Besmirch

In an interesting blending of the farming gameplay typically associated with the cozy gaming scene by combining it with a genre much more known for its psychological horror and storytelling equally gritting as it is disturbing, Besmirch is a rare type of indie that few would delve into trying to create as games will typically follow trends and other popular aspects of gaming that have proven to both work and be popular enough to make the effort of chasing them worth it to begin with. Certainly I have to give kudos to Gangru Games for experimenting with something like this as the only game I have seen that comes even close to this would be Gleaner Heights as that indie also touches upon farming in a more horror-like fashion. However, unlike Gleaner Heights, Besmirch takes the artstyle in a considerably more dark direction with the oppressive nature reflected by its colour palette as well as the cutscenes, using similar rotoscoping technology as seen in the iconic FAITH: The Unholy Trinity, keeping that tense atmosphere to great effect in all of its unsettling horror with fearing the unknown. Now before commencing any further, I should note that this game is in Early Access here, g…

The core loop—tight resource management by day and high-stakes survival by night—works exceptionally well without feeling gimmicky. The dread is constant, the town’s paranoia forces strategic choices, and the night terrors are legitimately threatening. ​Buy it if you want a punishing, horror-driven twist on agricultural sims.

Playing on a Legion GO, which works pretty well. I'm on day 10 and have mixed feelings about the game. I'm fairly close to calling it quits, I might give it 1 or 2 more days. First I'll cover what I like. The overall NES horror aesthetic and music is top notch. I didn't even realize I needed this but it's great. The game also seems like it could be fairly deep for a Stardew Valley type game, but I haven't gotten super far into it to know for sure. What I don't like. It feels overwhelming and stressful. Right out of the gate you're hit with multiple time based objectives. You've got a town to feed and they aren't going to feed themselves. You do this initially by planting and growing beets, but if you sell enough beets to actually get some money to buy some more seeds, your villagers start going hungry. And if you use all your beets on your villagers to keep them fed, you don't make any money to buy more seeds. So you try to appease both sides, but by day 10 I haven't made much progress on either end, it feels like I'm just barely keeping my head above water. There's also a loan that you must repay and they start wanting to collect a fairly significant sum of cash by…

i was anxious to buy this game since i saw it in a video from Bare Metal Bryan. and now that it is on early access i can finally say that i really love this game. the atmosphere is really delightful. while some may think that the limited color pallet may be well... limiting. i think it really brings charm and uniqueness to the game. this piece leaves you intrigued and curious all the time with questions like: "what they are hiding?" "what will happen?" or "will we survive?" all the while not being too mysterious so that the player has some connection to the setting. while i do not think it is really scary most of the time (some monster designs are even goofy), i think the vibes and setting alone can carry the game really far.

The developers are so engaged with their community that I feel obligated to give a thumbs up. I have been frustrated by this game, I feel that it needs about 8% more handholding because the entire tutorial is just how to plant your crops which I feel is a very widely known game mechanic while every other part of the game you're expected to figure it out on your own. If the character and mission menus were a little bit more direct I wouldn't even mention this, but they do need updating. On the massively positive side, if you get stuck you can make a discussion post and one of the developers will help you in less than 24 hours. It just sucks that most people won't engage with that, meaning that the average person trying this game won't appreciate the full effort put into this game and will just get frustrated. Downsides aside, this game has so much potential. It's so unique and has such a great atmosphere. I wish it was just slightly more forgiving so that I didn't have to completely restart my in-game day over threats that I didn't realize were as serious as they are (bees are no joke, folks) but I see the vision and I've never played a game that I can directly compare to this one. …

its super fun and weirdly addictive