Oculto

Oculto is a game where the negatives simply outweighed the positives for me. I liked the story and it was what kept me playing. I thought the way it was told by finding messages and corpses was well done. I thought some game play elements were great such as if you take to hard of a hit to the head area it can smash your lamp which you can repair by finding repair kits. You can also get your propeller jammed; tear your suit on sharp objects; as well as receive hemorrhages due to explosions. Health kits can fix what repair kits don’t. My only issue is that hemorrhages and oxygen leaks both are time sensitive issues that if not dealt with before their timers run out will kill you. Combine that with the fact that you can’t carry repair or health kits in an inventory meaning that you have to backtrack to find them all the while trying to evade a shadow that one hit kills you and it adds up to something that will either make you enjoy the tension or you will find it annoying. I found it...

Oculto is an exercise in annoyance. I bought it thinking it would be a walking sim with some puzzle elements or a point-and-click like the studio's previous game. It is not. It is closer to a platformer where floating into a random stick of dynamite starts a countdown that kills you, getting zapped by a stray bolt of electricity starts a countdown that kills you and eventually you also start getting chased by a monster that immediately kills you. Your only choice is to try to avoid all the hazards, which might be slightly less frustrating if you could save your game, but you cannot, so even if you make it almost all the way through the level, one mistake at the end means you have to start it all over again. There's not even checkpoints. Everything is trial-and-error, die and repeat. It's like a game that was made in the 1980s, and I don't mean that in a nostalgic sense. It's tedious, it's cheap and it's a waste of the player's time. Don't make the same mistake I did. Do not buy this ga...

The mechanics of this game seem oriented around making the level an obstacle course of annoyance which you must avoid so that your character isn't debuffed, which is clearly the intent for when you're chased by the [spoiler]goofy black smoke monster[/spoiler] later in the game. However half the time you're not being chased so the game is essentially getting in the way of your exploration for no reason and potentially causing you to die and restart the level if you don't heal fast enough. That sucks, and combined with the need to find one specific text log, that could be anywhere in the level and will have little in the way of a clue that it contains the exit password, in order to leave each level is the height of irritation. Couldn't even bring myself to finish it.

So I am writing this review super late after I have beaten this game and done a let's play for it (Back when it was called Void Mine which I feel is a better name than Oculto but I digress) this dive into Anxiety and Horror was such a nice ride that I found myself not only having to pause for a bit to breathe that I STILL would come back to it, trying to find every last secret, every last bit of lore and every easter egg! (Still looking for that Hamster though). This is a great game and I recommend it to anyone and everyone who loves either the retroish artstyle or horror genres!

Loved the creepy atmosphere and this had a really good plot under the scare factor. Overall, loved it!

The story is decent, but the atmoshpere is what carries this game. The graphics aren't bad, but they are the same on all levels except for one change in environment. The barracks shouldn't look just the same as the docking bay, it doesn't make sense. The controls are a bit gimmicky and sometimes not exactly logical, but it sort of improves the athmophere further. The game reminded me of the movie Life, it's a sci-fi horror/thriller set it zero gravity. The play time is not long, even if you go for full completion (optional), you can do it in about 3 hours. Still, I think it's worth it to play for such a low price, and play it with headphones or something else that gives good sound. There are few different sound effects in the game but they are on point. All in all: Graphics: 7/10, nice, but very little difference between levels, light-shadow effects are on point though. Sounds/Music: 6/10 also great, just very few different ones. Atmoshpere: 10/10 the strongest point of the game, even ...

A casual puzzle-maze that gives the player a break from slash-and-hack games. A definite keeper.

Simple yet effective game mechanics. Beautiful art and lights. Dark atmosphere and paranoia. That's my kind of game. The price is also a permanent deal so the game deserves more good reviews and players.

Enjoyable game! Well worth the few bucks it cost me.

Running theme for this game in all its aspect is the simplicity and minimalism to its design. The controls are simple, the music and sound are dialed back and the design is kept uninspiring with the odd splash of color from red alarms. This isn't a bad thing, it, in fact, gives its main quality, the story, to take center stage. I don't know if that was the developers' intention, but it works. My attention was more focused on the story than on anything else. Unfortunately, as much as I enjoyed finding all the breadcrumbs (oh wow... I just noticed this is Pacman meets Deadspace), the story was underwhelming. I had fun with this, not a lot of fun, but I had fun. It is definitely worth checking out, I just wouldn't go rushing to get it. For the full review check out Page 9-10 on my magazine at this link: https://issuu.com/raginramen/docs/game_dojo_issue_2_march17th-31st/10