Elevated Dread
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Surprising with a masterpiece, once again!
I starter 2022 with one of your games, "Lunic Possession", which I loved and I kept the game on my top list for horror, but somehow, in this universe, you made another, brilliant project and topped your previous work.
The most intriguing and well thought thing about this game is execution. "Elevated Dread" is by far the most stabilized and scripted game I've ever played. Some people might find it "not important", but for me as a developer and a PC owner a great quality is shown by the craftsmanship and this game delivers.
The overall story, atmosphere, stylistic choices and ambience was superb. Every little detail felt genuine, real and creepy. I can't give more than a magnificent praise to this.
Keep going, keep making amazing projects and I will definitely be here to play and support them. Cheers to you!
Pros:
- Good use of sound design - the unnerving lack of any ambient music really immersed this player in the 'real' setting of the apartment complex.
- The mechanic of having the player put up flyers gave this user a sense of purpose - most indie horror games have you going to 'place A' for a reason, but that's usually to find a lost brother or sister, etc. The fact that going up every floor had purpose behind it.
- As this user ascended each floor, things were starting to go a little 'strange' and the nail head baby and crayon graffiti was a nice touch.
Cons:
- Wasn't a fan of the floaty head movement. Understand that this creates a sense of movement without moving and immersion, but this user thinks that the 'bobbiness' could be turned down a few levels. Especially when trying to hit the elevator buttons.
- The monster being 'half seen' in the elevator was creepy, but seeing it on the TV brought this user out of the experience. A lot to be said about 'show, don't tell' with this particular instance.
- Ambiguous storytelling - It was this user's understanding that the crayon graffiti created a narrative, possibly about a couple who brought their son into the apartment block and ended up throwing him off the roof, but this wasn't really explored. Did the father become the monster after he hung himself? Felt like a few notes alluding to this throughout the character's journey to the 9th floor could have made this narrative a little tighter.
Not a con as such, but I think it would have immersed the user experience by having the main character question why he was still putting up flyers (say around the 5th floor.) If you were in the same situation, would you really still be putting up flyers in a crack house after you'd seen some of the things in that building!?!? Even if there was a throwaway comment it would have immersed the player into the role a little more. Other than that, a great experience and hope to see more in the future!
Its been awhile since I've done one of these. Critique Below.
Pros:
- Good Sound Design. This made for a really creepy atmosphere.
- The monster was also pretty creepy. bonus props for seeing him on the tv a floor below
- The Flyer idea was good. Alot of developers make games but as you play all you do is ask why am I doing this, well in this case to invite people to a party.
Cons:
- Floaty controls. People think the head bob and extra movement adds immersion. In my opinion its just annoying at times. The head bob is bad when you have to hit tiny buttons and the extra movement makes it feel like and ice level.
- Big gaps in between scares. Which is ok but in this "short" game the fear went away alot. (I don't know how to word this better)
- The corridor change was cool until it wasn't. Changing corridors were used a bit too much. (Just my opinion)
Overall:
Pretty good experience, with a couple ok jump scares. It also seems like you put time and effort into this game to make it stand out. Keep at it and I can't wait to see what you put out next. GG
Finally some critique, thank you!
I really thought that head bob and extra smooth camera movements add immersion and at the same time I can easily see why they are annoying in that game when trying to hit buttons. I think I just got used to it during the development and didn’t see how weird they might feel.
There are some gaps between what people tend to call “scares” but I guess for each person it felt different. If your fear went away a lot, other people say that they were just paranoid all the time.
I don’t think the corridor change was overused but the main reason I used it that much in the end is that it was the easiest way I came up with to not let the player go back lol
I appreciate that you put time into writing what you liked and what you didn’t about the game, thanks a lot!