Distraint
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for Distraint
It's all very sombre and gray and feels like charcoal etchings brought to life.
While some areas begin to feel a bit repetitive when back-and-forth wandering is needed to move beyond a puzzle, this one still gets a hearty recommendation from me.
Though it may look like nothing special on the surface, DISTRAINT is a worthwhile adventure game about the toll greed can take. Horror imagery is used to display the main character's all-consuming guilt, and the smart sound design amplifies it perfectly. While the story isn't especially long, it's absorbing and gives you a lot to think about.
It's functional and just weird enough to be mostly enjoyable, but the forced surrealism wears thin quickly.
Fair warning: the game is quick. But its quickness could have been one of its virtues. You can't deny that Distraint is cinematic in the way that it plays out. Had the challenges and the story been tweaked and balanced out a little bit better, it could have been an absolute triumph.
It’s not the length or even the gameplay that you’ll be purchasing DISTRAINT for, it’s the thought-provoking narrative, and it’s a triumph on that level.
In just a two hour window of run time, Distraint keeps you on your toes and pulls itself away from any sense of predictability using bizarre hallucinations.
