The Red Lantern

Well. Short game. Finished it under 2h. I know this was going to be a surival game, not hard core but still, way to easy. Cute game. more cuter dogs, nice landscapes and places. But yea. just wished it was longer, like much longer for a survival game. Usually i dont say things like this. But with this game, glad i got it for free. Because not sure it was worth paying for lass then 2h. of a game.

Great game, super charming art. Im enjoying going through runs and discovering every dogs story. However I wish there was more run variation and challenge, after the first 2 runs I have yet to really struggle or be challenged.

I felt like I had no agency in a game about choices. Not that I expect them to mean anything, but the beginning dialogue choices were nothing like what I chose. Got punished for making a clean shot by being told I have to take another shot. Got punished for gathering birch bark by losing 2 hunger from the effort (obviously the devs have never seen a ♥♥♥♥♥ tree because that bark genuinely shreds apart). I'm sure its a beautiful and lovely game but it felt simultaneously like nothing mattered and everything mattered far too much

Overall i like the scenery during the gameplay. It made me want to go to experience the snow season even more because i live in SEA which is no snowfall at all. The encounter RNG feels okay, but sometimes it's annoying... whenever you have a good run the bear comes to ruin everything.

Lots of dogs that provide a variety unique skills. Also liked the rng and survival aspects, and has lots of achievements and goals to go for after completing the main objective.

The good: - Atmosphere is quite nice, the skyboxes are especially well-made. Honestly not the best graphically, but it's passable. - The dogs are cute (especially Iggy <3) - The premise is pretty interesting The bad: - Got very boring, very fast. I played through 4 runs before winning, and the only one that was remotely interesting was the first one. The fact that the game doesn't vary between runs is a major problem and the runs all blend together quickly. The fact that you can get almost to the end nearly every time also gets frustrating, because a lot of deaths feel like they aren't your fault (the bear event especially feels really annoying) - There's an interesting mechanic at play with the gear (axe, firestarter, fishing pole, dog booties), and having items carry over from run-to-run is actually cool, but the game does the "it was all a dream" schtick and that is just kind of lame (now I'm honestly not sure how to best write it into the story, but. like. we have to be able to do better than just that). The fact that the firestarter completely overwrites the need for the axe is strange to me (why don't we need to get wood for a fire and only need a firestarter/birch bark??),…