you know, i was actually planning on waiting a bit to get around to the rest of the ukrainian games on my wishlist. it was just starting to feel like i was going through every ukrainian horror game on the entire steam store within the span of like, a month, and that was making me feel like someone would call me weird. so i put arcadia cafe at the top of my wishlist so i wouldn't forget it, and then i told myself i would try some other things before buying it, maybe finish another playthrough or two of stalker 2
there was an incident with a bundle and a sale, you know? sometimes things happen that we can't predict, and it's nobody's fault, particularly not mine.
Arcadia Cafe is a sort of nostalgia-horror game, I think, about a young woman working the night shift at a cafe in Ukraine in the early 2000s. you really step into her shoes, going through each part of your morning routine before your shift - or evening routine, i guess, I'm never sure how to refer to times of day for nightshift workers. as many nightshift customer service workers can attest to, there are certain hours of the day where things start to get odd, and among the other shift workers who have clear reasons to be out and looking for coffee, you start to find some disconcerting customers.
that is, very nearly, it. there are other elements, of course, but overall this game is a bit light on the horror for something marketed as a horror game. there's a couple of jumpscares, a couple of implications of some darker lore, one genuinely interesting scary sequence... but not much comes of it, in the end. there's no scary monster that chases you, just a series of unnerving-but-realistic encounters and a lingering feeling of unease. as a result it sort of ends up on the edge between horror and comedy a lot of the time. you're not sure whether to laugh at the absurdity of a situation with a customer, or be genuinely unnerved.
the game only allows you to work two shifts at the titular cafe before the ending. there are collectible discs to find in each section, which adds replay value, but all of the customers are scripted with seemingly no elements of randomness in what they order, so there isn't much reason to keep replaying after getting the discs. it's very short, to the point people in the reviews have compared it to a demo.
i normally don't like to bring up the price of a game when i'm reviewing it. it feels unfair; so many factors go into deciding a reasonable price for a game beyond "how good is it" or even "how much content is there", the money's just as gone from my account anyway whether i think it was a fair price or not, once you start playing the game of "X game is more expensive than Y game even though Y game is better, that means X game is bad!" then you might as well insist every game should be free because myhouse.wad is free. but in this case i feel obliged to bring up the price, even though it's really not that expensive, because in some ways this game does feel like i've just paid for a demo.
i don't just mean in terms of length, either. i'll try not to spoil, but the game ends rather... abruptly, and then it rather explicitly promotes an upcoming game by the same developers. it's... not really clear whether this is some sort of Lore Drop relating to the connection between the two games, or whether it's non-diegetic and is just the devs saying "we didn't finish this game, check out our next one instead!". i'm hoping the latter isn't the case, but even so, it feels somewhat unfair - either i'm playing a paid demo for another game, or i'm playing an unfinished game, and either way it feels like it should have been free.
i don't really care about the money, honestly, i just wish i understood more about what the game was supposed to be before buying it... and also after buying it, because i'm still not sure what the story of this game is or whether i need to wait for another game before i can find out. if your game is meant as some sort of Playable Teaser for another game, then i think the least you can do is make that clear. transparency is always good.
in the name of transparency, i must admit: while i see room for improvement here, i also see evidence of improvement. the devs have been responsive to criticism; my personal favorite section of the game seems to have been added in response to a review that criticised the lack of horror. there's also plans for an upcoming update that will expand the ending and the story . it is slightly odd to me, though, how quickly these fixes are coming, and how often they almost seem to be in response to specific criticisms from individual users. you can't really respond to half of your criticisms with "this is the experience we wanted to deliver, and our other game will have more of the elements you want" and the other half with "we added a new chapter to include this element, hope you like it!". i have a feeling that the devs need to work on their own confidence, and on recognizing and fixing issues before they make it into the final game and get criticism.
there are a couple of more minor issues as well. the english translation has some odd grammar that makes it clear it isn't their native language, though i feel that's quite forgivable given the target audience definitely seems to be ukrainians anyway. there's still some bugs, and it's upsettingly easy to accidentally softlock yourself (though this is a more minor issue, considering how short each section is and how little progress you can realistically lose at a time). overall, for a first game i can see the potential, but it also has the issues you'd expect from someone who hasn't entirely gotten comfortable yet with the process of making games.
there's something else that must also be said. a game series(?) with a low-poly, pixel-y art style, with the first game seeming to almost just be a playable demo for the second game while also having unclear continuity relation to it, and apparent themes of misogyny and sexual harassment? anyone else seen this film before? this game series(?) has the "short, confusing experience that may or may not just be a playable teaser for the net game" entry cost money, so it loses some points compared to the HFIM/mouthwashing duology. however, it makes back all those points and then some with the fact that it actually shows you a woman's internal thoughts, allows you to play from the perspective of the Woman Experiencing Scary Things during the horror segments (instead of some asshole man who i don't care about), and passes the bechdel test.
i wanted to write this review before the next big update, so that i can get down my thoughts on the game as it exists now and judge how much it improves. i see the potential here, but only time will tell if this game or the next one or the one after that can live up to it. i can't help but feel that a quote from the review before the recent big update, sadly, is still relevant: Чи шкода мені 5 евро на підтримку українського гейм дев? - Ні, купила би знов. Але чи згадаю я про цю гру через місяць-другий та чи буду її рекомендувати? - Нажаль точно ні.
spicy 2 stars. you're so close to pushing over into a 3 star mark. come on july update, don't let me down
