Don't Look Outside. No wait, "Look Outside". (When the most original game of the year also uses engine from 1992)

Is that RPG maker? Why people even use this format for their games?? Update your dev engine, please!

 PR: One morning, the protagonist wakes up and feels "odd" with a "strange desire to look outside". After we players effectively look outside, since that seems to be the theme going on, he dies. The credits roll, cool art, not very original theme but overall great concept game.

The problems come shortly after when you figure out that you're meant to not look outside, and proceed to this micro-managing hell where you have to remember to shower, brush your teeth, eat regulary, time your expeditions so you don't take too long, all the while struggling against the RNG that keeps making you miss your attacks. Careful not to lose your progress, thing that can happen a lot since Look Outside thinks we're still in 1992 where games had save points instead of manual and auto saves. There's only one save point in the entire game, which is inside your appartment. What? You were expecting more from a person who develops on (cringe) RPGmaker? 

I had a problem figuring out what was I supposed to do and aimlessly wonder around, jiggling locked door after locked door, running out of time, and getting killed. At a certain point I gave up and decided to simply watch a walkthrough because the monster design is probably the best and only good thing about Look Outside. Let's try that again...

PR: Most people on earth begain to mutate in seemigly impossible ways when "the visitor", some ancient entity of proportions beyond imagination, orbits the earth. Or at least a part of him. As to why the gaze of an alien makes you turn into a Junji Ito monster, no idea. How does it even work to get your skull split in half by teeth growths and still manage to live and even form coherent thoughts? Good question. How you deal with the flies when all your organs are out in the open? Probably mosquito spry. You're still going to die due bleeding, so no need to bother protecting your exposed organs.

One of your possible companions, you may refer to him as "teeth guy". He's, uh, midly useful? 

There are a group of people inside your appartment called "the astronomers" which are surrounded by lots of plot holes, I mean, lots of mystery and questions, ranging all the way from "Where they came from", "How did they knew the visitor was coming", "why they didn't warn anyone", "why, knowing what the visitor's gaze does to people, they insist on communing with him", or most importantly "what on earth are they wearing? are those robes?" thought that last one can probably be answer by "they're fans of Terraria's cultist boss"

There are also unanswered questions about your neighbor, the one responsible for the saves, that according to the astronomers died and had her appartment way down on the first floor but you see is perfectly peachy and comfy right there next to your appartment. Until the ending, that is. Then she mysteriously dissapears. Lots and lots of mystery going about here...

There are minor subplots, such as the dude whose paintings come to life and try to replace him, or the landlord that demands "rent" you "owe" for crossing through doors, starting at 50 dollarydooes and keeps on adding to the point he demands 600 and more, making you wonder why didn't you got evicted already.

 Note that the building doesn't have hot water, is partly destroyed, there are leaks everywhere, unfathomable chasms at every turn and there's not even an elevator. Maybe "slumlord" would be a more appropiate way of refering to him.

"Six hundred dollars for this, mate? You real?" -The prota (if he wasn't such a pussy)

Naturally these sub-plots are not very interesting, and some, like the paintor one, are difficult to unravel.  While the game allows you to make questions to the other characters, maybe just coincidentally but none of them were the questions I wanted to ask them.

Finally, the game presents you with four endings, depending on whether you collected stuff for the astronomers or just sat on your couch playing videogames, which is probably what I'd do if going outside meant fighting mutant monsters. I'd be funny to play Fallout in that situation. 

Ending one: The fifteen days passed and you did nothing in the astronomer department, the earth is in ruins and the mutants overlords now reign over the ashes. I found it quite unfair that the protagonist looked outside and died but some people became unstoppable juggernauts of destruction instead.

Ending two: you present some of stuff, but not all, and at least one of them is a hamster. The hamster becomes and unstoppable juggernaut of destruction and assimilates everyone on earth. 

Ending three: You present some of the stuff, but they're counterfeits or otherwise defective. You have to fight the astronomers in their mutant form. Funny enough, you also have to do this for ending four but in this one you lose to them. They become unstoppable, etc, kill everyone on earth, whatever. I'm starting to see a pattern here. 

"true" ending: You present the stuff, the right stuff I mean, and defeat the mutant astronomers, then you commune with the visitor and select certain dialogue options careful not to accidently click on "seeing his true form" bcs that turns you into an unstoppable juggernaut, etc. The visitors throws in a couple of really underwhelming two-word answers to your questions, and then he leaves earth. More people survive, you become a benefic unstoppable juggernaut so this time you don't destroy all life on earth. Instead, you work as a blue collar, lifting stones and making buildings. Part time therapist too, apparently. I don't know about you but the "true ending" seems like one of the least desirebles for the person, imagine having to listen to millions of people bable about stuff you don't even care while also having to continue to work for eternity. 

Personally, I find both the story and the endings cliché and underwhelming taking in consideration that the game takes like, ten hours to beat or more. Is it really needed to clarify that lovecraftian entity turning people into monsters isn't original? There's even a Japanese VN about it from six years ago. Imagine.

And we're talking ten hours of tedious turn based, RNG-dependant combat with lots of googling around for secret allies that no one on their right mind would discover naturally, like the one that requires you to leave you backpack be filled with cockroaches purposely ignoring the prompts to remove them, ten hours of being surpised by the amount of graphic design and varieties for the monsters yet somehow always end up fighting the same mob at least five times... ten hours of what may have been a good game back in 2002 when pokemon ruby and sapphire where hot, but now is basically a worse powerpoint slideshow.