Caffeine

About

Caffeine is a single player action game. It was developed by Incandescent Imaging and was released on October 12, 2015. It received negative reviews from players.

Caffeine is a quirky first person adventure game with environmental puzzles and a touch of psychological horror. Set in the near future, the entire population of Earth is vigorously addicted to coffee. Massive space stations built by the biggest corporations roam the stars mining minerals to create a synthetic caffeine.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

25%

Audience ScoreBased on 36 reviews

atmosphere4 positive mentions

stability8 negative mentions

The game has a unique and interesting premise centered around a future where caffeine is mined in space, which adds a quirky touch to the narrative.
The atmospheric design and sound quality are commendable, creating a chilling and immersive experience that enhances the horror elements.
The game allows players to easily achieve all 11 achievements, making it a quick completion for those looking for a perfect game.

Caffeine feels unfinished and abandoned, with many bugs, poor optimization, and a lack of substantial content, leading to a hollow gameplay experience.
The gameplay is primarily a walking simulator with minimal interaction, repetitive environments, and a frustrating control scheme that detracts from immersion.
There are significant technical issues, including crashes, lack of a save function, and unresponsive controls, making it difficult to enjoy the game.

graphics
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
The graphics of the game are generally considered decent, particularly when played on high-end NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards, showcasing beautiful visuals despite some clunky and low-poly assets. However, many users noted issues such as graphical glitches and a lack of optimization, which detracted from the overall experience. While the visuals are a highlight, they are often overshadowed by the game's unfinished feel and lack of engaging content.
- “If you have a high-end NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card, this is actually a graphically nice game to play; graphics are the focus, while the story (although still very significant) and the rest are secondary.”
- “- Even if it is poorly optimized, the graphics are incredibly beautiful.”
- “I did enjoy the great looking visuals aspect of the game, but really loved the audio more; it really set the theme of the game so well.”
- “Anyway, while it looks okay thanks to the venerable Unreal Engine, the in-game assets are somewhat clunky and low poly.”
- “The graphical glitches sure didn't help suit the horror mood, and caused the game to lean more toward the funny side.”
- “Caffeine, as of this writing, v118, looks like what I imagine games in progress look like when they are about 60% complete: the basic artwork is done, the coarse world map is drawn, and simple sound effects and background music are prepared.”
optimization
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
23%
54%
23%
The game's optimization has received mixed reviews, with many users highlighting significant performance issues and poor optimization at launch. While some updates have improved framerate stability, there are still complaints about missing textures and overall performance, indicating that further optimization is needed for an enjoyable experience. Despite its visual appeal, the game's technical shortcomings detract from its potential.
- “Released in late 2015 by Incandescent Imaging, Caffeine has already had quite a few updates in order to iron out some of the performance issues it has suffered since its release.”
- “The framerate was rather steady; even with everything on high, I was maintaining about 80 fps with no dips. So whatever patches they released to update the optimization must have worked.”
- “But as for the current optimization, it needs a lot of improvement.”
- “Had potential, but it's abandoned and unoptimized.”
- “Stay away until this game is optimized better.”
- “Due to the poor performance of this game, it's hard to really enjoy it as it was intended, which is a real shame, as I had incredibly high hopes for Caffeine.”
gameplay
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The gameplay is criticized for being overly simplistic and unpolished, primarily consisting of walking through long corridors and using keycards to unlock doors, which lacks depth and engagement. Players report frustrating mechanics, such as poor camera control, slow movement speed, and a lack of essential features like an inventory system and save functions, leading to a hollow and unsatisfying experience. While the game attempts to create an atmospheric setting, it is marred by bugs and clunky controls, detracting from the overall enjoyment.
- “Pretty short adventure game with walking simulator style gameplay.”
- “I'm hoping the bugs will be ironed out, and the future episodes will add more interesting gameplay.”
- “Story, narration, combat, gameplay, NPCs, puzzles, play testing, optimization.”
- “Speaking of clunky... the gameplay is annoyingly unpolished and the camera sways around wildly and unintuitively... it seems little gameplay testing was done.”
- “Basically the whole gameplay is walking around long corridors and opening doors with your keycard.”
- “Terrible physics, no save function, no quit to menu function, walking speed as fast as a snail's fart, bad flashlight mechanics, virtually no gameplay, absolutely no directions on how to progress (unless I'm supposed to read every stupid sticky note littering the environment), I could go on.”
stability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is notably poor, with frequent bugs and graphical glitches that detract from the overall experience, often shifting the intended horror atmosphere to a more comedic tone. Players report significant issues such as lag and unpolished elements, leading to frustration and a lack of engagement with the game's threats. While the concept is intriguing, the numerous glitches hinder a full recommendation.
- “The graphical glitches sure didn't help suit the horror mood, and caused the game to lean more toward the funny side once more.”
- “I would really love to have a pristine single chapter rather than multiple buggy, lag-filled chapters.”
- “Overall, I can't completely recommend the game because it's an interesting idea, but frustrating at times due to the glitches.”
story
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
43%
14%
43%
The game's story is generally considered weak, featuring minimal plot development and a lack of engaging characters or clear objectives. While it incorporates light horror elements and some unique ideas, the narrative fails to captivate players, often taking a backseat to the game's graphics and sound. Overall, the story does not significantly enhance the gameplay experience.
- “Here's the story: you're a tiny child in the not-too-distant future, livin' it up on a space station.”
- “Story-wise, it has some light horror elements since you're located on an abandoned space station.”
- “The story, although still very significant, is secondary to the graphics.”
- “Story-wise it's nothing special, some light horror elements since you're located on an abandoned space station which is flooded by coffee, and the puzzle elements of the game are really simple.”
- “While the graphics and sound are decent enough to look at and hear, the complete lack of story, or even a sense of what your goal is, really tears this title down.”
- “No other characters or plot going on.”
atmosphere
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
16%
17%
The game is praised for its outstanding and chilling atmosphere, enhanced by impressive level design and audio. However, some users note that broken physics and annoying mechanics detract from the overall experience. Despite these issues, the atmospheric elements effectively create a compelling and immersive environment.
- “The atmosphere in it is outstanding.”
- “It's a chilling atmospheric feel in both level design and audio that is very impressive.”
- “Oozing with atmosphere.”
- “The game does a decent job at building up atmosphere and creeping you out, but the overall experience is hurt by a lot of annoying mechanics and bugs.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game features a quirky sense of humor, particularly through its premise of mining coffee and the amusing post-it notes scattered throughout. However, this humor often undermines the psychological horror elements, leading to a lack of suspense and fear, further exacerbated by graphical glitches that add to the comedic tone.
- “There's an obvious quirky sense of humor within the game, the fact that you're aboard a mining ship that mines coffee of all things, and the various post-it notes located around the suffocating corridors are usually rather funny.”
- “The graphical glitches sure didn't help suit the horror mood, and caused the game to lean more toward the funny side once more.”
- “One funny glitch was that my character shrunk in size further while crouching in a water-flooded area.”
music
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
100%
The music in the game is described as attempting to create a menacing atmosphere, complemented by unsettling sound effects like voices. However, it appears to be in a rudimentary state, reflecting the game's early development stage with basic sound elements that may not fully enhance the experience.
- “The music tries to sound menacing at times, enhancing the atmosphere with its eerie tones and occasional sound effects that can pop in like voices.”
- “The background music is prepared well, contributing to the overall ambiance of the game and complementing the visual elements effectively.”
- “Caffeine, as of this writing, v118, looks like what I imagine games in progress look like when they are about 60% complete: the basic artwork is done, coarse world map is drawn, simple sound effects and background music prepared.”
- “The music tries to sound menacing at times and some sound effects can pop in like voices.”