First Impressions: Same Room Same Day (VSD)

[Disclaimer:  I received a review key for Same Room Same Day 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.] 

Same Room Same Day
Systems: Windows, macOS, SteamOS, Android
Release Date: September 17, 2024
Publisher: Bugi Games
Developer: Bugi Games
Time Spent: 49 Minutes
First Play Videos on YouTube

Yeah, I know I didn't spend even an hour playing Same Room Same Day (SRSD), but after playing as much as I did and even then seeing the games difficulty curve rising steeply before me, not to mention the level/stage design choices (which we'll mention in a bit), I knew that I wasn't going to finish the game and unlock the coveted "Psychotherapist - Complete the Game" achievement that only 16.3% of players have managed to do.

At its core, I really liked the premise of Same Room Same Day and its novel approach to crafting an excuse for this first-person shooter.  In SRSD, you play as a psychotherapist who is helping their patient Rosaline through traumatic events in her past.  The game explicitly states in-game that "This game serves as a metaphor for what happens between the psychotherapist and Rosaline, the traumas she experienced during the sessions, and how much it helped her."  I don't think that the game is saying that therapy is akin to sprinting through a hellscape, shotgunning demonic-like creatures while injecting yourself with healing additives, so I don't believe there to be either any animosity towards therapists or a dumbing down of the important work that most therapists do; that's just my theory.  But as for what each of the enemies in this game is supposed to represent, you've got me there.  Or you might if I had actually managed to make it through the game and had read more/all of the pages of notes that preceded each chapter/level.

Where I fell off of Same Day Same Room was the apparent inconsistency in difficulty; or it could just be that I need to git gud, just like in HELLBREAK.  I started the game on Normal difficulty because that seemed the safest bet for my skill level in controller player first-person shooters.  But then, when I started growing frustrated with my own skill and the overall difficulty in the game, I jammed it up to Extreme, and not only did I not notice the game being significantly more difficult, I actually made it through the room that was giving me grief.  THEN, in what seemed to be the final room in chapter/level 2, I knocked the difficulty all the way down to Easy because of how cheap that last group of swarming enemies after you take out the two flying monstrosities, and I was still getting my ass handed to me.  And it didn't feel like a Steam Deck-related skill issue either, although I'm not prideful enough to totally discount that as a possibility.  I also want to throw in there that the lack of an aiming reticle felt like a deliberate choice and not an oversight, and a decision that definitely led me to wasting ammo in that last fight; which in turn required me to reload more frequently and take more damage, which required me to use up more of the healing injections.  After a couple more attempts, I threw in the proverbial towel.  

I knew that as difficult as the game was at that point, I was not likely to join the other 16.3% of players who had beaten the game to uncover the full story behind Rosaline's trauma and her path to healing.  I enjoyed some aspects of Same Room Same Day, like the lack of importance in the background, the focus on the enemies, and the combat.  I guess you could say I liked the art direction, but the difficulty curve, coupled with specific enemy design and placement, has halted my progression. 

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental