Decay

Hello
Wait, wait, waaaait! Stop right here!
I've to warn that for some reason the version of the game downloadable here is the web version, if you need the Pc or Mac version go to itch.io. There you can also play online the game on your browser. Do what you want, I will not judge you!

Sure. I just judge the games, so let's start judging Decay!

Decay is a 2022 game made with Rpgmaker MZ by scitydreamer. Who is this developer? Well, that's the creator of two cool games I liked a lot (and I mean A LOT, so check them) and I reviewed two years ago: a short weird turf war rpg game called To Crime Nirvana and Slimes, a longer and more serious adventure. Both had a peculiar original graphics that made them stand out, but also from a gameplay point of view these were not the usual jrpg adventure games. I also plan to play soon "A Gang of Weirdos", another 1/2 hours little crazy game, but this is time for another story. Anyway these games nails down some features that seems to be common to all of them:

- A modern setting where supernatural beings exist, including monsters.
- Crime and criminals are often protagonist.
- People have special powers. Well most of them.
- Unique graphic style.


Let's start another happy day going to work! Oh see that red and yellow thing on the lower left? That's a BIG monster, because random encounters aren't enough!

But let's speak of Decay, that's supposed to be set in the same world: our protagonist is going to work and ... BAM! There is a monster outbreak! Really simple premise, but for a one hour game, that's more of enough. So yes, we have a modern setting and monsters too, anyway in this case the protagonist isn't a magical hero or powerful unique being, but just belongs to the common people.

Visually the game does NOT use a unique visual style but it's mainly made of RTPs, even if some custom sprites are present. AND scitydreamer could not set for the boring standard RTPs so these were edited to give a distinct look, the palette choice in fact recalls the (particular and ) colors used (shades of purples, acid green, ocher, faded orange, etc) in To Crime Nirvana, to rapresent a world that has gone crazy. On the contraty the characters are greyscaled (in
To Crime Nirvana only the portraits were grayscale, but just for a styistic choice) to rapresent they living monotonous lives.

But yes let's start with the story: we play as Janice, a young woman that lives alone in a little apartment and works in a factory. In this pandemic period it's not a happy life, but things here are worse because there are monsters too! Anyway you need cash to buy food and pay the rent, so wear your mask and go to work! But, most important, stay alive!

The game is all here: you have to survive monster attacks and illness, trying to avoid stress and starving: Janice, besides the usual health bar has two other indicators, hunger and stress. The first is simple, you need to eat, you can cook meals at home if you have ingredients, or you can find some consumables (snacks!) that reduces hunger of a little bit, but at least they heal. Stress is instead a bit more complex since you can get it from random situations (well this happens for hunger too, but in my experience was rare) or combat, and can be reduced by relaxing, sleeping and playing videogames. But stress may be useful sometimes, because it can be used to unleash some particular special attacks, while other moves are instead unlocked levelling up and increase stress or hunger in exchange for some additional damage or special effect.


It's night and I just want to go home! Looks like Janice survived another monster assault... but this won't be the last one!

The game is divided in night and day, and some places are open only during some periods, like the videogame room or the midnight merchant that sells armors and weapons and can be visited only at night. Monsters instead are always present, they're weak but infinite, and new species will appear after a while. The game also uses both random encounters and visible/avoidable special opponents, but combat is classic rpgmaker style, so this includes the possibilty to run away. Anyway killed enemies sometimes award consumables, but pay attention because some of them can steal them from your inventory! This is an ugly, terrible world after all!

As mentioned before there are some random events... you can injury yourself at work, quarrel with a colleague (these happens especially if you have a high stress value, I guess), get sick (and apparently there is no cure so you will slowly lose health), and so on. Best event is when NOTHING happens, that's it! Every day there is also a newcast that will reports what is happening in the city. This means that things are going to change, new monsters will appear including some big ones, prices for weapons and food may skyrocket during some periods... yeah, pay attention to the news since these are useful if you want to survive. And the will to continue may even dissolve if you come home hungry and stressed, giving the suicide option, but it's your choice, of course!

So this is the game. You get paid after each five days, and you must keep going as the world around collapse and things become gradually worse and worse. Luckily you can save anytime and anywhere, but there is a catch! There's only ONE save slot that's automatically replaced each time you save, so one chance, one life!

Music is simple, a bit repetitive but good, and I do not remember seeying errors or problems except for a little graphic glitch that makes the screen slightly flash... anyway that issue disappears as soon as I enter another map or combat ends, so it's not a problem, and that's the only issue I found.


Home sweet home! Ok, ok this is not The Sims, I get it!

Final Verdict
Ok, let me be sincere: Decay isn't an enjoyable adventure game and it's repetitive, but we played many non-enjoyable and repetitive addicting games in the past, like Frogger or Snake. What fun there is in crossing the road or avoiding eating yourself? Well that's the same concept, but in this case we're playing a survival game.

Personally, I liked this game a lot (but I must be objective, not subjective here) because it really recreated well the situation of living the pandemic era as a necessary worker. Ok, I did not fight monsters so far, still the problems of stress and the atmosphere are perfectly recreated, I especially enjoyed reading the news as time passes, and you see how the world slowly... decays. Yes, it's a dark and depressing game, still I found it enjoyable and addicting. I also know that this was just a side project for scitydreamer, and not made to be a big game.
From the title I originally expected this to be the usual boring survival horror about zombies, but no, it's a very stylish supernatural pandemic survival game.