https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2995642189

Here's The Thing:
You are the breadwinner of a normal family, for the most part, and it’s up to you to put food on the table by hunting rats! You know what? I can’t do this… they’re corpses. But whose of you ask? They could be your household or just a house you took over; I haven’t the slightest, but let’s just play along and see where this goes~



The store page already summarized what there is to do in the game pretty darn well- you wake up, get to work with your trusty shotgun, bring home the furry bacon (just pretend it is), and turn in for the night. Each day/level you’ll make your way to a new liminal space to explore and exterminate-collect exactly 3 rats, no more no less… But be careful, you’re not the only daddy hunting out there. What then, you ask? Repeat that for 5 days!

Sounds banal, tedious, and straightforward? Good! However, there are additional “meaningless” tasks that you can do in your home which acts as a hub or transit between you chasing your responsibilities and escaping from them. Did you know you can move “random” stuff around only to have them tidied up, thereby giving off the impression that there’s activity still? And that you shouldn’t forget to check your phone messages to see how much you matter to the outside world! And also, you can just lounge around, looking at walls listlessly, and kill time with your family, though you’ll do most of the talking…

Your work doesn’t take up too much time, it should only go on for 30 minutes at the very least. There is but one ending and no achievements so there’s no need for a 2nd playthrough… for it won’t change things. Even though it may help you understand things slightly better. That said, life isn’t as complex as we’re making it out to be; just a struggle for purpose when there really isn’t none~

TIPS:
1) P to pause, just you, not the game itself!
2) No saves. Finish in one sitting.


The various hunting grounds were molded after everyday spaces albeit hollowed-out caricatures with tinges of abandonment and even extinction! This includes a blindingly white art gallery whose macabre paintings will glue onto your attention, a normal-looking convenience store with a warehouse whose shelves know no end, a motel that somehow accentuates the already-thick air of loneliness always present at every turn. Even at home, one’s supposed haven, is deathly still… try as the nameless protagonist might to mask this idleness.

The audio design is essentially a husk of a radio, with silence being earsplitting until the inevitable draws near and static finally emerges… only to disappear just as quickly! There are sounds, but only those that draw attention to how alone and lifeless you are in your pursuit of the “Man of the house”. Such as your fatigued and faint footsteps, stuck in gear 1 walking pace. Even the way objects clang and thud all similarly and then subside, like your brain is too lazy to register and compute them properly hints of your disheveled state~


There is a “story”, but then at the same time there isn’t one… What I will do instead is point out its themes which include dealing with disillusionment, grief, facades of love, possibly mental illness, and all while featuring death as its core! There were even severe undertones of Marxist ideology especially with how the day-to-day is portrayed. I so badly wanted to cry, but wasn’t able to because I figured it wouldn’t have changed anything anyway. Only one other game did this to me and that’s Mothered: A Role-Playing Horror Game which, surprise-surprise also critically worked through comparable themes!

The tortured and emotionally-resilient (least on the outside) wage earner role was eerily uncanny to Donald Sutherland’s John Baxter of Don’t Look Now and Anthony Perkin’s Norman Bates in Psycho I & II. It’s rare that I mention specific characters and not merely movie storylines, so you know this shi* is the real deal, just sayin’! But the question then becomes, which of the two fates will be the one to prevail because their downfalls also get inserted one way or another~


Glancing a couple of other reviews, everyone appears to have gotten the gist down to a T! The bleakness, near nihilist, and “open-endedness” were done with a strong will and heavy-handed intent… Designed to illustrate just how directionless life is despite the personal goals we set out for ourselves. The dreams we strived so tirelessly to pursue, if ever to be reached. Everything is a mind-numbing and heart-hardening distraction, like the single-minded work that drives, some would say plague our main character… to the point he doesn’t even realize his family is dead before his eyes.

The significance behind the title alludes to a truly miserable and hopeless situation; a factory (again, Marxism ideology) that instead of generating profits, creates only more tears and disconnect! Feeding dead unclean creatures to decomposing bodies seems rather pointless, doesn’t it? Well, to this working family man, it’s the sole responsibility and routine that he knows, so who can blame him! I do wonder what he himself ingests to stay alive for God knows how long…

In fact, you’ll find that many of the details are iffy. Like, did he kill his family? How long have they been that way?? Why is that one door locked??? Short version, it doesn’t friggin matter… that’s life. They’re dead and that’s that~
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2995643066



The only cons I can muster pertain to the gameplay, like there being a general and overall lack of polish. For instance, the shotgun having a crazy spread & damage regardless of range. Furthermore, there isn’t a HUD whatsoever to tell you how much ammo you have left. There is no control scheme too, so work it out yourself!

Lastly, there are no settings, not a one… the interaction cursor is too small that I didn’t even notice it in my first playthrough. All these are like chump change issues, but I guess it could be a irl/in-game meta of sorts which show that the developer couldn’t be bothered to fix these because it would be pointless in the end~


x Floating cartridges sometime don’t enter the shotgun to be loaded.
x Can’t climb up stairs…
x Get caught by corners of objects like doors, walls, and etc.
x Crashes on Day 1 Maze entry.


~ No sprint…


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2995643703

Last Words?
Latching morbidity & nihilism, or an up-front peer into everyone’s eventual future…? Gameplay left heaps to be yearned but its despair effectively enveloped every inch of your saddening existence~

[code]Curator page here-->[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37670120/] DaRevieweD #231 [/url]<-- [i]New review every week[/i][/code] [h1]"RAT ME OUT… PLS, I BEG OF YOU~"[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2995642189 [u]Here's The Thing:[/u] You are the breadwinner of a normal family, for the most part, and it’s up to you to put food on the table by hunting rats! You know what? I can’t do this… they’re corpses. But whose of you ask? They could be your household or just a house you took over; I haven’t the slightest, but let’s just play along and see where this goes~ [h1][u][ ] PROS;[/u][/h1] [h1]:) HUNT TIL DEATH DO US PART~[/h1] The store page already summarized what there is to do in the game pretty darn well- you wake up, get to work with your trusty shotgun, bring home the furry bacon (just pretend it is), and turn in for the night. Each day/level you’ll make your way to a new liminal space to explore and exterminate-collect exactly 3 rats, no more no less… But be careful, you’re not the only daddy hunting out there. What then, you ask? Repeat that for 5 days! Sounds banal, tedious, and straightforward? Good! However, there are additional “meaningless” tasks that you can do in your home which acts as a hub or transit between you chasing your responsibilities and escaping from them. Did you know you can move “random” stuff around only to have them tidied up, thereby giving off the impression that there’s activity still? And that you shouldn’t forget to check your phone messages to see how much you matter to the outside world! And also, you can just lounge around, looking at walls listlessly, and kill time with your family, though you’ll do most of the talking… Your work doesn’t take up too much time, it should only go on for 30 minutes at the very least. There is but one ending and no achievements so there’s no need for a 2nd playthrough… for it won’t change things. Even though it may help you understand things slightly better. That said, life isn’t as complex as we’re making it out to be; just a struggle for purpose when there really isn’t none~ [u]TIPS:[/u] 1) P to pause, just you, not the game itself! 2) No saves. Finish in one sitting. [h1]:) DEPRESSION AT FULL CHURCH![/h1] The various hunting grounds were molded after everyday spaces albeit hollowed-out caricatures with tinges of abandonment and even extinction! This includes a blindingly white art gallery whose macabre paintings will glue onto your attention, a normal-looking convenience store with a warehouse whose shelves know no end, a motel that somehow accentuates the already-thick air of loneliness always present at every turn. Even at home, one’s supposed haven, is deathly still… try as the nameless protagonist might to mask this idleness. The audio design is essentially a husk of a radio, with silence being earsplitting until the inevitable draws near and static finally emerges… only to disappear just as quickly! There are sounds, but only those that draw attention to how alone and lifeless you are in your pursuit of the “Man of the house”. Such as your fatigued and faint footsteps, stuck in gear 1 walking pace. Even the way objects clang and thud all similarly and then subside, like your brain is too lazy to register and compute them properly hints of your disheveled state~ [h1]:) A RAT-HER. GRIM. PORTRAIT.[/h1] There is a “story”, but then at the same time there isn’t one… What I will do instead is point out its themes which include dealing with disillusionment, grief, facades of love, possibly mental illness, and all while featuring death as its core! There were even severe undertones of Marxist ideology especially with how the day-to-day is portrayed. I so badly wanted to cry, but wasn’t able to because I figured it wouldn’t have changed anything anyway. Only one other game did this to me and that’s [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/DeadeGuard98/recommended/1830720/]Mothered: A Role-Playing Horror Game[/url] which, surprise-surprise also critically worked through comparable themes! The tortured and emotionally-resilient (least on the outside) wage earner role was eerily uncanny to Donald Sutherland’s John Baxter of [b]Don’t Look Now[/b] and Anthony Perkin’s Norman Bates in [b]Psycho I & II[/b]. It’s rare that I mention specific characters and not merely movie storylines, so you know this shi* is the real deal, just sayin’! But the question then becomes, which of the two fates will be the one to prevail because their downfalls also get inserted one way or another~ [h1]:) I’M AFRAID, THIS WHERE THE RODENTS~[/h1] Glancing a couple of other reviews, everyone appears to have gotten the gist down to a T! The bleakness, near nihilist, and “open-endedness” were done with a strong will and heavy-handed intent… Designed to illustrate just how directionless life is despite the personal goals we set out for ourselves. The dreams we strived so tirelessly to pursue, if ever to be reached. Everything is a mind-numbing and heart-hardening distraction, like the single-minded work that drives, some would say plague our main character… to the point he doesn’t even realize his family is dead before his eyes. The significance behind the title alludes to a truly miserable and hopeless situation; a factory (again, Marxism ideology) that instead of generating profits, creates only more tears and disconnect! Feeding dead unclean creatures to decomposing bodies seems rather pointless, doesn’t it? Well, to this working family man, it’s the sole responsibility and routine that he knows, so who can blame him! I do wonder what he himself ingests to stay alive for God knows how long… In fact, you’ll find that many of the details are iffy. Like, did he kill his family? How long have they been that way?? Why is that one door locked??? Short version, it doesn’t friggin matter… that’s life. They’re dead and that’s that~ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2995643066 [h1][u][-] CONS;[/u][/h1] [h1]:( LOOK AT THIS MAZE YOU MADE!? GOING OUT WITH A PNG…?[/h1] The only cons I can muster pertain to the gameplay, like there being a general and overall lack of polish. For instance, the shotgun having a crazy spread & damage regardless of range. Furthermore, there isn’t a HUD whatsoever to tell you how much ammo you have left. There is no control scheme too, so work it out yourself! Lastly, there are no settings, not a one… the interaction cursor is too small that I didn’t even notice it in my first playthrough. All these are like chump change issues, but I guess it could be a irl/in-game meta of sorts which show that the developer couldn’t be bothered to fix these because it would be pointless in the end~ [h1]BUGS:[/h1] x Floating cartridges sometime don’t enter the shotgun to be loaded. x Can’t climb up stairs… x Get caught by corners of objects like doors, walls, and etc. x Crashes on Day 1 Maze entry. [h1]NITPICKS:[/h1] ~ No sprint… [h1]"DOWN… FOR THE RATS OF YOUR LIFE…"[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2995643703 [u]Last Words?[/u] Latching morbidity & nihilism, or an up-front peer into everyone’s eventual future…? Gameplay left heaps to be yearned but its despair effectively enveloped every inch of your saddening existence~ [h1]9 / 10[/h1] [code]Today’s blast from the past review is…[url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/DeadeGuard98/recommended/2113030/] The Nameless[/url]. Check it out~[/code]