Belladonna Reviews

Belladonna is a VERY short Indie itch/io game. A nice little atmospheric attempt at a game. Mostly reading notes which turns the gameplay into somewhat of a visual novel. The "show don't tell" rule flies out the window with this one.. The point & click gameplay is baby level easy, it is downright primitive. You leave the lab, walk around a few rooms and go back to the lab. That's it, that's the whole game.. - The story is greatly inspired by Mary Shelley's famous "Frankenstein" book, it is obvious. It only inspired the monster part. The writing is weak and the plot get sloppy, characters start talking like in a play, no actual person talks this way. The motivations get way too ridiculous. Bad writing. Make an army of animated dead? Why? Lives of the dead matter? They are dead, they have no lives. WTF? Trying to paint the husband as some kind of abusive monster, yet the wife is having an affair and is thinking of unjustly committing her husband to a mental institution so she can keep cheating? Who is the villain here? I fear it has some feminist undertones. Everyone is a monster in this story. I can forgive short length of the game, even amateurish art and gameplay design, even the journal notes that serve as padding, but the weak story is just too much even for an Indie title. On sale for $1 might be worth a try if you have nothing else to do..