NOTE: I have just over 4 hours played.
I heard of this game awhile back and I knew it was right up my alley.
For those who don't know what it is, in short, it's a top down Survival Horror Adventure game with Roguelike elements. It's singleplayer and it does have a storyline to it although as of its release today, the game only has one chapter + a prologue released. For more information here is the Steam Store page
The game has a great balance of all the things I listed above. It has the challenge, permadeath and random generation of Roguelikes; the story and exploration of a single player adventure; and the crafting/day system from survival horror games. And yes, the game is a survival HORROR game. I was wearing headphones and I was on edge the whole night. The horror element is well implemented not just by a bunch of jump scares thrown together, but a ton of ambiance and atmosphere mixed with well placed jump scares. On top of that, the character design is great for when talking to NPC's, the lore items you find along the way are creepy, and the music is very suspenseful.
Regarding the NPC's, the characters I've found so far all have their own quirks and stories. The writing definitely piques your interest and draws you into the storyline. It leaves a lot of room for imagination even though I'm sure the full story is far from being finished. The exploration you do along the way also adds to the story. There are locations that have their own little story behind them and exploring them will definitely give you the heebie jeebies! The game does a good job in forcing you to explore, yet showing you things that make you just want to sit in your original hide out and hide.
Gameplay wise it's pretty damn good for first stage early access. Haven't hit a bug in my 4 hours of playing which is good although one of my viewers said his copy crashed a bit; and there is enough content there for multiple playthroughs I'm sure. More-so if you're playing with permadeath on. I'm four hours in and I haven't even completed the first few quests that have been given to me by the NPC's (My first 2 run throughs were permadeath). The game is challenging, maybe even a bit hard but it's not unfair (although poison mushrooms may say otherwise). You start with nothing end there are enemies close by your base sometimes but you can find the tools to survive the nights and defend yourself. I would like to see more rag (crafting item) drops, or more people to get rags from since finding bandages and health recovery items is actually pretty tough. They're quite rare.
The game also doesn't hold your hand which adds to the challenge since it does have roguelike elements, you will be exploring a lot. I like how the game does the map system where you don't see your current location, but you find landmarks throughout the game that are marked on your map so you do get a sense of being lost in the woods at times (especially at night).
Regarding crafting, the crafting is pretty good so far. You get enough tools to build things to survive and defend yourself against the horrors of the night and from what I've seen everything can be used for something in the Alpha, meaning I don't think the developers added partial items that don't actually build anything right now. Although I still have a lot of gameplay to go through so that may change in the future. The crafting system is also straightforward and not clunky at all. Tab opens up the inventory and shows you your recipes. The game gives you the recipes outright so you don't have to find/discover them which is nice.
Overall, I'm loving the game and I'm excited to see where it goes. It's definitely worth the $13.50 on Steam but that being said, it's catered to a pretty specific audience of gamers and it is definitely not for everyone! For me though? I'll definitely be streaming this game some more!
