AM

i AM not normal about this game, so i sincerely apologise but this will be quite long.. 

(spoilers for anyone who hasn't played yet, i really go into detail about everything that happens) 

i'm incredibly nervous to comment this and fully show my enthusiasm like this but i can't leave without giving proper praise

where do i even start.... this was incredible. i absolutely love the atmosphere. the woods look so peaceful and nice you almost forget there's something out there waiting to attack. honestly, every location is great, but i think the one that scared me the most was the narrow dirt roads among the forests...

i was so scared in the beginning... especially during that wait for SOMETHING to happen. the first encounter, the knowledge that i can kinda hide from them, and the flashlight having the power of christ that protects us... it all kinda made the game less scary for me? i wasn't completely relaxed obviously, it was still a scary experience, i remember how tense i felt the first time i turned off the headlights and waited. but still, demonic monsters are chasing us yet i still felt more powerful than them. and jesus smiling at us from the flashlight the whole time, really calms you... i guess the power of christ was too powerful 

the radio reacting to them and alerting us is such a great and scary mechanic, and the music is amazing. i especially liked listening to what the pastor (? if i remember correctly) was saying, it all sounded so ominous paired with the atmosphere. 

just when i thought the game was done... it keeps going... at first i thought the textures weren't loading but then so many more strange monolith-like structures started to appear and soon the game looked nothing like it did in the beginning, resembling the backrooms more than anything, and it was great. the lack of jesus on the flashlish made me feel uneasy but also safe because that probably meant i didn't have to protect myself from anything. 

the ending where we had to crawl-drive through the even more narrow path through the vines (?) really made me feel like i'll get stuck at any moment. 

can't forget to mention the menu screen. flipping around and seeing the woods was great, despite there not being anything to it, i loved it and i just knew it was gonna serve some purpose, so you can imagine my face when i reached the end and the whole menu screen was different, with the headless person standing there, right behind us. 

i felt pretty disoriented (in the best way possible) trying to find my way around, everything looked the same, but not quite. especially because of that, playing this reminded me of the web series "no through road". the dark of the night, music being the only thing breaking the silence, and identical looking roads twisting and turning... amazing

at first i thought i wouldn't like the game changing from that previous atmosphere i really liked, but (and i have to mention this again) the liminal backrooms-like environment was incredible!! 

don't think i have many complaints, the car might have felt a little hard to control (but then again i don't play many car driving games), yet it still made for a funny experience once i realised i can damage the car. still at the end of the day, the lack of control over the car made me scratch and bump into my surroundings and all the sounds from that creeped me out. especially the branches brushing against the car, it sounds so real and it's so scary. it all made me feel really on the edge trying to survive and keep the car as undamaged as possible. 

i kept expecting the game to abruptly end, since it's a demo (and it does say the gameplay is 40 minutes) but every time i thought i was done it kept going. first the transition into the liminal space and then the new game being like a more complicated and sinister regular run. i genuinely thought the menu just permanently changes until i went back into the game to see it changed too.

my favorite part of that is definitely the music! the game established that the music starts to sound weird and ominous when they're near but now the music being permanently distorted completely threw me off. at first i was annoyed, but then i liked how it amplified the experience by taking away one of my defence methods, making me feel wayyyy less safe and then forcing me to confront the enemy way more often instead of hiding from it. i felt uncomfortable the whole time and the pressure inside my chest wouldn't go away (saying this in the most positive way possible) 

the headless person constantly appearing on the roads was already cool, but them suddenly entering the car to sit in the backseat was horrifying.. and a little funny since i kept apologising for the "bumpy ride" 

love how even the ending was different, really makes me interested in the full story

who is that person, why do we hear that sound whenever we're near them, and what are those mysterious vines spreading across the whole map?

i thought that it would be interesting to see more signs around the map that point at something weird happening, and maybe some of the monsters just lurking and watching us from afar without attacking... but the "second part" of the game kinda does do that so it's nice to have that difference.

still, the first part having some more subtle things would be cool

the unsettling mystery of this all keeps turning and twisting inside my mind, makes me so inspired. 

AM i finally done...? (un)fortunately

this is just so incredibly detailed and packed for a demo and i can't wait for the full game release!!!

In 300 feet, turn off your headlights.

ABSOULUTELY LOVE THIS DEMO, WILL 100% BE BUYING THIS GAME, This was the first game to make me start shaking and ill probably be attempting AG soon, thank you broccoli people 

cool and very scary, however my interest was the songs chosen. I’m a music historian and love music from the acoustic era, however I see nowhere where I can find the songs for myself as I only know a handful on this list. 

This Comment is an honest review of the game, I'm by no means a pro at doing these so take it with a grain of salt. I did my playthrough completely sleep deprived really  wanting to be messed with an scared, but decided to make it a challenge for myself not to be scared by the game. I think overall the main concept and idea of the game is scary, the first 15 minutes of the game I could feel my heart rate going up in anticipation of the horror that would come. What ended up happening is I realized I could fight back. I think for most people that is fine, but to me someone who truly loves horror I felt like it was no longer a  game about me running scared and powerless in my car against a ghost. I felt like I was dealing with an inconvience while managing my battery and car condition. The end twist and second playthrough when the game changed and became currupted in a way adding new obstacles to avoid was much needed it did make the game more interesting. If I could add anything to make to game better here is a list:

More random events with the ghost that dont lead to battles, Why? for the purpose of random unpredictable scares to keep building on the idea that you are constantly being watched in some way. 

More enviormental story telling. A random car wreck landmark or some notes scratched into rockfaces or trees to get into the players head seems like random extra but can go a long way.

More sections that take away the players flashlight. The less the player can fight back the more on edge the player would be. In the AG section of the game I had a moment where we entered the final tunnel. In the AM section our POWERED flashlight was removed leaving me feeling powerless for a moment. I think random scare events would have been really powerful here (A radio flair up, some sort of moment where something is in the rear view that you cant see when you turn around, banging from the trunk or something). That being said even the inverse of having the flashlight but having a section where you never encounter the ghost can be a great use of horror buildup and subverting expectations. 

OVERALL I did end up really liking this game, 9/10 I hope this review is more helpful in some way creatively than just getting a GLAZING THE GAME comment. Here is my terrible video playthrough sorry about the constant cursing.

Fucking Google Navigator! Where did you lead me!

the game seems really cool, but every time I've tried to play it crashes.

Great game really enjoyed the demo definitely looking forward to play more of your games