Apparatus: Exanimus

Still have barely scratched the surface of possibility in this game and every time I went back to it I was like "well surely I must be nearing the end". I am nowhere near the end. What the ♥♥♥♥ is happening in this game. I'm lost and I'm scared. When the ♥♥♥♥ did I end up here. What the ♥♥♥♥ was that. Analog horror wishes it was this good at the metatextual.

There is something to be said about a game I'm not sure I finished. But I got all the endings for and found what I imagine is the hardest thing to find(Violaceus and Ending X). It's a very good game, surprisingly solid with a lot of unexplained coincidences between text logs and areas of the game. But I'm left wanting more, not sure more in what direction, just, yearning in all directions(ADF-23 is what exactly? How did those logs get on the website in universe?). The core of the game is the mystery of it's development, but unlike it's cousin, Forbidden Solitaire, you don't get answers and the relationships are more interesting. It also has a much scarier premise that it doesn't quite deliver on. Lynch on a budget, so to speak. The early parts of the game are mysterious and scary, but as the game progresses to the Actual Ending it becomes sappy and tragic, and kinda evaporates the actual mystery into very pedantic puzzles(ARG logs become a chore frankly) and 90s pc game scumming. Finding the Green Card, for instance, requires you to do some seam peaking by turning off the graphics filter, completely off base and frankly infuriating. Oh the the Fungus Guy honestly just sucks. Li…

amazing experience, super easy to get absorbed by the story and some parts were truly unsettling

I did not manage to finish this game, but I still give it a hearty thumbs up and encourage others to check it out. My main issue was with navigation, which I struggle with in general. I am a patient gamer and don't mind exploration and slow game styles, but I got stuck in the same small area for hours and sadly just had to give up. But I really loved what I played, strange and atmospheric, oozing mystery. I really enjoyed piecing together what the game wanted from me, the light ARG elements, the vibes were incredible, the puzzles interesting and the gameplay loop of dealing with enemies was creative and refreshing. Big thumbs up, I just wish I could find my way out of that damned zone I was stuck in, and remember how to get back to that other area that I had seen earlier before I got lost! I may well return to this at some point, it really is very good.

Apparatus: Exanimus It's the kind of game for people who, like me, enjoy spending hours digging for secrets, making notes, investigating every space, every line, and this is a game where I felt my curiosity was rewarded. It's a game that has two kind of stories, one you're playing, another one is hiding on every detail and it feels "off" in a good way (in a "this game might be cursed" kind of way) and this makes me want to dig even deeper.

I still need to dig into this one more, but having gotten the initial ending (and some progress beyond that) I feel confident in recommending it. Its presentation as a lost, late ‘90s exploration game from an obscure developer is quite fun, though the purposely dated control scheme with its lack of mouselook will put some people off. I found it to be a nice change of pace that suited the eeriness of the setting well, and despite being fairly “conscious” of the controls the game was surprisingly immersive. You are almost guaranteed to get lost given the mazelike nature of the levels and lack of map or other obvious guidance, but it never felt like my time was being wasted as there was always some new nook or cranny to uncover while revisiting areas. I was surprised by the amount of platforming the game featured given the controls (with some of it being quite precise), but for the most part this was relatively painless. As far as the visuals go, while the screenshots on the store page give a good idea of the general look, there are some curveballs thrown in the later areas in regard to both the visual identity and fidelity that I found very neat. Now, to where things get more inter…