DISTRAINT reviews

A good 2 Hours short Metaphor for Reenacting, more aptly you can't rewrite "Distraint," because the instructive Story here is more in the Foreground than the actual Game itself. It covers the most minimal adventure mechanisms and also asks the Player for nothing else than some walking Paths and to have a relatively large amount of Dialogue. In its Brevity, however, lies its Spice, because this Game quickly gets to the Point and avoids any Form of artificial Stretching. Nothing more would be necessary or advisable, because "Distraint" Mainly wants three Things: To tell a sad and darkly bizarre Story. Arousing Emotions. To think. Young Employee Price is striving for a job promotion, more Money, more luxury, simply For a Life without financial Worries. His three Bosses put such a Possibility in the Room for him, for this he "only" has to pledge the Properties of three People in order to make Room for a large Construction Project. His own Interests and blind Fulfillment Make him realize too late that through his Actions he not only sustainably destroys the Existence of others, but also sells his own Soul ... What follows is a terse, abstract, partly black-humoured horror myth about the Greed and Selfishness of our Protagonist, who puts his own Desires above the Well-being of The third party and is confronted with the resulting Consequences. The gnawing Conscience speaks louder and louder with him, but he does not listen to the inner Voice of Reason and thus magnifies his own Misery. Reality and his Imagination merge, nightmarish Visions of Death and Pain seek him home, Blood runs out of Walls, and even the Sense of Guilt Haunts him (quite Literally) like a mighty great Elephant ... As mentioned at the beginning, the manageable Playing Time is spent mainly switching between a few Rooms, occasionally picking up a usable Object and applying it in certain Places. Our Mini-inventory never threatens to quilli quickly, it does not include more than 3 Objects at the same time anyway, and that is exactly why "Distraint" Is not too much Of a challenge. What the Lord's Intention was that developed this Game (Single-handedly!). If something dominates here, then pure Dialogue with many effective Moments the repuscious, hurt or simply frighten. This "Psychogram of an Egotist" is extremely purist. Highly pixelated and simple, but with the economical Use of Colors, light, adjustable image noise and suddenly emerging and disappearing shock images always very effective. To this permanently chilling Grooming, Sound effects that could not be more minimalist, every now and then suddenly and loudly screeching Music ... But Zero Voiceover, "Distraint" is limited to pure Text, and thankfully the Players of many Nationalities multilingual. Conclusion: A nice little indie title that would rather deliver an unconventionally decorated Story instead of intense Gameplay. For Lovers of "playable Novellas" is certainly quite interesting, the Rest will probably be less so, given the thin Scope.