Grounded

When I play a horror game, I usually rate it based on three categories, atmosphere, quality of the scares, and story. Grounded did relatively well in all three of them.

The atmosphere was immediately great. I prefer having creepy background music that changes when the bad guys approach, but having the game completely silent until the enemy appears is equally as scary, so the lack of music did not take away from the game. I also loved that I could never see more than an inch in front of me. It made every little noise that much scarier.

As for the quality of the scares, I'd say they were pretty good. With the hospital collapsing around me, I was expecting a few jump scares here and there (maybe some debris falling over, or a pipe squeaking), but there being none didn't really hurt anything. I think having one or two might have upped the creepiness a bit. The chase sequences with the step-father were particularly scary as one wrong step could easily result in your death. That fact kept me on my toes at all times, and my heart was racing constantly. I also think you could have added a few more of these. When I first ran from the step-father, I was expecting something similar to Paranoiac where I would have to consistently hide from him. I was kind of disappointed when that didn't happen. If I may make a suggestion, adding one or two more chases and some extra jump scares would vastly improve the quality of horror.

Finally, the story was interesting. The idea of a girl having to fight for her life against a mad-man step-father who murdered her family is a story that has been told before, but you re-told it in a way that still kept me guessing. The section with the other little girl, while it seemed pointless as I played through the first time, turned out to be a key plot point, which brings me to the ending. You got me. There aren't many games that can surprise me with a twist ending, but you did it. I wound up getting the bad ending the first time because I didn't know about the twist, but I played through and got the good one. The good ending, while simple, explained the rest of the game perfectly.

Overall, I give the game a 4.5 only because I felt it could have been scarier. Other than that, great job. I look forward to seeing more games from you.