TL;DR

It was a surprising experience - in both positive and negative ways. Worth a shot if you like virtual photography and janky indie games.

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This game is something I’ve been eyeing for a few years now but never really committed to actually playing it. I finally managed to snatch the game on sale a few days ago and decided to give it a go.

Umurangi Generation is a short indie title about photography in a “shitty future” as the devs put it. They really aren’t lying about that.

Gameplay is pretty fun though FAR from polished. There’s a lot of movement and physics jankiness, like getting stuck on or walking through geometry, launching in the air when climbing certain parts of levels etc.
Photo grading (one of the core features of the game) is pretty wonky, with colorful shots often being graded as not having enough color, dull photos being scored as colorful and game treating certain objects as if they were in the frame even if they are completely out of view. The last one is particularly important as the game lowers your score for taking pictures of specific items for example.
Oh yeah, you also can’t adjust mouse sensitivity properly for whatever reason. All that’s available are a few presets instead of full control with a slider like in any other game.

Story is shown, not told (there are no dialogs at all in fact) - first through background details (like newspaper clippings and whatnot) and then directly by what’s going on during the levels. I was going to write it off as “not that important to the game but still an interesting puzzle for those who want to hunt for the details” but after finishing the game I can safely say I was wrong. Heck, I was surprised how emotional the latter half (and especially the final level) felt to me.
It obviously won’t be the case for everyone but I ended up liking it way more than expected.

Visuals are rather simple and minimalistic but not in a bad way - they have a cohesive style that works well with game’s atmosphere. Soundtrack is also filled with some fun bops and the only negative I can say about it is the fact that some tracks feel way too energetic compared to what’s going on on screen.
Levels are small, simple and offer a decent variety. They could use some polish and, maybe, a bit more details in places but overall they aren’t bad.

Despite being far from perfect and even feeling like someone’s first game project, I can’t help but appreciate this title. It’s simple, engaging and has a pretty strong direction. It’s definitely worth a look (especially for the price I paid for it). It’s also short, sitting at around 2-3 hours, so you won’t have to worry about having to sink a lot of time for it.

Sorry for the stream of consciousness. I’m still fresh after finishing the game and haven’t fully organized my thoughts but I thought this could interest someone in the game (it’s on sale on Steam for another day or so).

Edit: Brainfart correction.