Kafkaesque: The Nightmare Trial

There's something genuinely fascinating here. Huge vacuous environments with simple maze-like levels and an eerie atmospheric soundtrack pair weirdly well with the strange story (sort of a retelling of Franz Kafka's "The Trial") to make for a particularly eerie feeling game unlike a lot of others in the genre. I went into this one with fairly low expectations. Initially, I found the visual style to be intriguing, if somewhat amateurish, so I was prepared for the gameplay to feel bad, which luckily - it doesn't. Although the survival horror style of gameplay is present, the combat is a little too easy, so the challenge here is dialled down quite a bit lower than most games of this style. Certainly not a deal breaker though, as the game is absolutely more about the surreal atmosphere than anything else. As far as gameplay goes, expect simple puzzles, big empty and weird environments that have a distinctly backrooms sort of feeling to them, and a bare bones but smooth and serviceable combat system. Not groundbreaking or particularly interesting, but it runs smoothly, and will feel familiar and comfortable for anyone who has played a few survival horror games before. The art style…

A strange and memorable story with a great surreal atmosphere and some interesting locations to explore. Enemies can be easily evaded or defeated and aren't very threatening, so there's a lack of tension when it comes to resource management and combat, but it was still fun to see the different creatures you'd encounter and they definitely add a lot to the mood of the game. I loved that there are collectable Rinbo character plushies to find!

I'm just under an hour in, and I am thoroughly enjoying this one. Entertaining, curious, atmospheric, and aesthetically pleasing. It is a bit much on the running around, but that's a minor gripe for a game that was so off of my radar yet proved to be worth every cent of the purchase price.