Unknown Memoirs: The Rental Reviews

if youre my friend, dont buy this <3

Great first chapter! Hope there are plenty more to come!

This game is brighter than my future 😃 10/10

Very badly designed. Keeps crashing with a Unity "out of memory" error

A fun horror game, with unexpected twists and turns. Very immersive.

An extremely fun, scary and daunting game from a pretty cool indie company, I definitely recommend!

U.M. is short. Extremely short. The horror is on point, but not without it's flaws. The character gets stuck in the environment quite a lot, which can become troublesome at times. Price wise, is fair, considering how short the game is. The game runs well on Steam Deck, although it doesn't have an option for display, meaning you won't see everything in the game. If you want to check how it runs on Steam Deck just press the link below: https://youtu.be/jZZ4JBvOA9w

[u][h1]Unknown Memoirs is really, really bad[/h1][/u] To me, it's kinda scummy that the dev is charging money for something that's only 5 minutes long, but is padded by constant crashes and nonsensical puzzles. Not worth anyone's time. I had to restart this game almost 10 times due to it shutting down on me. And it's not even scary. If it were free, my only issue would be the crashes, but I don't think that's gonna be fixed any time soon. Spend your money elsewhere. This is atrocious. (also there are no credits which is super sketchy to me) 1/10, my deceased grandmother is more functional than this game.

[code]Curator page here-->[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37670120/] DaRevieweD #230 [/url]<-- [i]New review every week[/i][/code] [h1]"ENJOYING YOUR STAY… ALIVE?"[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2987270162 [u]Here's The Thing:[/u] You’re a hobo…!? Silly me, a poor person, who has rented a very run-down place that’s totally not also a drug den. Reasoning? Well, I can only assume it was offered at a beyond affordable price! Anyway, moving day is here and you just want to put your feet up that is until it all goes seriously wrong~ [h1] ! SHOUT-OUT ![/h1] This week’s review pick was put forth by [url=https://www.youtube.com/@stasisboothgames]Stasis Booth Games[/url]. A beloved indie developer best known for the contemplative trip [url= https://steamcommunity.com/id/DeadeGuard98/recommended/1659650/] 7th Chance”[/url] and now [b]“We Are Not Alone”[/b]. Today (June 11th) is also his birthday, so send some wishes his way~ [h1][u][+] PROS;[/u][/h1] [h1]:) APARTMEANT JUST. FOR. YOOUU~[/h1] Been a while since I played a full-on walking simulator but I knew what to expect gameplay-wise and so should you by now! Scour for keys, look around, trigger scares, observe for changes in your surroundings, and pretty much play right into the hands of the “landlord”. If you’re already dozing off- don’t worry, the confinement to strolling speed takes place in a very constricted apartment and so you can cover ground rather quickly. While the owner is a frugal and questionable fella, they did leave- not one but TWO flashlights to aid you in meeting your demise! How… kind!? That means you just have to put up with the unforgiving conditions of the lighting early on and feel your way around the walls for switches to flip! Your stay won’t be all that long, like around 30-40 minutes, barring any delays from the puzzling malevolence~ [u]TIPS:[/u] 1) To save you time, the code is… [spoiler]5**9[/spoiler] [h1]:) A TENANCY TO FORGET DETAILS…[/h1] If the goal behind the atmosphere was to wrap around you a sense of slowly creeping perturbance with constant traces of an unknown third party… one that’s ever-present and omnipotent within the small space. Begetting the questions that will always be at the back of the player’s mind “who in their right mind would reside here, broke or otherwise” and “why did *I* agree to pay for this again”!? Seriously, the place is filthy and there were a lot of signs that druggos used to hang here, or they just stepped out for a smoke break somewhere… However, the visuals would be nothing without its convincing audio design which is what must’ve greatly sweetened the pot of an advert for the place, eventually selling this hole! No fancy composing, no staying power after the ordeal, but they sufficed when and where it counts; relentlessly barking whispers and unidentified noise sources. Another thing to lodge a complaint about to the human landlord~ [h1]:) TALK ABOUT SOME SERIOUS “RENT CONTROL”![/h1] I tried and tried, but I couldn’t really make much associations to already-existing horror movies on the basis of premise or choice of setting. HOWEVER, both [b]The 4th Floor (1999)[/b] and [b]1BR[/b] come quite close in terms of plausible influences. So, if you’ve seen either of these, you know what you’re in for… the most part. I wished and prayed to a higher being that we’d at least get to learn more about the main character and the decisions that led to this move to no avail… That said, I can understand as to why it was left ambiguous, I mean we have all found ourselves in circumstances we have no power over- so to have that snowball into being at the mercy of yet another trying predicament sort of makes sense in a very twisted and nihilistic manner~ [h1][u][-] CONS;[/u][/h1] [h1]:( WELCOME TO THE BUILDING…![/h1] Yes, it’s a $1 game. And yes, the dev is a first-timer, so a lot of the things I point out were perhaps unavoidable. Maybe I’m unreasonable and demanding…? However, what better way to make sure they don’t happen again in the future by raising them!? Like I talked about in my review of [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/DeadeGuard98/recommended/2437760/]The Dead Are Not Dead[/url]; cheap cost shouldn’t justify cutting corners and releasing sketchy products. It was missing vital constituents that, taken in isolation could be pardoned, but when put together? They show exactly just how unsatisfying and gaping everything was ! The dilemma arises when the protagonist is, all of a sudden, thrust into a locked room without even taking a minute to question anything that occurs, hazard a guess that would make for interesting exposition, or even call for help… Zero redeeming character traits. I know, many silent walking simulators are guilty of this too, but here it came off even more illogical and was tangible enough that I actually stopped to tilt my head and wonder. Whereas other titles would blur the line by having you accept the dream-like state beforehand and therefore anything happening from then on is fair game. Same can’t be said here, for the puzzles and scavenger hunt that followed only existed for the sole purpose of (a) it’s a horror game, and (b) we all just love engaging with them apparently~ https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2987270850 [h1]:( THE AD MUST’VE BEEN GREATLY EMB-HELLISHED![/h1] This one’s a doozy and it has no bearing on the dev just starting out. Overall, the game had this jarring and incomplete quality to it. Talking about how it offered no explanation as to ANY of the events that took place, that it was baffling simply for the sake of being cryptic, and how after reaching the end- I knew less than I did initially! Ohh, it’s just episode 1? Well, that doesn’t change the fact there’s barely a proper cliffhanger, no credits, and not even a cute “to be continued” so you know it’s planned as such. Instead, a “thank you for playing” awaits… so, essentially a paid demo!? Had you not read the store page, you would’ve had no clue it was episodic in nature. Not that the former helped since it described both “Unknown Memoirs” and “The Rental” side-by-side! Thus, if you go into it expecting the juicy things it promises, you’ll be sorely mistaken and disappointed. Why not be transparent, or just slap an “Early Access” disclaimer. Also, I think the dev is torn between creating a horror anthology or series~ [h1]:( WASN’T IN THE FIEND PRINT OF THE AGREEMENT!!![/h1] Another victim of the “dark = scary” discourse, even when that means you can’t see jack! The 2nd “torch” you come into possession of deliberately limits the lighting distance which is about as helpful as having no batteries… With the exception of “volume” and “sensitivity”, there are virtually no other options whatsoever to tweak. If you think about it, that’s as good as doing nothing~ [h1]BUGS:[/h1] x Crashes frequently until it stabilizes… but since there are no saves- becomes unintentional purgatory trip x Corners of objects are very bumpy & obstructive; you can see you have ample room to maneuver but game’s just like “you wish”. [h1]NITPICKS:[/h1] ~ Hire a voice actor! Don’t just simply and suddenly add asset-store heavy breathing to a silent protagonist… ~ No credits? Shady to the max! ~ Absence of “to be continued” disclaimer. [h1]”OR WOULD YOU RATHER DIE THAN LIVE HERE!?"[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2987272314 [u]Last Words?[/u] Debut shelters mild discomfort and serial horror promise, but sneakily omits a good chunk of what it’s advertised. I’m gravely concerned for the next entry, which will either make or break this one~ [h1]6 / 10[/h1] [code]Stasis Booth Games is currently slaving away on [url= https://store.steampowered.com/app/2249440/We_Are_Not_Alone/] We Are Not Alone[/url]. Give that a wishlist or try the demo that’s undergone a massive overhaul![/code]

I enjoyed having to solve riddles to progress. It's a nice break from the usual notes/diary pages. It took a little while to figure out the point of the riddles' solutions, though, because it was too dark to notice the thing the riddles' solutions are for. There are a few jumpscares, but they're not actually startling. As someone who doesn't like jumpscares, I'm glad they weren't effective. The main reason for the thumbs down is the last part of the game. It incorporates extremely tiresome, overused elements that are meant to be creepy but are just boring and cliche due to their ubiquity in these types of indie horror titles. Also, the very end is quite bad and doesn't offer any explanation or meaning. It feels lazy and pointless.