I should first say that this game does succeed at doing exactly what it sets out for. I believe it deserves to exist as a story and theme that could have only been told in the way it was through video games, but I give it nothing else.

This is one of the worst experiences I’ve had in a game. Each chapter can be boiled down into a different resource management minigame that often hides important information to the player through a clunky UI and sometimes requires guess work in order to figure out basic mechanics, to the extent that the vast majority of players will just brute force their way through levels instead. Even if you do manage to figure out each mode, random chance can often end or hamper runs without any player input, which further leads to the need to constantly retry the same tasks over and over until you get lucky and make it through. And the worst part is that it’s all intentional, and I have proof.

SPOILER WARNING

The big plot twist of the game is that whenever the main character dies, he wakes up many years ago with little knowledge of what has happened and has to try and save everyone again. This is supposed to reflect how you as a player have to go through the same mission over and over and over to barey squeeze by. The random bullshit that can end your runs despite perfect play are just the game being “realistic”, and the same can be said about the obtuse mechanics of each chapter. This is why I respect it as a piece of art. It manages to make this idea of trying over and over again to combat the harsh, confusing, and uncontrollable cruelty of life as you’re stuck in this constant cycle of frustrating failure cross the gap from being simple ptatitudes and actually feel emotional, because *you* had to live through it. The only issue is that that exact thing also makes for some of the worst game design I’ve ever played.

I’m not touching this game again.