videogameblog

Sagebrush

(CW: contains mentions of sexual assault)

Admittedly played this because I assumed it would be pretty short and that December 31st deadline is getting pretty close.. enjoyed it about as much as I thought I would. It's a pretty typical walking sim that approaches the genre from a horror angle. I was pretty tense the entire time, but the open areas kind of eased my worries since I could see there was nobody around. This would be the perfect game to hide some G-man style missable creepy stuff hidden in. Maybe they did and I missed it. Gameplay wise it's pretty weak, they missed the mark on the progression. You just go to one location, find something like a key or a note telling you to go to another location, find something there and repeat. This game clearly takes alot of inspiration from Resident Evil's puzzle/inventory system so it's a shame they didnt get more creative with the environmental puzzles. They never go further than 'there is a mound of dirt here. You have a key, A VHS tape and a Shovel. Which one do you want to use?'. An item combining system probably would have been cool. They do this really neat thing they do with the doors where they slowly close behind you after you walk into a room and make a shutting sound after like 5 - 10 seconds? Just enough time for you to forget it happens and make you jump again. The movement also feels weird. Walking is too slow, running is too fast. I like the sense of dread you feel as you arrive at the compound because the sun is setting. There's that nagging thought that it's going to get dark in the back of your head. Once it does actually get dark it's not dark enough to be super creepy. Would have been cool if they just made it Silent Hill levels of dark, if everything more than 4-feet infront of you was completely black.

Sagebrush is focused on navigating an abandoned cult compound, a pretty unique concept. I like the environments you go through, consuming the story through notes feels fitting. Everything falls into place pretty chronologically though, it would have been nice to piece things together a little more. The cult is probably one of the more realistic depictions I've seen in video games, not that theres much to compare it to. They show how groups like this can grow through manipulation, there's a pretty cool scene where you see the cult leader practising his speech and perfecting the language he's using in order to be manipulative as possible. There's alot of references to sexual assault and rape in here and it all feels pretty unnecessary. Other than the fact than one of the women characters is spared by the cult leader it has no narrative impact. There's also a gross note about the cult leader wanting to have sex with an 11 year old that made me uncomfortable. It's only in the game for shock value. I wish there was more build up to the group suicide at the end, it just kind of happens. I think its mentioned like once on a calendar somewhere but you'd think it would be a big deal. Also thought they could have chose a less-generic suicide method than 'drinking poisoned lemonade'. You find out these cult members that have been self-harming excessively in order to cleanse themselves of sin, I think it would be more fitting for them to submit to a more violent end. It's not like this game doesn't already have shock-value stuff in it. Everything goes off the deep end after this anyway so it's not like they needed to maintain any subtlely. The end of this game is a P.T style confrontation with the ghosts of your past as you learn you're playing as a former member of the cult who was spared by the leader to live with him in his bunker. I can appreciate the metaphor of moving on from a traumatic experience but this felt pretty tacked on? It would have been nice to have this kind of thing run throughout.

The sound design contributes to the overall atmosphere pretty well, some of the creaking sounds had noise in the back so I could tell when they were about to play. The artstyle is pretty good, I think it would look better without the pixel filter though. If they're going for a PS1 aesthetic just keep the resolution/poly count low. PS1 games didn't have pixel filters.

4/10 only 3 more to go!! (i hate doing this)