Karma is not an easy game to describe nor to address. As a narrative-heavy experience, it feels almost immaculate in its refusal to yield to articulate, spoiler-free critique.

You play as Daniel McGovern, a roam agent for the Thought Bureau, a department under Leviathan Corp. in an alternate 1984 where Germany remains divided. Leviathan is, of course, a direct allusion to Thomas Hobbes, though it also evokes Lovecraftian undertones an association the game never fully embraces, much to its detriment I believe because it would so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fit in. I remain convinced that had Kardema flirted more boldly with cosmic horror, it might have reached greater heights. But there’s little merit in demanding a work conform to desires it never claimed it was intended to fulfill. It's just me and my little fantasy.

The Leviathan’s omnipresent overseer, MOTHER, functions as this world’s Big Brother. Your task is to "dive" into suspects' minds, reliving their memories as a form of interrogation. Act 1 excels at propelling the player seamlessly between story beats. You unravel a suspect’s motivations through environmental details and texts —in this case, a daughter’s diary— slowly piecing together their humanity while questioning your own role in the system. Realizing you might have done more harm than good along the way.

Act 2 takes a sharper yet more intimate turn, delving into the trauma of a suspect abused by their parents. What initially begins as classic psychological horror morphs into something grittier, sadder, and yet strangely hopeful and humane. The art direction and the gameplay shifts dramatically: at one point, you bloom flowers in the suspect’s memory, evoking ''Flower'', or soar through the air clutching a lover’s ribbon as if you meant to play ''Entwined''. Some may find this tonal detour jarring, but for me, it worked. A bold, if not entirely cohesive, reinvention.

Karma understands horror as an internal phenomenon, a malignancy of the mind shaped by external control. It grasps, however incompletely, the invasive reach of the state (or corporate if you will) into private lives. And then just as these themes crystallize, Act 3 unravels them with what can only be described as anime-tier ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Yet, I suspect this was always the intent. Contrary to what some reviewers claim, the game doesn’t leave you bewildered. You’ll grasp the what and why of its climax, even if the how feels rushed (let's say you'll need to come terms with how things should end up because you were said so). Those craving deeper worldbuilding or a more nuanced exploration of identity and control may walk away disappointed. Still, there’s something refreshing in its emotional audacity, even when execution falters. That also has something to do with the plot taking a ''Stranger Things'' turn meaning there are experiments and some sorts of unknown perhaps paranatural substance that drives those experiments. The matter in question is called ''Dasein'' of all words (I really don't know why) and is indeed physical. It has an ability to reduce entropy. You know that much but it really doesn't mean ♥♥♥♥. It's more used as a Deus X Machina where it serves as a copout.

"If you're trapped in the dream of the Other, you're ♥♥♥♥♥♥!"

This quote of Deleuze's (one so decontextualized even Žižek got lost), is the one you'd see before (or after, memories are fragile things, I forgot) an act and feels deliberately placed. In psychoanalysis, the Other is the vast web of language, desire, and norms that shape an individual. In Karma, you are ensnared in MOTHER’s framework, a structure that colonizes Daniel’s unconscious. The game’s core lies in his struggle to unearth the "secret" buried in his repressed memories through a journey to his unconscious. The true horror here is the dream itself, replicating hidden mechanisms of control. A worker may obey outwardly while their unconscious rebels or vice versa. As dreams are capable of replicating the means of oppression we'd also, very broadly put, consider what regiments the behavior. And that is, what would Deleuze say, ''order-words''. Ideas might not be inherently oppresive even if they seemingly are radical or disruptive but how it structurilized in language does matter. You'll see a bunch of them in Karma, to a point where workers' leisure time also becomes a work time. Toying with such concepts and feeling like you have something to say is often a nasty yet incredibly easy trap to fall into. As far as my reading allows me, I feel like Karma (and hopefully neither do I) doesn’t exactly suffer from this.

As an artsy experiment, Karma thrives on intentional obscurity. Environments are meticulously crafted; every NPC wears a TV for a head, while key figures appear as ordinary humans. The game never explains why, but the consistency sells the illusion. Its aesthetic is equal parts Lynchian surrealism and Hitchcockian voyeurism: you invade minds, inhabiting memories rather than passively observing and consuming them (the closest example I can give is Remember Me's memory remixes). Reside in a place where you don't belong to. You tapping into minds also means their struggles are your struggles, their horrors are your horrors. Reality crumbles beneath you, you are reshaped, and the art direction sells this disintegration masterfully. The minutiae is not only an important aspect of the narrative but also the art itself.

The puzzles are serviceable but unremarkable: book riddles (SH3 anyone?), clock puzzles, loops... Nothing groundbreaking, but satisfying in their execution. There’s no combat, and fail states are rare, though the chase sequences feel half-baked they nevertheless feel tense. The main puzzles are forgiving, but the optional MENSA-esque challenges? Some of them are quite tripping. I completely suck at those types of puzzles and immediately feel pressure of getting lost in unnecessary detail compared to getting the bigger picture however since there is no timer you are in good hands. They are one-shot puzzles meaning if you fail them your only chance is to reload a previous save.

Voice acting is phenomenal. Sean, in particular, delivers a standout performance. The soundscape keeps tension coiled throughout. That said, gameplay is too basic and watered down for a mystery thriller. Objectives rarely overlap; solutions often present themselves and you rarely keep one item at a time. It’s also paradoxical as the game leaves many questions unanswered, yet it tells more than it shows, violating the sacred "show, don’t tell" rule to ensure you grasp its core truths. But I would say it's better than leaving empty handed.

I suspect the heavy inspiration from Observer as soon as I compare and contrast any two screenshots of these games, though lacking firsthand experience of Observer, I can’t really compare. Psychological horror still struggles to produce strong, unpretentious entries, and Karma occasionally stumbles into indulgence. Yet for a debut title, this is an admirable effort. Flawed but ambitious, and lingering in the mind like a half-remembered dream. A game that tries to figure out its own identity and comes up with something. I guess.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
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I don’t understand a thing in this game bro, this game has been nothing but just CONFUSE me bro, you know what I’m saying? I don’t understand what’s going on.

Jokes aside, the only reason I even looked at this game was because it had a 2% sale, which seemed funny to me—since I’ve NEVER seen a 2% sale on a game before. I briefly checked the store page, it looked great, and decided to come back later. A day later, I checked and the price was higher than it was originally. So yeah… I was confused.

First Impressions
- Graphics & Performance: Game looks GREAT and runs GREAT—already rare for new releases.
- Character Design: Bonus points for the main characters being hot.
- Voice acting: The voice actors are really good.
- Story: I'm wet and confused. I mean hard and curio- whatever, you get the point.

"Who keeps sending me messages?" said I thinking my phone's vibrating....Nope, I left my controller on my desk and was playing on keyboard + mouse, but the footsteps and some other actions enabled the haptics on my dualsense...Making me think it was my phone that's vibrating.

Each twist in the story got me singing the intro to Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.” All the details just flow into one another—everything’s intertwined, but I loved it. This game is a whole mind‑f*ck, but boy oh boy, does this game know how to f*ck.

If the screenshots look interesting to you, do yourself a favor and play it. Definitely surpassed all my expectations.

Bonus:
Many indie fps games don't even have an FOV slider… this one includes it—and even ties it into gameplay! Never seen that done before.

Final verdict:
This game has surpassed all my expectations.

TERRIBLE JUEGAZO