"The Most Colourful Horror you will ever play!"

In the same vain that Bryan Forbes wanted to make a day time horror film just to prove that it could be done and this lead to the classic 1975 film 'Stepford Wives'. So too, a single Chicago Developer known as 'The Loneliest Pixel' https://theloneliestpixel.com/ Aka 'Princess Axolotl' https://twitter.com/princessaxolotl set out to prove to herself and the world that she could make a horror game filled with bright colours.

It must have taken a lot of balls to not only set yourself this challenge, but also to successfully accomplish it, and it did... eyeballs. Heaps of them. The premise of the story is that you '204' suddenly become conscious to the fact that you are stranded inside a healing clinic which has become overrun by these inter-dimensional beings ... giant levitating eyeballs ... which like to decapitate their prey. The clinic seems to have been already evacuated, but thanks to '209' who was blessed with prophesy saw a future where you '204' would locate and destroy the nest and free him by influencing the current timeline. To make sure this prophesy comes true, he prints an employee manifesto at the back of a deck of bunny tarot cards he has and hides them in places that he knows only 204 could find. He also draws four prophetic drawings in the tunnels of the nest and a trail of bunnies which only 204 would be able to decipher. Collecting all 22 tarot cards will present an Easter egg at the end of the game in regards to 209 as prophesied.

This developer is extremely cute and intelligent, she has an overactive imagination which engulfs you into her lore and world. Her passion for making games and love for life spill out continually into her animated kingdoms and become extremely contagious to the adult child in each one of us. Her enthusiasm for making games is never without a level of restraint as she always tries earnestly to deliver value for product. She doesn't just want to make games. She wants to make GOOD games. Games that she will be remembered for, worlds and lore’s which only she can be the princess to.

I'm by no means stating that this game was perfect. One of my biggest gripes is that you can bypass the whole game without actually fulfilling any prophecy, without actually destroying the nest. So you can understand my dismay, since destroying the nest is extremely hard and laborious, I was extremely disappointed that destroying the nest does not really lead to any special ending that I could see. The only trivial special ending is the Easter egg you get at the end of the game when you collect all 22 cards.

Furthermore, I was slightly disappointed that the lore I discovered about the game regarding the special relationship that 204 had with 209 and with Rosemary and John was not actually in the game itself, but more so on the developer's twitter feed. The envisioned concepts that so neatly wrap up the happenings inside the clinic should be discoverable in the game itself, not just on a feed.

Finally there are many unanswered questions, like what happened with 216? What's in his room? Does 204 meet up with 209? With her parents? What's the deal with the big crystals in the rooms? What’s the difference between light outside and the light pouring down the well? Why do I sound like a beach ball?

The menacing eyeballs will have you ripping your hair out at times, every time they catch and engulf you, they send you back to start of each chapter. Personally I wished for two things. One, that there was an extra save, one that recorded and saved the action where you have flooded light down the deathly well. The second thing I wished, is that I could have nuked the whole entire nest with light. Just drop a few light monoliths onto the giant eyeball or something and explode them. I wanted the giant eyeball dead. I wanted those menacing eyeballs outside obliterated. I have so much hatred for eyeballs now thanks to this game that I’m walking around everywhere in real life staring at the floor and walking into walls, stubbing my toes and just shuddering that moment that I once again look up and see an eye.

With these gripes placed aside, I have no doubt that 209 named this game. Why you ask? Because with its amazing lore, with its colourful secrets, with its kingdom needing to be freed from an ominous nemesis, this game was extremely prophetic, it definitely gave me a 'Brighter Day'.

https://youtu.be/TmBSGOL4gRM

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