Short and gripping, this game is a worthwhile experience for anyone that likes a good mystery.

Fun game based around balancing a life sim, word puzzles and watching multiple cameras. In a way (forgive me god) it's like Five Night's at Freddy's meets Sim Girl. You have stats like hunger, sleep and finances to watch. But the gameplay loop of watching cameras to understand the stories you voyeur all while keeping your crumbling life together is addictive. Even when everything is fine and you're just killing time, things feel tense. Are you missing something important on camera? Do you have rent? Are your stats going to be too low when something important happens? The tug-and-pull between all the mechanics feels well crafted and although the game lets you thrive when you're stressed, it all feels fun and addictive.

There's a fun amount of detail in the world to explore as well. Both in your lone apartment where the world literally passes you by and in the lives of the 'monkeys' you're watching over. NPCs drop by, noises from your neighbors muffled through cheap walls. Everything feels important and gives you a great sense of agency in a setting where news and events happen fast. It shows a lot of promise in the sequel I will definitely be picking up after this.

My complaints are pretty minimal. I wish the quicksave feature wasn't so far in-between. I understand it's to give you more time to play back a day where you may have made multiple mistakes, but it would've been nice to have the option to chose WHICH mistake I play back from. It does feel like some features (Instant messaging for example) pop up once then disappear forever. Lastly, the sound levels on some 'background noises' in the apartment could have been mixed a little more so it doesn't always sound like the same neighbor or too loud. Also (light spoilers) some cameras can be shut off early because of a time restraint and that definitely isn't communicated too well to the player. It sucks to see a camera shut off with no rhythm to the stories progression, might have been nice to have had a throwaway camera that shows a story ending early on so the player is aware it's a mechanic. Because two of my cameras died back-to-back ruining hours of gameplay.

Very impressed with this game. What I thought would be a little browser-clone style puzzler turned out to be a deep and rewarding cycle of smart puzzles and well told stories. I said it before, but I'm excited to play the sequel. 8/10

Shorter game play loop than I was expecting, but I didn't finish all the cages in my first run, so there's definitely replayability. Fun game overall! The time/resource management aspect was well done. Would love to see more!