What Lies In The Ice
This game had an interesting premise with a rather disappointing ending.
I liked wandering through the forest, searching for these ruins and being tricked by trees and mirages. And finally finding the ruins was really cool.
When walking down the stairs I started getting really cool ideas for a horror game that *I* would want to make, and was hoping the game would do.
I was reminded of this story that I heard in a Jacob Geller video, where these scientists find a lighthouse with a stair way that just keeps going down. And down. With seemingly no end, a staircase that just tunnels deeper than the Earth could possibly be, that drives people to madness just thinking about it.
I thought that this game's ruins would be this never ending staircase, and my player would slowly go more insane, maybe my flash light batteries die, or as I try to run back up I find I'm stuck in some loop and cannot leave, hallucinations and mind tricks as I keep going down this endlessly deep staircase, with the entrance still visible, but a distant memory and never reachable.
But it wasn't that, I was excited when I got to the bottom and thought there was more to explore, but it was just a hallway that lead to a big monster. The monster itself wasn't that particularly scary, and I feel like this game had a great set up with a weak pay off.