Nauseous Pines

[i] Rail Slave (the developer) likes to make psychedelic experiences that generally don't have good gameplay or mechanics. Usually, the purpose of his game has nothing to do with its core gameplay, but instead, you are trying to find that hidden philosophical context. The difference between a bad game, and the intentionally bad game is kind of a gray area, but I am not convinced that Rail is making worthless projects on purpose. If you look at reviews for his other entries they average about 45% user score, with one exception. I think a lot of people give up because his games are too cryptic. Therefore, most players are not even aware that Rail is not trying to make a generic game in a first place. As for myself, it took me about 2 years to appreciate his 'art', and even with all of that found context, his misunderstood self-expression can be hard to digest. Where do I even begin with Nauseous Pines, even for a Rail's game this is super confusing. You start with what appears to be a desktop screen, click twice to interact with icons. You can play a breakout game, listen to the music player, or go into the dungeon-crawler adventure which seems to be the main gameplay mode. Assumin…

oh my god (one of rail slave's best)

This is a strange hybrid of "art as a video game", desktop/code simulator, physics game, and indie shovelware. The game features deplorably bad retro pixel graphics. The idea is that you're supposed to be a video game development student making a video game, which is a pretty dumb premise straight off the bat. There's a lot of problems here, not least of which is the idea. This barely classifies as a game, as there's no specific conventional gameplay. Graphics are really really badly done pixel "art". The interface is buggy/unusable (I was unable to progress far). Resolution is fixed and no options are provided to make the graphics look better, if that would be even possible. Art school dropouts need to learn that Steam is not the next place for them to go after they got kicked out of every single art studio in town. They also need to learn that PC gamers are not going to pay for this lazy, low effort retro pixel crap that they think is "art", and we certainly won't pay a whopping $7.50 for a non-game. Well, I guess they realise that because it did go straight to indie shovelware bundles. I do hope the developers learn valuable lessons from their failure here an…

An extraction-horror where [i]you're[/i] the Pacmanesque monster in the labyrinth. You've been violently taken advantage of, augmented and gaslit into compliance by a carnivorous vehicle (think [i]Scorn[/i], except this was three years before [i]Scorn[/i]), and are now luring and pursuing the unfortunate scene kids obsessed by your music enough to have willingly joined your pre-doomed lesboharem. And you're doing it by offering them burnt sacrifices of their favourite flavour of poison from the poppy fields of Neo-Afghanistan spliced with Hoffman's own vintage 1943 home brew, and blasting their favourite song of your authourship from your symbiont sexbike's super-stereo. All the while fighting the gnawing nostalgia of being-together with them, all the good times you used to have in that abandoned elevator you used to call home... Yeah, it's not 'pines' as in 'prickly timber', it's 'pines' as in 'this is the end, beautiful friend'. The city authorities are wise for you though and sic snipers on you when they get a note of all your illicit plunderings. Because you violate public property for personal gain and run over innocent civillians to paint a blood trail as a pathing reminder…

Wha... uuhhh. .. he he he yeah I couldn't beat the game

Music is good but game is ???