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Review
I played the first GUTS game, which I remember liking, but I didn’t play the second.
I’m not sure what this third one is really all about. It does remind me of my favorite opera, the Hungarian opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, which is a surreal two-person one-act opera about 7 colored doors in Bluebeard’s castle. As each one is opened, some emblem of power is shown (strength, cruelty, wealth, lands, etc.) and more light comes to the castle, but each is also tinged with blood. The last two doors only bring darkness to the castle and the end is one of eternal suffering.
This is really four games in one. I started on the 3rd first and I don’t recommend that, as I thought the game was just being very silly (tons of links that do nothing but repeat the same text). It made way more sense starting from the first.
The fourth link doesn’t seem thematically or structurally related to the other three at all, or even really with the same vibes. It’s a cyclical story of inescapable enmity with amusing undertones.
The first three are all the kind of nightmare you have where something is hunting you but you never really see it, so you’re just nervous all the time and can’t explain why and your chest is pounding and everything feels helpless and hopeless.
While I can certainly identify with many emotions in this piece, the interactivity left me frustrated at times, wondering if I was getting the point or getting stuck. That fits thematically, yet I still felt frustration at times.
