It's that time again for a new episode of Chichuki Views, the show where I go hands-on with upcoming games and show them off. Usually it's about an hour or so but I don't want to spoil too much of the game for you. This time, we're looking at Edge of Sanity on Steam.
Something paranormal is going on at the outskirts of Alaska and we have to figure out what the hell is going on. Right off the bat you take control of Carter in camp, trying to survive the Alaskan wilderness. You will be given plenty of objectives to perform during gameplay but the the start of the game tasks you with finding your way back through the woods to the facility/Prism Organization. Along the way, you will find all kinds of tools/resources needed to survive like a lamp or wood. I would advice you to pick up pretty much everything you find because you never know what you will need. The wood could be needed to fix the water treatment area in the camp or that same wood could be used to repair the crafting tent. Edge of Sanity does a great job in setting the ambiance of the area and really makes things creepy. The writing in the game does a great job of that too but at the same time, said writing does a good job in trying to show how characters get along with everyday things. They are trying to not lose hope in their situation and a prime example is Carter still having a slight sense of humor at times when most other people would have lost their minds.
During gameplay you will gain stress points and in turn stress perks. You will gain these bonuses, either good or bad, when you interact with the environment. You'll also find other "survivors" that you can bring back to your campsite. These people can be put in charge of things like the food supply and then with their help can gather more rations for survival. I also really like the way you can semi fast travel from location to location on your map. Games like this usually make you walk to and from locations and in turn lose supplies or stamina along the way. I never have liked games with stamina bars but it makes sense in Edge of Sanity. You have to control how you use things so being able to run while getting chased shouldn't be broken. You also have a sound meter where pretty much everything you do makes noise. Being in control of what your doing will be beneficial in keeping monsters away. Keeping tabs on your supplies will be key as well because some of your normal items might be the only thing you have that can kill a monster, like fire. Also master the art of being sneaky because that is one of the few ways you can sneak around an enemy.
One of the best things in Edge of Sanity is the actual exploring different locations. You never know what you're going to run into and you really never know if you'll find what you need to survive. You might have to throw rocks to kill something but never find another rock. You might get lucky and find more people or an axe to use when you run out of rocks. I mentioned prior that you will have to keep an eye on your rations. That's because your storage isn't unlimited and you will probably have to drop things to hold more important stuff. I would have liked the range of attacks like the axe to be bigger/longer but that would make things too easy.
Edge of Sanity is an interesting take in the survival/exploration horror genre. I don't usually find myself wanting to play games like this but I really enjoyed playing Edge of Sanity. The settings and mood were very well done and I felt like I was getting attached to the core group of characters.
Make sure you check out the hands-on/thoughts video below.