2023 Game of the Year (exclude VN): Narcosis. I adored the stage design, as it it gave me Layers of Fear kind of otherworldly feelings, and the plot is spot on. I've never experienced such realistic horror like this, the adult fear of what if you, an otherwise perfectly harmless person, is too arrogant to consider basic safety protocols apply to you because you are the protagonist of the world, and caused great harm because of that?

(____ Of The Year is based on the year I first had access to it, NOT based on the year of release).

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Ah, so seems like Narcosis is one of that teams that made one game then just split.

But wow. Dare I say, the narrative was brilliant precisely because how mundane it is?

It's my GOTY so far.

#Narcosis

The narrator didn't even feel that bad, sure he's a "functional dude" who has no capacity for trauma, no momentary hallucinations, some mild remorse over his inability to follow protocol costing someone else's life, but hey he got a book deal out of it.

But really.

Dudes like him are quite possible people you work with. Now that's some psychological horror.

#Narcosis

Holy shit the ending.

Look, I was expecting your usual survival horror tropes. Eldritch horror, full scale psychosis, idk protagonist is secretly a serial murderer, whatever.

What the actual ending was the ultimate adult fear. Never mind that the narrator and the protagonist are different people, this is amazing because how it's done.

It didn't even bother with the whole "weh weh you play as an awful man who felt bad for being awful". You played as a careless man, too arrogant for his own good, crashed his vehicle into his colleague, then accidentally left his colleague to die of unnecessary death.

#Narcosis

No spoiler comments

Ok so I never ever thought I'd love a game because how entirely the controls were clumsy af, but I think it would be a worse game if it isn't. Just to be clear, it's not a diving game, it's a slow walking simulator with some clumsier combat. Somehow. It mostly worked.

However.

A lot of it is trial and errors, but with time limit. Which can get annoying, especially some stages were essentially pseudo open space. Having said that, the time limit is really generous.

#Narcosis