This review will be a slightly different one than usual because I'll be settling some things today by comparing "Locked Up" (LU) by EMIKA_GAMES a rather unknown small team from Russia, by which LU is their debut!! AND "Agoraphobia" (AG) by Tainted Games, a solo dev who's even buried further underground. So, drama cut short, the former accused the latter of copying the design (& story?). And other players have caught wind of this, otherwise I'd never even have heard of this "plagiarism".

Now then here's what both have in common; inspiration from Hideo Kojima's P.T. repeating hallways and the Unity engine asset packs! I mean the evidence does look compelling, emphasis on LOOK. I may be blowing this out of proportion and/or beating a dead horse but I think this conflict is something we shouldn't have- especially between indie devs... Can't we all just get along. :'(



The Gist:
It's a bit blurry, but the previous inhabitants of a forsaken property went missing or presumed worse. With their fates slowly get revealed and you become a witness to everything that went down...

! Believe everything you see !


(a) P.T. Who?
You'll feel at home in this walking simulator if you've played P.T. and exploration; listening to sound cues, seeing things change where you weren't looking becomes crucial to getting the next door open. Honestly, AG prepped me for this experience because it was more convoluted and trial-and-error with its "focusing" mechanics.

Here it was more linear than anything, which fits because of the funhouse approach! There's a neat little hub where you can let your mind spin and even choose to replay any scene which I found amazingly user friendly and a great addition to the lore of being confined.

(b) House to a H.O.R.R.O.R.
Story-wise. You may have seen it all before. But have you been in one?! BOOM. Moves into a new house, unaware of the sordid past it harbors. Then <fill in the blank>. I won't spoil the rest. However, what LU does well is in terms of atmosphere- the house becomes bigger and foreboding as you go along. AG, feels more disjointed, haphazard because the protagonist keeps wandering through different places.. Yes, the sequence of areas are almost identical especially for the beginning and end. But the middle portion is largely different~

(c) A Mind of Its Own.
Now, the crux of the horror experience which set the two apart so far that you can't hear yourself. LU wasn't the scariest thing ever but it was immersive, the sound design is excellent despite borderline overused (more on that later). There's few and far between voiceovers but were wonderfully creepy, giving a much-needed human element to sympathize with. Moving homes is a stressful ordeal and to find out that it is haunted must take the icing on the cake! AG, I would say is more subtle and niche; the subject matter of psychological well-being or rather unwell-being is what shapes the experience and requires much time, effort in fending off a relapse.

"Antagonist" of the games also are like night and day. In LU, you never doubt for a second that there is an evil presence behind wtf is going on. Jebus! That towering, dark female figure is just.... WELL DONE. Every time it shows up, if I could run- I would. There's a patient in a hospital gown (which I've seen in other Unity games too XD) common in both, but in LU- she's(?) a family member of the last owner. As for AG, she is a past victim of the protagonist's spree. Also worth nothing, the transition between time periods in LU (and who you're actually playing) are so smooth you won't realize it. As for AG, you are but the same person.

Can we talk about the title real quick?
1. The name suits the overall experience of someone being held captive. In isolation, comes the personal daemons, perhaps some being too literal in this case.

2. The notion of being trapped means a whole lot more here because there's a cycle doomed to be repeated. Once that first influence propagates...



(i) The Sound of Silence
The music cues and stings are suited for a mainstream audience. Which is both good- for it directs and sets your expectation to the blatant scare coming... any. minute. now... Bad, because there's never much time before you hear another unsettling sound. It felt like they were trying way TOO HARD. AG had more times of quiet and it's more slow-paced in that sense. The jump scares in LU were not well-deserved, wasting the opportunity and vibe established for really great ones!

Some other things that took away from full enjoyment was the half-baked store page synopsis (AG is "cryptic" in that way too) which doesn't hold a candle to the actual game. I also thought including the prequel was pretty cool but it felt like the whole gameplay could be experienced from that alone.

(ii) Am I Missing Something?
Now the most sheer "how dare you" moment came from a part where you play as a mover. You find a note that reveals (yet again) the source of the house's incidents but there's a hopeful message attached. Then you can imagine my gobsmack when 5-seconds laterpoof it's snuffed out. THE END. Will there be a sequel or something? The antagonist's backstory or origin was never revealed (unless you count the demo also included).

One other thing that fo sure hurt me and make not a lick of sense- why can't I run? If I'm sure my doom was coming or my pants suddenly felt heavy, I'd definitely get the eff out of there first!! Had I been able to, game would've just be one hour. AG doesn't have this issue; there's a "resolution" in that it's one of your oopsie episodes and you can run!!

(iii) VHS Indeed
This one is just meh, because the game runs fairly decent. But I would have loved the option to tweak down (IKR) my graphic settings even more. Instead I have to run them on high~ In AG you could, but no V-Sync option so there's a toss-up for sure.



In closing, LU is a worthy successor of what P.T. could have been. Ngl, I came in with the goal of discrediting this game (I'm only human or am I...) but ended up enjoying every minute. The way it barrages you with unnerving noises left and right. Or having the line between past and present so effortlessly obscured. Granted the tricks of the horror genre are saturated here but they were the standout moments to an otherwise snail-paced game with some narrative shortcomings and uneventful end. The price point is a little steep especially for the breeze of a playtime, so I'd advise getting it slashed~

Some more comparisons (cause why not). Both games' protagonists are bland but definitely male. Both use clever ways of making the game longer, albeit AG is a quarter cheaper. If one good thing resulted from this "feud" I've brought up- is that it gave disproportionate attention to both games. Obviously, LU is the superior of the two in terms of production value but I do stand by my review that AG is something special too and they couldn't be more different~ AG is like a fan-made game that wishes to improve and carry on the P.T. legacy in its own unique way. AG could even be in a shared universe kind of deal with LU and is that such a bad thing? Don't a-answer that. But please suspend your judgement until you've finished both T_T


Keep tabs on their boo-ah potential in the upcoming "From Day to Day".

[code]Curator page here-->[url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/37670120/] DaRevieweD #48[/url]<-- [i]New review every Sunday[/i][/code] This review will be a slightly different one than usual because I'll be settling some things today by comparing [b]"Locked Up" (LU)[/b] by EMIKA_GAMES a rather unknown small team from Russia, by which LU is their debut!! AND [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/DeadeGuard98/recommended/1412000/]"Agoraphobia" (AG)[/url] by Tainted Games, a solo dev who's even buried further underground. So, drama cut short, the former accused the latter of copying the design (& story?). And other players have caught wind of this, otherwise I'd never even have heard of this "plagiarism". Now then here's what both have in common; inspiration from Hideo Kojima's P.T. repeating hallways and the Unity engine asset packs! I mean the evidence does look compelling, emphasis on LOOK. I may be blowing this out of proportion and/or beating a dead horse but I think this conflict is something we shouldn't have- especially between indie devs... Can't we all just get along. :'( [h1]"Tragedy Befell..."[/h1] [u]The Gist:[/u] It's a bit blurry, but the previous inhabitants of a forsaken property went missing or presumed worse. With their fates slowly get revealed and you become a witness to everything that went down... [spoiler] ! Believe everything you see ! [/spoiler] [h1][+] PROS;[/h1] [b](a) P.T. Who?[/b] You'll feel at home in this walking simulator if you've played P.T. and exploration; listening to sound cues, seeing things change where you weren't looking becomes crucial to getting the next door open. Honestly, AG prepped me for this experience because it was more convoluted and trial-and-error with its "focusing" mechanics. Here it was more linear than anything, which fits because of the funhouse approach! There's a neat little hub where you can let your mind spin and even choose to replay any scene which I found amazingly user friendly and a great addition to the lore of being confined. [b](b) House to a H.O.R.R.O.R. [/b] Story-wise. You may have seen it all before. But have you been in one?! BOOM. Moves into a new house, unaware of the sordid past it harbors. Then <fill in the blank>. I won't spoil the rest. However, what LU does well is in terms of atmosphere- the house becomes bigger and foreboding as you go along. AG, feels more disjointed, haphazard because the protagonist keeps wandering through different places.. Yes, the sequence of areas are almost identical especially for the beginning and end. But the middle portion is largely different~ [b](c) A Mind of Its Own.[/b] Now, the crux of the horror experience which set the two apart so far that you can't hear yourself. LU wasn't the scariest thing ever but it was immersive, the sound design is excellent despite borderline overused (more on that later). There's few and far between voiceovers but were wonderfully creepy, giving a much-needed human element to sympathize with. Moving homes is a stressful ordeal and to find out that it is [spoiler]haunted must take the icing on the cake![/spoiler] AG, I would say is more subtle and niche; the subject matter of psychological well-being or rather [spoiler]unwell-being[/spoiler] is what shapes the experience and requires much time, effort in fending off a relapse. "Antagonist" of the games also are like night and day. In LU, you never doubt for a second that there is an evil [spoiler]presence[/spoiler] behind wtf is going on. Jebus! That towering, dark female figure is just.... WELL DONE. Every time it shows up, if I could run- I would. There's a patient in a hospital gown (which I've seen in other Unity games too XD) common in both, but in LU- she's(?) a family member of the last owner. As for AG, she is a past victim of the [spoiler]protagonist's spree[/spoiler]. Also worth nothing, the transition between time periods in LU (and who you're actually playing) are so smooth you won't realize it. As for AG, you are but the same person. Can we talk about the title real quick? 1. The name suits the overall experience of someone being held captive. In isolation, comes the personal daemons, perhaps some being too literal in this case. 2. The notion of being trapped means a whole lot more here because there's a cycle doomed to be repeated. Once that first influence propagates... [h1][-] CONS;[/h1] [b](i) The Sound of Silence[/b] The music cues and stings are suited for a mainstream audience. Which is both good- for it directs and sets your expectation to the blatant scare coming... any. minute. now... Bad, because there's never much time before you hear another unsettling sound. It felt like they were trying way TOO HARD. AG had more times of quiet and it's more slow-paced in that sense. The jump scares in LU were not well-deserved, wasting the opportunity and vibe established for really great ones! Some other things that took away from full enjoyment was the half-baked store page synopsis (AG is "cryptic" in that way too) which doesn't hold a candle to the actual game. I also thought including the prequel was pretty cool but it felt like the whole gameplay could be experienced from that alone. [b](ii) Am I Missing Something?[/b] Now the most sheer "how dare you" moment came from a part where you play as a mover. You find a note that reveals (yet again) the source of the house's incidents but there's a hopeful message attached. Then you can imagine my gobsmack when 5-seconds later[spoiler]poof it's snuffed out. THE END[/spoiler]. Will there be a sequel or something? The antagonist's backstory or origin was never revealed (unless you count the demo also included). One other thing that fo sure hurt me and make not a lick of sense- why can't I run? If I'm sure my doom was coming or my pants suddenly felt heavy, I'd definitely get the eff out of there first!! Had I been able to, game would've just be one hour. AG doesn't have this issue; there's a "resolution" in that it's one of your oopsie episodes and you can run!! [b](iii) VHS Indeed[/b] This one is just meh, because the game runs fairly decent. But I would have loved the option to tweak down (IKR) my graphic settings even more. Instead I have to run them on high~ In AG you could, but no V-Sync option so there's a toss-up for sure. [h1]"Who's The Real Victim Here?"[/h1] In closing, LU is a worthy successor of what P.T. could have been. Ngl, I came in with the goal of discrediting this game (I'm only human or am I...) but ended up enjoying every minute. The way it barrages you with unnerving noises left and right. Or having the line between past and present so effortlessly obscured. Granted the tricks of the horror genre are saturated here but they were the standout moments to an otherwise snail-paced game with some narrative shortcomings and uneventful end. The price point is a little steep especially for the breeze of a playtime, so I'd advise getting it slashed~ Some more comparisons (cause why not). Both games' protagonists are bland but definitely male. Both use clever ways of making the game longer, albeit AG is a quarter cheaper. If one good thing resulted from this "feud" I've brought up- is that it gave disproportionate attention to both games. Obviously, LU is the superior of the two in terms of production value but I do stand by my review that AG is something special too and they couldn't be more different~ AG is like a fan-made game that wishes to improve and carry on the P.T. legacy in its own unique way. AG could even be in a shared universe kind of deal with LU and is that such a bad thing? Don't a-answer that. But please suspend your judgement until you've finished both T_T [h1]7.8/10[/h1] [b]Keep tabs on their [i]boo-ah potential[/i] in the upcoming "From Day to Day".[/b]