- Unable to post to steam as I played on another device other then PC. However I really needed to share my experience with TSORF -
I went into this game completely blind only knowing it was a walking sim without looking at reviews. Upon completing the whole game I had so many thoughts to share after the fact...
The premise of this game being centred around a 16 year old girl known as Rachel Foster yet as a player we are never told anything about her character other then she was groomed, raped, impregnated and lead to believed committed suicide. The father (Leonard) of the main protagonist Nicole (Nicky) you play as is seemingly in denial of her father being a paedophile. The game suggests that Leonard is not the villain in the story but rather Nicole is as she is wrongfully shamed for not taking action and preventing the events that lead to Rachel's alleged suicide while witnessing such events take place as a CHILD. Not only does this idolise paedophiles in doing so, but also adopts a frankly bizarre premise of the game that I admit was difficult to digest. This is my first problem with the game.
The second being a commentary on the games functionality. Although this game is described as a walking sim, there are many times when as you are exploring aspects of the hotel you can pick up and observe objects that have meaningless contribution to the games plot such as picking up the same box of cigarettes that can be found in 5 different rooms with no clues or purpose attached as to why they are there other then to add to the atmosphere of the hotel.
Not to mention finding many hot key items such as a polaroid camera, wind up torch and a ghost detector? you have these items in your inventory for the whole game but only use them once. Such a missed opportunity and defiantly would have given the game more suspense and action for the player.
I have no issue with walking simulators however if your whole game is going to be centred around the walking mechanic at least make it an enjoyable aspect of the game. There were many times I cringed as you walk at a tortoise pace and even when ''running'' it feels clumpy and irritating I began to dread using the crawl spaces as I often experienced glitches and getting stuck in positions.
There was so many other issues with this game... including having multiple phone calls to Irving the FEMA agent your contacted by as you explore the various so called evidence that Nicole finds there is a part of the game you have to make 5 individual phone calls for each part of evidence Nicole discovers to Irving about before you can even progress to the next stage in the story - super annoying!
This game overall feels rushed and unfinished - it leads you to believe it is going to be a ''paranormal activity like game'' with its tension between discovering unpleasant rooms and an odd part of the game where Nicole and Irving find a clip of some ghost hunters visiting the hotel and leave in a hurry after discovering some footage alluding that they "saw Rachel'' additionally Leonard's book documenting alleged 'sightings' of Rachel. Yet you never see Rachel which makes no sense if your going to build tension around this idea. Very disappointing and for $29 not something I would recommend.