TANKSAVE

I really don't like calling out plot twists in reviews so I'll try to stay vague about it. This game starts out fairly interesting. I'm reminded of Pokemon Snap in many ways. The gameplay loop boils down to finding and capturing various food puns turned into Pokemon, usually at the request of the games different characters. The quests themselves lead to genuine character development and while repetitive still manage to stand apart from each other . With this by itself I would have given the game 4/5. The games ending changes that. Imagine if Pokemon Snap turned into a resident evil rail shooter, or if a Disney movie turned into John Carpenter's "The Thing". The last 10 minutes of gameplay pulls out every horror trope known to man and crams it into a boring version of every mechanic thus far. I called the plot twist out early on due to something the games passes of as normal early on. I'm normally not one to play a game like Bugsnax and the fact that I would have loved to see it in an eldritch themed alien game makes me realize how out of place it is. I was originally confused on the games E10+ rating for colorful and innocent it was. Now I'm confused as to how it didn't get at least Teen with the body horror it turns into. Something I will say that is not vague is that you can end the game with everyone but the main character and one other person dyeing. I don't mean in the sense that they're lost or just vanish. They will each give you a sad speech as their body falls apart, piece by piece, until nothing is left of them. I want to make it clear that I view this as a negative NOT because I don't like this kind of thing. This twist can be and has been handled well many times before. Normally I would have actually enjoyed this. It just doesn't make sense with what the game advertises itself to be. I have to wonder if the dev would respond to this with "But you didn't expect it to happen did you?". Seeing as how the post credit scene is blatant sequel bait, I'm worried that they would. If this was a $60 game I would infuriated, but it isn't. The gameplay is good enough for $25, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone I know.