In 2020 a Journalist was exploring the rural areas of Nebraska for a book he is writing about the strange and undocumented parts of midwest America. He is keenly aware that his fuel meter has been sitting on E for the last couple miles. Adding to the problem he hasn't seen any sign of civilization for hours. As the car slowly rolls to an inevitable stop in the unforgiving rural midwest the journalist notices something far in the distance. It was some kind of building covered by the sea of snow and trees that surrounded it. The building had an entrance with a wide grinning mouth painted around the door that had faded away caused by the harsh conditions of rural Nebraska. The journalist stepped in and cracked on his glowstick to illuminate the darkness of the room. As he explores the door slams behind him. Explore and uncover the secrets of rural Nebraska.

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8

TrollingAntMan says

May contain spoilers Agree Disagree

!!!SPOILER WARNING FOR NEBRASKA!!!

Nebraska opens up quite nicely with a cinematic trailer of the main character in his car arriving at the
horror attraction in rural Nebraska that actually turns out to be a secret Soviet base for experimentation
on humans with red hot tentacles popping out of the ground all around the facility. Right off the bat the
presentation of the game is stunning. Running on the Unreal 4 Engine the graphics are very impressive &
the atmosphere really sells it. If you have played the Penumbra series by Frictional Games then you would
feel right at home here. The game is a bit short only taking me 2-3 hours to complete it from start to finish.
The puzzles in this game are simple and don't slow the pacing of the game to a halt and one thing I have
to applaud is the placement of the monster encounters of the game, they aren't littered in every single
map past the tutorial portion of the level but only in places that make sense. Through the game you are
guided by a radio-bound companion along the way just like Red from Penumbra Overture. There is a twist at
the end that I wasn't expecting at first but when it played out, it felt kind of blew me away and was something out
of the pages of Bioshock 2 Minerva's Den. I'll have to say that even though the story was interesting and
simple I feel like it should have continued a little longer and it would make the payoff feel a little have a little more "oomph". Other nitpicks I have with the game mostly narrow down to movement and player interaction.
Most of the objects you find are easy to find if you pay attention but you need to grab certain parts of
said objects and sometimes while being chased. As for the player movement itself I haven't been a fan of
since Penumbra Overture. The climate system where you need to manage your body temperature is
smart but most of the time it feels like it's not as important as it should be since your hot and cold
meter will be fluctuating rapidly through the game. I only died from it 2 times and triple that by the enemies
so it's not as effective as it is on Penumbra Black Plague. The monsters themselves are brilliantly designed except for the last one. The last one is effective for it's purpose but it just looks downright silly. I may be biased here but it
just looks like the Mr. Quinn Crab Boss thing from the Cat in the Hat game, yes THAT one. The AI is decent
and the monsters serve their purpose very well to the point where I quit the game after my first encounter
and after the others I kept alt-tabbing and listen to music on Youtube to calm my *** down before continuing.
The music is also brilliantly scored and feels right at home with the game courtesy of Matthew Emmett, who
if you had played Metus and Black Eagle Castle, you would be very familiar with his work. One more big thing
to point out is that while the maps are stunning to look at and interactable, the quality of interaction
dwindles down and turns from exploration to getting from point A to point B. It kind of rushes the game towards
the end at that rate. BGProductions has turned out with some great and memorable projects throughout the
years and Nebraska came as a big surprise for me and many others. What I can best describe Nebraska as, it's
like if the free 2012 indie horror game "Indie" and Penumbra Overture/Black Plague had a baby. The game is
very reminiscent of North Eclipse and it shows and that isn't a bad thing by any means, this is just Benjamin
Goodwins style and I cannot wait to see what other projects he and his team have in store.

I give Nebraska an overall 8/10

10

AnatomyOfFear66 says

Agree Disagree

Really well-made for a first horror game.