Beginner guide

Steam’s store text says 10–12 hours. That is a length, not a quality score. Metacritic’s 83 and OpenCritic’s 84, with 90 percent of 20 reviews recommending it, are the scores I will quote if you are asking whether the game is “good.” I will not add an adjective on top of those numbers.

Food, Vigor, Social, Hygiene, Morale, and Calm are the maintenance stats. The mechanics page explains the debuffs under 30. For a first run, the practical reading is: eat, sleep, and do not treat every knock as a fight. Hellen leaves forever if you shut the door after she asks to stay. Joel is only lucid on day 2 or 3. Leigh locks if you do not follow her home. Those three clocks are the spoilers I am willing to print, because missing them is not a story reveal. It is a missed person.

Difficulty is a save-rule choice as much as a combat choice. Explorer saves freely and autosaves. Survivor and Cursed wait for Sybil, and Cursed wants the second Danger notch. A free save still arrives at 4:00 a.m. If you are stuck “after the stairway” with no save, you need more Danger, not a hidden menu. The saving page is the long version.

I am not going to tell you the ending count’s recipe here. Thirteen is the number, and the conditions are a different intent. Same for the thing outside the window. You already know not to stare. The rest is a roof conversation.

Duct tape repairs a broken melee weapon once. The second break destroys most of them. The chainsaw is the exception and drinks gasoline. That is enough crafting for week one.