good. It already has impressive and unique visual. Looking forward to the development!

Great atmosphere and visual, takes us to world beyond the metro. Also supported with its immersive sound design.

It's open-world for the first two areas, and linear for the rest. I liked exploring the worlds, it's rewarded narratively to do so and it sometimes open more options for approaching the objectives.

Loved the story. It's great how our play style can impact how the story ends.

Parkour and zombies 👍 Great gameplay and fun with friends. Story is on the sidelines tho.

I usually avoid competitive games like the plague. Marvel Rivals is the only exception because it's actually fun to play.

Short but gold. Visual is cute, soundtrack is worth vibing to, and story is great. I enjoyed playing it a lot (and it's the only game where I tried for all achievements)

Genuinely one of my favourite survival game. World is well crafted to the point of unintentional deep ocean horror. Crafting system is alright and there's always good sense of progression throughout the game. It's a treat to explore and survive here.

My baby, my childhood game. I will never forget you.

This is THE coop zombie game since 2009 and it still holds up. This is the game where shooting zombies is FUN, even with the most potato device. And it's QUADRUPLE FUN with friends. The mods keep it fresh when all vanilla experience has been conquered.

So if you want to have FUN, get this game. And you don't even have to spend a ton to play this game.