Forgiveness

Review

You wake up dazed! You look around to find yourself alone, locked in a room which appears at first glance to be an infirmary. A voice comes over a speaker and begins talking to you. He claims he is God and that you are there to be judged for your sins. He will continue to explain to you why you're there and that you do have a chance at redemption if you can pass his test. You are given clues scattered around each room; you must find them to complete the puzzles and pass the challenge. Some clues are visual, some are items you will need to collect and figure out how they fit into the puzzle you need to solve in order to escape. You will examine many items laying around the rooms for hidden clues that are needed to solves the puzzles. Your time is at hand; you have been chosen.  Try to find the clues and solve the riddles that lay before you or face the consequences of your sins.

Released and self-published by the developer Noam Matan Rotem on Feb 22, 2019, this is their first release on Steam. This indie title is a first-person puzzle game set in an escape room type scenario. I have also tagged it as difficult and psychological. It really has no horror features for me to add that tag. For gameplay options, you change settings to invert mouse X & Y and mouse sensitivity. The audio setting contains sliders for Music, SFX, and Voice. In graphics, there are settings for Fullscreen, V-Sync, Motion Blue, Ambient Occlusion and Bloom, along with a few other quality settings. There is no controller support; I did a test with my Xbox 360 controller, and found that there were no options to change its settings. I was unable to use it to play. 

There are 2 modes of gameplay for the title. In Story mode you will start with a personality quiz that determines what your sins are; this sets up the room designs as well as the challenges you will face for a randomized experience, depending on the answers you choose. You must seek clues and solve puzzles tied to the theme of that room in order to escape before time runs out. In Free Play mode you can play the levels in any order you wish, but they are not randomized (as far as I noticed during my play time). There are 2 difficulties to choose from. In normal difficulty, there is a small help system to help you identify needed items that utilize an audible ding to let you know that item is a clue. In extreme difficulty, there are no audio cues to let you know which of the interactive items in the room are actually needed. You will be on your own, with nothing but the clues in each level to aid you. There is a fair amount of re-playability to the game with story mode and its randomizations.

The title, built in Unity, has visually sharp modern graphics. It also features a unique provocative soundtrack for each level that I simply loved; the way it was designed helps to set the mood and tension in a room, intensifying its volume up and down, adding an interesting air of suspense to the game. The title has a good atmosphere, with well-designed levels and props.  The rooms are lighter or darker according to the mechanics of the gameplay. It doesn't require a lot of religious knowledge either; the storyline may have a religious overtone but it is a puzzler at heart. The puzzles are not based on religion, per se, as a theme of the puzzles, but rather the 7 deadly sins are used as the theme for each room, with each room being designed around one sin.

I found the title to be visually appealing, as the rooms are well-designed with great detail in the props. The artwork across the title is also a pleasant addition.  I found the title to be quite difficult; in my 7 plus hours of playtime, I have only been able to beat 2 of the levels thus far. The puzzles can be intuitive to get through for the most part, but when you reach a puzzle and you just do not understand what they are trying to get across to you without any further clues to aid you, it gets frustrating. I even called in multiple friends to help and we all were stumped. So, if you're a casual puzzle-player, you may find this too challenging.  For you seasoned puzzle addicts who loved the puzzles in titles like Myst that really require thinking outside the box, you may have found the perfect new addition to your library. It is not as easy as finding a key hidden behind a box; if you're ready to face the wrath of God, you’d better bring your logic caps!

Review written by DamageInc.for Zeepond.com!