Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Dec 13, 2021

  Ничего не понял, но очень интересно
• gamedeal user

  Jan 22, 2022

  [h1] Before You Buy [/h1] Before you buy this game, it's important to know that it has two other non-steam games that are "prequels" to this one. The games are Middens and Gingiva and are available for free on GameJolt. Although they are not necessary to play this game, a lot of the greater plot will be confusing without it. Another reason to play these games is they can act as a litmus test on whether or not you should get this game. If I could give this game a mixed review I would. Like its predecessors, it is largely exploratory in nature and is the second most linear game of the three. The ending conditions have you kill specific npcs scattered throughout the world and trigger certain events with an item during the final encounter. It takes a much different approach to combat from the other two games by having it be in real time rather than turn-based. [h1] Pros [/h1] This game has some of the unique art I've seen in any game and a decent soundtrack. The world it takes place in is very interesting and was built up well with environmental story-telling. The combat is better than the other games, but it has its own problems that I'll tackle later. The story revolves around themes of absurdism, existentialism, and nihilism at times. Essentially the world is failing, and finding meaning in living is either pointless or selfish. On the technical side, this game pushes rpgmaker to levels I didn't think were possible at times. A lot of the combat is fairly unique and interesting (if it worked half the time). [h1] Cons [/h1] Like the creator's other games, the best word I can use to describe the story at times is "pretentious". While it was somewhat acceptable in Middens and done fairly well in Gingiva, this game takes it to an extreme by trying to have the best of both exploratory and linear aspects of the prior games. It feels like you're being force-fed garbage half the time that has almost no relation to the plot being put forward. I wouldn't have taken issue with this if the game was not longer than BOTH games combined. A good 3 or 4 hours could have been cut out and it would have been a much better game without it. A classic case of trying to have your cake and eating it too. On the technical side, this game has HUGE problems. Several areas were prone to massive frame drops and crashing was a genuine issue throughout the game. I highly recommend saving constantly as there are seriously points where you can get several crashes in a row. The combat while interesting, is ruined by terrible, and unchangeable, keybinds. Because of the performance issues inputs felt slow to respond and caused many deaths. Overall, everything in the game can be cheesed quite easily with proper use of items and abilities, allowing you to avoid further frustration. I only gave this a recommendation for people who like these types of games. If you're reading this, you'll more than likely have played games similar to it. Outside of that, play Middens and Gingiva first for a feel. If you don't like them, I strongly recommend that you do not get this game.
• skellyosis

  Jun 29, 2023

  TL:DR WTCtR features spelling/grammar errors, underdeveloped gameplay, and basic scripting errors that will genuinely break your game. It's not only a pile of half-realized ideas built over an rpgmaker engine, but even with a team on this project (contrasted to Clowder working alone on his previous games), there are basic errors where I can accidentally sequence break the entire game due to coincidentally going back to a previous point. If you like atmospheric games with a flair for stressed angles, shuddering walls, and surrealist mish-mashes of old pop-art collages, you may like this game, but you'd likely prefer Middens instead. It's free, more functional, and less railroaded. When I say functional, I don't just mean the 'gameplay', which usually takes a backseat in walking sims or 'art games', but not Where They Cremate the Roadkill. This game is tightly bound to vague schizo-conspiratorial-core plot: of cycles of characters being groomed into serving demons, or lesser gods, or aliens. These cycles occur in the past, present, and future; where creativity and mental connection is a Neo-platonic projection given off by psychic, self-shaping beings. This can sound cool, but it goes by quick and without explanation or development. It flies by in a David Cage-ish (specifically Omikron) sense, where it doesn't mean much beyond some cool imagery and call-outs to the Illuminati worms living inside every pill. This could all be fine if a player had some breathing room. One could non-narratively or disjunctively explore a series of themes, but this implies there's a world to explore through these themes. There isn't. You are told there's a world and real cemeteries that fill with everyone you kill, but don't mistake this for an open-world game, or a game with decent pacing (between combat, exploration, and reprieve in towns). It isn't. The combat is smashing two keys and cycling between obtusely named items while getting hit until you pull out a middle finger and win. The plot and world are grandiose-seeming, but hollow. You are given aesthetic devices (a tamagotchi and smartphone used to explain objectives and act as a manual) with awful UI that sequence breaks your game. You're given 'cool' explanations of an elemental system that namedrops astrology and eastern esoterica, with enemy colors aligning with Saturn's rectal-spot. It's all gish-gallop. (This section is written with one of Clowder's other games - Middens - in context) It seems the further Clowder games stray from the origin of Middens, the more nonsensical and less functional his games become in terms of gameplay, writing, and atmosphere. Middens was a maze taking place at a junction between broken worlds. It had a habit of inconsistent pathways that eased off the moment I lost patience. It was clever and euphoric. The take-turn combat allowed one enough time to push through its name-swapped elemental system (the combat tic-tac-toe all rpgs follow). You were a man with a talking gun. You could kill others or not, and aside from a few confrontations on your actions, the story was unobtrusive. WTCtR is the opposite.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 8, 2017

  A phantasmagorical treatment on the transmigration of a soul. The Buddhist Yamantaka swoops into the scene as the player assumes the body of a ghost orb traversing the realm of lesser lights. From there the player is wheeled into the placements of three conjunct creatures as they encounter a mysterious stranger. Your opponent is your future self whose rogue ego desires to possess the essence of all creation and its inhabitants in an inverted singularity. Like the demiurge of Gnosticism, it is a usurper god that wishes to replace each instance of individuality with itself. It has hitherto succeeded in absorbing everything but its past self and the story's focus: an alienated from everyone, mentally unstable, suicidal, jobless commoner(who hates others and especially hates the world). How can it absorb into itself what is diametrically opposed to itself? It can't and so it resorts to nudging the player into identifying with the world so they may be devoured. Like the Devil of classical Christianity, it manipulates towards this outcome through gifts, power and most of all; revenge. Gameplay blooms late as the game establishes its footing in a series of stylistically unique vignettes. Only by the third act does the extent of the environment become truly evident. In a throwback to early games, the difficulty is brutal at the onset. Players are encouraged to be conservative as imprudent violence can quickly escalate into a death sentence. Since most adversaries are passive until attacked the challenge is more psychological than literal. Menus are nearly entirely displayed in pictograms compounding the learning curve. Given the author's background in Surrealism and Dadaism and the game's many references to the Situationists this is most likely an ode to Lettrism. A French avant-grade movement Lettrism utilized "hypergraphics" in place of words to estrange communication from its controllers. Once learned, however, the player will quickly phase through the menus as if they were described in the words so commonplace in gaming. Nearly every portion of the game seems designed as an assault on the conventional. Shopkeepers offer "Abortions in a Bottle" for no small price, police are allied with satanic forces, the presidential building resides under a pyramid, talking worms are replacing vertebrates as the dominant life-form and student debt is an equipable item that will slowly devour your spirit. At no point did I feel I could predict what was next. Even among peculiar games this title is exceptionally strange. It is not only visually unusual it is unusual in all regards. This is not a game for casuals who will struggle to get through the first ten minutes let alone the game's 7+ hours. Rather I recommend this title to internet scholars of the RPG genre, students of comparative religion, metalheads, sexual offenders, freakshows, rocking sharks, the demon possessed, carnival operators, that quiet kid who will one day snap, revolutionaries, swine herders, folks who translate obscure NES titles into English over years or those who are fond of odd antiques.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 9, 2017

  So, it's finally here! After some long years, the third game of the "series" is released. While I feel the sound design, graphics, dialogue, and overall aesthetic of the game are on point, there are a number of gameplay issues that get too much in the way of the experience to be ignored. [list] [*] NPC sprites are bigger than their talkboxes (hitboxes seem to be fine, however). [*] Combat in general is not very fun. There's not really a definite way to know if you should or shouldn't be fighting the enemy until it drains half of your health with a single hit. [*]The use of the mouse is counterintuitive. I know it was probably intended to be like that (unless you're left handed), but it's more of a bother than anything to have to stop to check the environment. [*] Textboxes repeating. [*] Hit list too confusing. It wouldn't be a problem if there was a dedicated button for it, but no, you have to open your inventory, find your phone, select the right symbol, and look at a vague picture that tells you nothing because of the sheer ammount of similar NPCs in the game. [/list] A lot of these problems were present in the past games as well, so I assume it's something to do with RPG Maker. If that's the case, why haven't you made/ported the game to another engine? There was 0 marketing for the game anyways, so no one would have minded the delay. Do I recommend this game right now? If you have a lot of patience and are a fan of the previous games, yes. Otherwise just wait for some more patches to be released.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 10, 2017

  Spill your ink in a paper world and try to remember what makes you happy.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 12, 2017

  A non stop uber-surrealistic journey of a man who was given a second chance by his creator. Since the very beginning of the game, scientific theories such as Panspermia comes into play. Obviously the developer of this game tries to urge as well as depict his ideology about life and the Cosmos, through the afterlife experience and the concept of a parallel world, which you may see only if you’re reborn. The sketches and animations gave me the impression or a Deja-Vu if you will, from music videoclips straight out of the 90s such as the song “We have explosive” by Future Sound of London. They as well attempted to pass many messages about the world back then, through the same type of image manipulation. I like the fact that all images seems handmade as well as the sounds, something which shows that actual work has been made and dedication to the project. Of course there are also neat features and companions such as the “Cat-phone” which consist many useful hints for your in-game journey. Additionally, there are strong elements of rpg now and then, such as the XP you gaining from killing mobs, the mini-build which allows you to optimize your character skill-tree and of course the BOSSFIGHTS! The interiors as well as the exteriors are very unique and they’re constantly trying to pass a message. Something which I really love about this game since the first seconds and you will as well, if you play with an open mind. Now, a few things about the actual gameplay. In general, the combat system is neat, however there is still space for improvement as in any other game of that type, at its beginning. The HUD is decently implemented, I expect something better and more player friendly in the future that will require you to keep your eyes more on the target and less on it. Something that also requires some attention is the fact that you do not unlock special abilities as you gain experience or as you progress, but you rather have to find them. Some people may like it, some others won’t. At the end is not a huge deal, but it could help a lot. As far as the build goes and the skill-tree, it would be nice to implement some detailed text as in what each value does and where it is useful. That way the player can have a better idea since the very beginning on where to focus, therefore the whole gaming experience later can be improved. Again, considering is a new game with a very unique concept, there are always things that can be improved in the near future. The more you progress, the better understanding you obtain about the universe of the game and what it is all about. It is not meant to be played by the average player in fact, it is not meant to be played by an average person either. It presents a narrative of the world from a different perspective and not the mainstream type of “reality”, that many tries to feed you on everyday basis. One of the things I liked the most about that, is the newspaper front-page image, presenting that “Social media are healthy”. In terms of rating here is my evaluation: Story: 10 Creativity: 10 Gameplay: 8 Images and Graphs: 9 Coding: 8 Controls: 7 I urge those who decide to play this game and are new to that type of RPG, to have an open mind and maybe do a little research as they progress in order to have a better understanding. It is overwhelming most of the times in a great attempt to transmit several messages about society and life every step of the way. Personally I really enjoyed it and I am waiting for more by the Developers.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 6, 2017

  Haven't had a chance to play this much thanks to work. But I have played both Middens and Gingiva. I can say without a shadow of a doubt based on initial impressions that this one like the other's before it will NOT disappoint. This despite Ebert's, (of Siskel and Ebert's fame) ramblings about how the video game medium shall never be a proper art form, is indeed, art in it's next proper incarnation. While gamers yearn for higher resolutions and gigantic frame rates, we've forgotten our proper frame of reference, that higher resolution of the soul of creation. This is the future folks, it's a crime this hasn't been checked out by more people. The first two titles are free. I'm getting strong 80's vibes back when the PC was home to more experimental projects with heavy artistic flair, when we had less to work with so more soul spewed forth. The fact this artist is pouring the very essence of his being into this with his team and trying to evolve a very special formula warrants a gander. Don't hesitate, click that buy button if you have even a string of artist in you. You will not be disappointed. :)
• gamedeal user

  Mar 3, 2018

  An incredibly strange but interesting game, Where They Cremate The Roadkill provides a vast and unique universe to explore. Visuals are stylized and experimental. These really give me Yellow Submarine vibes; but even with that comparison, this game manages to bring a very original and unique feel. The soundtrack definetly fits and supports the atmosphere of the surreal worlds. The story is relatively vague, but still hints at a bigger picture. And there is a lot to see in this game. Although there are some things that irk me a bit. In this game, there is no clear indication on what to do for most of the adventure. I often find myself traversing into areas I've already seen and explored. This can be incredibly annoying when I want to find something new. There are some bugs here and there, such as F12 booting you back to the menu, but also crashes as that happens. So far I never noticed anything too extreme as far as glitches go. Overall, despite being pretty confusing at times, I'd still reccomend this game; however, I would probably specifically reccomend this to people who aren't afraid to try something new and different and can appreciate the different aspects of games aside from gameplay.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 5, 2018

  Where they Cremate the Roadkill is the most memorable RPG I've ever played. The surreal graphics/art along with the soundtrack makes it feel like a game from a different plane of existence. The game isn't without its faults however. While the combat becomes fun near the tail end of the game, for a large portion you either stun lock enemies, spam health items, or summon your attack pet and block. Also Where they Cremate the Roadkill pushes RPGmaker to its extreme as some effects lag the game and it is prone to crashing sometimes. The mouse cursor clicks are a little wonky sometimes too. Unlike Hylics the story isnt randomly generated, but only the Developer and the most grizzled theory veterans know what the true story is. But even though I have half baked theories as to the true story of WTCTR is, I still vastly enjoyed it and the ending left me sitting there agaped. I guess thats just art though, as art appreaction is just what self influences and past experiences make you see in it. If any of the trailers or images have piqued your interest, I would reccomend it as your in for a 7-12 hour wild ride. I await with bated breath for the next game from Gunseed Collab, even though I realize it'll be another 4 years as they painstakingly hand draw every frame.