Grizzly Man

Grizzly Man is the fourth Pixel Pulp by LCB Studio, this time diving into the slasher genre, a horror subgenre where a killer stalks and brutally murders their victims, like Friday the 13th or Freddy Krueger, among many others. As always, its two standout features shine: the distinctive pixel art style and sharp prose, which in this title particularly excel at describing the gruesome deaths. It felt a bit faster paced than their other works, maybe because there are fewer puzzles and more quick time events, where failing them is a must to witness all the deaths. I finished it in just over two hours, but completing it 100% will take a bit longer. I highly recommend it, just like their other titles, which have demos available if you're on the fence, along with bigger discounts.

I got my copy via my steam group* This is the first [i]LCB Studio[/i] game that I finished, it took me about 90 minutes, but I didn't feel the need to replay the game as the choices felt mostly cosmetic, or temporarily blocking your progress with death. You guys have somewhat unusual narrative style, almost like the game is talking to me about the characters or myself, instead of experiencing the story through a perspective of the character. Some of the writing felt a bit rigid, I am not sure if the game was translated, but sometimes I was wondering of there was a better way to convey the same sentiment. Your games also give me some strong [b]vintage vibes[/b], almost like 70s and 80s television, I am not actually that old, but the music also reminds me of many horror classics such as the Halloween, to be honest it's not as memorable as those, just the overall feel, having that slow-burn, feeling that you being followed, and having casual conversations with a cast of classic stereotype characters. The sound design feels intentionally limited, it's not exactly like that of old computers, but still kinda niche, sometimes feeling like I am hearing signals and effects instead of a generic soundtrack. I felt a little bit lost in the first 15 minutes or so, those existentialism vibes hit very fast, before I could even understand what is happening, only after the conversation around the horror story I started to feel like the pacing got more focused on the characters, and then I would pay more attention, instead of kinda going along with the game. I didn't feel like we really got enough time with any of the characters except Rob, you kinda started to build them up, and shortly disposing of them 30 minutes later. I wasn't sure where the story was going with those conversations at the table, I figured there would be some interesting twist at the end, and yet, I am not sure that I was that satisfied with it, it felt more basic than anticipated, a lot of deep conversations and thoughts, but without much to show for it. Now that I think about it, we really didn't get much characterization for Grizzly Man either. [h1] Pros: [/h1] (+) Personally I do enjoy that kind of art style, especially when you would draw close-ups on the faces, kind of that old high contrast feel to it from old computers and consoles, but with more detail I suppose. Sometimes you draw little animations which always helpful with visual novels, but I would have preferred a little bit more movement overall. (+) I didn't enjoy the story overall, only a few specific parts of it. Actually I like the section where the 'artist' is alone and gets ganked, his reaction is essentially written as it was in slow motion because of the sudden realization that he was having, so I thought that was an interesting trick. There are some interesting out of sequence elements in the narrative, potentially setting up an interesting conclusion later on, but I also felt like we didn't really get it? (+) There are some achievements and mini-games you can grab, but they don't add a lot to the experience, mostly just die on purpose, beat the mini game several times, something like that. [h1] Feedback: [/h1] - Right now it feels like the game has an illusion of choice and control, I think if you going to give me choices, I should feel like the game has a few meaningful roads I can take across the story - Sometimes when the killer would attack, you would kinda sidestep into more exposition or like a third person view, or having a bit of a gimmick mini game. The thing is for me, you have an opportunity to create some tension and urgency, but I feel like these tricks are cutting the tension and I often feel like they are not letting me experience the perspective of the character - I didn't feel like you gave enough characterization to anyone except Rob, the team or the killer - I felt the game was building up to a more complex narrative, as far as I can tell that didn't really happen, you have some level of mystery and constant complex existential monologue, but where does it all go [b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b] I think your writing would be stronger if you focused more on individual characters, spend more time with them, maybe even focus a bit on killer, focus more on meaningful choices, make sure your story also has a satisfying conclusion that would match the mystery the game is having. There was a lot of thought-provoking themes in this game, but also the actual story was not able to match that complexity. I can't say that I liked any of the characters enough to care for them, there is a lot of cerebral dialogue, but I don't feel like you conveyed their perspective for me, often interrupting the game in weird places to say more things, when I just wanted to see what is happening in the moment. In my personal opinion, I do think you trying a little too hard to make the writing feel deep and artistic, when sometimes I was more interested in just killer trying to kill you, and I would have liked if the writing was focusing on a moment to moment events. [code]Niche, obscure and underrated games: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]

Another fun little story in the Pixel Pulp series. I feel like this one could use a bit more meat, but it's alright for what it is. Has the worst of the solitarie minigames in the series, though.