This game is a must for any fan of horror movies. The game system works really nice and the result is a very fun title that continuously offers cool references to classic horror films.
Lakeview Cabin Collection is genuinely difficult, and may prove too much of a challenge for players expecting a quick game. Yet the sandbox gameplay provides enough enjoyment that winning isn’t necessary to have fun.
With great atmosphere, and a great translation of its simple mechanics into a desperate frenzy by the player, the late game becomes too nit-picky, allowing little space for improvisation, and turning out a bit boring.
There are a lot of bugs I can't even finish Lakeview Cabin four or even play because of the bugs. But I like the twisted story and I can play 3,5,6 and I enjoyed them a lot but it's not completely finish yet.
The Lakeview Cabin Collection is a surivival horror action puzzle game for STEAM.
Before I talk about what I disliked about it, let me talk about what I enjoyed. It covers several genres of horror that I grew up with, from the killers, to the scenes and settings. The nostalgila factor alone already makes this game pretty good.
I like the art, it's retro, while still having it's own style and being able to separate itself from all the games that use the entire concept of retro art it's whole selling point.
The game also manages to be able to tell a story in a very basic manner without needing to have any sort of text. And I respect that. They did it in a much better way then Scott could ever hope to do with Five Nights At Freddies.
Now for the bad. To begin with, the controls are kind of wonky, it's going to take you awhile to get used to the very minimalistic controls they use. The game uses 'context senestive' icons to let you know when you can perform an action, but it isn't always clear what it is or what it's used for.
The hit detection in this game is terrible. 9 out of 10 times, an enemy will hit me before I even get remotely close to it, but the game, for whatever reason, seems to think I need to be right on top of an enemy to attack it. There's hard and then there's poor programming and this game could use a better combat system. At least give players the same attack reach the enemies do, that's only fair.
While the game advertises itself as a 'sandbox' game, the reality is, each "feature" feels like the developers had a very specific idea on how the features should be solved. There's a lot of junk laying around, but a large majority of it simply doesn't feel useful in any sense.
It's kind of like Lemmings. The developers had a very specific idea on how every puzzle should be solved and while some people managed to avoid it, luck out and still win a stage, many others were left scratching their heads.
Finally, the puzzles in the game are simply atrocious. Many of them, you won't understand what's going on unless you watch or read some sort of guide. It suffers from the same 90's adventure point and click game issues, where nonsensical actions result in a reaction that helps you. From banging a lady on a bed to find a key, to pooping in a toilet to drop a stuffed bear, the end result is, what were they thinking?
Here's the thing, I appreciate the game and the concept of it. There's a lot of it I actually do like, but so much of it has made me so frustrated that I had to stop playing. The developers clearly workd hard on this product, but a lot of times the direction and mechanics feel really off.
At the time of writing this, I could have gotten a refund, but I decided not to. But unless you have a great mind of super obscure puzzles, unfair mechanics and bad hit detection, most of you would be better left off not buying this game. I suggest you play the FREE Lakeview Cabin game first, it's a java based game and will show you everything you need to see to decide to buy the game or not.