Be sure to check out "DaRevieweD", y'know THAT brutally honest yet beloved Steam curator that you haven't followed yet!?


+ Gameplay really boils down to brief exploration segments where you examine objects of interest. However, a large and integral part of the experience amounts to a small variety of minigames which include your factory duties of slicing up... beef with a circular saw controlled via your mouse while avoiding the unwanted bits a la Tetris. Then troubleshooting said apparatus when it overheats with a console by lining up patterns in the right order and way. Before you're met with some otherworldly navigation whilst evading a nefarious being sensitive to noise! There's even a rhythm game of sorts for the final encounter. Quite an array of ingredients to be finished off within less than an hour and all for $3 bucks!? A real steal of a treat if ya ask me~

+ The visuals are stellar and just a PS1-esque feast...! It's a hark back to that era of look where it's sort of low-poly but not quite? I've always been bad at words! There's even a clever little nod, wink, and finger gun in terms of damning environments. A horror scene straight out of Silent Hill or something! Luckily, this title will fill you up on nostalgia pretty quick, and no further explanation is thus necessary. You'll know it when you see it~

+ The soundscape is tender & juicy, oozing of a slow burn descent into purgatory or something crazy! Starts off fairly soft and chill then it ramps up into schizophrenic episodes before all hell is raised! I recall the last track being particularly rocking as well as awfully memorable to consume~

+ Is it scary? I don't know... Is murder? Don't answer that. You be the judge. I have a better question for ya- are you ready to have your entire stance on eating meat reversed? After finishing this and licking the plate clean, I am now a honorary vegan cleared of acne and toxins, committed to correct the mistakes of my ancestors. Kidding! But there's a sliver or truth in there somewhere. It's up to you now, do it for me, FOR US~


- There's a super prominent "out-of-body" experience after you're done interacting with the computer or any of the newfangled technology! Specifically, whenever text is done being present on screen, you'll find that you have lost control of your character and you have to left-click the screen to regain that agency. It's similar to when you juggle and between swap your open windows, sound is zoned out and time has frozen. It's creepy, sure but I don't think you should sell that feature of the product~

- I could see the twist of the story coming from miles away. Which isn't necessarily a terrible thing, that's how subversion of expectations tend to be orchestrated. Yes, I was slightly off but I got the main beats of the tragedy down. The other elephant in the room isn't exactly tied to content as it is more on delivery and pacing. Squeezing and stuffing so many reveals in mere minutes leaves no room for curious minds to digest...!

- This is probably the biggest shocker of all. No fail states! Well, to be accurate there are, but they open the game up to riducule and anticlimactic moments. It is practically impossible to die unless you're really trying to do so, which is in itself pretty counterintuitive. When you do "die" though, you get a plain and nonchalant end screen and just get whisked to the main menu losing all progress, at least I think you do when you bomb at the first meat-slicing minigame! Not sure about the rest of the game though, yikes!! There's also one section involving the wandering baddie I mentioned where getting discovered by it has you bleed and collapse but you don't lose any progress.... In fact, I'm not even sure what really happened. It just spawns elsewhere? This makes the nemesis less of a threat and more of just a mild nuisance, if even that. Honestly, this element of the game is the least thought out. It ruins immersion and logic~


x On one playthrough, I could not interact with the screen despite it flashing endlessly indicating to me to do so.

x The same text kept repeating and I couldn't advance.


~ Quite a few misspellings and other innocent typos.
~ Full keyboard support would benefit the minigames!


"Beef is at times like a half-baked product flawed across several criteria. But then other times it is properly cooked and incredibly well-seasoned. However, after all that's been said and done, the highly affordable price for the very proportional fill makes this a no-brainer must have~"

3 out of 5 Cans


Sincerely,
Chen Ying

Be sure to check out "DaRevieweD", y'know THAT brutally honest yet beloved Steam curator that you haven't followed yet!?


+ Gameplay is pretty much the same as every other walking simulator horror title or is it now? Well, you have scavenger hunt type puzzles, twice the amount than in Claire, that will occupy you for about a solid hour so make sure you keep your eyes peeled all around! I read people found them tough but I much rather enjoyed them and solved them with ease. Though I could see why some may condemn them and give up halfway. It's an acquired taste after all and I possess superior intellect, what can I say! There's also the little nook and cranny details that I wholly welcome which flesh out the family tree and grant some good ol' foreshadowing of fates. All in all, the mental deterioration of an ordeal lasts 3-4 hours~
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3641745886

+ The chases make up the other mechanic that set Claire apart from Ethel, thus they deserve their own pro because they aren't your standard "scripted chase run in a pre-defined path for a bit to escape" fodder. They double as tense stealth sequences where you have to rely on both your spatial memory of the interiors of the house and your hopefully accurate hearing as you're bathed in total darkness. The patrolling spirits may or may not have some pesky habits built in too... Shh, I've said too much!

+ Ethel was an audio Picasso, so what does that make Claire? I'd reckon the latter is a museum of Picasso's masterpieces...! There's still the signature creaks, murmurs, and whispers but with slightly more restraint. Voice acting has been implemented tenfold and that's always a win in my eyes or rather ears, hoho! Beth's tone is characterized by hopeful naivete and a prim proper cadence, she was a joy to listen to! The ensemble fit right at home too with no obvious weak links.

+ Tony Shoulders must either moonlight as an architect or was one in a past life. Why, you ask? Just look at Claire's pad, MMM! Whereas Ethel's cozy residence was the embodiment of claustrophobia awash with depressants, Claire's is grand but not too lavish with traces of the former's spirit coming and going depending on the mood lighting, if at all. I can't wait to see where the next game ventures! I need another spooky staycation, pronto!

+ In all truthfulness, I much preferred the tightknit and nuclear-family-esque nature that revolved around Thomas. And I was pretty perplexed and bewildered by the extended family of Beth and Claire. It was a traumatic hark back to the rapid fire recollections that your mom could muster with the snap of a finger and 99% rate of accuracy too. Then it hit me, yeah, families are meant to be complex and secretive. For that alone, the realism of it all brought it up in good standing yet again. Once I brushed through that, I could genuinely appreciate the melodrama that followed and I wanted to beat the living daylights out of Claire. That poor fool! I won't ever understand certain character motivations, but I can respect it especially if it is deemed significant to them.

+ What makes it scary? For one, you'll be either pleased or utterly crushed and might I add fearful to know that the jumpscares have been toned down. Now, you can only wait for the scare that will never come... Or maybe they will, when you least expect them. BWAHAH Secondly, this was true for Ethel's case as well as Claire's too, so I feel it fair to mention and give it the recognition it deserves. But the way the endings are handled were done so with poise. Heck, before you decide on one, you're given all the facts to make an informed decision unless you only skimmed through them, lols...! Last but not least, check on your family? Stay in touch. You never know what they are going through. On the other hand, some relationships are better left strained, your call! It does have you think though~
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3641744833


- To my dismay, as I have lived out this experience firsthand and personally underwent many a deaths, I can imagine that a majority of consumers will find fault and vent out their frustrations on the matter of the chases. In particular, one of the ending routes' ensuing chase is downright unbeatable unless you perform a *specific* action; closing a door for a ghost! The problem here is all the other encounters played by the same rules- turn off your lighter and you're fine. Don't run and you're golden. As such, it kind of felt cheap and broken.
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3641841328

- You get to revisit familiar territory in chapter 3 and I was all for it. That was until I realized that a retconning of one of the endings to Ethel, sort of. It may have just been really clever subverting of expectations. That said, I found, speaking as someone who played its predecessor, there's quite a bit of dredging through facts we already know and have established in the first game, least for the player. I understand Beth has to discover these too, I just thought there were better and less redundant ways of doing as such. Tony admitted in the credits that Ethel was going to be a standalone thing and had not idea it would develop into a full-blown franchise and it showed.

- The voice acting was above average and generally acceptable throughout its runtime. However, I did find some of Beth's delivery flat and surprisingly enough they're reserved for the moments that should carry the most emotional weight and stakes! The end result being that I was sucked out of the shocking scenes...


x Model of malevolent spirit revealed way in advance. Staying firmly in place possibly due to triggers not working right.


~ "I need to stay quiet" text repeatedly appears whenever I press shift during the chase sequences.

~ The way and pace in which Beth runs is super underwhelming... Sometimes I can't tell when I am running.

~ I just realized both Ethel and Claire are missing audio settings!

~ It would be nice to credit the voice actors too for potential fans and/or networking purposes.


"Claire may be more posh and ambitious but it does not necessarily translate to her being more able. Sure, she can carry herself with more grace but when she lets her hair down, she does so twice as hard in ferocity and relentlessness sacrificing some clarity in the process. She's louder too, more vulnerable and yet she chokes when it counts most. That said, just like Ethel, her beautiful humanity & spirit are preserved proving the sequel curse invalid~"

3.75 out of 5 Warnings~


Sincerely,
Chen Ying