Indie game storeFree gamesFun gamesHorror games
Game developmentAssetsComics
SalesBundles
Jobs
Tags

Anemoiapolis: Chapter 1

Explore old malls, empty water parks, and existential dread · By Andrew Quist

My review of CH. 1 (SPOILERS)

A topic by rosymaplemoss created Mar 04, 2023 Views: 392
Viewing posts 1 to 1
(+2)

First of all. WOW!! I loved the effort and time you put into this game, especially as a beta tester of 1 and 2 when they first came out. The atmosphere in most places was impeccable and my favorite space had to be the lazy river, especially with the new rooms added. The design of everything is consistent and the art style really shines. The soundtrack was quite honestly amazing and the sound design added a ton to the game. Unfortunately, there were parts that didn't shine so brightly. The dialogue was barebones, and didn't even appear in some sections, some of it voiced and some of it not, seemingly at random. There were entire sections of the game with no dialog, and then you're hit with a ton at the end from a mystery character. The mini golf section, while pretty cool in its own right, didn't really serve a purpose at all? the environments felt too cramped to be truly liminal and I don't think there were any actual tickets down there. I completed nine holes, then realized there's no reward for doing so. Not saying there should be, but there should be some reason to not just leave immediately when playing the golf section. The conference space felt too samey with the other sections of the game, especially the mall and movie theater, along with the church backrooms section. Procedural generation is neat, but i think there just needs to be more. The content from the betas seemed thrown aside and not used to their full potential, such as the reservoir section. I did love sliding finally though, that was fun. Also, something to note, there were horror elements, but they were used too sparingly in my opinion. For example, in the betas, a mysterious figure that would appear In your peripheral vision from time to time, and I loved that because it tricked your brain into thinking you just made it up. The only real horror elements were the locker room and the mall toy that actually got me pretty bad lmao. The waterpark section at the end felt kind of thrown together and with no real purpose to the design, past the lazy river is what I'm talking about. The dimly lit areas with giant waterslides and the reservoir section below. I kept being worried I missed something, because several sections were locked off completely. The ticket element was actually pretty smart and well utilized, causing me to want to explore more while giving me a reward (funny number go up). I wish at the end there was something you could do with your remaining tickets after having spent them on the areas. I noticed there were only like 4 panel puzzles (that I found, could be more) in the entire chapter. These didn't have much thought and care put into them, as the controls listed were just plain wrong, (backspace and rmb does nothing), as well as two of the puzzles being exactly the same. They were pretty smart in the betas, as there's a reason that the player knows how to access and rewire them given by the story, as that is their job pretty much. I honestly didn't understand the ending, as I felt like it would be better if the player were completely alone in the neighborhood, rather than one or two other people. I wish we got to see more of the actual living space, that people would have stayed in, plus more backstory, but there's always chapter 2 and beyond! The movie theater was cool, especially the presentation about the neighborhood itself, but the part where the elevator is in the middle of the theater screen reminded me of a Roblox game tbh, it felt out of place but not in a good way. Overall I enjoyed the game, but there were some issues, 7.5/10, a lotta parts could actually be patched to add stuff, but do what you wanna do. It's clear that there is a lot of passion put into this, and it really shines through. (Unrelated note, is there a discord? Might wanna consider making one for all the fans to join and maybe see updates from there, I could help set it up if you want)