Kujlevka Reviews

I am probably not recommending it. And not because it's niche. Perhaps I am comparing it too much to Indika, which I finished before playing this, but it's just not that great. Firstly, unlike Indika this one is definitely for people from post-soviet lands. A lot of humor and references in general will fly over the head for people not familiar with what it was to live there. Heck, it probably won't be understood by a significant portion of people born after 2000. Unless you are russian, that is, since putin is promoting everything-USSR in any way possible. Secondly, that humor is not that funny. There are some good joked here, and good references, but often times they feel kind of forced. I feel like this is trying to be like "Особенности Национальной Охоты" movie, but being more political and maybe even more philosophical. But I am not sure that works that well with interactive media. Especially the one where you do get to roam about (just a little bit), because they you see then you see that there is nothing else besides these attempts at humor and philosophy. No depth to the world. And that's, essentially, "thirdly": it's just not a compelling narrative overall. It tries to touch upon multiple (important) subjects, but does not go too deep on them, while also using somewhat cliched or stereotypical characters. I suspect that maybe if I replay it and select some different choices here and there, maybe it will work better, but I did not get any motivation to replay after I chose my first ending. I think this game needed to be more like one of those TellTale games. Possibly close to "Wolf Among Us", which definitely has some satire, that just works great. But what made that game work is also the length and more cinematic experience in general. People complain about how a lot of choices in TellTale games do not matter (which is true to an extent), but those branches that do exist in those games are often more thought-through, more connected to the world of the respective story and are different enough to stand apart from each other. Кужлёвка does not have that. On the other side, Indika probably could have used more "weirdness" from this game. In fact, I can see Кужлёвка done in a more grounded style as Indika did but the delusions being broken over the game time, as a stereotypical communist (or a more modern putinist) faces some harsh realities. Perhaps the 2 studios need to collaborate at some point?