Sagebrush

Genre: First-Person Graphic Adventure / Horror Game

Players: 1

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Review:

Sagebrush is “Walking Simulator” that has players visiting a fictional ranch to learn about the horrors of the hyper-religious suicide cult that operated there.

One thing I will credit this game doing right is its atmosphere, which is definitely creepy, though I can’t quite put my finger on just why, beyond the topic matter itself. The graphics are pretty poor pixelated low-resolution stuff, at least nominally an artistic choice although I suspect this was just to cover up the low-poly environments. The sound isn’t very noteworthy either, save for occasional voice recordings of a young woman recounting her days at the ranch, strewn throughout the compound for reasons that only make sense in videogame logic.

So here’s the thing… I’m not sure if this being an accounting of a fictional suicide cult is better or worse than if it was an accounting of a real one. The game’s fictional nature really robs it of the authenticity it appears to be trying for, but at the same time if this game were specifically about, say, the Peoples Temple cult suicide, it could very easily come off as trying to turn a profit off of the deaths of hundreds of people, including children. I’m not sure there’s a right answer here.

It’s not just the game’s presentation that saps away the authenticity here, as this game makes use of mechanics that are very videogamey, requiring you to find the key to one place, which leads you to a key for another, and so on. This game almost would have felt like a virtual tour of sorts if it wasn’t for this game’s use of tedious fetch quests.

At one point, I found myself uncertain of where I was supposed to go next, since the trail of keys had stopped and everywhere I looked was either locked or somewhere I already visited. I briefly considered looking up a walkthrough, and that’s when I decided I was done with Sagebrush. Because it couldn’t seem to decide if it was supposed to be a serious chronicle of a fictional suicide cult, or if it was supposed to be a videogame. It kinda’ tries to have it both ways, and as a result, it fails at both.

Those with patience enough to deal with the tedious videogame elements may find Sagebrush to be a delightfully creepy experience, but most will encounter the poor graphics and tedium and decide it’s just not worth it to keep pressing on when they could just look up a documentary on YouTube to find something that’s both more authentic while also less tedious.

tl;dr – Sagebrush is a “Walking Simulator” that has players investigating the site of a mass suicide at a fictional religious cult. The game’s topic matter and atmosphere is suitably creepy, but the terrible graphics and the dreadfully artificial videogame mechanics bring down this game’s attempts at presenting something authentic and result in something that’s just tedious and frustrating.

Grade: D+

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