NaissanceE

A masterclass in hostile geometry and architecture and kinda also in undercutting the best and most unique parts of your game with tedious genre obligations. Alternates between half-aimless exploration of an uncanny-valley surreal megastructure on one hand and extremely purposeful, arcade-y puzzle-platforming levels on the other. If this is an almost alien world not quite built for human beings then why do I keep coming across arbitrary human-scaled puzzles I need to finish in order to progress? Even when they're conceptually neat, like the giant sliding block puzzle, they still scream “YOU ARE PLAYING A GAME. FIND THE RIGHT ANSWER TO WIN.” It's like if Yume Nikki kept switching back and forth between the original game and the 2.5D platformer remake. Related, I wish they leant more into the aspect of pain rather than death. The sprinting breath mechanic makes it abundantly clear that navigating the space you're in is exhausting and even painful. Its scale and irrationality alone make it unfit for human life. And then the game falls back on just killing you for miss-steps.