Sepia Beach

Sepia Beach is a short, light mystery game. It does what it needs to, but I feel in the end it didn't do enough. In a sea of similar games out on the Internet, there's little to set this one apart.

The highlight of the game are some really well done sprites and mapping. There are two small, unfortunate caveats I feel bad even mentioning. Two of the doors in the village have their events set wrong when you don't have the key - and the second is that, in the house, there is no areas you can't walk. Other than that, the layout is well done. No parts feel over-done or under done. The path is well set, and the colours are simple but pleasing.

There's no real gameplay, per se. It's simply a few time obstacles and some very mild exploration in the way between you and your tidbits of information - we've all been there before.

What I feel sad to mention, though, is a little TOO much is left to the imagination. I feel it's fair to ask that, in a game this short, which tries to hint at what may have happened, may have given a bit of a payoff at the end.

The game is basically one of those donuts that could either be a custard filled, or just plain cake. And you ate it without really thinking about it, reading the paper. When you were done, you realized that, no, it was not a custard donut, and you really wanted one of those.