Duration: 1 hour(s)
Here, we have some cosmic horror game. Yes, it’s going to be a lot of reading. That's fine.
The Black Iris is about some drillers getting weird with an unknown material. Then, of course, they make a cult. We were brought in to decommission the drill, which yeah, the cult might not be happy with that. The game is more about the mystery of what the titular Black Iris is.
The graphics are in a low-res/low poly aesthetic, which looks pretty nice. It's clear enough to see what you're looking at, and there are some nice looking designs. There are also some video footage (stock?) sections for atmosphere. Everything is atmosphere for cosmic horror, and the visuals do lend to that. On that, there are also some little audio monologue pieces that don’t sound bad.
The gameplay itself is pretty simple. You mostly just walk around and explore things to read. There are a few things you have to do, but mostly have a normal walking simulator.
So the meat of this game, then, is the story. In my play, I got through a bunch of the side quests, but I do think there is more that I haven’t done just yet. That said, the story is a bit light on story. I know, cosmic horror is mostly about the atmospheric than anything, but it would have been nice to have seen a bit more about what was going on. Not a bad thing, it just means that it’d be nice to see more, you know.
All in all, it’s a nice little game. It’s a good time to spend an hour and definitely something to experience
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If you’d like to see the game in motion through my eyes, take a look at this archive of me playing it here. It should give you a good idea of how the game plays and what to expect.