Ginger

Intro

I'll admit I'm probably not the best person to discuss "Ginger" a first-person horror game developed by Anaryu and Krisanna using Unity. As I've mentioned in some other reviews I'm not a big fan of the horror genre as a whole and tend to avoid it for the most part. This isn't to say I hate the genre since my favorite film is Gremlins (1984), but it's definitely not my preferred genre. So while I definitely have some negative things to say about this game. I'd suggest taking my opinion with a grain of salt since I'll probably be more negative about this game than it potentially deserves. For those unaware this game was created for the 2013 Game Chill event. An event that gave birth to a couple of spooky Christmas games. Though some of them are no longer available for download. In fact, I had to make use of the Internet's wayback machine in order to get a copy of this game. And who knows how long that will still be a viable option in the future. Though, I should probably start discussing the game's plot.

Story
Summary

You play as Santa whose decided to go check out the local hospital. After all, Mrs. Claus is supposed to be there taking care of some of the elves that have fallen ill. Unfortunately it appears things have gone quiet and a monster that eats anything it catches now wanders the halls. Though oddly enough Christmas cards scattered about the place contain rhymes explaining what happened, but that probably isn't as important as getting to the bottom of this place and seeing if Mrs. Claus and your loyal worker bees are still kicking. Though if you'll manage to make it to the deepest part of the hospital is the real question.

Greatest Strength/Weakness

Oddly enough this game's greatest narrative strength and weakness are the same thing in my opinion. This being the mystery behind the flesh eating monster that now stalks the halls of the hospital. Unfortunately the way the game goes about unraveling that mystery undermines it in my opinion. If you want to know the whole story you'll need to track down 15 Christmas cards that can hide in about 3 dozen different spots. And you need to look for them while being pursued by a monster that will kill you if it manages to catch you. So unraveling the mystery behind this game's story really doesn't unfold in a way that is a natural part of play since your going to want to head to the bottom of the hospital as fast as possible if your trying to beat the game. Add in the fact some of the letters appear in side rooms and at the end of dead ends and your left with a lot of stuff to collect that requires you to put yourself at risk in order to obtain it.

Gameplay

On the gameplay front this game feels a bit weird since it's control layout is so different from most games on this site. In order to move you press the W, A, S, and D keys which is pretty standard fare for a lot of PC games. Unfortunately this goes against my own instincts when it comes to controlling characters in video games since I've become used to using the arrow keys as my default option. So my first attempt at playing this game involved repeatedly tapping away at the arrow keys until the monster found and ate me at the starting location. It wasn't until my second run that I managed to find the correct keys and got eaten shortly after finding my first letter in a room slightly off the beaten path. Though oddly enough you also control the character using the mouse as well. The mouse is used to control your head tilt as well as get the player to change which direction their facing. So if you want to move effectively in this game you need to use the keyboard and mouse in tandem.

You can also dash for short periods of time by holding down the shift key on the left side of the keyboard, but the short burst offered really won't help you escape the monster for long. In fact, it might just be better to give up and be eaten if you've been spotted in a tight area since your probably only delaying the inevitable by trying to run away at that point. And you open/close doors and read Christmas cards by pressing the E key. Though considering our overall goal is to get to the bottom most level of the hospital. The ability to read Christmas cards isn't that important unless you want to understand what is going on in this game.

You also can turn a flashlight on and off with the F key, but I tend to find this feature rather pointless since the few areas I've seen in this game so far are more than bright enough to navigate without the flashlight. And unlike certain other games using the flashlight in this game only draws in the monster. So it really doesn't benefit you to have it on unless your trying to get eaten.

Graphics

I'll admit I'm not familiar enough with the Unity engine to judge this aspect of the game effectively. After all, I don't know if I'm looking at custom assets or assets you can find online for free in this game. Considering the developers complained in the game's summary page about wasting too much time on other stuff. My best educated guess is this game relies entirely on default assets or free assets.



Sound

On the sound side of things the game is a bit disappointing in my opinion since it lacks a background song to play on the game's title screen. Though I suppose some would argue that's fitting considering the only sounds you hear while playing this game are the steps of the monster and your rising heartbeat as it gets closer and closer. On one hand this minimalistic approach is pretty effective for a horror game. On the other hand it also means this game is pretty boring as far as your auditory senses are concerned. Especially when the monster is far away from you.

Conclusion

While I personally don't like this game that much and consider this one of those projects where your going to die a lot before you see success. I'm also willing to admit that games like this are pretty niche so there probably are people on this site that enjoy games like this. As such, I won't recommend for or against this game, but suggest people seek it out at their own discretion.