“The Catastrophic Camping Trip” is a thriller-like horror/mystery based game, following a group of friends going on a camping trip to a recently abandoned area. The player, through the lens of the main character, must find their way safely out of the cursed forest, narrowly avoiding the same fate as the first victim of their group, working through survival necessities, and making sure each and every step leads towards safety and away from murder.
Throughout immersing in this virtual experience, players find themselves navigating through a generally countervailed choice of options, varying between bigger choices, such as consequential decisions that affect the characters survival, to a ratio of smaller choices such as choice of words or minor actions. The descriptive language within the game also continued to impress and amplify me, as a player, while not overdoing it to the point where it felt unnecessary. While certain parts of the game have minor grammatical errors, and can tend to have run-on sentences, the structural work provides enough for the players to enjoy both the content and the game itself. In terms of taking away from the gameplay itself, I personally found that I was able to catch on to what was happening without much confusion, but some editing would further enhance and be beneficial to the game substantially. An area of great work I consistently noticed was that the creator of the game was able to keep the decisions compulsive. As the game progresses, the intensity of each question coherently provides the player a suspenseful,intriguing, experience. On the other hand, the ending of the game, unlike its suspenseful climatic action, feels rushed and personally, doesn’t feel as well constructed as other portions. With more time spent on this, I feel that it would result in an excellently constructed piece of work, strengthening both the creator's work and the player's experience.
Overall, I enjoyed the game and its variation of options, allowing the players lots of freedom while remaining in the creativity of the creator. With some minor tweaks and edits, the game is subject to a lot of success, and already is on the road to be a cult classic and hopefully, your favorite too!
