Game EXP: Umbral - Chapter 1 & 2 (VSD)

 [Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Umbral through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience.  Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]

Umbral
Systems: Windows
Release Date: August 7, 2024
Publisher: MJR Games Studio
Developer: Walter O.M. Junior
Time Spent: 2 Hours 18 Minutes

Trigger Warning:  This article covers several sensitive topics from Umbral that some might find uncomfortable and/or disturbing in nature.  Topics such as suicide, self-harm, depression, rape, domestic violence, trauma and torture.  If you find any of these topics, related or otherwise, triggering in nature, I would recommend that you skip this article and the related walkthrough videos. 

Before we get to the actual game, I need to talk about how the game functions on the Steam Deck, since that was how I played and recorded the footage used in my Walkthrough series.  When I first started, I was prompted to install Microsoft Visual Runtime C++, which didn't feel out of place so when prompted, I downloaded and ran the game.  After the first chapter, I turned off the game and when I later came back, I was given the same pop-up notification, that I needed to install Microsoft Visual Runtime C++.  However, my only option after clicking "Yes" was to Uninstall or Close.  If I had chosen "No" when first asked, the game would close immediately.  If I selected "Close," the game would be choppy and I would be unable to record.  My apparent only course of option was to then "Uninstall" MVRC++, close the game down, and then reinstall it when I opened the game up again.  I honestly have no idea what was going on behind the scenes with this, but the Steam Deck still works fine after all of this install/uninstall/install nonsense.  So just a heads up if you're planning on playing this on the Steam Deck, that as of Wednesday, August 18th, this is a slightly annoying issue.

Now, onto the first two chapters.

Chapter 1:

I decided to leave in all of the setup at the beginning when I first started the game on the Steam Deck, mainly because that was part of the experience of playing the game.  At the time, I didn't know that it was going to become an annoyance of an issue that I didn't see anyone else mentioning on the discussion pages.  So it might be a me problem, but even it isn't, I still feel validated keeping it here.

Before Umbral, I was completely unfamiliar with Umbanda or Spiritism, although I was familiar with some of the concepts of Spiritism surrounding reincarnation.  I bring this up because while this is brought up before you start the game, I won't be able to comment on the accuracy or authenticity of the depictions of either Umbanda or Spiritism and apart from reading the Wikipedia articles on the topic, I'm not going to try to parse an entire religion or belief system after only 15 minutes of reading.

I also want to preface that all of the spoken dialogue in the game is in Brazilian Portuguese with English subtitles, so I am basing my review on the translation used by the developers.  Likewise, I've never been to Brazil, so I can't comment on the look and layout of the main character Mateus' rental in this opening chapter.

For the most part, I feel like Chapter 1 did a good job as both a tutorial level and as an introduction to Mateus' life and all of the reasons that he finds himself to be depressed.  I can't really say that the character is or isn't overreacting to this apparent final straw that causes him to commit suicide.  However, it does come across as a strange feeling to have the character you're playing narrate all of the ways their life has deteriorated in the 11 minutes you've been playing and then you click a single button to commit suicide.  While not uncomfortable, it was a strange experience.

As for the unlocking/using a key mechanic, it reminded me a bit of BAISU in needing to select the item with the right click of the mouse followed by the left click on the mouse to use on the lock.  I don't know if it's an engine thing as opposed to the object unlocking if the game detects that the key is in your inventory; which is why it took me several tries after getting the bedroom key before I realized how to open the door.  Plus, on the Steam Deck, the mouse buttons are switched, so right click is with the L-Trigger and left click is with the R-Trigger, possibly because the R-Trigger is the more often dominant trigger?

Lastly, I'm not sure I fully understand how Mateus actually killed himself, or how he was able to hang himself while sitting on the ground.  Maybe he's supposed to be ever so slightly elevated off of the ground?  I'll not think too much about it and just accept that this was somehow a better option than having Mateus shoot himself or throw himself off of the roof of the building.  It's all to get us to Chapter 2 anyway.

[For whatever reason, the game doesn't immediately save before starting Chapter 2, so I sat through the Chapter II title card and the beginning intro.  I thought that the game had actually saved, which is why I quit back to the main menu after regaining control of Mateus, so when I started the game back up, I ended up having to replay through half of Chapter 1 all over again].

Chapter 2:

I have a strange relationship with this stage as I ended up having to play it three times.  The first time was due to recording difficulties on my part, and the second time was because I accidentally deleted my video file.  So this video is my third time playing while trying to make it look like my first, or at least how I would have efficiently played my first time, although here I think you can tell that I discovered how to run.  By this point, I was just getting tired of playing through this one level that contained so much background groaning and screaming that I wanted to be done with it and move on.

I found all of the screaming to be distracting, especially when talking to Thomas, and since he has a lot of dialogue, you just have to sit there for nearly three minutes.  After my first time through, I became okay with there being no speaking animation for Thomas or any of the other characters you meet in the game.  You understand that the voice is coming from the character that the camera is focused on and you never talk to more than one person at any given time, so there's no confusion about where the voice is coming from.  It could be something that bothered me, but it really doesn't.

Mateus' reaction upon turning the wheel that the soul is attached to was my actual response too.  I knew that I was likely to get a groan or a scream out of the soul on the wheel, I just didn't know that I was going to activate it.  My bad?

[This next section in the video, from 05:12 through about 07:01, contains non-graphic depictions of Mateus being tortured, all from the first-person perspective.  The imagery is violent, but in a way that does not show blood or gore, but the scene could still be disturbing to some viewers].

I did think for a moment that this was supposed to be an extended and agonizing death scene because the jailer caught me and I was hoping that I wasn't going to have to try and run to the door to try and unlock it, run back to Thomas while avoiding the Jailer to acquire another clove of garlic to retry the door in the hopes of not being caught again or I'd have to sit through this same death animation all over again.  Thankfully that was mostly not the case, but you still got another clove of garlic after Thomas let you out of the stocks.

I don't really have anything to say about the giant cannibal child thing, other than I'm thankful that it wasn't as graphic as it could have been.  I was fine with the amount of detail in the piles of partially consumed bodies.

So that was my written commentary of sorts for the first two chapters in Umbral.  I'll have similar articles up the rest of the week for Chapters 3 & 4, and Chapters 5 through the end.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

My Mind Resigns to Defeat