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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My younger self would have loved this. But I’m no longer that kid, and it immediately becomes a case of 'too little, too late.' Seeing where the Test Drive series ended up, maybe this is how you revive a franchise. I won’t pretend TXR didn’t make waves back in the day and now it's revival acts like a time capsule in an era where 'PS2' is often used as a pejorative. The game doesn’t boast the highest fidelity, but it looks good. I love the car models, the overall vibe… yet I just can’t connect with it.

TXR is a mixed experience. I’m too used to rallies and endurance races now that I had to rewire my brain for a straightforward highway racer. Oddly enough, it becomes addictive, even though I firmly believe the game lacks challenge and depth. These flaws could be fixed near launch, though.

The first 3–4 hours are a slow grind upward. The next 2–3 hours are more engaging as you familiarize yourself with the mechanics, upgrade your car, and unlock perks. After that, the next 2–3 hours is the real chore where you’re sitting on your ass with a pile of 50+ unused BP and you'd end up with more cash than you could spend. Am I supposed to panic buy upgrades in a racing game?

I can’t help but ask: Why? Why hard-lock cash progression? Why kill the momentum? TXR was never known for its perk system. Sure, perks could evolve the gameplay, but locking content behind certain bosses creates pacing issues. This is especially problematic in early access, where you can’t unlock much until you beat Midnight Cinderella. After that, the game boils down to whether you want to grind for customizable cars or not. If you’re going to hard-lock cars, skills, perks, tunings and your ability to endure rivals and punish rivals through driver level at least have some mercy for the fkn cash.

Unlike the original, you can no longer unlock special cars by defeating rivals instead you have to buy them. Fair enough. But why can’t you sell them back? I bought a custom car, realized it was garbage, and got stuck with it. What’s the point? The boss’s car was actually slower than the boss themselves and didn’t even have nitrous. The worst part of it you can barely buy 1 custom the whole game because you can only hold 7 million until you defeat the final boss only then you can hold up to 15 million which is the almost the cost of the better customs.

The races are always require the same mindset and any average racing fan would point that out immediately. You buy nitrous, spam it at the start, and within 25 meters, you’re already burning through their health bar. Most rivals (even team leaders) are underpowered, making races trivial. When a leader does show up, they’re always behind you (unless you lose and trigger a rematch through flashing), so it’s a no-brainer.

The final two or three bosses require something like an RX-8. The car I’d been using from the start—the one I loved—was quickly outclassed. I saw it coming, especially since the remaining upgrades are locked behind the final boss. That’s certainly a decision… a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ one. The tuning system isn’t overly complex, but since I don’t care much for fine-tuning, it works well enough.

The rivals can’t corner for their miserable lives. If you stop in front of them on an empty highway, they’ll just sit there, stuck. There are also invisible walls (they won't harm your gameplay but they are still odd), which I’ve learned to tolerate. I think tire wear and nitrous exhaustion should have been restricted to races only, allowing for more relaxed free-roaming. As it stands, constantly driving to a parking lot or going back to garage is just a bland choice, especially when the races are already mindless. Maybe it’s intentional (most likely intentional) once you pull ahead, victory is almost guaranteed because the AI acts clueless. But if they’re ahead (usually due to their cars being faster), they barely make mistakes.

Their behavior seems tied to poor pathfinding. They don’t use the full width of the road or proper racing lines. Instead, they stick to rigid, discrete lanes. Remember how they freeze if you block them in free roam? Imagine that in a race. If a slower car is ahead, the AI checks the opposite lane if it’s clear, they swerve over like a normal driver. But if both lanes are blocked, they do something bizarre: they hug the center line, overbrake, and fail to maintain speed through corners.

A few friends of mine who adore this game already made a big deal out of this discussion, and I don’t want to sound overly polarizing but I can’t buy into the whole 'This is what racing games need' narrative. There’s so much room for improvement. $30 isn’t a bad price, but let’s be real: this game’s only standout feature is being a modernized time capsule. Coated old stuff that is. It doesn’t just need tweaks, it needs a whole-ass overhaul. The AI, the progression, the perks… all of it. I want rivals that evolve and learn with each race. I want team leaders and bosses to mean something beyond 'Here’s your cash and BP—now go buy a mediocre custom car.

It’s always daring to square off against a beloved game, but I’d hate myself if I didn’t try. I need this game to be better. Truly better.

★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆

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