Clean Slate Reviews

I'm going to give this a thumbs up because I believe there's significant potential, but there's also plenty of room for improvement. The puzzles were well designed, with varying levels of difficulty, making them both challenging and manageable. The story is simple yet effective, lacking numerous plot twists—only one or two, which I found acceptable for a short game. However, my primary concern with this game lies in the bittersweet aftertaste it left. Don't get me wrong; I did enjoy it. Nevertheless, I can't help but wish the developer had invested more in expanding the game's content. Additional puzzles, increased opportunities for exploration, and choices with consequences that shape the outcome of the situation could have elevated the overall experience.

Great story; fun puzzles; great purchase.

Nice game, even though made by an independent developer, I liked the story! Nice homage to the Zero Escape series. The sprites are not the best but still do the job, I still enjoyed it all - the puzzles especially!

Clean Slate isn't perfect but I had fun. It has a relatively straightforward narrative, however there are times where it can get confusing as to where you are and what point in the story you find yourself in. The game feels like it has been developed with passion and although it isn't the best visually, the passion kind of made me feel... good?... for this reason when playing. The characters weren't particularly interesting except Sam. The puzzles were the best part of the game. They were truly something to sink my puzzle solving skills into and I loved each and everyone of them except the riddle in the beginning. It's nice that there are multiple endings too even if it's short to reach your first ending. Overall I enjoyed the experience and would recommend if you get it on sale since the price tag is a bit much for the experience you get. 6/10

As a massive Zero Escape fan, I heard about this game back when it first came out and knew I needed to play it. It really is a love letter to the genre, and very cleverly done! There's parts of it where I could clearly see the inspiration from other similar games and it was a lot of fun. The use of the actual technology for a plot purpose was also really well done. I will say, I guessed the big twist, but I was really glad to guess it, pretty far into the story. It's so satisfying to have a theory and to have it confirmed. It definitely isn't as polished as a big name game - I started out with the "true" end accidentally and so it didn't feel as much of a proper end when I got the other endings, because I'd already seen the important parts of the story. Having some story locks would be helpful, I feel. And just some additional padding at the end of a route to make it feel more concrete because each ending felt like it ended rather abruptly. But for an indie game, and one that's clearly a passion project, great job! I really enjoyed it, and I hope you keep making games in the future :)

Interesting style and concept, like a fast 999 with hardest puzzles, felt like matpat mixing genotypes

Story starts off a little awkward, but works fine once it settles in to itself and it had no difficulty getting me invested. There are a few plot points that don't make sense in hindsight, so there are either plot holes or some details that I missed. However, the puzzles are great. I expected them to be pretty basic stuff, but there were some really satisfying moments where it was challenging without me ever getting completely stuck.

Interesting plot, good writing, fantastic flowchart, and fun puzzles, especially the genetics ones. Make sure your expectations are in the right place--it's a short, cheap visual novel--but it's great for what it is and certainly worth the $5. The developers clearly cared about what they were making, and sometimes it's nice to get a quick fix of sci-fi murder mystery without it needing to be an overwhelming commitment (I got all endings in one sitting).

I went in expecting a budget Zero Escape, but came out thoroughly satisfied with the experience. It's pretty fast-paced, the music's good at setting the atmosphere, the puzzles are fun, and the plot was never predictable. My only complaints are the puzzles aren't all the same difficulty, and there was a Ren'Py bug when viewing the flowchart during a certain ending. However, I definitely recommend checking this out if you enjoy mysteries, puzzles, or escape room games.

Loved the plot, pacing and writing. Its a nice homage to other games like the 999 series. Totally recommended if you like the genre.