Edge of Sanity

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Edge of Sanity review
Dan Lenois

Review

You'll either revel in the madness, or be infuriated by it...

A Question of Sanity...


Edge of Sanity strikes a vivid note right off the bat with its Lovecraftian-inspired art style and 2D side-scrolling adventure format. From its opening tutorial, the game initially presents itself as a primarily horror-driven experience. However, in reality, Edge of Sanity finds itself having more in common with survival-horror games like The Forest than it does any of its fellow Lovecraft-inspired contemporaries.

While there is a loose narrative guiding the player through the experience, this is one of those many games where it is gameplay, and not story, that takes precedence. In order to see that their camp, which acts as a safe haven the player can return to at any time, is well supplied with the necessary provisions, players must regularly undergo expeditions to increase their chances of survival.



Making the Best out of a Bad Situation


As the player progresses, they will continually unlock new opportunities to gain new members of their party, who will see to it that the camp provides certain renewable resources such as food and water. NPCs can alternatively be instead sent off to obtain resources in unexplored regions on the map.

However, doing so runs the risk of taking damage and/or dying along the way. However, should they survive, they will bring back anything they've collected to the camp, for you to do with as you will.

To anyone who's not already made the connection, this set of gameplay mechanics definitely feels torn out of the pages of Fallout Shelter and other gotcha mobile games. The only difference here is that the success or failure of said NPC expeditions is not in any way determined or influenced by pay-to-win gotcha trickery. There's no knowing either way what your survivors bring back, if anything, or if they're return at all in the first place, which makes the choice to send them off all the more difficult at any given moment.

Danger Meets Brevity


Edge of Sanity is designed quite deliberately as the very definition of a pick-up-and-play game. Most quests and expeditions can be completed easily within five minutes or less, although players will often benefit from sticking around a tad longer to loot the area for any out-of-the-way goodies and resources. But don't mistake this casual design philosophy for an inherently easy game. One wrong step and you could find your character falling to their instant death or dying brutally at the hands of a powerful enemy, forcing you to start over and actually learn from your failures when they occur.

The problem is that, once you get past the first few introductory missions, the game opens up and becomes far more grind-infused. if you're not drawn in initially by the premise and gameplay mechanics, and enjoy the jump-in and jump-out replay value of resource collection and almost identical monster encounters, you will find it a struggle to justify continued play. Grind is not necessarily a bad thing, but when the gameplay design revolves primarily around it, something that isn't immediately made obvious on the game's Steam product page, it's an observation worth keeping in the back of one's mind.



Overall:


Edge of Sanity is a highly-enjoyable Lovecraftian survival horror experience that walks the fine line between tension and relaxation, alternating moods to always keep the player uncertain of the ground under their feet. The gameplay is relatively easy to learn, but difficult to master. The narrative unfortunately is a bit weak, but if you accept that and stick around for the gameplay itself, odds are there will be enough to keep your interest for a decent number of hours.


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8.5

fun score

Pros

Vivid art direction, intriguing setting, enjoyable repetitive gameplay loop

Cons

Excessively grind-filled gameplay, poorly-explained mechanics