8/8/88 Needle AL Reviews

The good part of the game is the gameplay: The gameplay is really interesting. The whole reason I bought it was based on the idea of a panoramic horror-exploration game. I was hoping exploration would be more incentivized though: This is more of a visual novel. The only way to progress is by clicking on the blue dots in each area then clicking on the arrow that pops up to move to the next scene. The panoramic camera shots, though, were amazing and I often found myself spinning around and admiring the scenery. It's not 100% period accurate: some things from modern times bleed through into the shots, but I didn't have a problem suspending my disbelief over those little details. Obviously the pictures weren't taken in the 1800s. But unfortunately I'm not gonna pull punches with the bad, I'm just gonna swing the whole hammer: The story has a lot of racist undertones, and in chapter 2 that switches to overtones with a splash of p*d*philia to boot. This really caught me off guard: Somehow even after reading (let's be honest, skimming) the short blurb synopsis, I still expected the game to take place in 1988 and not 1888. The thing that gave it away to me wasn't the locales but the way African-American people are referenced throughout the first chapter. Overall the details are way over the top and gratuitous, and it takes way too long to get to the part where the racist p*d*phile cult leaders get razed and dragged to hell. That's just what I HOPE happens at the end of this. There are 3 chapters and I stopped at what I assume was near the end of Chapter 2, right after the note where a judge begins staging a race riot and simultaneously asks for a 14 year old girl to be sent his way. I imagine that's just typical 2 birds, one stone behavior in this community. This just felt so empty that I feel like I became less of a person playing it. You can do better. [b]TLDR: Don't try to play this on stream like I did: uncovering what this game truly is makes for a very, VERY uncomfortable experience. [/b] And a note to ALL horror writers since I've seen this bleak and edgy style becoming more prevalent in the genre: There's a point where you're supposed to stop dogpiling the viewer with THE BAD and let something [i]good[/i] happen. These reprieves are what drive the story forwards. Inevitably you're gonna run out of likable characters, and then... why is the viewer even here?

Played through the first 2 chapters, took around 40 minutes. The atmosphere is really nice, the story is interesting and written well, but I'm just not connecting with it. The game is priced right at $2. 6/10 from me. I would like to see what this developer can do to make a 2-3 hour long game in a haunted mansion or asylum with ghosts etc. A bigger budget game in a more haunting scary environment would be amazing.

8/8/88 Needle is a very interesting and story driven horror game. Much like their other game Wardwell house, Needle plays out like a mix between a novel and a point and click game with excellent photography and graphics. About halfway through I felt a little bored but the first and third chapters were excellent and I realised even the second chapter was necessary when I finished the game. Unlike Wardwell house which had an average ending the ending for Needle is brilliant and well worth the wait, I won't spoil it but I was both shocked and it made sense which is great. Easily a game you can spend the entire evening playing without getting bored and it's quite scary without being over the top. 8/10: Great story driven game which drags a little in the middle but is overall of very high quality.

I really wanted to like this game but couldn't. I enjoyed that the graphics full a full panoramic title like Scratches, but there was no real game play other than "click on the dots to make your character talk some more" and then leave the scenes for the next. It was hunt and peck for pieces of dialogue. Just not my thing. It wasn't even a walking simulator as you're at least able to explore there. The content just wasn't there. Story-wise, I found the premise to be interesting, but the narrative didn't work. The character you are playing as is an unreliable narrator and his voice, tone and verbiage keeps changing style throughout the game. In one of the post scenes, you learn why, but it comes too late and doesn't stop the previous hour (The game is that short) from being irritating. While I like the idea of "creepy bitter racist cons the town into believing he is a prophet and instead promotes pedophilia and racism" as a story, the delivery mechanism just did not work for me. The graphics are pretty nice with the photo-realism and panoramic scenery, but again, I had that twenty years ago in Scratches, and that was a less passive experience than this. In 2023, I expect a little more. Nope. Not a fan. I wanted to like this, but I just couldn't. I'd have returned for a refund, but I beat the game and don't feel right returning a game I've completed. Here's hoping the $ goes to better development next time.

Sadly this is a big step down from the developers' first game, Wardwell House (which I enjoyed a lot). The basic game mechanic consists of clicking through 360-degree photo environments; it may seem simplistic, but the environments are usually creepy enough that the atmosphere is great. These locations are just fantastically eerie. The problem is that there's essentially nothing worthwhile beyond the cool 360 photos. The game's plot initially seems promising, but it goes nowhere; it basically devolves into clicking through lame stories (about prisoners being tortured or the activities of a creepy cult). The game is completely lacking the sense of dread and suspense that fueled the experience in the developer's previous game. There's no suspense or fear here at all. Just wandering through creepy 360-degree photos and clicking through stories. That's it. Like other reviewers have mentioned, it also feels like this was a low-effort project (beyond the story and text). There are obvious elements in the 360-degree photos that are modern and not period-appropriate, but they haven't been removed. I wouldn't mind this too much except that the experience as a whole is just so yawn-inducing and boring. Simply not worth it, even at a sale price.

I really wanted to like it but playing "where is the blue circle I need to push" isn't for me. In the beginning it was a interesting but the more I went along the more boring it went, with some repetitive . It would had been better if there were a voice actor instead of reading almost all of it. At some places I couldn't finish reading before a new sound came, which were annoying. But the atmosphere was lovely.

Aigh, iffin' y'all be the Chosen One, den ye best be playin' this here game. It's right atmospheric, but simple. In some places, there's elements of horror, which goes mighty fine with the picture. Awe, ain't that a nice dog? Course, it's best to go through this ritual at a good discount, which I did. This game is mighty hard to play. You gotta be the Chosen One, of course. There's a whole lot of memories here, sore knees, and temple guards. If yer legs be hurtin' from all that walkin', then ye can just play this here walkin' simulator on yer sick legs. Also at a good discount. Ye might like my review if ye can read like that colored feller I used to know. Or was it not me? Oh no. That dog again!

Okay, so, I wasn't sure what to expect from this game but it was better than I thought it would be. The plot is... something. The news articles at the end definitely help a little bit, but there are a couple of loose ends there and there. Gotta say, didn't expect a game to have such an undertone. Some good things about this game are that the story is easy to read, it has a great atmosphere and sound design, and a definitely unique style of 360 degree panoramic shots. The tension in certain parts was great and kept me on edge. It's not ideal but it's an experience. Wish it was longer. Hopefully more products like these come up in the future!

I love the 3D photographs, and the effects overlaid upon them (e.g. the fog, dust specs, lens flare etc). The audio is ok (I did use headphones). However, the story does nothing for me. I realise this is alpha, however it seems more like a virtual tour as opposed to even the beginnings of a game. As for the areas the devs want feedback on, here goes: 1) Narrator's voice and dialect: I didn't have any narration, it was all just subtitles, I could hear the sound effects, didn't know there was supposed to be narration until after I finished the 2 chapters. 2) Pacing: It didn't intrigue nor engage me. It was a fairly interesting tour of an abandoned prison, but there was nothing that compelled me to explore, I just wanted to get to the end of it, 3) Storyline arc: I disliked the story, it was very vague and I wasn't keen on the subject matter. The hotspots had nothing to do with the story, they just served to make me admire the setting, but I felt the entire experience was completely devoid of a storyline beyond the snippets of info hidden behind the hotspots 4) Atmosphere: The atmosphere generated by the imagery and audio was good, however it really didn't add anything to the story, as above I felt it was little more than a tour of an abandoned prison, with some randomly placed hotspots that had nothing to do with the text. Reading the other reviews I am wondering if I played a different game to everyone else. I hate to leave such a negative review, and while this isn't for me it may be for some people. What I will reiterate is the 3D photography, setting and atmosphere these specific items generate is beautiful. Good luck to the devs, I hope it is a success when it comes out! 👍

Alright. [i]8/8/88 Needle AL[/i] is done and dusted. I don't know if I bought this at some point or if it was always free to play and I happened to claim it randomly, but I tried playing this previously on my Steam Deck and it was not functional, so I thought I'd give it another go on my desktop. And I'm happy(?) to report that it did in fact function fine on desktop with k/m controls. Anyway, let's dive in: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3319130851 First off, I want to talk a little about the title itself. In numerology, this is known as [i]Repetition of 8[/i], which is when the number 8 appears multiple times. Its influence is amplified. The date 8/8/88 has four eights, which can be seen as a strong indicator of prosperity and significant positive changes. The number eight represents wealth and success, and when eights are linked together, they are known as [i]angel numbers[/i], whereby, allegedly, they are very powerful messages from your guardian angels telling you that something big is coming soon. [b]I already knew about the number eight in numerology, but I compiled the rest of this via internet searches.[/b] Now, I am very definitely not religious, nor do I give credence to the idea of angels, but this game absolutely does. However, it takes the approach that you should always be careful of what you wish for, lest you actually get the thing you were seeking. And that the positive change you were hoping for might actually be the opposite of what you were seeking. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3319130611 With that out of the way, this is not a fun game. It's actually very serious and very very dark. It features all the things you hope to never witness or experience in life. Rape, torture, pedophilia, murder, being eaten alive, watching your children die, slavery, racism, religious cults, the elite stealing everything from you, and so on. It's all in this game. [b]In fact, I would advise seriously considering this when you are deciding whether or not you would like to play this.[/b] You will not feel good after playing this. And those rewards I mentioned when talking about numerology. Those were doled out to the people in charge, who also took everything from the people who they governed/employed/enslaved. And the punishment for getting what you seek was also meted out amongst the people who had to deal with them. As such, nobody really wins (actually, one character did kind of win by managing to escape, but otherwise, not so much). As far as the gameplay itself, the game is presented mostly via aged, filtered light photographs with random interactable objects that each advance the story in some way. You play as a brain damaged middle aged to old (this is not exactly specified) janitor who has the hots for a 12-year-old girl and finds himself alone in this town of Needle, Alabama; wondering where everybody went and wandering about trying to find the rest of the townspeople. As he triggers memories (via those random interactable objects), he slowly begins to unlock the mystery of the town. It is implied that other people did manage to leave the town, but not many. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3319130632 Anyway, that is the game. It takes about an hour and twenty minutes to complete, and you probably will wish you hadn't played it for all the sick shit that is presented within. However, the saving grace is that this game does not condone any of these activities. It functions more as a lens by which you can view what life was like in small Southern towns after the Civil War in America, and how people struggled to deal with the integration of black people and the dissolution of legal slavery. Interestingly enough, that does parallel the far-right movement in the U.S. today, where said people struggle with and rail against the integration of women, minorities, secularism, and gender identity in a world that has moved on without them. And for that reason, this game does actually have a strong message about the folly of clinging to hate and divisiveness, despite my warnings about the actual content. And there is merit in experiencing it. You just need to be aware of the incredibly dark content before deciding to do so. [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]