Recent reviews by Dubmentia

This game is incredible. It has the location and vibes of Half-Life, a resource gathering system similar to Grounded or Subnautica, character traits/skill leveling similar to Project Zomboid, and even some SCP-ish elements best left to be experienced firsthand. Yet it brings all these concept together in a fresh and unique way. You have to manage temperature, hunger, thirst, sleep, radiation, and using the restroom, which might sound like a lot but it never really became overbearing imo.

Another really cool thing it does in a unique way is the base building. I'm not very far yet, just made the hacking device, but you don't seem to be able to build like walls and stuff. You have to re-purpose furniture and pre-existing architecture. So you wanna build walls? Go collect some desks and start stacking them or use a big bookcase or filing cabinet. You want a fridge? Go find one and take it lol. You wanna barricade a door? Place something in front of it and it'll block it from opening that direction. So now when I walk into a room and see furniture, I don't just see it as stuff to walk around or loot, it's possible barricades, decor, storage, or something to improve my quality of life like that fridge I mentioned earlier(or I can just smash em for resources). Also most useful base things need power like crafting benches, fridge, cooking stove, heater, etc. They need to be plugged in with these special wall sockets. So if you find a room you really like and there's a plug in there, you can build a functional base there.

Basically, if you're into the survival crafting genre but are getting kinda bored with it due to over saturation, I highly recommend this one. It's such a fresh take full of goofyness, horror, mystery, action, nostalgia, discovery, and overall fun. I've only done single player so far but I can only imagine how fun this game would be with friends as it's already a blast alone.

I'm gonna start out by saying I'm not a huge Back to the Future fan. I have nothing against it, I watched the first movie and enjoyed it 100%, but I never watched the other ones. I bought this more for the time travel aspect. That said, this is the most incredible time travel sim I've ever played. Okay, it's the only time travel sim I've ever played, but it's gonna take a lot to top this one. The fact this is a mostly one man project is legitimately baffling, and I hope the dev is really proud.

So you start out in the 80's with your buddy, and both of you put the finishing touches on your time travel car (based on the DeLorean DMC-12), and do a little test jumping an hour into the future AKA time travel tutorial lol. When you return some stuff goes down and you're forced to flee the facility in your car leaving your buddy behind with him telling you to meet him in 2014. You are now free to do whatever you want. I personally drove the loop around the map exploring the towns and getting a lay of the modern land before jumping to the future. Then you jump to 2014 and the BttF vibes hit super hard. There are flying cars and hoverboards, the beginnings a futuristic city, and all that jazz.

You can do whatever but I would at least do the story until you unlock crafting, a weapon, and can make a better reactor for your vehicle. You start out needing uranium cells which emit radiation, (which you can accumulate and suffer from) and can only do one time jump before they are depleted and need to be disposed of. But you can quickly build a reactor the needs fuel that isn't radioactive, can do two jumps per cell, and can be refilled around the 2014 age. Also, build the "Unknown Destination Chip" ASAP and see where it takes you. I promise you won't be disappointed.

The open world time traveling is pretty perfect. I've been having endless fun just jumping to the different eras I know of and exploring the map, seeing what's different, and immersing myself. Plus there is a whole history here. You get all kinds of quests from hearing about things or reading a book for example. But I've found a bunch of stuff so far that isn't tied to a quest (as far as I know), and are just historic moments you can witness. For example, in the Pine Lake Archives, there are a few books on pedestals detailing The Cow Wars with listed years, where a crazed cow plague started spreading and a dude took advantage and started taking over settlements. So I went back, and yeah it's all true. piles of burning cows outside of town and living cows looking crazy attacking me on sight, towns taken over by bandits, and a war raging around the oldest town. I thought that was really cool.

Currency is also well done. Dollars are used for most modern times, but you go far back enough and you hit copper shillings, keep going further and you hit something else. So you can be rich in the 2010's but you go back to the 1700's and you're back to zero. Lots of ways to make money, the most basic being just getting a side job which at least one exists for most of time. Jobs include blacksmithing, mailman, pizza making, ale brewing, and taxi driving just to name a few. You can also just make money on your own time. Go hunting/fishing and sell the meat and pelts. Go bounty hunting or hunt down missing people. Or maybe travel to a time where gold is abundant and cheap, and buy it (or find somewhere to mine your own), and then find a year where gold is precious and sell it for a good profit. If I have a complaint here, I wish there were more classic jobs. As it stands, most jobs are in more modern eras. The only jobs you can really get in the past are blacksmithing, ale brewing, bounty hunting, and then hunting/selling pelts, which exist until the furthest future. Would like to see some more time specific jobs like courier back in the day delivering letters from town to town before the train was invented, or maybe milking cows/horse wrangling/general farm work. Maybe bread baking as a bakery already exists. Hell even just being paid to sweep up the inn or work as a server. The possibilities are endless.

Now for the last big part of this game, the sim/immersion. I think it's good so far and can't wait to see it expanded. You got all the job stuff I mentioned earlier. You have a limited inventory (7 items, 6 in pockets and one in hand) which you can't put away with full pockets, but can carry around. You can just pick up and drop every item freely. Storage is just throwing stuff in your trunk for the longest time, but you can get storage boxes that can store 10 items, and can fit like 8 in your trunk easy. There are also items you can get to get more immersed in surviving. If I get a lantern, a grill, a sleeping bag, and a weapon, I can just go out and survive. All you have to manage is hunger(drinks fill hunger), health, and not getting too irradiated. You can also get outfits that fit the time period, a cowboy outfit for example. All this makes for a really great immersive experience, even with the simplistic style.

Things I wish for:

-More classic versions of tool like objects just so I can feel like I blend in more. An oil lantern or a fire torch instead of the flashlight and modern electric lantern. Or a campfire kit and old stick and cloth tent instead of the modern grill and sleeping bag. Stuff like that.

-MORE HORSES. I'm sure I've made it obvious by now I like abandoning my car and just going out and living like a person of that time period. This is really really annoying before the late 1800's when the horse shop finally pops up. When there's no train yet, your two choices are walk, or take you car. Which is silly because there are people on horses going way back haha, you just can't get one. I don't think you can even steal one. I haven't seen any in the wild but maybe I just missed em.

-Backpack. As of right now, you can use boxes to carry 70 items. But it's kinda annoying haha. I would love a backpack you can equip that gives you a couple slots not connected to your hotbar. Heck, even 5 more slots would be so helpful for time camping trips lol

-Few more outfits. Would love some pioneer or future outfits to blend in better.

-Simple base model character customization. I would love a few options to change my shirt or pants on the base character model. Maybe even just changing the colors. Would also be cool to have a few hair and facial hair options although I have no issue with the way dude looks now. Would just be cool.

I'm still in act 1 so if this any of this is in the game I apologize. (EDIT) Half the stuff I wished for was indeed in the game. Just gotta unlock them through quests. Found most of it after 3 more hours playing lol

In Summary:
This game is so good already and it's not even finished. If you have any interest in Back to the Future or just time travel, please check this out. I left out A LOT of really awesome stuff because I don't wanna spoil anything. But this game will blow you away. There is so much here. This game is 100% worth $10. If it's on sale buy it immediately, you won't be disappointed.

I'm not very good at putting my thoughts to words, so apologies if this review is a bit disjointed.

I very much enjoyed this game. I bought it expecting one thing, and ended up getting that and so much more.


The game starts with your friend inviting you into a secret club of people who watch secret camera feeds (cages), which sometimes include people (monkeys). Cages can be anything from an apartment building or work office, to a farm field or a highway, as well as some more unexpected ones I won't spoil. It all begins with you accepting the group rules and downloading the application to your PC. From there, you get full control.

The stat management mechanic is kind of punishing when paired with the observation system, especially at the start. If I'm being honest, after I lost the first time, I really considered enabling peeper mode (supposedly easier stat management, but disabled achievements), but I didn't, and now I can't imagine this game without the background anxiety.


This is the part where I ramble about the stat management mechanics at play and how they work together:

So this game only really asks three things from you to avoid a game over. Every 3 days the landlady stops by for $90 in rent, have enough cash on hand or get evicted. Every 5 days, the club evaluates you. Have the required number of cages unlocked (at $50 a piece) or get expelled from the group. And don't die.

You have 5 stats to worry about:

Cash: Money is ALWAYS an issue. Even on my 4th playthrough, when I was maxing my cash, I was always still just one round of cages or a fat grocery trip away from being broke again haha. But keep in mind I liked hording my trophies, which can usually be sold for a pretty penny, or kept to vibe up your room. And then you're always worried about having enough for rent or being able to afford enough cages for your next evaluation. There is some serious money to be made out there if you know where to look though. Through both moral and immoral routes. There are also jobs but I'll get into that with time.

Hunger: Self explanatory. When you get hungry, you start losing health. Eat food. The only free food the game ever gave me was a hotdog, an apple, and a couple cups of coffee at start. The rest was on me.

Fatigue: Also self explanatory. If you get too tired your vision will start blurring and you'll lose health. Either sleep or drink coffee (at the cost of health) to replenish.

Health: You'll lose health if you get hungry or tired. Also eating unhealthy food like takeout or coffee lowers health, but takeout is usually cheaper and doesn't waste time going to the store. You restore health by eating healthy food like fruit. All food minus coffee at the store is either healthy, or not unhealthy. But you use an hour going to the store and it's pretty pricey for the amount of hunger replenished. So you're constantly deciding whether to order fast, cheap food to save time/money at the cost of health, or buying expensive healthy food to avoid dying.

Time: Time is always ticking at a brisk pace. The only times that time stops is while you're reading the paper at the start of each day, before you close the comment on your work after a job, or while you're talking to someone (unless YOU call them on the phone). Also when you pause the whole game lol. Time is super important. The mailman only delivers packages within a certain time frame, the landlady comes at a specific time, most cages have a routine you need to learn and watch at specific times to get specific info, people you need to contact are only available within certain time windows, some jobs are time specific, etc. Plus there are timed cages that you can fail, but I'm not going to spoil which ones. There is also a job system in which you basically trade time and stats for money. You randomly get 3 posted on your door a day. They have basically for example: Warehouse Worker $88/8h Available 21:00 - 13:00. Something like this would lower hunger and fatigue. Show up to work well rested and not hungry to do a good job or risk being paid less. Some jobs give different stats and require different stats. Potato chip tester requires you to show up kinda hungry and awards hunger but lowers health. Show up full and you do a bad job and barely get paid. Some better jobs require experience. Like you can't be a warehouse manager until you've worked the warehouse floor a few times.

So with all that together, you're constantly juggling your money between required things to avoid a game over, and things to stay alive. Trying to work because you need cash, but not miss any events. Trying to stay rested, but not wanting to waste time, or miss out on night active cages. Starving, but you only have $100 and rent is due today. And all this on top of your actual mission of watching the cages. It's a very nice struggle in my opinion and adds to the dystopian vibe of the game.


THE GAME:

So now that you know the struggle, let's talk about the game. I'm not gonna spoil much because the sense of wonder of what the next cage might hold is half the fun.

So you have the hidden camera feeds right? The goal is to watch them, and locate either clues you click on in the scene, or words people say in dialogue (which is all text, no voice acting). You automatically log each clue in your notebook, in a logical manner grouping everything together, which after more info is discovered, forms an interconnected web of information.

Now if you click those clues, it inputs them into an in-game search engine. A lot of the detective work you're going to be doing is going to be observing, writing down clues, and using them to find better clues or just downright info like an address or name. The club will sometimes ask you for info on a cage, like name or address. You can do these or not with no penalty, but doing them does get you paid, and occasionally will disrupt a cage.

Here is a made up example that is not from the game to give you an idea:
The club hits you up and says, "What is the address of Cage 3" You open cage 3 and you're watching an old man pace a room for exercise. You do not know his name. You do know that he sees a doctor and have the clue, "doctor." He mentions the clue, "special prescription shoes." saying that they don't seem to be helping his back. You search the clues doctor+special prescription shoes and it pulls up an article about a doctor and his patented shoes with his name as a clue. Search his name and you now have his phone number. Call him and social engineer the name of the old man from him. Now search the old man's name and you now have his address and phone number. You can now complete the observation request from the club.

That's pretty much the gameplay loop paired with all the stat management I mentioned before. There's a ton more to it all, like the cages are legitimately interesting and sometimes supernatural. You truly never know what you're gonna get next. And even when you do view it, you're like, "okay, what is gonna happen here" lol. And a bunch of rooms never get a club info request, they're just there for you to figure out at your own discretion.

Now there's just one last thing I wanna mention. Interacting with the cages AKA feeding the monkeys. DO NOT FEED THE MONKEYS. But if you did, you would have many many routes and choices in which way you would wanna do that. There's also a karma system but I'm leaving all that for you do discover. An example (FROM THE GAME SLIGHT SPOILER) would be the photographer taking sneaky photos. You can either report them for a gift, or blackmail them for a choice between two different gifts. One of those being removing the hour time cost for going to the store.


FINAL THOUGHTS

All in all, I'm loving this game. Lots of secrets and replayability. 5th playthrough and still finding new cages and routes within ones I thought I knew.

This is by far the best god simulator game I've ever played. I started on Android a while back and logged a stupid amount of hours. It was back when there were races, but not kingdoms. Then he added kingdoms and all those mechanics alongside many other things. It was at this point I found out there was a PC version. I picked it up right after he added the town items and equipment. Decided to take a break after that until the Steam release. And here we are.

I hop on and see he has been hard at work adding biomes and who knows what else I haven't found yet. I love this game and I love this dev as it is obvious he really cares about how this game turns out with frequent and content rich updates, as well as listening to the advice of the community.

If a sandbox god simulator is a genre you enjoy, you don't wanna miss this one.

This is a game about a cat that goes fishing.

'Nuff said. 10/10