To this day this game remains one of my favorite horror games out there. For the simple reason that, even though I generally consider myself a seasoned horror fan, and it's usually pretty hard to scare me, this game still manages to shake me up all these years later.

What makes this game work is that, you go into it knowing it's a horror game, but, you have to slowly unwrap it and search for clues to figure out what's horrifying about it. And, the more you play, the more you get hint after hint that something is just wrong here.

The closer and closer you get to the uncle arriving, the more unnerved and anxious you feel. Even for somebody like me, who knows exactly where to go and one to do, my anxiety STILL flares up! Because I know what awaits me if I accidentally make the wrong choice.

This game has no jumpscares, which is a sign of good writing in my opinion. If your horror relies on unanticipated angry monsters making loud noises to be scary, you don't make good horror, you're just good at triggering the fight-or-flight response. No, this game drowns you in an extremely uncomfortable and uneasy atmosphere, which I absolutely love. To give you a frame of reference so you can better picture what I'm talking about, the friend's house reminds me a lot of the Other World from Coraline. Especially after the uncle arrives.

This is getting pretty long, so, after this next point I'll wrap it up, but, the art and writing styles in this game also tie the whole experience together. To start with the art, I like how, for the most part, it's either nonexistent, or abstract, to both leave the world up to the player's imagination, and to prevent the player from feeling too comfortable in this setting. And even with the art that does show you what's going on, there's just something... dim about it, that makes it hard to feel safe in that environment. It's comparable to the detailed shots we see of Sunny's house in OMORI. The characters themselves never having any on-screen depictions only adds to the unease, which is a good thing.

And, finally, as for the writing, it is easily the backbone of the whole game. I've already gone over the horror aspects of the writing, and there's nothing more I can say about it without breaching into spoiler territory, so, I won't go back to that. Instead, I'll compliment how well the characters are written. They come off as believable, and realistic. People I could see myself metting! I... can't really figure out how to go further into it without spoiling anything, so, I'll leave it at that. But, it's a key part of the writing that helps make this game so immersive and so spooky.

That's all I have to say about it. Perhaps this dragged on for a little long, lol. I'm sure it's weird to have so much to say about an old web horror game, but, what can I say? I have a lot of respect for it! It inspires me to try to write something like it myself. It's a solid 5/5 game. And I applaud ztul for making it.

The comments aren't public under this game, so I would be veeeeery surprised if anyone even FOUND this review (lmao) let alone read it. BUT, if you DID find this review and you DID read all of this, thank you! That means a lot to me. I hope you liked it and agreed with it, too! On that note, take care of yourselves. Have a good night.