Rust and Blood is a survival horror game made for the current Halloween contest. It's well presented and in general a good game.

Story
The game flow can be described as a sandwich with the gameplay between two story slices. So we start off with the story that the main character has found out he's terminally ill with cancer and he can't accept it. He tries everything (except cooking Meth) to get better. In the end he tries a ritual with one of his friends (a priest) in the hope of being cured. It's short and sweet and gets you into the game play quickly while adequately setting up motivations and the setting.

The ending wasn't all that I hoped it would be, it went down more or less as I expected but it was soo quick. I would have said it was rushed but there were still three days left in the contest. Despite this the ending did provide much needed closure on the game but it was probably for me atleast the weakest aspect of the game.

Graphics
Superb! The game is visually extremely impressive, the intro and ending graphics are excellent also. There's not really much else to say other than they are used well and very reminiscent of Silent Hill. Also there are plenty of really nice little touches e.g. a plank that bends as you walk across it.

Audio
The general ambience was alright but the sound effects were awesome. It was them that really made me take note of what I was hearing and helped to build the atmosphere that really added a sense of ominous foreboding to the game.

Gameplay
To simplify a bit, the game involves savaging enough supplies to survive and making it back to camp before dark while slowly exploring and finding the items necessary to advance. It's done well, the initial bonus supplies that you find when first exploring some of the new sections help to push you on. The getting back before night thing, I only failed to do it a couple of time and I didn't really feel penalised either time, so I'm not sure if I got lucky or it wasn't fully developed.

Based on the images I looked through after completing the game I get the idea that there were a few aborted ideas, thirst and other recipe books. I should explain a bit more for people who haven't played the game; in the game you have two major considerations as you play and explore, hunger (at 100 you can no longer run and at 150 you die) and time (you have to be back before dark (21:00). I don't know how much more a thirst mechanic would add to the experience. It would add a more strategic element with the food cooking, soup dealing points to both hunger and thirst. But it would add another level of resource management to the game and may make exploration more tricky because you haven't got enough supplies to both stave off hunger and thirst.

As for the recipe books and crafting, given the initial explanation and the menu having you open the book, I expected to find another one or two during my travels. I would recommend either adding another one (perhaps the boxes are broken and you have to get spare parts to fix them or something) or amending the crafting menu and the initial explanation to remove the ambiguity. If I missed a second book then I apologise and will amend this.

Et cetera
I regret to inform you that my audio commentary for what ever reason didn't record properly. I'll try and detail the main points that were lost with it. After getting the key from the long corridor, if there was a clue it had changed then I missed it. I went wandering for a good chunk afterwards. I was confused I couldn't move into the other train carriages, a broken door message or something to let me know I couldn't get to any other carriages would have been appreciated.

The maze downstairs with the boxes, I wasted a lot of time souring for another recipe book. From what we were told about the recopies and the way the interface worked I was expecting another book somewhere. With the much appreciated notice about there being a second box after finding the first, I figured I had to combine them. In the end I left because I was low on supplies. This might be me reading too much into the wrong things though, so don't worry about it yet.

I had a lot of trouble with the final boss, I even named her Claudia Von B**** by the end. My main issue was that I incorrectly believed I had to get into the side alcoves and that would be how I escaped her. I mistakenly thought I was just not doing it well enough for ages. If the boss had moved into the alcove after me then I would have realised much sooner.

Anyway congratulations on an otherwise good game. I hope that this helps if you ever decide to update the game.

Anyway here's my playthrough if you are interested (once again sorry about the lack of commentary).