The Purge: Desperation

what an effectively dark experience! (which is verbose for: this was f*cked up but in a really good way XD)

(SPOILERS)

the atmosphere and horror of this whole situation are conveyed really well. at first, the complete calm in hank's home (aside some mentions of safety precautions) made me lower my guard and believe, like the protagonists, that everything could be okay and the purge could just be avoided and treated like a normal day if you just stayed inside... but the moment billy's inhaler is empty and you need to go outside, reality hits. the combination of incessant screaming and thugs running all around made the outside feel super tense. the speed of everyone was a little jarring at first, but after a few seconds it dawns on you just how hard it's gonna be to avoid them, and you have no idea what these people will do to you if they catch you... it felt appropiately super dangerous, and everytime i had to go outside i felt a non insignificant amount of dread haha. and when dean and his lackeys broke into hank's house, forcing him to do all these horrible things... man, it's really hard to nail true desperation (heh) in a game, but you did it. seeing hank like this, wondering if it's even worth it for saving billy and watching how he does increasingly horrible things... it kinda made me sick to my stomach (in a good way ofc! haha). even so, the most visceral feeling you'll feel here is by far the sheer hate for dean lmao, that puntable bastard- the horror aspect was super well done, you really have a grasp on how to make a plot gripping and intense!:D

the art was really good!! hank and dean's faces were really expressive and sold me on their personalities a lot. i love how exaggerated hank's drawings are to show his anger, contrasted with how calm and on model dean looks. just some good old clever juxtaposition haha. loved also how hank's sprite and art would change and get bloodier as he killed more people, the sprite change is SUPER subtle but i the extra effort is really cool. i really liked how initially, gore is not seen anywhere, making me think subconsciously "oh ok, so there's no real graphic violence and the trigger warnings were probably just for the themes". then you see billy's ear, and suddenly "oh god oh shit there's actual gore-". then you start killing the thugs on the street (side note, really appreciated that you had to just touch them to kill them and it wasn't necessary to interact with them haha) and kinda become desensitized by the violence, thinking "oh okay, smashing people's heads with a wrench is probably about as hard with the gore and this will go, looks like i'm good!". and then you start finding billy's body pieces around your home (amazing sequence btw) and it's right back to "OH NO OH GOD OH MY GOD I HATE GAMES I'M NEVER PLAYING A GAME AGAIN-". just a really clever use of shock, and a rollercoaster of emotions haha. lastly, the cgs were great too! the way you used references was super cool (that's right i unlocked the bonus folder because i'm a true gamer™) and it didn't feel like you were plagiarizing those pics, it felt like you were taking inspiration of really smartly chosen pictures. and they're all really well drawn and have a good amount of detail; i'd say my favorite cg was the one in the bad ending, where hank hold's billy's head... man that look in his eyes is gonna stay with me haha.

(also i didn't know where to put this but the save slot thing was so clever! no idea if you could go around the house from the start or if it was exclusive from that save, but either way it was a really creative way to lead into the true ending :>)

if i had to criticize anything, i think hank and dean's designs felt a little too different from each other, like they weren't characters from the same universe. hank fits 100% with the game's tone and world, but dean kinda looks like a disney prince and it's a bit jarring (i KNEW you used a disney prince for reference! i'm always three steps ahead >:D haha). and obviously this isn't a dig at the game or your skills, but i feel like the rtp holds the flair back a bit. i would LOVE to see this game with an original tileset, or a dlc/fanmade one (like egg uses in their games). i think it would've made the presentation even more memorable, but as is the original art is still really great and the game overall is well designed and looks good!

this was a really great experience! and i think it's so cool that you decided to make a sequel based entirely on hank and billy living a happy life and nothing bad happening at all :D (*cries*)

Woah this was really cool! I've only seen the first Purge film, but I think that's enough to understand where all this is coming from, inspiration wise. I love how much Hank cares for his son, especially with how hesitant he was to commit crimes to be able to keep him safe. I was shocked at the bad ending- I felt so bad waaa but also, I jumped hard when the bad guys knocked Hank out right when he came home- really good scare haha

I like everyone's expressions, it was a nice touch to have Hank "look" in the direction of the wrench, for example. I also really liked the different sound effects for the flooring, something I use in my own games often (:

One thing I'll say though, is it felt a bit lacking in music, though I know it's mostly used in tense/important situations. At times it just felt a bit empty, but I did appreciate all the people running around and the yelling/screaming/things on fire- really paints the picture of a purge going on, haha! This was really cool, nice entry!!

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audio/se/Footstep_Left_wood.ogg Bruh I can't even walk can't have $hit in Missouri

Gave this puppy a SPIN…

Very great story!
recorded myself playing the game 👻

This was well made! I enjoyed it and found each of the two endings to be great! :D

Not bad! Could use a little work, though.

I'm about to upload a video on yt and I do have some honest opinion about the game, I liked it. And I'm here to support your work from now on!

Just had to replay it. The first, brutal ending didn't suit me :-)

I love this game so much. I sadly laugh so hard during serious scenes because of their facial expressions lmaoo /pos

i can't get past the inhaler part? it says i found the item, cuts to the two men standing in the room, and then it says I still need to find it. pressing z & x or clicking all around the pharmacy does not let me pick anything up. what do i do?

Hi, VGM Composer here to give you feedback!

Pros:

I really liked the plot of the game as in the "purge" idea, that hook in itself brings a lot of other potential questions for a complete version of the game, in that alone you got a lot of points already.

The choice of dark ambient music was good, considering that I myself compose this specific type of music I'd say it's always a safe choice.

The presence of cutscenes is always a must for that extra mile and you did it, so good job.

Basic game mechanics of burning stuff and tunnel vision in the dark were okay.

The diverse range of facial expressions of the protagonist went an extra mile as well, good job.

Cons:

Related to things you could and should fix right away are mostly related to sound and music. Let me explain why. Your art style is decent and its obvious that to improve that it'll be possible to be done in the long run. It's the same with the gameplay mechanics and level design, as is, for a game jam you did a pretty good job already.

Now with the sound issues:

Silence is an actual "composition technique" and you used it, but IMO it didn't work that well as it's probably best to use it in very high tension game levels such as the interior of the protagonists house when it got dark. In that regard you always have a choice of having a bgm in there or silence.

Where there should've been either bgm or ambient SFX: inside the hospital, inside the protagonist's house in the beginning and inside the police station.

During the street riot the scream SFX weren't looping properly, that really breaks immersion for the player.

So, if you didn't want to use music, then you could've used ambient SFX such as "room tone noise ambiences", footsteps and random noises from the ambient.

Also, the standard volume level of the SFX could be slightly lower as well.

That's it, good job!

It has an incredibly beautiful scenario, interactive endings and beautifully designed characters. Definitely worth the time. A game as special as its creator❤️❤️

nice game. Nice art and nice story. Nice characters face reactions. I like this game.

The game was really fun to play tbh, and im so glad i got to be part of it. It was fun to assist my brother, and I hope we can work on a project together again 🤍

I should've been the main artist

Very good Game

hey testing if comments work! Can’t wait to play it for real.