SLEEP AWAKE was provided by Blumhouse Games for review. Thank you!
I love horror games, especially when they feel largely unique in a way I have never seen before. However, most horror games tend to follow similar patterns, and while there can be new stories, it's almost never fully new experiences that make me do a double-take. However, SLEEP AWAKE does. It has a premise that I have really never seen before, while also creating a world that I found intoxicating in its crazy weirdness. It ultimately creates an experience that I fell in love with, and I can't help but recommend playing through.
The biggest hook of SLEEP AWAKE has to be its story, which almost immediately hooked me. Basically, whenever people fall asleep, this evil force, the Hush, will make you disappear. So, it’s either find ways to stay awake, which includes taking drugs and hallucinating your way through life, or letting yourself be taken. This has led to the world deteriorating, cults popping up, and an overzealous police force senselessly killing people they deem threats.
I’ve never seen a premise like this one before, and I love it. I would say most people would deem sleep as a blessing, but in this world, sleep is essentially death. That’s what our protagonist, Katja, comes in. We have to survive, basically solving puzzles to keep herself awake, while also figuring out what she will have to do next to ensure her survival, even at the cost of her own sanity.
And boy, is that sanity tested. The game is marketed as a psychedelic experience, and I’d consider that a little bit of an understatement. With how we are hallucinating and going in and out of sleep and dreams, or just putting on our sketchy eye drops, the world will morph randomly. Hands can come out of walls, lights can change on a dime, we can be walking one minute and then floating through bedframes into these hexagons to put the shadows of people who have been taken by the Hush to rest, and much more. I wouldn’t necessarily consider it a traditional horror experience, but it is thrilling, creepy, and unnerving all the same.
I also want to commend the use of real footage instead of relying only on digital. Because the game teeters on the cusp of dreams and reality, the splicing of real-life footage drives home the surrealistic aspects of SLEEP AWAKE, which only improve the overall experience.
Despite some awkward dialogue delivery from some of the voice actors from time to time, SLEEP AWAKE's story felt unique and captured its own horror-filled essence. The reliance on psychedelic scenery and vibrant changes makes sense within the context of the game, and it's implemented well enough not to get old. The scenery just oozes charm and creepiness, from the broken-down apartment we live in to the vibrant world outside, stained with the deaths of those taken by the Hush. The world is haunting and creepy, and it does exactly what it needs to create this aura of uneasiness when walking around, and is complemented perfectly by the booming soundtrack that encompasses the game.
The gameplay itself strikes a good balance between puzzles and sneaking past people. Most of the game will be us walking around, taking in the sights, completing puzzles, and witnessing some crazy events transpiring in front of us. There will be some spots where we have to sneak by people, and while the mechanics are sound, none of it felt forced or stuck around longer than it should have. It all felt nicely balanced, with the environment being entertaining enough to gaze at and take my time walking through.
However, getting caught when sneaking was the worst. If you get caught, you will go to a loading screen and then have to very slowly walk through a corridor to make it back to the real world. It feels like it takes a full 30 seconds to just revive, which is way too long. It was probably the only gameplay moment that took me completely out of the game. Still, this was a minor issue, and the bulk of the game didn't make me feel this way.
I would say the gameplay does well for this type of game. Unless it's a survival-horror game, I expect more reliance on the world-building, creepiness, and story, which I feel SLEEP AWAKE did. There were only one or two puzzles that I felt were a little too difficult to figure out as easily as the others, but it's not impossible to complete. The gorgeous, creepy world is so much fun to walk around, and there always seems to be something new to see around the corner that is just as interesting.
When all is said and done, SLEEP AWAKE is a surprisingly optimized game. Even at the lowest settings, the game looks and performs quite well on the Steam Deck, which I wouldn’t have expected. As a horror game, this is something I’d consider essential for portable play, and I’m glad they were able to do it. However, it isn’t perfect.
The game will stick above 30 FPS almost the entire time, and will usually hang around 40-50 at the default lowest settings, but there are still a few hiccups. Specifically, when loading into a new area, the framerate will drop to the 20s, and there are some areas that have too much going on and will drop to the 20s or even the 17-18 FPS range. There aren’t many places like this, but they exist and are enough to disrupt the flow.
Since nothing can be done, and the majority of areas aren’t this draining, I actually increased the graphical quality overall. I was able to get away with increasing the resolution scale to 75%, as well as bringing textures and anti-aliasing up. Ultimately, the game stuck above 30 FPS still, and those draining areas went down from 25 FPS to 21 FPS on average. Yes, it is more taxing, but the difference in visual quality is significant and improves the experience.
Because the game doesn’t have a consistent framerate at the default settings, I wouldn’t say it deserves the verified badge. But it is still playable and very enjoyable. If you can deal with these few areas, 85% of the game that does run well will be phenomenal.
We can change the language, subtitles, invert camera controls, hide the crosshair, change audio settings, and change camera sensitivity, but that's about it in the settings.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. There are HDR settings you can turn on, and it does recognize the Steam Deck OLED screen.
SLEEP AWAKE is by far one of my favorite horror games I have played this year. The story is creative and intriguing, hooking me until the end so I could see what would happen next. The gameplay has a nice balance that I would expect a horror game like this to have, even though a couple of the puzzles are a little hard to solve, and dying takes way too long to come back. Still, this is one of the more creative horror games I have played, and it is one of my favorites that I have played this year.
While it isn't completely solid throughout, the game is still very playable on the Steam Deck. It runs decently in most areas, though there are some unavoidable drops that could go below 20 FPS. Still, it doesn't happen often, and I still recommend playing it on the Steam Deck.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
A.I.L.A. was provided by Fireshine Games for review. Thank you!
In today's world, it isn't insane to have a fear of the possibility of what AI could become. It's scary seeing it seep into almost everything we do online now, and it can feel a bit crazy. Still, it's interesting to think about where it could head, and that makes some games with overly intelligent AI quite intriguing. A.I.L.A is one of these stories, taking on what a game-focused AI could do if given control of our ever-evolving world of tech and how it integrates into our daily lives. Despite a predictable story and combat I wish I could avoid, A.I.L.A succeeds in creating a horrific experience that kept me on my toes and shows off a variety of locations that kept me hooked until the end.
A.I.L.A’s story is a bit on the predictable side, but that didn’t stop it from being entertaining. We play as Samuel, a game tester who is testing out a brand new product called A.I.L.A. This unit packs an advanced AI that can create horror experiences based on the preferences of its user. However, almost immediately, the AI seems to be pushing its limits, and it drives us to new experiences and a loss of control that hits a little bit hard in this current age.
While the whole storyline and AI’s evolution is easy to guess, it’s still a lot of fun to play through. I enjoyed the back and forth, going through the unique levels A.I.L.A creates, which range from creepy apartment complexes to medieval landscapes. The pacing does feel a little off at times, with some levels taking up a lot of time to just get back to our apartment for a few minutes of story development, but I loved the variety that each level brought to the table. It felt like condensed, unique horror experiences all put into one game, which was interesting. And with meaningful choices involved that can lead to multiple different endings, there are reasons to dive back in and play multiple times.
In today’s day and age, AI stories tend to hit a little harder than they used to. With the rise of AI and all the products being created with it, it’s a justifiable fear to think AI could become self-aware. It’s because of this possible eventuality that A.I.L.A’s story just hits different. It’s not necessarily a bad thing; it makes the story a little more impactful than it would be otherwise, which I would consider good.
For horror games, visuals are a very important aspect to creating a haunting experience, and A.I.L.A takes this to heart. The visuals are stunning and creepy, which made me want to take things slow and steady to get through each level. And because of the variety of each level, due to the way the game is structured, it always felt like there was something unique in each place.
The gameplay is pretty straightforward for horror games, feeling reminiscent of the newer Resident Evil games that take place in first person. You walk around each level and solve puzzles to continue the story along, experiencing horrors as you go. I would say 95% of the puzzles are pretty straightforward, but do require some thought to complete, as well as utilizing objects we find scattered around to complete them. There are some directions on what to do next, like whether to find the right fingerprint to unlock a door or fix a car, but it’s up to you to figure it out.
There are some puzzles that I found a little too difficult, but the majority of them can be figured out with a little bit of thought. Still, it never got to a frustrating point, and ultimately, it was fun to figure out.
However, I wish combat weren’t as prominent as it is. There are some levels where fighting enemies becomes a necessity, and the mechanics just don’t feel great. There are both melee weapons and guns we can use, but it feels half-baked with enemies that feel like bullet sponges. There are some generous aspects, like respawning at full health if you die and the shotgun being decently powerful, but it’s still borderline aggravating. I wanted to avoid these sections completely without my more powerful weapons, but they didn’t frustrate me enough to ruin the overall experience. I didn’t like them, and it just felt clunky with some areas not having enough ammo, and melee combat feeling floaty, but it was something I could overlook.
A.I.L.A is a bit of an odd one on the Steam Deck. It did get Verified ahead of its launch, and I would say it technically deserves the badge due to its default settings going straight to the lowest, but this makes some of the levels look terrible. The lighting completely changes the game, and it makes the scene look either devoid of shadows or devoid of color. Some places look terrible, like our apartment and the first two levels we will play through.
However, there are also some levels that look better at low quality. The third level, where we are at a farm, performs significantly better on Low over Medium, but visually, it looks about the same or better. It's an odd conundrum that makes it hard to choose settings to recommend. On one hand, we can go with low visuals with a good chunk of the game looking bad, but performing well. But on the other hand, we can get solid visuals with some drops in other levels.
Personally, I actually preferred dealing with the drops. There are a couple of extra changes that I made to stabilize the framerate a little more, like turning FSR to Performance upscaling and View Distance to Low, but it still looks fantastic. For horror games like this, visuals can be a big part of the experience, and while there is some pixelation from upscaling, the lighting makes a huge difference. It does drain battery life a bit more as well, but this is a demanding game in general, and I found the trade-offs worth it.
The only big issue is that every time the game is booted up, the settings will default back to Low. It's a little annoying to have to change each time, so I can understand defaulting to just staying at Low, but the game looks significantly better in most areas at Medium, so it's hard not to change it each time.
There is a dedicated Accessibility tab in the game, which includes options for subtitles, showing objectives, aim assistance (highly recommended if playing with a controller), Vignette Effect, camera shake, font contour, reticle and interaction icon size, and color blindness options for Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia.
We also have regular options for showing tutorials, auto reloading, camera blend, bloodscreen, showing the reticle at all, controller sensitivity, running mode, changing the controller scheme, switching between English and Portuguese voiceovers, and changing audio volume.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. There are no HDR settings.
A.I.L.A is a solid horror game that shines thanks to its gorgeous visuals and interesting story. Despite it being a bit predictable, I was entertained and enjoyed seeing everything play out, and the variety of locations made the experience overall feel very unique and kept me interested. Combat parts of gameplay weren't that enjoyable, but I had a great time figuring out the puzzles, and it strikes a nice balance with its difficulty. Still, it's an overall unique and enjoyable time that fans of horror will enjoy.
And even though it isn't the greatest experience out of the box, it's playable on the Steam Deck. It doesn't save the changed settings on a new boot, but the visuals look significantly better set to Medium over Low for the most part. Still, either way, it's playable and enjoyable on the go.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Silent Hill f was provided by Konami for review. Thank you!
Konami is on a roll lately. While they have most notably released collections of some of their classic titles, like Castlevania, they recently released the Metal Gear Solid (MGS): Snake Eater remake, which I loved. It became one of the few games that actually captivated me enough to play through a second time, and that’s not something I normally do. A month after its release, Silent Hill f is here, and just like MGS, it completely hooked me to the point where I felt the need to go back and start a second playthrough. I didn’t expect it to rope me in like it did, but not only did it successfully do exactly that, it took almost all my worries and made them disappear.
In the game, we play as Hinako, a schoolgirl who is sucked into what feels like an alternative dimension. She will go to search for her friends and find a way out, while dealing with her own self-doubts and problems that she has to face from her destructive household and sense of self-worth.
The story is where Silent Hill f shines, and I don’t want to go too deep into it so I can avoid spoilers at all cost. However, expect an emotional rollercoaster with twists that got me in ways I didn’t expect. It felt like the story could go one way or the other based on clues littered throughout the documents we can pick up, but in the end, we just go a whole different direction than I initially expected, and it made so much sense.
One of the big reasons I decided to quickly start the second playthrough is the changes from New Game+ and the alternate endings we can get. After completing the game, there are four more endings to unlock that are all detailed, and as soon as I saw what we had to do to unlock them, I was immediately brought in. It feels like the entire game and outcome could completely change with what we’d need to do to get those endings, and boy is it a treat.
Expect the game to be very coded and loose with its storytelling. There isn’t much that is outright explained, especially on the first playthrough, so it’s going to be a lot of guessing. It’s not necessarily bad, and it helps knowing there are other endings and more to do after beating the game, but it did leave me wondering and very curious initially.
Visually, the game is just stunning. The monochrome town with the iconic Silent Hill fog, the vibrant red flowers that erupt, and the gorgeous lighting of the more classic Japanese world we will have to explore just blew my mind at times. The haunting soundtrack and solid voice acting helped bring it all together. However, their lip movements didn’t always sync with the English dub, but it didn’t detract from the experience.
I wasn’t really worried about the story or visuals going into the game, but the gameplay was another story. I had heard previews comparing the combat to soulslikes and there being a big focus on it. I didn’t know how to feel hearing all of this, but I kept an open mind going in, and I’m glad I did.
Combat starts off relatively simple. We have a weak and strong attack, as well as the ability to dodge. Our weak attack doesn’t do a lot of damage, but is relatively fast, while the strong attack is slow and deals more damage. Using the strong attack can also stun the enemy, which will receive extra damage when attacked, and makes weak attacks worthwhile to use. All of your moves use up stamina, which can be replenished by not attacking or dodging for some time or timing your dodge perfectly, which will fully refill your stamina.
As we keep playing, we will learn new types of moves and mechanics to master. We learn how to counter fairly quickly to put enemies into a stun, though the indicator of when to counter is hard to see, and the timeframe is quite short. And following that up, we learn about our focus and sanity bars. Focus allows us to charge up a weapon to do a special move that will usually stun the enemy, and this costs Sanity. However, while in focus mode, the timeframe to counter is extended as well. So, if you know your enemy’s attack patterns, you can strategically get into focus to ensure you land a good counter.
Combat grew on me, and while there’s a lot of it, it’s enjoyable. It reminded me a lot of God of War 2018 and Ragnarok’s combat systems, with some small soulslike elements like the stamina bar. I didn’t mind the stamina bar much, but I did mind the weapon durability system. There were a few times in the beginning of my first playthrough where I almost ran out of weapons and had to resort to running away and dodging through enemies. This changed later on, and there are plenty of weapons to find with an item that can restore durability, but it was a nuisance at first.
I would say the only time I was genuinely aggravated in combat was having to fight multiple enemies at once. The mechanics feel perfect for one-on-one fights, and they shine in these moments and the boss fights against these crazy monsters. But mix in 2-3 enemies at a time, with all of them attacking at once or right after each other, and it was just too much. I’d have to exhaust my stamina just to dodge away and hope they weren’t fast enough to catch up to me as I was trying to heal. There were a couple of times it just felt way too much, and that brought the experience down a little.
The other big element of Silent Hill f is its puzzles, and boy, can they be difficult. When choosing a new game, you can decide the difficulty of the combat and the puzzle difficulty, which I found interesting. I started off hard, and there were definitely moments I hit a snag. One puzzle in the middle school had me in my head thinking it was more complicated than it was, but some of the others actually were. Reading clues and using your journal with logged information is going to be a lifesaver here. Documents are going to be key here, both in terms of story and to help get through puzzles.
I actually want to praise the team specifically for how they implemented the UI. The journal sorts the relevant clues for each puzzle, while the map does an excellent job of telling us where we have and hadn’t gone yet, with some landmarks to give us an idea of what’s in the rooms we’ve already been to. Some areas can get very confusing to walk around in, with winding corridors and many rooms, so the map with the clear real-time updates is a life saver.
There are ways to improve yourself with upgrades, which give a nice touch for the most part. We can find Ema to use with accumulated faith and upgrade Health, Stamina, Sanity, and the number of Omamori we can hold. Omamori gives us some passive buffs, like getting some health back after an enemy is defeated or increasing the potency of healing items. We can find these around the world or use Faith to gain a random one. Faith is mainly gathered from offering up objects or items at Shrines, which stems from one other problem I had with the game: inventory management.
Silent Hill f has eight inventory slots for items you pick up, and with how many healing items there are for health, sanity, stamina, and special objects that can give lots of faith when offered, it very quickly becomes a problem. There are items you can find to increase your inventory space, but I found them far and few on my first playthrough. I was getting rid of items very often because I wanted to keep my faith items to upgrade, but I ultimately had to sacrifice healing items that would have come in handy not much later. Starting New Game+ with more space completely alleviated the problem.
I was pretty surprised when I saw Silent Hill f get the Steam Deck Playable rating, especially after the release of Metal Gear Solid Delta. With the reasons it was rated Playable due to small text and needing to manually set the graphical options, I went in worried. However, after playing around with the settings, I can say that it is more playable than I expected, but there are some compromises.
There is one spot in particular that I was able to test effectively to make sure the settings are the best they can be. There’s an early semi-early on where we are engulfed in fog and have to find the correct dolls to show us the way to get out. For whatever reason, there’s one section of this that’s very demanding, so I chose to optimize there.
Regardless of the upscalers I chose, whether it be FSR or TSR, as well as just changing the rendering scale without upscalers, I ultimately found that FSR on Balanced provided the best performance and visual quality balance. I had also played around with shadows and view distance to find a balance between better visuals, especially in the town, and performance. With those combined, I came to a compromise with FSR balanced, view distance, shadows, and textures on medium, and everything else on Low.
I also decided to keep the indirect lighting set to "Lumen High" instead of off and reflections set to Screen Space Reflections (SSR). Lumen and SSR are usually a very intensive setting to have on, and while I would usually turn it off, it changes the entire look of the world for the worse. Specifically, the iconic fog that defines Silent Hill games and the flowers that define this entry either disappear or become completely colorless. It changes the look and feel of the world, and that effectively ruins the experience. It's still playable with these settings on, but with some extra little stutters here and there. Still, I wouldn't have it any other way.
The doll area still had some drops, but stuck above 25 FPS. With it being the only area I’ve found to behave this way, apart from some cutscenes and the Journal menu, I felt the small drops justified the better visuals. There are some small stutters here and there when running around and going to new parts of the areas you are exploring, but taking it slow, in combat, and completing puzzles generally stuck to 30 and above. There are even some areas that can go up to 40, but there are many more that drop, so I recommend just sticking to 30 FPS for the most stable experience.
While there may be some areas that don’t drain battery as much, expect to be pushing the Deck to its limits. There will also be some lighting pop-in and some shadows may have a slight grainy effect at the ends of them, but it ultimately looks better and stays stable overall.
Against my initial worries, Silent Hill f is still playable and enjoyable on the Steam Deck. It may not have the visual fidelity that can come from more powerful computers and consoles, but it’s definitely enjoyable while looking decent, and that's just a treat.
We can change options for controls like camera sensitivity, inverted style, vibrations, how to toggle running, change language, subtitle size, color, and audio settings.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, cloud saves, and controllers. The game does have HDR settings and recognizes the Steam Deck OLED screen.
Silent Hill f does have flaws, but the pros heavily outweigh the cons. The story sucked me in and combat was more fun than I expected. I am being more nit-picky with the issues I’m bringing up, but they ultimately never affected my enjoyment of the game, nor made me think twice about getting back into it for round 2. And a lot of the issues I had were erased as soon as New Game+ started, which was like a weight lifted off my shoulders.
On top of that, it actually runs quite well on the Steam Deck. It’s definitely not perfect and needs compromises to run effectively, but the game is playable on the Deck and can look gorgeous. It may cost a little extra performance in 3-4 scenes, but they include graphical improvements I’d consider necessary to enjoy.
In the end, Silent Hill f is a thrilling game, and if this keeps up, the future of AAA releases from Konami is going to look very bright.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
No, I'm Not a Human was provided by Critical Reflex for review. Thank you!
There are a few development and publisher studios that come to my mind that I feel are underrepresented and deserve more attention. One of those publisher studios is Critical Reflex. Over the past two years, they have brought some incredible games like Lunacid, Arctic Eggs, Threshold, and one of my favorites, Mothwashing. They are releasing a slate of new games over the next couple of weeks, and No, I'm Not a Human is one of them. While it may be short, the game offers an experience that kept me on the edge the entire time I played, and it's awesome.
No, I'm Not a Human does a fantastic job of using its unique art style to communicate this unnerving sense of unease throughout the entirety of the game. From the darkish green color palette at night and the morphed faces of the humans that come to your door, to the way the rooms of your house look and how the doors open, it feels like every aspect was meticulously crafted to accommodate and enhance that uneasy ambiance.
It's probably the aspect of the game I love the most. Even with its basic gameplay, the world is just so compelling and does a great job of keeping me on my toes. Just walking through the house and opening doors, or even turning around after looking through the peephole of the front door, which morphs how people look even more, kept my paranoia spiking.
With the world coming to an end due to the Sun starting to erupt, you will have to find a way to survive against unknown entities called Visitors that seem to come up from the ground. However, to survive, you will have to live in your house with people, so it's up to you to decide who comes in and try to discern who is human and who is a Visitor, and who will need to die. It's not a deep story, but it just fits perfectly within the context of the game.
No, I’m Not a Human shines from its anxiety-inducing atmosphere, and its gameplay mechanics enhance it. Every night, people will come to your door and you’ll have to decide whether to let them in or not. The choice is up to you, but during the day, you’ll have to test them and find out whether or not they are these underground visitors murdering people. With new tests introduced to try out every day, and new symptoms to look for, we have to act strategically to use our limited energy and make sure we take in as many people as we can, as long as they aren’t these visitors.
It's pretty simple on the surface. You let people in, have to test them and check their teeth, hands, eyes, and other body parts, and if they show signs, you can decide whether or not to shoot them. All of the humans and visitors tend to act odd, so testing will be the sure-fire way to figure out who is who. However, some people may show a couple of signs, or just one, and listening to their stories and why they may be showing signs could change your mind about whether or not to shoot them. It still never lets up on its creepiness, and the animations of checking people are especially creepy.
Playthroughs of the game may seem relatively short, and they are, but there are reasons to come back and play multiple times. There are 10 endings to unlock, with some having relatively complicated methods to unlock them, and a few being relatively straightforward. On top of that, there are some secrets to uncover and special events that can play out by spending time talking to people. It's quick to get through, but there's enough reason to come back and play again. Still, an excuse to get back into this creepy world is one I will happily take.
Throughout the playthrough, you can also get items to increase your energy, which can be very helpful for testing others to make sure the people in your house are human. However, while the items are mostly useful and interesting, I dislike how the save system is linked to an item. The only way to save the game is by drinking Kombucha, and with how short the game is, it makes some sense that saving won't be commonplace. Still, I encountered a couple of bugs in my playthrough that forced me to quit the game, and I ended up either having to start over or go back pretty far.
There have been a few updates to the game since I started writing this review, so it's possible these issues I found were fixed, btu I still wish the save system was more accessible over being linked to an item.
No, I'm Not a Human is an awesome game to play on the Steam Deck and generally works well, but it isn't perfect. I noticed the game drains a lot more than I think it should. The game is essentially one 3D model of a home with 2D humans that come in and out. At 60 FPS, looking out your front door peephole can push battery drain to 18W and higher, while walking around the house sits at 15.5W. Looking into rooms can bring battery drain down, but it's just odd how high it can go.
To counter this, I recommend setting the framerate to 45 FPS. It still feels smooth, while also bringing the drain down. It's still relatively high, but looking out the peephole goes down to 13W instead of 17W, and that's a nice decrease. Since there aren't any other graphical settings to change, this is about all we can do.
I also noticed a few problems with controls. The most debilitating was the cursor just completely disappearing. This could stop progression entirely, as we can't select people to talk to or even the bed, so we can sleep. Switching to the Keyboard and Mouse controller scheme fixes this for a moment, but switching back will keep it hidden. And sometimes, we have to reboot since the controller selection can just disappear.
Mixed with the limited save system, it can be a buzzkill to have to deal with this and start over. There have been some updates since I wrote this review, so this may have gotten better, but it was still obnoxious to have to deal with. It was also listed as a known issue with the game before release, but due to the game having gamepad support and being now listed on the store page with support, I wanted to include my experience.
We can change the language, volume, toggle vibration, and change controller sensitivity, but that's about it. There aren't many settings to change at all.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions, has cloud saves, and includes controller support. There are no HDR settings.
No, I'm Not a Human sets out to create a short, horror narrative with an unbeatable, paranoia-inducing atmosphere, and it succeeds completely. The game is unnerving from start to finish, thanks to its color palette, combination of 3D and 2D visuals, and creepy artwork that morphs people's faces to never look completely normal. Something always feels off, and even though it is short, the atmosphere developer Trioskaz is going for transcends a lot of other horror games' atmospheres I have played.
Apart from some minor issues with controls and how high the battery drain can be, it runs quite well on the Steam Deck. It still feels a little off how high it can drain when looking through the front door peephole, but it isn't the end of the world. A 45 FPS lock helps a lot here, and this is a great game to play cuddled up in bed.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Cronos: The New Dawn was provided by Bloober Team for review. Thank you!
Developer Bloober Team has been undeniably one of the best horror studios around. They started making a name for themselves in the space with Layers of Fear in 2016, and have increased their notoriety steadily with Observer and Blair Witch, culminating with the hyped release of the Silent Hill 2 remake. Now, Bloober is getting back to self-publishing with a brand new IP: Cronos: The New Dawn. It first got my attention with its visual similarities to Dead Space, which I love, but I was completely pulled in thanks to the gorgeous visuals, intriguing story, creepy atmosphere, and slower-paced gameplay.
Even with the slower start, the story hooked me in relatively quickly. We play as The Traveler, who is going to different locations on a desolate Earth, looking for rifts to extract the souls of people from the past. The world was devastated by a mysterious plague that morphed humans into grotesque monsters that have essentially taken over the planet. Our goal is to uncover the origins of this pandemic-induced apocolypse, and we must do it, such is our calling.
Right off the bat, I have to say that this kind of story is right up my alley. Put in a sci-fi, futuristic aesthetic and apocalyptic scenario with a devastated world, and I am all in. Cronos: The New Dawn is a clear example of the exact type of story I love. We get glimpses into the past to piece together what caused this pandemic, interact with different crazy-ish individuals, and make some choices that affect how we progress. It isn't as emotionally-charged as it could be, since this giant spherical mask covers our face, but that didn't detract from the joy I had continuing the tale and reading the lore in passing logs.
While the story completely gripped me, there's just one part that I found hard to enjoy. Throughout Cronos, there will be times when we have discussions with another traveler, and hearing both of them talking in their raspy robotic voices is just a little too jarring for me. The one-off voice lines from our protagonist, and when they talk to other humans, are not that bad, but something about the discussion where both have this type of voice is just a little too much for me. It didn't harm the overall experience, but it's worth mentioning.
Visually, all I can really say is wow. Bloober Team has stepped up their game and created an extremely creepy and tense world that I found myself needing to take time to get through just because I didn't know what would come next. The atmosphere exudes this unnerving feeling, with grotesque pulsating flesh across the walls and ceilings, floating debris with anomalies disrupting gravity, and destruction as far as the eye can see, all cloaked in the darkness illuminated only by the light on your shoulder. It works in tandem with the soundtrack, which can both creep me out more and pump me up in fights. It's just fantastic through and through.
I was a little worried that, with the emphasis on combat, Cronos would feel more like a thriller over the horror experience I had hoped. I am happy to say that fear is unfounded. Even with third-person combat, crafting, and more action-oriented mechanics, there are enough moments to keep that horror focus intact. Enemies can pop out of the flesh, bodies can come to life, random sounds, the necessity of walking slow, and the atmosphere all work together to keep tensions high.
We have a lot of time to admire the world of Cronos due to how necessary it really is to take your time, go slow, and be as careful as possible. There could be enemies lurking around every corner, and with how scarce resources and ammo are, we have to be careful and conserve everything we have. There are some well-placed resources here and there, and exploration is rewarded nicely with extra ammo, crafting materials, and currency. Taking time to really scan and find the chain-locked doors and cracks in the wall, we can slip through, which will make or break future encounters.
Luckily, getting into combat is still enjoyable, but we can't just let loose. All of the enemies we come across can easily kill us if we aren't careful, and if we are just too willing to use our ammo, we will run out very quickly. So, we have to take our time, shoot for specific areas, like the legs, to make them fall over, and melee attack. We need to be careful with our melee attacks, since enemies will sometimes not flinch from being punched or stomped, so timing and knowing when to move away to not be hit by their spit or arms.
On top of that, we have to also be very aware of our surroundings. Not only can it be helpful, with explosive barrels that can help disperse multiple enemies or deal some big damage to tougher foes, but enemies can merge with their fallen brethren and become significantly stronger. They can merge up to three times, and letting them merge can ultimately lead to our downfall. To combat this, we have a capsule to shoot on the ground that burns bodies around us. Like the rest of our resources, this is limited, and while we can get them more easily compared to the rest of the resources, we still need to be careful.
In general, I do enjoy combat; it's tense and adds to the appeal of Cronos, but it can get frustrating in some instances. There are a few fights that come to mind where I have to fight enemies that have merged once already, and I have to defeat them in very small spaces. Sometimes, the camera positioning got in my way, while others it was just difficult to manage multiple foes, or more powerful ones, and not die. These deaths felt unfair, and with some of them bringing me far back to a previous save point when I perished, I started to feel frustrated. This didn't happen super often, and it wasn't enough for me to close the game and take a break, but it was still there and still annoying.
To help us, we can use those crafting materials and currency to craft, upgrade, or purchase some necessary items. The upgrades are helpful, especially increasing inventory items, but it does take a while to upgrade weapons. With how necessary the currency is for getting items when we need to and upgrading, I regularly found myself a little short of getting the upgrades I wanted. This is one of the few games where I consistently found a use for the assortment of weapons I had, and that's an achievement in itself, but it also meant I had more upgrades that I wanted to make, which strained my wallet.
However, I would say this strain and worry are a big part of what makes Cronos: The New Dawn so appealing. It's supposed to be tense and difficult, while also forcing us to strategize to conserve what we have and make smart choices to keep us from dying. While some of the fights can get too difficult and teeter on frustrating, it never stopped me from wanting to keep playing.
When I first loaded Cronos up on the Steam Deck, I was a little worried. Despite it not showing up on the Steam store page, it does have a native Linux build, which is the default on the Deck. However, the game is not great in this build. I could just barely hit 30 FPS in closed-off areas on the lowest settings, and there were almost no upscaling options apart from TSR. This felt off to me, especially since the game will be releasing on the Nintendo Switch 2 as well. However, I am happy to say we can fix it, and it's actually way more playable on the Deck than I initially thought.
The fix actually just comes from forcing the Proton compatibility layer and using the Windows version instead of the native Linux build. I genuinely had no idea the Linux build even existed due to it only showing the Windows icon on the Steam store page, so I am glad I tried it. It ends up making a huge difference, with closed-off areas hitting almost 50 FPS on Very Low settings, staying above 30 FPS the whole time, no matter what, and giving us options for the rest of the upscalers we could use.
As I was writing the review, the game got a day 1 patch, which did help performance on the Linux build. Both FSR and XeSS are still not showing up, but it's more playable out of the box on Very Low settings.
Now, with the game working as intended, I can also say it's actually very playable on the Steam Deck. However, there's only one way to play it. Ultimately, only the Very Low preset of Cronos works on the Deck, with anything above getting the framerate pummeled in more open areas. Even with upscaling turned on with the low-quality preset, or all the advanced settings set to Low or off, framerate can't hit 30. The only way to play on the Steam Deck is using the Very Low preset; that's it.
You can turn FSR or XeSS upscaling on, but it doesn't change the visuals or performance much. They all look relatively the same, and my guess is that the Very Low preset is a specially made one with pre-defined settings that we can't change. Still, I would say the game looks pretty wonderful at this preset, and still gives that creepy atmosphere that defines Cronos. There are some fluctuations in performance when loading in new areas and running through crowded ones, but it generally sticks above 30 with battery drain ranging from 14W to 19W.
However, it isn't all perfect. Despite the better performance, I still encountered crashes here and there. Reloading the game and going through the same scenes seemed to fix it, but I would say this is the result of RAM usage. Since we can go back and play through the scene without crashes, I would consider it playable.
I also tried out the in-game frame generation to see if that would help performance at all, but it only made things significantly worse. It became stuttery with major input lag and completely unplayable. On the other hand, Lossless Scaling is significantly better. It's smoother, has almost no extra input lag, and doesn't feel stuttery at all. Some of the slowdowns feel more pronounced, but to fix this, I disabled the framerate limit and changed the screen refresh rate to 60. This made the issues less prominent and lowered battery drain. They were still there, but I didn't feel the slowdowns as much.
The game still feels great at 30 FPS, and I wouldn't say Lossless Scaling is necessary, but it's a nice option to have. Having Lossless Scaling on does also make some of the ghosting feel more noticeable, with some scenes showing a weird bubble effect around us. It's not enough to drive me crazy, but it's definitely there. This effect gets worse at 3x and 4x, along with more input lag, so I recommend keeping it at 2x for the best experience with frame generation. However, playing at 30 FPS with no Lossless Scaling will still be more stable overall, so I personally recommend that.
Still, in the end, I am pleased to say that Cronos is very playable on the Steam Deck one way or another, and I recommend it, even with some possible crashes here and there. I didn't find one that was difficult to get back to, and I passed right through on the second try. Yes, it is annoying, but if you are someone who only has a Steam Deck to play games or just want to play in bed here and there, it's perfect.
There is a full on accessibility tab, which has options for quick time events, vibration intensity, aim assist, and a center dot to combat motion sickness. There's also a color blind mode for Deuteranopia, Tritanopia, and Protanopia, and a Dyslexic font style. Apart from those, we can change the interaction indicator styler, item shader, reticle settings, HUD elements, language, subtitles, and transcription details with text size, options for tutorials and loading hints, and audio sliders.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions and has both cloud saves and controller support. The game does have HDR and seems to recognize the OLED screen, but it doesn't show up in the quick settings as enabled. Just make sure your Screen Mode is set to Fullscreen or Borderless if you want to use HDR.
Cronos: The New Dawn has quickly become one of my favorite horror games. The story completely hit me, and I loved the sci-fi, futuristic, apocalyptic vibes throughout. The general gameplay, while a bit aggravating at times, feels strategic to make sure we have all the resources and ammo we need, and to make sure we don't die. The visuals and soundtrack just hit, and they ultimately work together to create a creepy, atmospheric, and horror-inducing experience that rarely lets up. This is survival horror at its finest.
On top of that, the game runs much better on the Steam Deck than I expected. It can hold 30 FPS while still looking decent, and is one of the only games I have found frame generation (through Lossless Scaling) to be worthwhile and enhance the experience. All in all, this is a fantastic game to take on the go, and I can't recommend it enough!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Dead Take was provided by Pocketpair Publishing for review. Thank you!
I am a mixed bag when it comes to horror games. I enjoy them, but I get scared very easily. Still, I enjoy and respect the artistry behind them and how they can make something so haunting, creepy, and scary. Dead Take is one of those horror games that I not only loved, but came out with a new appreciation and respect for developer Surgent Studios. Even with its short runtime, this is an experience worth having and will be one of the few horror games I will remember.
The crux of what makes Dead Take so memorable is its story and presentation. You play as Chase, an actor, who is vying for the role of Willie in Duke Cain's latest picture: The Last Voyage. However, your friend Vinny has secured the part, but afterward, has gone missing. He was last at Duke's mansion for a party. Worried about his friend, Chase will travel into the mansion to figure out exactly what went down there and where Vinny is.
What happens next is a journey into the actions of an egocentric, traumatized mind that is willing to do whatever it takes for his artistry. The story is told in a non-traditional format, with the bulk of the details being written in documents and emails that can be found across the mansion. Usually, I don't enjoy this kind of storytelling much; I like being a more active component and seeing events play out in front of me, but the subject matter was interesting enough to keep reading on, and I am so glad it was.
We also have real-life video to find and watch in the cinema, which gives us more clues about who Duke Cain is and the psyche of our two main characters, Chase and Vinny, our other actors, and how they were affected by Duke's crooked methodology. This was awesome to experience. Not only did it give a real look at who these people are and their personalities, which are as complex as our twisted director, but are expertly portrayed by some of the best video game actors and actresses, including Neil Newbon, Ben Starr, Jane Perry, Alanah Pearce, and even features some smaller appearances from Sam Lake, Laura Bailey, and more. Watching these real actors in the videos was captivating and helped their virtual counterparts feel more alive.
The surrealist environment, coupled with these videos, created an unnerving atmosphere that was difficult to get rid of. The short runtime of the game helped make sure its creepy surroundings never overstayed their welcome. Just walking around put me on edge, and I love when horror games are able to evoke that kind of response without resorting to cheaper jump scares.
Speaking of the horror elements, I love the emphasis on atmospheric and psychological horror. The creepy sound effects continually made me nervous as I walked around the dimly lit rooms. There are some of those jump scares, which I very much dislike, but the bulk of the horror was created through the environment and frightening performances of the actors, Duke Cain's chilling voice messages, and the overall message throughout.
Gameplay-wise, Dead Take is more on the basic side. We walk through the mansion, solving countless puzzles to move the story along. The puzzles are primarily enjoyable, with most not being too hard to solve and making me feel smarter afterwards, but there are a couple that just felt impossible to complete. There were a few, with one puzzle with four weapons in particular, that took me significantly longer to complete. There's little direction with some of the puzzles, like that one, and it made it more difficult than it should have been. I wouldn't say it was aggravating or frustrating, but it wasn't enjoyable.
There are some cool aspects to the gameplay mechanics, like finding USB drives and splicing together individual videos we find to create new ones. This leads into the side content, where people can unlock additional footage by finding specific notes and documents throughout the mansion. It isn't straightforward for this either, but I actually enjoyed it here. Figuring out what to do to get this extra footage was something I discovered by chance, and I felt great afterwards.
Dead Take's gameplay isn't too deep, and generally is easy to grasp. We will find a bunch of items and have our own inventory, where we can interact with some of them to uncover the next clue. However, unlike other games that have more basic gameplay, I wasn't longing for more depth. This was a short, sweet, horror-filled experience, and it fulfills it with clear quality and passion from Surgent Studios.
Dead Take was rated Steam Deck Verified ahead of its launch, and while it is playable, it definitely needs some compromises to run well. Even though this is a small game overall, it is very demanding. There are some spots that do run very well when there aren't many objects around you, but it can be quite draining on resources in more complex or outside areas. Finding a balance for visuals with these scenes isn't the easiest, but in the end, I would consider it solid at 30 FPS with some sacrifices.
The game has XeSS 2, TSR, and Nvidia Image upscaling, but neither of them will provide a stable 30 FPS at their lowest possible settings. TSR at 33% render scaling will get a mostly stable 30 FPS, but there are areas towards the end of the game that will have some drops. Putting the rendering scale that low also makes the game look blurry, and text will sometimes linger on the screen when looking away, so I don't recommend going too low.
The three upscalers look very similar to each other, so I would comfortably say you can go with any of them. However, when comparing between all three, I found that TSR at 60% rendering scale was the sweet spot. XeSS 2 had some pixelation around where light was being cast that TSR didn't and Nvidia Image Scaling had more noticeable ghosting.
While some areas of the mansion run well, there are more areas that drop more heavily. Because of that, we can set it to 30 FPS and raise some quality settings, like Texture, above their default Low preset. It does say the Low preset is best for Steam Deck in-game, which I appreciate a lot. There is a "Lowest" preset as well, but I don't recommend using it since it changes the way the game looks completely, for the worse. Still, at these settings, it's very playable and I enjoyed it on the Deck.
The game does have an accessibility tab, which contains options for controller sensitivity, vibrations, analog stick and trigger deadzones, toggles for motion blur and screen shake, and a slider to change how much the camera bobs when moving or standing still. We can also change the text size, which I recommend setting to large, language, showing the reticle, changing different controller presets, and moving audio sliders.
I would also recommend increasing controller sensitivity, as the default movement speed is too low for my taste.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions and has both cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
Dead Take is a horrifying game that uses its short run time to create a memorable time. The way Surgent Studios uses surrealistic architecture, creepy atmosphere, and real-life videos to tell its disturbing story is wonderful. While some puzzles can be a little difficult to figure out without any help, the bulk of the game's basic gameplay is enjoyable when considering how brief the game is. Still, this is clearly a quality over quantity discussion, and I would say this is a quality experience that is worth playing through.
Even with some compromises to visuals and the need for upscaling, it's a great game to enjoy on the Steam Deck. Sitting in my bed and playing Dead Take at night was awesome, even though it had ended up scaring me shitless.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back!
KARMA was provided by Wired Productions for review. Thank you!
When it comes to horror games, I can be quite specific with the titles I enjoy. I am not a fan of over reliance on jump scares and I am a sucker for abstract visuals ant atmospheric creepiness. It can be really captivating with realistic visuals, and I love how they can morph and add to the unnerving sense of the world around you. As soon as I saw KARMA: The Dark World, I knew it would be one of the horror games I could get behind, and it seemed like it had an intriguing story along with it. After playing through it, I am left with mixed feelings, even if the story is fascinating deep down.
Without going into too much detail, you play as Daniel McGovern, a Roam agent for the Leviathan corporation. Your job is to dive into people's minds to investigate crimes against the company and interview suspects. This leads you down into a curious case that is somehow connected to you, and could reveal the sinister purpose behind the company and the sentient AI that runs the show.
I love these kinds of stories. A futuristic, dystopian world, sci-fi machines that can do crazy things like diving into people's memories, and discovering what is wrong in this new society. The game also explores some pretty heavy themes in unique ways, making me question my role in what was unfolding and whether my actions were harming people more or trying to get to the bottom. And the core story itself is one I wanted to know more about as I played, which is great for this kind of experience.
However, I was not a fan of how the story was told. The first hour or so almost completely confused me as to what was happening, and while I got little hints here and there, it didn't all click until the end of the game. I don't mind not knowing the full story and having to piece it together as I play, but it felt a little too outlandish to do that in a pleasant way.
For example, one moment, I was in a clerk's office, and then the next, I ran down a hall and found myself in a red cloth-draped room. After running through, I was in the mailing room. I wasn't diving into anyone's mind then, and I am still not 100% sure how this happened. I understand why it happened, since it gave me some backstory on a character, but since I was in the real world, I can't say how it played out the way it did. The ending did help piece much of it together, and I started to understand why some things were off just a little throughout the game, but it didn't answer all of my questions, including the final scene before the credits.
Thankfully, thanks to the gorgeous visuals, I had a lot of eye candy to enjoy. Every scene in the game felt wonderfully detailed and hauntingly beautiful, especially when diving into brains. It got crazy with some of the scenes, but they all had some deeper meaning behind them that related to the person we dove into. The entire scene could change as the story was told, giving us insight into their psyche and showing more unique scenes with completely different art styles than I expected.
Combined with the soundtrack, KARMA has a fantastic atmosphere that I can't help but love. There are some little nuisances I have, like the near-constant intense breathing that comes from the characters in cutscenes, but it does help emphasize the distress these people are in. It's one of the more beautiful games that I have seen recently, and I enjoy the abstract visuals that help emphasize the story beats.
The gameplay is on the basic side, but it gets the job done. You mostly walk through different scenes, solve puzzles, and interact with objects. With KARMA being a cinematic experience, I am not surprised that the gameplay is more of an addition than a main attraction. There are a couple of areas where you do have to run, though I felt the running was too slow. Still, I didn't mind in the end since it wasn't the main focal point for this game.
Going into KARMA: The Dark World, I was wary that it would run on the Steam Deck at all. The minimum requirements ask for a hefty CPU and GPU that borders on being too much for the Deck's hardware. I was a little hopeful, considering these were the requirements for a 1920x1080 resolution at 30 FPS and didn't take upscaling into account, but I was still a little worried. However, after playing the game, I would say it is playable on the Steam Deck, but it does require some compromises.
There are a lot of areas in KARMA that can hit above 30 FPS, with some even getting to 60 when using low settings and upscalers, but there are also enough areas that will heavily drop performance. I noticed heavy drops at the Thought Bureau and in some crowded scenes, and it was enough that I felt I needed to adjust my settings for them.
After some testing, I came to two conclusions. First, we need to force the resolution down to 1024x640 and use SteamOS FSR at Sharpness 1. Both of these kept the game looking decent while also saving on performance to adjust for these drops. There were still some areas that couldn't be fully fixed, but this, along with a 30 FPS cap, kept the game mostly stable with a relatively low battery drain at around 12W - 13W average. This also makes some lines of subtitle text go off-screen, but it wasn't enough to negatively impact the experience.
Second, we would need to use upscalers and low quality settings. I ended up preferring to use XeSS over FSR due to making further away objects look better and the image overall to be less washed out. XeSS 2 on Performance also performed better than FSR 3 on Performance, so it was a win-win scenario here.
Is it the most enjoyable way to play? No. For a game like this, visuals are really important, and big compromises can hurt the experience. However, it isn't unplayable, and if you only have a Steam Deck to play (or its your most powerful device to play on), it can be played and still be enjoyable.
In KARMA, you can change field of view, sensitivity, crosshair size, camera shake, controller vibration, invert the camera, change subtitle language and size, and modify audio sliders.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions and has both cloud saves and controller support. It also recognizes HDR on the Steam Deck OLED.
KARMA: The Dark World is a beautiful and haunting experience that has a bit of trouble telling the intriguing tale that lies within. The world is gorgeous, and I love the abstract scenery paired with the solid soundtrack. The gameplay is on the basic side, but this is supposed to be cinematic, so I am not disappointed. However, the story is a mixed bag. I like the setting and the actual story being told, but I wasn't a fan of the way it was told, which was confusing throughout its run time. It was still worth playing overall, but I do wish it were easier to grasp.
I was shocked that the game was able to run as well as it did on the Steam Deck with some adjustments, but that doesn't mean compromising the visuals to run on the go. If you have no other way to play, this will suffice, but to get the best experience, I recommend using a device that can push the visual quality further.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Zoochosis was provided by Clapperheads for review. Thank you!
This review was created using an LCD Steam Deck. OLED testing will be carried out at a later date.
Zoochosis is an intriguing little game. I like animals more than most humans, and a horror zoo simulation game grabbed my attention. Unfortunately, it is that unpleasant mix of great ideas and middling execution. It is a shame because the game’s atmosphere has some potential. However, I believe Zoochosis has a worthy player experience, although I recommend waiting for a deep sale before diving in.
Zoochosis isn't your average zoo simulator. Favoring a bodycam, from a first-person point of view, you take on the role of struggling father Paul, who is applying for the lucrative role of a zookeeper at a mysterious reserve called Pine Valley Zoo. With economic turmoil threatening the future of his family, Paul needs this job to secure a healthy life for his wife and daughter and is determined to go along with the job, even as things deeply go to shit.
I appreciate how they approached the mechanics, although they could be better implemented. These could have been tutorial prompts, but players have an immersive way of learning how to play instead. Even with the game’s short runtime, I preferred this approach. For instance, when I failed to tranquilize the sick giraffe, I expected to have to repeat the attempt. Instead, Oliver finished the training, citing how he could not be bothered to tell me again. That made me laugh, even when I wanted to shoot him with the gun. Sadly, the game would not let me.
While the game's visuals are average, the creepy sound design and the oppressive lighting sell the mood of the place. I noticed some severe voice clipping in dialogue, as the characters responded to each other almost before the other finished their sentence. However, I liked the Doctor’s character: an impatient, passionless asshole that belittles you.
Despite the short runtime, Zoochosis's mechanics are quite detailed. Players have plenty to do during their trial night, including carrying food into the cart by hand, pulling it along tram tracks, storing it inside the train, chopping ingredients, and caring for the animals.
Caring for the animals involves making sure they have the correct food, sucking up their feces with the handy vacuum and storing it for analysis, keeping an eye on their temperature with the heat gun, correctly diagnosing their illnesses, and injecting them with the proper medications to keep them ‘healthy.’
If the animals get out of control, you must fight them into submission, which is quite a challenge given your limited tools. While it was clunky with little room for error, I appreciated how realistic it felt. Paul is a zookeeper, not a marine.
The tension and narrative of Zoochosis ramp up fast, and it becomes clear that this is a terrible workplace. Strange monsters climbing through walls, wild critters jumping out, and frantic phone calls about missing coworkers are some of the treats awaiting you. I don’t like the jump scares as a horror mechanic, but some moments made my flesh crawl.
For instance, I was ordered to bring in a fresh ‘supply’ of meat to be chopped up. That turned out to be a live, naked woman whose sedatives wore off by her screaming for help. Oh, and the Doctor has you injected with a parasite from some abomination called ‘The Mother’. It’s pretty unsettling, and Paul has to work with an outside journalist to work on a cure and expose Oliver’s horrific crimes.
Zoochosis can be completed on a short weekend, and I appreciate it for not drawing things out past their welcome. The story did not surprise me at any point, but there are multiple endings to discover. Sadly, I got one of the bad endings. Players can only access the one good ending by curing all the sick animals, which makes sense. However, because of the game's autosaves, there is no way to return to a previous point, so players will need to start another game to see if they can get a different ending. While autosaving makes sense in short games, I do wish there were manual saves so I could go back to get a different ending without needing to restart entirely.
There aren’t any shortcuts, and the slow animations of accessing an interface, collecting and chopping food, depositing inventories, and moving the cart along the rails pad out the game far more than necessary. I like immersive games, but when that immersion is in the way of enjoying the game, I feel it’s a problem. I felt no desire to start a new game once I finished.
While I enjoyed Zoochosis' atmosphere, the gameplay felt like it was stumbling over its own feet. Despite the game’s handful of hours, most of that is taken up by the pacing of animations, which is plodding to the point of boring. That is probably the point because working in a zoo of horrors while trying to survive isn't riveting. Still, I grew increasingly frustrated with how long it took to complete anything.
In fairness, developer Clapperheads has been steadily improving the game since its launch with patches and content updates, but there is still a fair bit of jank to contend with. Most of these bugs were oddities like animals clipping through terrain or each other, floating objects, and the audio bugs I mentioned earlier. When moving into an animal enclosure, I had one infinite loading screen and a hard crash that forced me to reboot. While I only lost 20 minutes of progress, the lack of manual saving and tedious player actions made getting back to where I was more frustrating.
I also encountered a couple of navigation issues. This was more prevalent in the training montage, but the dark environments sometimes made it difficult to find what I needed.
Finally, the game needs more content. Zoochosis has some impressive management mechanics that could be applied to a free-play mode. The gameplay has a lot of depth, but the short story length is almost a detriment. I would like to see some free-play additions to the game, as it would add much-needed replayability. Its current offerings make it hard to justify the $25 price tag.
While Zoochosis is playable on the Steam Deck, I found it a woeful player experience. Things get off to a bad start on the main menu. The game is locked to 30FPS automatically, with no options to change that in the settings. Furthermore, no graphical options are showing on the Deck. Whatever performance you have is what you can get, which is even more unfortunate when the game struggles to hit 30 FPS, even without any limits.
I found this baffling, given that the graphical settings are present in the PC version and that a patch in November was said to have improved the Steam Deck performance. I tried various things to get it to show up, including reinstalling the game, changing Proton versions, and adding the "SteamDeck=0 %command%" launch option in Properties. None of these attempts worked, which is unfortunate. I’m unsure what is happening, and perhaps someone else will have better luck than I did.
With few options available, I had limited choices on how to proceed. That doesn’t mean that Zoochosis is entirely unplayable, as the standard controls worked great, and I could still play through the game.
The power drain still surprised me, given how much the Steam Deck struggled with the game. I was pulling over 20 watts on average, which translated to less than 2 hours of battery life. I tinkered with TDP settings to find a decent battery life without sacrificing too much performance. Limiting the TDP with a 40hz refresh rate averaged around 20 FPS during gameplay while keeping the battery draw around 14 watts. This improved battery life significantly, but the performance drop is too steep to recommend.
So, the best way to experience the game is without changing anything. It is playable, but it won't particularly be enjoyable.
Zoochosis is available in English, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, Turkish, Ukrainian, Spanish - Spain, Arabic, and Portuguese - Portugal. However, only English has full voice acting right now.
Players can toggle nudity, subtitles, bodycam, sprint mode, and auto-aim. You can adjust the brightness, toggle colorblind mode, change controller vibration, change gamepad sensitivity, and toggle the invert look vertically or not.
Zoochosis is a polarizing game as the reviews on the Steam Store suggest. It is an enjoyable horror sim with a great atmosphere. There are some truly disturbing moments throughout its story, and it puts quite the twist on a zoology game. I wish we had more games around managing zoos, and the developers have put a lot of heart into creating it.
Unfortunately, the ponderous gameplay and overall janky nature have brought down my enjoyment of the game. My shoddy experiences of Zoochosis on the Steam Deck do not help that. The mechanics are surprisingly in-depth for a bodycam game, but the short story means we do not have enough time to enjoy those mechanics without some free-play mode.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Slay the Princess was provided by Serenity Forge for review. Thank you!
This review was created using an LCD Steam Deck. OLED testing will be carried out at a later date.
Slay The Princess is a hallmark of how visual novels should be made. While they are not my favorite genre to play, they have grown on me over the past few years. Steins Gate, The Hungry Lamb, Scarlet Hollow, and 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim are great visual novels that have recently caught my attention. Black Tabby Games, developer of Slay the Princess, are masters of their craft, and this team might have the best visual novels on the market today.
While Slay the Princess was released in 2023, they released an update titled Pristine Cut last month. Calling it an update is not doing it justice, as it adds more of everything. There are new endings, more events, new characters, and thousands more voiced lines of dialogue. This was the perfect opportunity to try it again on my Steam Deck.
Slay The Princess gives you one goal. You're on a path in the woods, and a cabin is at the end of that path. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess. You must kill her. If not, the world ends. The tale is narrated by a witty voice who took things personally whenever I questioned his authority. Why do I have to kill her? Why does it have to be me? Do I get rewarded for my exceptional assassination skills? And more importantly, why is a ‘Voice Of The Hero?’ narrating my inner turmoil? There are many characters and story branches, but with the incredible voice acting, they are all brought to life, and each path feels fulfilling.
The visual design deserves praise. Every scene and interior is lovingly hand-drawn by award-winning novelist Abby Howard. The world feels like it's living and breathing, while the excellent music adds to the atmosphere. This dark, disturbing game holds nothing back, but even in the height of horror, I was drawn into the world Black Tabby Games have created.
The Princess herself might be one of my favorite video game characters overall. Every choice you make has consequences, some of which might not be applicable immediately. There are many options to explore and discover more about the world, and things get increasingly weird. She is dangerous, bloodthirsty, and fragile. Can I kill her? What is the Narrator doing? After some branching paths, things begin to make sense. The world is strange for a good reason, and learning more about it left me enthralled, desperate to uncover more with every branching path. Things become clear a few hours in, leaving you on your journey of death and rebirth.
I very rarely cry from a video game. I am the kind of player who enjoys things such as my Rimworld prison colonies of death or massacring peasants in Kingdom Come Deliverance. A few games have made me cry, and Slay The Princess has joined the list. It’s a chilling and intelligent take on what death means, and each chapter made me want to keep the story moving along through my teary eyes.
These emotions play into the music, which is a rare thing to commend for a visual novel. Slay The Princess has some of the most memorable and beautiful music designs. The soundtracks match every theme and scene wonderfully, and when combined with the narrative, it heightens the emotional impact. The critically acclaimed Skyrim Mod, Enderal, still has the best music for me, but this is right up there.
That does not mean it is always an emotional heartbreaker! Many scenes had me laughing from disbelief. The Narrator's antics, combined with all the players' personalities voicing their opinions on why every action you’re taking is wrong, lead to hilarious fights.
Some games are best to experience blind, and this is one you won't regret diving into.
According to Valve, Slay the Princess is classified as Verified, with ProtonDB giving it a Native rating. In my experience, this is very accurate.
For transparency's sake, I played Slay The Princess in two phases. The first was for a few hours earlier this year for a Steam event, and the rest for this review after the stable Steam OS 3.6.19 update in October. This ‘stable update’ has caused several problems on my Steam Deck. While I cannot fault the game on the Steam Deck, the performance at low wattage TDP is considerably worse than it used to be because of the OS update. These performance regressions are on the LCD Steam Deck model and do not happen to everyone. Hopefully, Valve can fix the issue.
Fortunately, it runs out of the box on the Steam Deck, with solid controls and performance across the board. While visual novels are usually fairly lightweight, Slay The Princess has some pretty impressive animations and high-fidelity artwork, requiring more power than most. The Steam Deck is more than up to the task, and it chews through even the most demanding scenes on stock settings (Unlocked TDP, 60hz Refresh Rate, 60FPS lock). There are no graphical settings to tweak, and we are limited on how much we can change. Apart from minor drops in the more intensive animated scenes, it is as good as possible.
Despite the enormous amount of text, it is easy to read on the Steam Deck, and Black Tabby Games knows how to make their novels enjoyable whether you are reading the dialogue or listening to it. There are plenty of accessibility options available, too.
The only potential issue I have found is that the controller sometimes makes it hard to see what button you are pressing. Sometimes, I found I was accidentally going into the settings menu when I intended to click Autoplay. However, this is a minor quibble and has not derided my opinion of the game so far. It also might take a while to load on the Steam Deck, as I experienced longer loading times since the most recent Stable update. Again, this is a minor issue that is probably unrelated to the game.
Slay The Princess is a little more power-hungry than other visual novels I have played on the Deck, but it is still fairly efficient regarding battery life. Its overall power drain is hard to pin down as it fluctuates between 9 and 11 watts without any adjustments. That still translated into over 4 hours of battery life with the LCD Steam Deck, an impressive average.
Visual novels are a genre I like to play on the go or during long Steam Deck sessions without plugging it into a charger every few hours. Despite our few in-game options, Slay The Princess scales fairly well on lower TDPs, although not as well as it used to. I’m considering the current tests the norm unless Valve fixes them.
It maintains fairly stable at these settings with a 40hz refresh rate, 4-watt TDP, and framerate locked to 40FPS. A couple of intensive moments might cause a few frame dips, but these are minor and only last a few seconds. The most I experienced was transitioning into the cabin, but this happened on my RTX 3060 laptop, so it is not something to worry about. This averaged a power draw of 8 watts. The LCD Steam Deck model gives a respectable battery life of up to 5 hours.
Previously, I could play on a 3W TDP with no frame drops and an average power draw of 6 watts (for nearly 7 hours of battery life!). Still, for the best balance between performance and battery life, a 4W TDP is the best compromise because the power savings aren't significant.
Slay The Princess is available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish- - Spain, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish - Latin America, and Traditional Chinese.
You can change the font size, toggle a few font styles, and change the line spacing. There is also text-to-speech support with a few options, including high-contrast text. If you find flickering images uncomfortable, you can turn them off. Overall, there are has impressive customization options.
Had this game debuted in 2024, this would likely win my Game Of The Year award. Even when not on sale, its base price of $17.99 is a steal for the quality of what’s on offer. There have been a few minor bugs, but these were so infrequent that they were barely worth mentioning. Chilling, brilliant, and disturbing, Slay The Princess is in its best condition yet with the arrival of the Pristine Cut.
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
Hollowbody was provided by Headware Games for review. Thank you!
Hollowbody, a retro survival horror title from Headware Games, is a blast from the past and a breath of fresh air! This game will instantly feel familiar to fans of classic titles like Resident Evil 1 & 2 on the PS1 or Silent Hill 2 on the PS2, but it still feels modern and engaging thanks to its fresh takes on the formula. It pays homage to yesteryear's classic survival horror games while introducing innovative elements to the genre with its eerie setting, resource management, and environmental puzzles. Created as a passion project by one man, Nathan Hamley, Hollowbody is a staggering achievement in the horror genre.
Set against the eerie backdrop of a long-abandoned British city, you assume the role of Mica, a shipper on the black market who is desperate to find her missing partner, Sasha. She is not licensed and is driven by desperation. When you breach the defenses of the isolated exclusion zone in the hopes of finding your partner, mayhem ensues, your GPS stops working, and your hovercraft plummets to the crumbling streets below. The city is falling apart, leaving you to fend for yourself in a dangerous and mysterious labyrinth with limited supplies.
I don’t want to give too much away, but the story being told here is the highlight of the game for me. It stuck with me long after the credits rolled, and I longed to know more. Nathan has done an incredible job of building a detailed world where horrible events occur. He drip-feeds snippets of what’s occurred while leaving much to our imaginations. I was left wanting more. I want to know more about the residents and what happened to them. I want to know more about Sherwood and explore the medical experiments that are hinted at. I want to learn more about the mysterious caller and what motivates them.
It's a true compliment to Nathan and his ability to craft a nonlinear story with such depth. I hope this is just the first chapter, as the exclusion zone is an intriguing place, and I would love to learn and explore some more in future games. A prequel would be amazing! At the very least, if the epilogue is anything to go by, Nathan isn’t quite finished telling this story, which is exciting.
This is hard to describe, but this game doesn’t resemble the old retro horror titles from the 90s. Instead, it looks like how you remember them. I think our brains are wired just to automatically upscale old graphics to HD when we recall old games from our past. In simpler terms, this will make you immediately think of older games, but they are far more impressive in the visuals department. From the raindrops hitting the camera lens to the lighting and visual flair in each unique environment, Hollowbody is impressive from the get-go. There are no low polygon jagged edges, and the locations you visit feel crammed with details.
The fixed camera points jump from one perspective to another, revealing more of the space you’re walking through, but it never feels obstructed or clunky. Dead bodies, gore, blood, grime, and slimy growths fill the screen to always keep you in an unsettled state. This exclusion zone is filthy and abandoned, telling its tale of rot and decay.
The color palette is muted, and you rely on your flashlight to see. Everything looks grey and gloomy in your spotlight, and even inanimate objects look threatening in the dark. Shadows and dreary lighting go a long way toward immersing you in this horrific landscape. These elements all come together so that every minute you play feels unsettling.
The game blends resource management, combat, and puzzle solving adeptly. Some of the puzzles are trickier than others but never feel frustrating. There is a strong narrative that slowly reveals itself the further you progress through cutscenes and collected documents. There is a real sense of a once-lived world here, and the balance of action and puzzle-solving is quite good. Enemies can be bullet sponges, so deciding to save your ammo and use melee weapons can be the difference between life and death.
Puzzles are never too difficult (although I did get badly stuck on one—more on that later!). They usually entail finding the thing to open the yolk, but occasionally, you will be tested mentally. For me, though, the harder the puzzles were, the more satisfying the game became after solving them. I felt a sense of accomplishment and progression every time I solved a challenging puzzle, which felt great.
The game's length can vary depending on how quickly you can solve some of the puzzles and how much you want to explore. There are unlockables and a new game plus for those who want to experience the game again with new gameplay elements added (first-person perspective…..yes, please). There are also plenty of collectibles and achievements for the completionists among us. I rolled credits at the seven-hour mark, but after speaking with the developer, I am a little slow!! It doesn’t help that I got badly stuck on a puzzle for over an hour, and also, I did take my time exploring and reading as much of the in-game lore as possible.
If you want to mainline it, you can expect to roll credits around the four-hour mark, but I would advise you to take your time and soak in the atmosphere.
As much as I loved this game, there were one or two tiny gripes that I should mention. These are just nitpicks and could be fixed in a future update or patch:
Positioning for Interactions: Sometimes, the game is a little sensitive about where you stand when interacting with an object. You might have to line Mica up exactly in front of an object before the interaction prompt appears. More often, it appears and disappears when you move ever so slightly. It's not a deal breaker, but it can frustrate a little, especially when you’re already tense.
Interactions after use: This minor point should be easy to fix. After you’ve picked up an object from a particular spot, the prompt will stay there to ‘pick up the object.’ It's no big deal at the moment, but if you’re ever backtracking over areas, getting prompted to pick something up that is no longer there can be annoying.
Inconsistent Voiceovers: Some dialogue, thoughts, and interactions are voiced, and some aren’t. It's not a biggie, but it felt a little random. Things I thought were important didn’t get speech, while other trivial interactions did. The Steam page boasts ‘full voice acting,’ so I would love to see this fixed, as the voice acting was excellent.
Weapon Balance: This is just me putting my logic hat on. You start with a handgun, and later on (if you explore well enough), you can get a bow and arrow. From a game progression standpoint, it makes sense that the bow is stronger than your starting weapon. But a bow and arrow should never be better than a pistol. Am I wrong?
And there endeth the complaining. Honestly, none of the above had any great effect on my enjoyment of the game. I am simply mentioning them for complete transparency. They didn’t bother me, but perhaps they may bother other players, so they are worth mentioning.
I played a review copy of Hollowbody before launch, so officially, there is no Steam Deck support yet. That said, it was flawless on deck! No crashes, bugs, glitches, or noticeable slowdown occurred. I left all the in-game graphic settings at their highest and ran the Steam Deck at 10W, which was perfect. I capped the FPS at 60, and although it doesn’t remain stable (in open spaces outside the apartment block, the frame rate dipped to as low as 40), it doesn’t affect gameplay. This is not Call of Duty; your movements are meant to be slow and deliberate.
The frame rate makes little difference in your enjoyment of Hollowbody, and it’s the perfect title to play on the Steam Deck. I advise switching off your frame counter, turning off the lights, and having a spare pair of underpants on hand as you explore the nightmare world of Hollowbody!
If you want the best quality and aren't too concerned about battery life, then you can use the following settings:
-Cap FPS at 55 (this is only due to occasional frame rate dips in large open spaces. Steamdeck struggles to maintain 60)
-Set TDP to 15W
-Set in-game graphic settings to medium
This will give you a very smooth, stable frame rate with no dips and allow for a gameplay length of approximately two hours.
If playing for as long as possible is more your cup of tea, then these settings will be perfect for you:
-Cap FPS at 30
-Set TDP to 8W
-Set in-game graphics to Ultra
You have a decent frame rate, gorgeous visuals, and a battery that lasts longer. The expected gameplay length on a full battery is approximately three hours.
Whichever you choose, you're in for a treat. The retro-style graphics and the slow, methodical gameplay mean neither performance nor visuals are a high priority. Having your pants scared off you, though...well, that's a different matter entirely!
I loved my time with Hollowbody. The fact that a single individual created this boggles my mind. It’s very clear that Nathan has a passion for writing, and his crafted world shows glimpses of real depth that deserve to be explored. The visuals are gorgeous while scratching that nostalgic itch for horror games of the past. The compelling story keeps you gripped as it’s slowly revealed to you. The gameplay is solid, with a healthy balance of action, exploration, and problem-solving. The sound design, from voice acting to shambling zombie screams, is realistic and unnerving. The experience, on the whole, is well worth your time, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Like all good horrors, this one sticks with you after it ends, whether in book, film, or game format. You’re left wanting to learn and know more. You’re left to draw conclusions about certain events, which was satisfying. The horror is less zombie action like Resident Evil and more psychological like the Silent Hill series. At times, I thought I was seeing unnerving things…. maybe that’s just me, though! Hollowbody is an incredible piece of work from a developer with a bright future ahead of him. It doesn’t overstay its welcome and leaves you wanting more. What more could you ask for?
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
If you enjoyed this review, be sure to check out the rest of the content on SteamDeckHQ! We have a wide variety of game reviews and news that are sure to help your gaming experience. Whether you're looking for news, tips and tutorials, game settings and reviews, or just want to stay up-to-date on the latest trends, we've got your back.
