Info about Shadows Over Loathing:

Official game description:
Mobsters, monsters, and mysteries — welcome to **Shadows Over Loathing**, the shady side of an already black-and-white world, and a follow-up to the award-winning _West of Loathing._  
Your Uncle Murray has requested your aid at his antique shop in Ocean City, but upon your arrival the old man is nowhere to be found. Your investigation into his disappearance and the artifacts he’s been collecting takes a turn when you stumble across some shadowy plots (and a bunch of squirming eldritch tentacles) that threaten to bring about the end of the world.  
Explore a sprawling open world chock full of danger, quests, puzzles, and stick figures in this single-player comedy adventure/RPG set in the prohibition era of the Loathing universe. See how many enemies you can stuff into a phone booth as the athletic Pig Skinner, control the curds and whey of the cosmos as the cunning Cheese Wizard, or march to the beat of your own inscrutable purposes as the hip Jazz Agent.  
Features:  
*   Thousands and thousands of jokes, gags, and goofs  
*   A bunch more locations, items, friends, foes, and familiars than West of Loathing  
*   The same quality line art you’ve come to expect, but way more of it  
*   Superior stick-figure customization  
*   Strategic turn-based combat (but only if you want it)  
*   A corrupt government for you to overthrow at your leisure  
*   Authentically baffling 1920s slang  
*   Multiple cursed antiques  
*   Inappropriate fishing  
*   Non-Euclidean horrors from beyond the edges of the screen  
*   A time-travel side-quest given to you by your future-self  
*   An infinitely tall building  
*   Sentient math, talking frogs, and pettable cats  
*   No booze, as far as the feds know

Release date: 11 Nov, 2022

Categories: RPG, Single-player Story, Open-World Exploration, Turn-based Combat, Puzzle Solving, Character Customization, Lovecraftian Horror, Multiple Endings


- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price: No data
- Playtime Metrics: No data
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes: No data


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Exceptional Humor and Engaging Story (weight 0.99): Players consistently praise the game for its brilliant, witty, and absurd humor, often citing it as one of the funniest games ever. The engaging and cohesive story, filled with clever dialogue and unique world-building, keeps players entertained and invested, making it a standout RPG experience.
- Significant Improvement Over Predecessor (weight 0.91): The game is widely regarded as an excellent sequel, building upon and enhancing nearly every aspect of 'West of Loathing'. Players note improvements in combat, plot cohesion, content volume, and overall gameplay, while retaining the beloved charm and humor of the series.
- High Replayability and Content Richness (weight 0.77): The game offers substantial replay value due to multiple class options, branching storylines, player choices impacting outcomes, and a wealth of engaging side quests. Players appreciate the extensive content, which encourages multiple playthroughs to discover new details and experiences.
- Refined RPG Mechanics and Combat (weight 0.74): The gameplay mechanics are described as a blend of traditional RPG elements and innovative systems. The turn-based combat is straightforward yet strategic, with improvements over the previous title, offering depth and customization through various classes, skills, and partners.
- Charming Art Style and Atmosphere (weight 0.74): Despite its simplistic stick-figure art style, players find it incredibly charming and effective in conveying the game's quirky and whimsical nature. The monochrome aesthetic, combined with detailed environments and an excellent soundtrack, creates an immersive and mood-setting atmosphere.
- Consistent 'Loathing' Series Quality (weight 0.65): Players who are fans of the 'Loathing' series consistently praise this installment for maintaining the high quality, humor, and engaging gameplay they expect. It's seen as a worthy addition that upholds the series' reputation for entertaining and unique RPGs.
- Unique Lovecraftian Horror Blend (weight 0.44): The game successfully integrates Lovecraftian themes and eldritch horror with its signature absurd humor and light-hearted tone. This unique blend creates a 'spooky yet silly' experience, with clever parodies and references that resonate well with players.

Common complaints:
- Repetitive and tedious combat (weight 0.22): The combat system is frequently criticized for being repetitive, tedious, and lacking depth. Players find it becomes a grind, often too easy or too difficult, and that the progression system doesn't make it more engaging, leading to burnout.
- Confusing and frustrating puzzles/quests (weight 0.21): A significant number of players found the puzzles and side quests to be obscure, difficult to understand, and often requiring external guides. The reliance on trial-and-error, backtracking, and missable content for achievements or good endings is a major source of frustration.
- Problematic progression and content gating (weight 0.07): The game's progression system and content structure are criticized for being underwhelming, laborious, and sometimes forcing players to advance the main story prematurely. Important content and achievements can be easily missed, requiring restarts.
- Poor achievement design (weight 0.07): Achievement hunting is described as tedious and frustrating, often requiring multiple playthroughs due to finicky, obscure, and easily missable conditions. This design conflicts with the game's discovery-based nature.
- Tedious backtracking and slow traversal (weight 0.05): The time-travel mechanics and general map traversal lead to excessive backtracking and slow movement, which becomes tedious and detracts from the gameplay experience.
- Rushed and unsatisfying endings (weight 0.05): The game's endings are widely considered to be weak, rushed, and unsatisfying. Some players felt cheated out of a proper completionist ending, with unskippable credits and a lack of animation.
- Limited item usage in combat (weight 0.02): The restriction to using only one item per turn in combat, along with limited perk slots for consumables, makes item management feel restrictive and less impactful.
- Game-breaking bugs and issues (weight 0.02): Players reported encountering game-breaking bugs and glitches, including crashes, which negatively impact the gameplay experience and require patching.
- Burnout from chapter structure (weight 0.02): The chapter sequence contributes to player burnout, with some areas being significantly less engaging than others, leading players to rush through the game.
- Minor content oversight (spittoon) (weight 0.01): A very specific, minor complaint about the inability to have a spittoon in the player's bar, indicating a small detail that some players noticed and desired.

Gameplay feedback:
- Different from West of Loathing (weight 0.12): Shadows Over Loathing offers a distinct experience compared to its predecessor, West of Loathing. It features a heavier focus on story and puzzles, a more streamlined combat system, and a different exploration style, moving away from the 'go, explore' open-world feel of the previous game.
- Extensive Text & Story Focus (weight 0.09): Shadows Over Loathing is characterized by a substantial amount of text, with dialogue making up a significant portion of the 20-30 hour gameplay. This emphasizes a stronger narrative focus compared to its predecessor, involving a main plot to save an uncle and lift curses.
- Flexible Combat & Pacifist Options (weight 0.06): The game features turn-based combat but uniquely allows for a completely combat-free playthrough, with many quests offering non-combat solutions. Players can choose their approach, from highly combative to entirely pacifist, adding to strategic depth.
- Diverse Companions & Builds (weight 0.05): Players can choose from various companions, each offering different combat styles and interactive texts, which can unlock special endings. The game also supports different character builds and difficulties, enhancing replayability.
- Puzzle-Oriented Gameplay (weight 0.04): The game leans heavily into puzzle mechanics, often more so than traditional RPG elements. Puzzles are of moderate difficulty, with many solutions, ensuring players can progress even if a particular puzzle is challenging.
- Streamlined Stat & Buff System (weight 0.03): Character stats are primarily boosted through equipment, perks, and temporary buffs. Unlike previous titles, only one food, potion, and booze buff can be active at a time, simplifying the buff management.
- Unique Summonables & Toggles (weight 0.03): The game features unusual elements like a talking doll summon and the ability to add random spiders to battles. It also includes a toggle to remove spiders for players who prefer not to encounter them.
- Structured Map & Chapters (weight 0.02): The game is divided into six distinct maps or chapters, each representing characteristic locations. This structured progression contrasts with a more open-world exploration style.
- Elemental Combat Mechanics (weight 0.02): The game incorporates elemental damage and resistance systems. Players can level up elemental armor through books, adding a layer of strategic depth to combat encounters.
- Stat Maxing as Achievement (weight 0.01): Achieving maximum stats (e.g., 15 in all stats) is considered a significant accomplishment within the game, indicating a progression goal for dedicated players.

Performance notes:
- Excellent Performance & Loading (weight 0.03): Players consistently praise the game's smooth performance, instant loading times, and overall ease of startup, making it highly accessible and enjoyable for quick play sessions.
- Great Steam Deck Compatibility (weight 0.02): The game runs exceptionally well on the Steam Deck, providing a positive portable gaming experience for users of the device.
- Linux Achievement Bug (weight 0.01): A specific issue was reported where achievements are not being granted to players using the Linux operating system.

Recommendations:
- Highly Recommended Game (weight 0.29): The game is widely praised and recommended by players, with many giving it high ratings (6/10 to 11/10) and expressing strong enjoyment. It's considered worth the price and suitable for various player types.
- Great for Loathing Fans (weight 0.23): Players who enjoyed 'West of Loathing' or 'Kingdom of Loathing' are highly likely to enjoy this game, often considering it a natural progression or a 'no-brainer' purchase. Some even suggest playing 'West of Loathing' first to gauge interest.
- Appeals to RPG & Humor Fans (weight 0.15): The game is recommended for players who appreciate turn-based RPGs, rich storytelling, and a unique, often fourth-wall-breaking sense of humor. Its charm and entertaining writing are frequently highlighted.
- Desire for More Loathing Games (weight 0.07): Players express a strong desire for more games in the 'Loathing' series, indicating deep satisfaction with the developer's work and the unique style of these games.
- Worth the Price (weight 0.04): Many players feel the game justifies its cost, even at full price, indicating good value for the entertainment and content provided.
- Consider Waiting for Sale (weight 0.02): Some players suggest waiting for a discount before purchasing, implying that while the game is good, a sale might make it an even better value.
- Specific Class/Path Advice (weight 0.01): Players offer specific advice regarding in-game choices, such as avoiding 'Geology' at S.I.T. and picking 'Jazz agent' as a starting class, suggesting these choices impact gameplay.
- Explore Side-Quests (weight 0.01): A player recommends taking time to engage with side-quests, implying they add significant value or enjoyment to the game experience.

Other player notes:
- Mixed Player Engagement (weight 0.1): Player engagement varies significantly; some players quit early and return much later, while others are highly dedicated, aiming for 100% completion and anticipating future content. This suggests the game's appeal might be niche but deeply captivating for its target audience.
- Strong Series Connection (weight 0.09): The game is frequently compared to 'West of Loathing,' with many players being fans of the previous title and having specific expectations. The game's length is noted as significantly longer than its predecessor, and some players took longer to warm up to it.
- Lack of Chinese Localization (weight 0.03): A significant portion of the feedback highlights the absence of Chinese localization, with players expressing a strong desire for it. This indicates a missed opportunity for market expansion and accessibility.
- Heavy Reading Requirement (weight 0.02): Players consistently mention the game requires an extreme amount of reading. This is a core characteristic that potential players should be aware of, as it heavily influences the gameplay experience.
- Desire for More Content (weight 0.02): Players express a desire for more chapters and potential DLC, indicating satisfaction with the existing content and an appetite for expansion. There's also a hope for combat balancing and puzzle difficulty improvements.
- Niche Appeal (weight 0.01): The game is acknowledged to appeal to a select group of players on Steam, suggesting it caters to a specific taste rather than a broad audience.
- Lore Confirmation (weight 0.01): A specific character, Mumflr Fumperdink, is confirmed as canon within the game's lore. This is a minor point of interest for dedicated fans.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.28): Players are highly satisfied with the game's engaging story, humor, and writing, often finding it an improvement over its predecessor. The game's replayability, well-balanced puzzles, and abundant content also contribute significantly to this positive emotion, providing a rich and enjoyable experience.
- Excitement (weight 0.12): Excitement stems from the game's overall quality, compelling gameplay, and extensive content, leading many players to recommend it enthusiastically. The anticipation for future installments in the series and the continuous discovery of new features even after many hours of play also fuel this emotion.
- Disappointment (weight 0.1): Disappointment primarily arises when players compare the game unfavorably to its predecessor, citing a perceived lack of charm, humor, or engaging new additions. Issues such as a weak ending, underwhelming changes to systems, and a general feeling of regression also contribute to this sentiment.
- Joy (weight 0.09): Joy is frequently expressed due to the game's hilarious humor, witty dialogue, and overall fun and wacky nature. Players enjoy the engrossing stories, the ability to make silly choices, and the entertaining experience that often leads to prolonged laughter and a strong affection for the game.
- Frustration (weight 0.08): Frustration is caused by obscure puzzles, tedious achievement hunting, and repetitive gameplay. Players also express annoyance with strict stat checks, confusing progression mechanics, and issues like glitches, crashes, or the lack of specific localizations.
- Appreciation (weight 0.06): Players appreciate the game's unique blend of slapstick comedy and Lovecraftian horror, its witty writing, and innovative combat system. The developers' effort in creating a worthy sequel with charming graphics, great music, and replayable content is also highly valued.
- Amusement (weight 0.05): Amusement is consistently generated by the game's pervasive humor, including its jokes, gags, puns, and absurd dialogues. Players find the game's self-awareness, quirky characters, and reactivity to choices particularly funny, often leading to audible chuckles.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.04): Enjoyment is derived from the game's fun and challenging combat, its lighthearted tone, and its engaging puzzles. The ridiculous jokes, gags, and puns, along with the overall entertaining gameplay experience, contribute to a strong sense of enjoyment.
- Admiration (weight 0.03): Admiration is felt for the game's excellence, unique design, and brilliant writing, with many considering it a masterpiece. The developers' passion, the detailed refinement, and the adaptive soundtrack also inspire significant admiration from players.
- Love (weight 0.02): Love for the game is driven by its overall quality, witty writing, and creative design, often extending to the entire series. Players express deep affection for the art style, aesthetic, and the unique charm that defines the games.
- Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance stems from difficult puzzles, minor UI and skill changes, and perceived political commentary. Repetitive music, restrictive combat mechanics, and cumbersome, repetitive tasks also contribute to this negative feeling.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom is caused by repetitive gameplay, particularly in the early stages and main story, and repetitive combat strategies. Players feel there is less to do in each area, leading to a lack of engagement.
- Surprise (weight 0.01): Surprise arises from the game's unique humor, unexpected depth, and the boldness in allowing players to miss significant content. The surprising amount of game content and its unexpected ability to unnerve players also contribute to this emotion.
- Fun (weight 0.01): Fun is a general positive feeling derived from the overall game experience and engaging with the optional filler content. Simply playing the game is often described as a fun activity.
- Desire (weight 0.01): Players express a strong desire for new works from the developer, more chapters for the current game, and specific features like Chinese localization. This indicates a strong positive engagement and wish for continued content.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope is primarily focused on future developments, including the release of a sequel, future games from the developer, and the implementation of official Chinese localization. This reflects a positive outlook and anticipation for the game's future.
- Delight (weight 0.01): Delight is experienced due to the game's clever blend of elements, its comedy, and creativity. Callbacks to previous games and clever references also contribute to this feeling of pleasant satisfaction.
- Sadness (weight 0): Sadness is felt at the prospect of finishing the game or the thought that there might not be more games of this particular style. This indicates a strong attachment to the game and its unique qualities.
- Intrigue (weight 0): Intrigue is sparked by the game's unique blend of elements and its gameplay, which players find silly yet captivating. This suggests a curiosity and fascination with the game's distinctive approach.
- Nostalgia (weight 0): Nostalgia is triggered by long-term engagement with the developer's previous works, such as playing Kingdom of Loathing since childhood. Specific musical elements, like the piano in Chapter 2 battle music, can also evoke this feeling.}