Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Hello and welcome to my first blog post! I've always been a big fan of horror movies and games, and I am beyond excited to begin working on a blog dedicated to something I've always had a passion for.

The big question, however, is how should I start this blog? I already have countless movies I want to rate. But why rate a movie when I can start off with a game? So, for my first post I will be rating Five Minutes a Day, which is an itch.io game I found while obsessively downloading each one that came up tagged as horror.

I love going into games unaware of what I'm getting into. This is all the information provided on the game that I read. 

If you want to play the game, you can play it here: Five Minutes a Day

I personally suggest playing the game before my review, so be aware that there will be spoilers below! Now, onto the game!

The Game


Playing the game, I didn't expect it to be a timed text game. The audio so far is very immersing, though. It's nice.
It was so difficult to stop myself from just going home when everyone had disappeared from work. If this was a real situation, I feel like I would probably have just walked out. Like "nope, not today". However, since I am now a responsible human being for the sake of this game, I decided to stay put and search for my beloved coworkers.
Yet again there is an answer that I identify unusually closely with. Why try to focus when I can scream? Unfortunately, no matter which option you select, you do pass out before you can do anything.

For me, it took two tries to complete the game. The first try was because when a man appeared in the cabin, I chose to scream mainly out of pure confusion and because why would I hit a stranger when I likely broke into his house? That was the incorrect option, and I was shot back to the beginning. This time during my stay in the cabin I magically found after passing out and waking up in some mysterious chemical lab, I spent the entire time searching for things. Then, I sharpened my metal scrap with a rock and stabbed the man. I got this screen:
Oh no, boss. You're right. My report is the most concerning part of my story. I do deserve to be fired for this. How dare I???

Rating:
My ratings will be scored from 1-10 in a series of different criteria. They will then be added up and divided to find the average. The categories are as follows.

Visual: How aesthetically pleasing is the game or movie? What makes it appealing to look at, and is there anything unique in the way it is presented?

Audio: What about the sounds? Do they work well with the game or movie and provide the user with a proper atmosphere that fits the setting?

Plot: Is it easy to understand? Does it cover all the introduced plot points, and does it leave anything unanswered? Note that sometimes it's fine to leave things unanswered, but you can't leave too much unknown or it just becomes confusing.

Simplicity: Are the controls easy enough to understand?

Atmosphere: Was it scary?

Fun: Did I enjoy playing it, or was it a waste of time?

So, let's go piece by piece for Five Minutes a Day now.

Visual: There wasn't much to be seen in terms of graphics and appearance, but it could have been worse. Just having white on black is fine. It worked with the theme and it wasn't an eyesore, but there was no art or such. Because it was just average, this category receives a (5/10)

Audio: The music was soft and there was background noise. I enjoyed the atmosphere shower sounds provided, or how the thunderstorm felt real. The traffic even made me feel like I was walking down the street. The game didn't overwhelm you with noises, and it was kind of soothing to hear the noises. (9/10)

Plot: I wasn't a big fan of the plot. There was little to learn and the ending answered almost nothing. I was actually disappointed when I reached the end. There wasn't much there, and it didn't answer any questions at all. It did progress in a linear path and it did loop well, but that's all it gave. It even forced itself along, as you often got the same text no matter what you chose. I was so confused when I actually found something in the house, as it didn't seem to tell me that I'd found a scrap of metal. (1/10)

Simplicity: Yeah. It's just pushing a button before a timer runs out. (10/10)


Atmosphere: It was at no point scary. (0/10)

Fun: While I did enjoy the concept, the execution was a poor one. It would have been nice if the character could have figured more out about what had happened to him/her. Perhaps delaying the approach of the man, or giving us the opportunity to search him for information would have provided more plot and more story to explore. (3/10)

Total: (3.2/10)

I am thoroughly disappointed in this game. I expected a much higher rating, especially with how interesting it sounded. The best part was the audio.

Well, there we have it. My first blog post! I'm not very sure how often I will be doing these yet, but for now the schedule will likely just be once or twice a week. I look forward to my next game or movie review. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!

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