brush burial: gutter world - 6.5/10
a sandbox of interesting ideas marred by clumsy implementation, saved by gender envy for the protagonist
wow. i am truly so torn on just how to summarise how i feel about this game.
its criminal shortness is in service of and active incentive to engage with the replayability of these stages, as with this being an im-sim, there are a swathe of things to do in each level, different places to source your keys, different items to use, different routes to take, etc... it lends the game a great degree of depth.
what i cannot say the same for is the combat; it is quite shallow, all the melee weapons by and large just feel worse than your default right-click, and the guns take a few bullets to kill, and i vary on how i feel about the latter there because on one hand, it gives an emphasis on speedy succinct shooting, reloading and moving on, which is very much in keeping with the spirit of things, but at the same time it does also just feel a bit shit.
speaking of shit! the number one indictment i have against this game is the inventory system. it gets a bit better when you learn you can hit G to quick-holster shit, but it is still such a cumbersome mess having no quick-switch available. i'll give it this, it does very precisely emulate that feeling of you trying to scramble to unlock your car, and you keep digging in your pocket for your keys, but you keep turning up old packets of juicy fruit and board game pieces, but in turn, it provides the very real sense of frustration borne from that situation.
i so desperately wanna be less harsh on this game, man, i really did enjoy my time when i got into it, but its so bogged down by those issues to the point where its honestly mildly impenetrable for the first twenty minutes of gameplay, and it only mildly improves if you enter flow state, hence why i am perfect in the middle on this game. it has a lot to offer, but only if you can put up with some great big grievances.
fennel is BADDDDD though GODDDDD
