Fobia on paper is my kinda game, a survival horror lite with a heavy emphasis on puzzles. But I don’t know if it’s just the method I play these games, but I found it to be a huge slog to play through.

95% of the gameplay is exploring rooms, trying to find items and clues to solve puzzles. But the huge glaring flaw in this game’s design is the amount of visual noise.

If you are someone that plays carefully, not wanting to miss any optional secrets, you are going to spend SO much time just carefully scanning every little pixel in this way over-detailed environment. Not to mention you would have to do this TWICE given the game’s alternate reality mechanic.

At first I liked how much content this possibly would offer, assuming I was having fun. But wow it’s just so freaking tedious that it killed all enjoyment for me. What’s great about survival horror, especially its low-poly roots, is how easy it is to notice things/puzzles/clues and make connections. Then you get to enjoy the best part of puzzle solving - solving them!

Here, I rarely felt the satisfaction of solving anything because I was just hunched over analyzing every little detail. You get my point.

Otherwise, the game is ok. There is no map, and the environments are extremely maze-like, which also frustrated me. The enemy design is mid, the combat is pretty bad, but I guess… it looks like a AAA game?

Just not for me.