Garage: Bad Dream Adventure 12+

I had never played GARAGE before, only having seen it through playthroughs. Even with the unofficial fan translation, I always assumed it would be kind of hard to play or not as fun as the mystery and aesthetic around it. Now that it's easily accessible, I decided to give it a play- the gameplay surprisingly holds up and is pretty unique for a point and click! I really like the track system, and there is good mystery through the story and worldbuilding. Its a very captivating game and I highly recommend it even if you have never heard about it's history before this.

There are some minor issues that hold this version back from being the "definitive" version that everyone should play, though. The font is very basic and doesnt look handwritten on notes or anything anymore, and the graphics overall are very faithful to the original but are much brighter lit. The brighter lighting never bothered me personally since it didnt ruin the mood, but I could definitely see people preferring the darker originals. There are some censored parts in the lighthouse which is generating some minor controversy: nipples were removed or faded out to comply with iOS App Store Guidelines. It's so minor its not a huge issue (to me at least), and all of the weird sexual stuff otherwise is intact (this definitely isnt a game for 12+, by the way, sakuba tweeted that this was an automatic rating for some reason). Most importantly, the translation isn't perfect. I didn't have issues with it until the story started getting super philosophical, then I started getting confused as to what the game was trying to tell me.

I know half of this review is nitpicking it, but generally I dont think any of these issues get in the way for most people. The new changes are almost all positive in my opinion and make the game way more fleshed out. If any of the above bother you, you can find emulation of the original on PC with a fan translation. If you enjoy the idea of more fish, alternate endings, improved graphics, achievements, and all the other various features, this version will be great. I want to say more positive things but it'll make this go on for way too long and spoil the experience. Creepy weird "horror" game that has an interesting history.

Thought it looked interesting but it’s unplayable due to broken logic. You can’t do anything at first because your “ego” is too low so the first task given is to go to the Ego Clinic and get topped up. Easy enough except every time you get in the tank at the clinic it just kills you. Every time. If you skip the ego refill you die shortly afterwards when your ego runs out. Too bad the devs didn’t play their own game.