Okay, so I was sent Painscreek and I was curious and REALLY interested. As someone who streams games like this and really enjoys pulling apart mysteries with my buddies in the audience -- this seemed like my kind of thing. The story is fascinating and you'll be taking notes almost immediately. It holds you accountable for what you learn and there's not a single bit of guidance. It essentially sets you on your way from the start.

I will say that optimization should be looked into. I run a very high-end gaming PC and it was struggling with frame rate when we'd go into new areas. The loading times are a bit intense and you'll find yourself wondering if the game froze. The game will also, well, freeze. There were moments I couldn't move, I'd get stuck trying to unlock a door and have to restart the game from the title screen.

Visually, it's actually quite impressive. Perhaps too ambitious, if I'm being honest. It seems like the heft of that framerate issue could've been helped by maybe not having a ton of useless exterior buildings. What do I know though? I just write about games -- I don't make them. The music is good at building the drama and I will say, I did NOT expect some of the things that occurred. I liked that. The game does keep you on your toes despite being touted as a walking simulator mystery experience.

I would like to see the bugs and things hammered out a bit more in an upcoming update so that I can feel better about cracking this game open on stream again. At its current state, I spent most of my time stuck in frame-rate drops and chugging, loading screens and just an overwhelming sense of feeling like I was on my own to figure out what I could do to reduce those things.

The developers are onto something though and I will say that the story DOES make up for those situations. I had questions, I had notes and I was really interested in finding out who killed Vivian. I also really dug the fact you can end the game as SOON as you think you figured out who did it and you even have to include a good picture for the expose you're writing.

Fix the bugs and you've got a fan for life, folks.

Okay, so I was sent Painscreek and I was curious and REALLY interested. As someone who streams games like this and really enjoys pulling apart mysteries with my buddies in the audience -- this seemed like my kind of thing. The story is fascinating and you'll be taking notes almost immediately. It holds you accountable for what you learn and there's not a single bit of guidance. It essentially sets you on your way from the start. I will say that optimization should be looked into. I run a very high-end gaming PC and it was struggling with frame rate when we'd go into new areas. The loading times are a bit intense and you'll find yourself wondering if the game froze. The game will also, well, freeze. There were moments I couldn't move, I'd get stuck trying to unlock a door and have to restart the game from the title screen. Visually, it's actually quite impressive. Perhaps too ambitious, if I'm being honest. It seems like the heft of that framerate issue could've been helped by maybe not having a ton of useless exterior buildings. What do I know though? I just write about games -- I don't make them. The music is good at building the drama and I will say, I did NOT expect some of the things that occurred. I liked that. The game does keep you on your toes despite being touted as a walking simulator mystery experience. I would like to see the bugs and things hammered out a bit more in an upcoming update so that I can feel better about cracking this game open on stream again. At its current state, I spent most of my time stuck in frame-rate drops and chugging, loading screens and just an overwhelming sense of feeling like I was on my own to figure out what I could do to reduce those things. The developers are onto something though and I will say that the story DOES make up for those situations. I had questions, I had notes and I was really interested in finding out who killed Vivian. I also really dug the fact you can end the game as SOON as you think you figured out who did it and you even have to include a good picture for the expose you're writing. Fix the bugs and you've got a fan for life, folks.