Borstal

About

Borstal is a single player survival role playing game. It was developed by Thotep and was released on March 22, 2016. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

Survival roguelike novellas with meaningful choices and multiple endings! There are two scenarios currently: first one is set on a small island. It's 1926, you're 13 years old and it is raining. You're looking for your lost father. The second scenario puts you in the role of a mountaineer trying to climb an eight-thousander.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

64%

Audience ScoreBased on 25 reviews

replayability3 positive mentions

graphics3 negative mentions

The game offers a unique and interesting survival experience with randomly generated maps and multiple endings.
Despite its simplicity, it provides a sense of challenge and encourages players to learn from their mistakes.
It's a budget-friendly indie game that can be enjoyable for short play sessions, making it suitable for casual gamers.

The game heavily relies on RNG, leading to frustrating experiences where players can die without warning or clear reasons.
It suffers from glitches and design flaws that detract from the overall gameplay experience, making it feel unpolished.
The content is limited, and once completed, there is little incentive to continue playing, resulting in a lack of replay value.

gameplay
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
The gameplay is criticized for being glitchy and poorly developed, with mechanics that feel mediocre and repetitive. Players experience a dull survival roguelite format, where the focus on poorly written narration detracts from the overall experience. However, some appreciate the random scenario generation and find the simplified survival mechanics enjoyable, despite the vague story context.
- “For the price it asks, it's more than enough gameplay and it will take some tries to complete it!”
- “While each scenario is generated randomly, the gameplay itself is very far from being random.”
- “The change of pace and setting to what I've been playing recently and the simplified but reasonable survival mechanics made it a joy.”
- “The core mechanics are just awful; this game is glitchy and not well developed.”
- “Everything here is mediocre or just plain bad, even the narration, which should be the core of a game like this - lacks real gameplay and is badly written, with all the settings and plot ideas being stupid.”
- “A dull survival roguelite game, where the gameplay consists of reading badly written narration text and randomly dying for pathetic reasons.”
story
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The story aspect of the game is met with mixed reviews, highlighting a moral about perseverance amidst life's unpredictability. While some players appreciate the randomized narratives and the unique premise of a human-snail journey, others criticize the writing quality and lack of depth, describing the overall storytelling as mediocre and vague. The game is seen as more focused on text-based encounters than on engaging gameplay, leading to a varied experience depending on player expectations.
- “Moral of the story: you never know what life has in store for you, and if I had given up when all odds were against me, I wouldn't be where I am today.”
- “Until this week, I encountered storylines that I had not previously seen, having already played each scenario dozens of times.”
- “Pitched in the description as more interactive novellas, the two scenarios provided play out like only the most classic turn-based survival, harkening more to the style of Neo Scavenger than Rust in that the most engaging aspect is the text-based story and randomized encounters rather than the graphics and crafting.”
- “You get a quick introduction with a short story, and then you're thrown into the randomly generated map.”
- “Everything here is mediocre or just plain bad, even the narration, which should be the core of a game like this - lacking real gameplay - is badly written and all the settings and plot ideas are stupid.”
- “The overall story is a bit too vague, and I feel as if I missed some huge context clues, but the change of pace and setting to what I've been playing recently and the dumbed down but reasonable survival mechanics made it a joy.”
graphics
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
75%
The graphics of the game are described as overly simplistic, which some players find unimportant compared to the engaging text-based story and randomized encounters. While a few appreciate the minimalist aesthetic, many feel that the lack of visual complexity detracts from the overall experience, especially given the reliance on random number generation rather than skill or strategy.
- “Pitched in the description as more interactive novellas, the two scenarios provided play out like only the most classic turn-based survival, harkening more to the style of Neo Scavenger than Rust, in that the most engaging aspect is the text-based story and randomized encounters rather than the graphics and crafting.”
- “There's no skill or strategy here; it's just 100% RNG, combined with utterly simple graphics.”
- “It's not the overly simple graphics that make this game fail, because I am one of the few gamers these days that can have a hell of a lot of fun with simplistic graphics.”
replayability
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users indicate that the game has high replay value, suggesting that players find it engaging enough to return to multiple times.
- “The replay value is incredibly high, with so many different paths to explore.”
- “Each playthrough offers a unique experience, making you want to dive back in.”
- “The variety of choices and outcomes keeps the game fresh and engaging every time.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The stability of Borstal has been criticized, particularly in its early development stage, with users reporting numerous glitches, including game-ending issues in Mountain that significantly detract from the experience.
- “When I first purchased Borstal, it was still in an early stage of development and had many glitches.”
- “But—and this is a big enough but for a Sir Mix-a-Lot song—Mountain suffers from some game-ending glitches that shocked and baffled me each time they happened.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized as smooth and scripted, leading to moments of accidental absurdity that players find genuinely entertaining. Many reviewers highlight that the game's comedic elements contribute significantly to their enjoyment, making it a memorable experience.
- “It made me laugh; it's so smooth I think they scripted it this way... it doesn't make sense. By the way, I talked about this for so long because this was the most entertaining time I had with the game.”
- “In the first minutes of gameplay, I thought: 'If this game keeps being like this, I could actually like it, because it's so accidentally stupid it's funny!'”
music
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The music in the game is noted for its calming and soothing qualities, providing a relaxing experience that can help players feel at ease.
- “I relaxed for 5 minutes listening to this music, long enough to realize that I would be okay.”