An IFComp 2021 game. IFDB. A ghost story about nursing home abuses… pretty horrific, but in the end still nothing compared to the reality. Well written, with light explorability/interactivity that enhances the “being there” sense.
I rated it 8 of 10.
+1 Interactions are fun and/or consonant with the theme +1 No distracting bugs +1 Polished; quality-of-life features (including hints) that enhance the experience +1 Effective prose +1 Well-sketched setting +1 Compelling plot +1 Memorable character(s) +1 I admire this
I wrote this review on intfiction.org:
A ghost story about a nursing home. This is effective horror, mixing the supernatural with the all-too-plausible horrors of the elder care industry. I’m not personally a fan of horror games; even so, I found this compelling and affecting.
One thing that worked especially well for me was structuring Shady Oaks as one long hallway with rooms off the sides and the ominous abandoned back-half of the building.
You leave the room and look to the end of the hall, where double glass doors seal your wing off from the other half of the building. Behind the doors, you see nothing but darkness. The other wing seems to be abandoned. And without power.
Alright, all you have to do is walk to the end of the hall, right up to those doors, and find this closet. Easy…
The game is strongly guided from one beat to the next and never asks the player to navigate, but the clear layout made the space easy to visualize and helped the creeping dread land. My mind’s eye inserted a trombone shot every time we looked back at the end of the hall.
The pacing is good too. Each screen of text is compact and expresses one moment, idea, or thought. There are rarely more than 100 words on the screen at a time, and the length varies according to what’s going on moment-to-moment. The game gets very terse in a tense moment, the absence of information emulating the laser-focus of a scary situation.
The characters are distinctive and memorable, especially the residents of Shady Oaks which is appropriate with the theme. And there are choices with consequences! A life-or-death decision pays off at the end of the first act, setting stakes for the rest of the story and foreshadowing the horrific reveal at the end.
The whole thing feels very polished. There are some text effects to sell particular sensory touchstones (flickering lights, a hacking cough) that I don’t usually appreciate, but here they are subtle enough to be additive.
Overall I’m very glad I ran across this. I admire the execution, and could see myself recommending it to a friend (depending on taste). Thanks Billy!