Critters for Sale

Games that feel haunted are so cool to me and usually something that will immediately make me appreciate it, and Critters For Sale is no exception in this regard. The mishmash of surreal, abstract twists on a variety of folklore warped through a lens of pop culture from a variety of eras, all closed off with one of the most unique and striking visual styles I've seen makes for an unforgettable aesthetic in any case. It's all further heightened by game's insistence that you immediately know everything that's being talked about while exclusively putting you in the perspective of characters who know absolutely nothing, leaving so much up to you just remembering concepts and making vague connections without truly understanding the deeper consequences of anything that occurs. It's built upon contradictions in a lot of key areas that add a ton to the surreal atmosphere in each chapter, not ever being able to fully trust anything that's said, but always pressing forward regardless to be given context to ideas you haven't even begun to think about.

It's not exactly perfect, as the pop culture elements definitely carefully ride the line between adding to the sense of strange familiarity to see such icons in the context of a world this confusing, while also sometimes unfortunately crossing the line into taking you right out of the experience by leaning into such elements a bit too heavily. This is most prominent with a certain ending in the Goat storyline, where while incredibly funny, the ending pertaining to Death Grips entirely tanked the mystique of the setting you were placed in and felt strangely out of place even in a game as wild as this one. Other than this I really appreciated this though for having such an incredible sense of style combined with gameplay that constantly intrigued, along with playing into a vibe that I've really grown to appreciate where it feels more akin to being a passive observer to the world around you as opposed to being a hugely active force in it. In the context of Critters For Sale this is especially indicative of how distinctly it presents itself for managing to craft such a tone while also having the player save the world multiple times and actively become one of the main driving forces of the trajectory of the world.

Also a huge fan of the ways that a lot of these storylines differ from a gameplay perspective, all sticking within the confines of what you'd expect from a point n click adventure, but emphasising different a different element for each one, often as simple as moving through from location to location or solving puzzles. Providing a sense of variety through nothing but the barest of essentials is just one way that's indicative of how Critters For Sale is able to play into its minimalism to further reinforce the elements it's striving to make the most distinct and memorable, whether it's through the moments of reduced intensity themselves lending themselves towards a vague feeling of formlessly floating through unfamiliar territory, or the contrast with the occasionally nightmarish, maximalist pieces of imagery. In the end though, none of this really matters as much as the simple fact that if you're at all interested in the artstyle of this, you really should give it a shot, because everything the game does serves to push its aesthetic front and centre and entirely absorb you.