While many games are arguably framed as subjective, in terms of perspective, this point of view is rarely pushed or utilized in meaningful ways to deliver an experience that language is inadequate to articulate. Emotions are complicated. Can you define love or fear in a comprehensive or meaningful way using language alone and no emotional words (such as happy or scared)? Or is showing a better means of expression of your feelings around these emotions? Expressionism has been pushed and explored in meaningful ways in other mediums such as film and painting/drawings. There are examples of it in games, though it is rare despite the high prevalence of perspective based games such as first person or third person games. An example of expressionism done with meaning would be Disco Elysium. Now I can add Sally Face to the list.

This is a shockingly disturbing and a graphic horror game that delivered an oppressively bleak and griping atmosphere that dunks on all psychological horror games, including the great Silent Hill. I would go so far to say that it was among the most disturbing experiences I had even in other mediums. It's a game I don't regret playing, but also one I will not revisit for a long time, if ever again (if a sequel comes out I will play this again before starting the new game). It's not for everyone and if you tapped out while playing the game I wouldn't judge you. The graphical style goes a long way in making it digestible while not pulling any punches in the graphic horror that unfolds.

The gameplay is simplistic, but varied. It's sort of a point and click adventure, but instead of clicking you hold down a directional button and push an interaction button to pick up or interact with objects. It's full of puzzles, secrets and horror. The variation is a series of mini-games that are reminiscent of flash games such as what would be found on NewGrounds. The gameplay usually revolves around moving in the environment to an objective. These mini-games are never long or complicated which is a double edged sword. On one hand, it means they can throw a bunch of these at you and by keeping it simple you won't feel like a fish out of water. The clear downside is the gameplay stays simplistic and never engaging. The last episode gets significantly more interesting with the mini-games and adds combat features which is still simple but makes the mini-games more engaging. None of these are ground breaking from a gameplay perspective but it enhances the expressionism that permeates through every pore of the game.

I thought the puzzles had sporadic difficulty. Some felt unfairly obtuse while others were trivial. There wasn't really a coherent flow from easy to difficult as you progress through the story. This is a common issue with most point and click adventures. I felt that the passwords you had to memorize were a bit too long, though this is more of a quibble. It felt necessary to keep a paper and pen near me to write down these long and sometimes convoluted passwords/puzzles.

Despite the gameplay being simplistic and the weakest facet of the game, the writing and art style carries the weight. It's weird and breathes and bleeds the punk aesthetic and philosophy. There is this ever present sense of dread over the squalid levels you explore. The narrative explores themes of conspiracy (some similitude with the Q conspiracies), poverty, trauma, gender identity, loss and hope. Each of these themes are meaningfully explored without losing focus on the main plot.

There's a lot I want to praise the art style over, but it would serve as a spoiler for the final chapter of the game. There's a lot of variation to how the game is presented and it feels all in service of delivering a more personal and immersive experience. You can tell this was a passion project and very personal to the artist.

I do think more ambiguity in the story would have improved it, but this is more of a personal preference and not an objective thing. People tend to get anxious when they do not understand something. Hence why nostalgia is popular as a means of abating anxiety. As it stands, it's pretty clear that everything that happens in the story is objective even if it is presented in a subjective fashion. The ambiguity would have opened up the discussion around the game and made empathizing with Sally Face more complicated. As it stands there are plenty of contrivances throughout the plot, including Ashley clumsily and nonsensically falling down a chute or Charley disappears for reasons (there are plenty of outrageous cover-ups in the game like this one)? The missed opportunity here is to lean further into the expressionism and making it unclear if Sally was actually insane or if the fabrics of reality were truly collapsing. This would make it easy for me to overlook the contrivances (since it could be part of the delusion) and lackluster explanation for certain details.

SPOILER SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS. I do have some quibbles. A lot of details in the game are clearly explained except for one: Why does the prosthetic mask look so creepy? Gabry explains in an interview but it's pretty lackluster: "It broke." It seems like the prosthetic was designed to be intentionally creepy which seems counterintuitive to the point of having a prosthetic. Additionally, I believe you are told that Sally Face gets his face injured by a dog, but Sally insists that it was a dog faced man. You do see a flash of it and understand his statement. What's stupid about this is that the Mom is clearly shot by a shotgun. So wouldn't you assume he was attacked by a man instead of a dog (obvious you wouldn't buy into the dog faced man, but why lean towards dog)? A shotgun shot would be pretty obvious and not mistakable for a dog attack that killed the Mom. Perhaps it was intended that they assumed he was attacked by a man and not a dog, but it's pretty confusing how it's phrased if so. I guess you could argue that it is part of the cult cover-up? END OF SPOILERS

I have kept my review vague for good reason. I don't want to spoil the story because I think this game is best experienced going in as blind as possible (I knew nothing about it going in and hadn't even read a review).

In conclusion, this is a singular game that a major studio would never make. It's the most disturbing and shocking game I have ever played. It was at times tough to get through, but I'm glad I pushed to the end. The game has it's baggage but I am willing to overlook these flaws given the budget of the game and how basically one person made it. If he makes a sequel I will play it, but I honestly hope he pursues a new IP. I can't see him delivering a sequel that is as impactful. That said, I would be glad to be proven wrong.