Mesel Review Summary

Engaging gameplay and a captivating story create an eerie atmosphere, but subpar graphics, frequent bugs, and poor voice acting hold it back.

Gameplay is engaging and fun: Players consistently praise the gameplay for being engaging and fun, describing the game as good overall and saying they love it. The combination of puzzles and exploration sustains interest throughout.

Story is captivating and intriguing: The story receives high praise for being captivating, intriguing, and well-crafted, with an interesting narrative concept. Players find the story worth playing for and appreciate the novel-writing mechanic that intertwines with gameplay.

Atmosphere is eerie and immersive: The game effectively creates a creepy, mysterious, and spooky atmosphere, which is considered well-crafted and immersive for a horror-thriller. The oppressive and tense atmosphere keeps players engaged and breathless.

Graphics are impressive for indie: Players note the graphics are surprisingly good and nice looking, especially for an indie game, with some calling them almost AAA quality. The environments and lighting contribute positively to the overall experience.

Puzzles are well-designed: Puzzles are generally fun and reasonable, not too complex or hard, and designed to not stop the flow of the game. Players appreciate the well-designed clues and the option to continue if they cannot solve a puzzle in time.

Subpar graphics and visuals: Graphics are consistently described as poor, unimpressive, and mixed in quality, attributed to cheap assets and low production value. Issues include bad textures, poor lighting, and lack of post-processing options.

Frequent bugs and glitches: The game is plagued by bugs, including crashes, getting stuck in the floor, softlocks, and movement glitches. A crash can erase progress due to poor checkpoint autosave, forcing restarts.

Poor voice acting quality: Voice acting is widely criticized as bad, with particular disdain for the little girl's voice and unnatural delivery. Some reviews mention it feels translated and lacks sincerity.

Not a horror game: The game fails to deliver horror, with reviewers saying it's not scary, only weird, with tame scares and few jump scares. It feels more like a time-passing game than a horror experience.

Boring and predictable story: The story is described as boring, uninteresting, and predictable, with a clinic/patient plot that fails to engage. Some reviewers found it unoriginal and lacking depth.

Player decisions shape novel: A defining mechanic is that player actions and decisions are transcribed into an in-game novel. This novel updates frequently and can be viewed with a key press, blending gameplay with narrative creation.

Past environment view feature: A recurring feature allows players to see the environment in its past state, including a rewind-like mechanic and revealing footprints. This is used to explore the hospital's history and solve puzzles.

Horror atmosphere and genre: The game is repeatedly described as a horror-thriller with tense, challenging gameplay. It is also noted as an indie production, adding to its niche appeal within the horror genre.

Puzzle gameplay is core: Players consistently mention puzzle solving as a central activity. The game features puzzles that must be engaged with, and at least one cluster notes puzzles can be bypassed if not solved in time.

Puzzles can be bypassed: One cluster indicates that puzzles can be bypassed if not solved in time, which may affect player strategy and tension. This is a specific gameplay mechanic.

Lack of graphics options: Missing anisotropic filtering, FXAA, and meaningful graphics settings limit visual customization and performance tuning. Players cannot adjust the game to their preferences or hardware.

Texture and stability issues: Buggy textures in the last chapter and general stability problems on stairs indicate deeper technical flaws. These issues persist across different parts of the game.

Overall strong recommendation to buy: Many clusters strongly recommend purchasing the game, highlighting it as a must-buy and highly recommended. These recommendations come from clusters 1, 2, 7, 24, and 27.

Value for money praised: The game is considered worth its price, with good price/quality balance and being worth every penny. Clusters 2, 12, and 14 highlight this positive aspect.

Session length: 0.5h.

Horror Enthusiast: Immersive, uses headphones, plays in tense conditions to amplify scare factor. Motivation: To experience thrilling scares and atmospheric horror. Stance: buy.

Lore Enthusiast: Focuses on reading all text, engaging with the narrative and world-building. Motivation: To absorb the original story, lore, and atmospheric narrative. Stance: buy.

Indie Supporter: Appreciative and supportive of solo development, plays with a sense of discovery. Motivation: To support and enjoy unique creations from a single developer. Stance: buy.

Turkish indie horror game: Reviewers frequently highlight that this is a Turkish-made indie horror game, with many mentioning full Turkish voice acting and development by a small or single-person team. This national origin and indie scope appear central to how players perceive and support the title.

Low price and good value: Multiple reviewers point out that the game is sold at a very low price, which they consider fair or even generous given the content. Some explicitly say it is good value for money and that the price is reasonable for what is offered.

Single developer project: A significant number of comments mention that the entire game was developed and published by just one person (or a very small studio). This is seen as an impressive achievement and likely influences players' expectations and appreciation.