Critters for Sale is an experience both deeply disturbing and dream-like – a vision of reality heavy with the weight of monstrous forces.
I know I go on and on about this series of stories, but few games have ever captured this sense of nameless dread as effectively as this title. Hopping across timelines, histories, folklores, and the cosmos, there is little that feels concrete about existence within it. Rules don’t seem to apply to how it works. The more I tried to force an idea of its meanings on it, the more it would buck and fight back against my ideas. I’m not trying to say it’s meaningless. I’m saying there’s this vastness to its complexity that is downright overwhelming – something only some cruel, cosmic force could conjure.
The visual style fuels this sensation, making normalcy terrifying and making all matter seem like it’s in constant motion. Like the walls of reality are about to crumble. Your actions can easily doom you as you wander the game’s paths. You barely even know where you’ll end up as you walk. The result of this and the game’s atmosphere is this sense that you are nothing but a plaything for these cruel cosmic forces. That any attempt to comprehend these beings only brings more ruin to existence. That our best guess can’t even begin to fathom what these beings want with us – a sensation that makes every moment terrifying as you can never tell when you’re safe.
Eroding this sense of belief in reality and that we can be safe somewhere within it gives Critters for Sale a potent ability to crush you with fear and uncertainty. I am in dread every moment I’m playing it, even when I cannot tell you why. It’s like a fear beyond sense and logic is created by the work. It’s really something special, even if it chills me to my core.
All five chapters of Critters for Sale will be made available today on Steam.
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