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Stillwater

Stillwater Game Cover
96%Game Brain Score
Most mentioned positive aspects:story, graphics
Most mentioned negative aspects:stability, grinding
96% User Score Based on 166 reviews

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Stillwater Game Cover

About Stillwater

Stillwater is a single player action game with horror, mystery and anime themes. It was developed by Studio Clump and was released on September 6, 2022. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

Stillwater is a visual novel with 7,000 words & two endings.

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Stillwater screenshot
Stillwater screenshot
Stillwater screenshot
Stillwater screenshot
Stillwater screenshot
Stillwater screenshot
Stillwater screenshot
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Reviews

96%Audience ScoreBased on 166 reviews
story45 positive mentions
stability1 negative mentions
  • Beautiful and unique art style with smooth animations and pleasing color palette.
  • Engaging and emotional story centered around mystery, love, regret, and queer themes.
  • Well-written, likable characters with strong chemistry and immersive atmosphere supported by fitting music and sound design.
  • Very short length with limited interactivity and only one meaningful choice affecting the endings.
  • Writing includes grammar and sentence structure issues, sometimes feeling rushed or underdeveloped.
  • Some plot points feel vague or incomplete, leaving unanswered questions and desire for more lore and character development.

  • story

    117 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    38% positive mentions, 59% neutral mentions, 3% negative mentions

    The story is praised for its emotional, gripping exploration of love, regret, and queer themes, presented through well-written characters and a cozy yet suspenseful mystery atmosphere. While many find it immersive and beautifully paced, common critiques highlight its short length, limited choices, and desire for deeper character development or continuation. Overall, it's seen as a charming, impactful visual novel that leaves players wanting more.

    • “The story is where this game truly shines—gripping, emotional, and beautifully paced.”
    • “The story got me hooked from the first moment up to the end, all of the ends.”
    • “All of the characters have their individual quirks that make them interesting; the mystery provides enough suspense to leave you leaning forward on your seat; and the plot leaves you satisfied with just enough information to have you pondering about the game for several days on end.”
    • “About the story itself, it's not very direct.”
    • “The grammar issues and word choice detract from the story.”
    • “The writing exudes the characteristic try-hard vibe of an amateur writer focusing more on impressing readers than telling the story.”

  • graphics

    56 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    59% positive mentions, 36% neutral mentions, 5% negative mentions

    The game's 2D cartoon graphics feature a gorgeous, unique, and anime-inspired art style that effectively conveys character emotions through detailed portraits and animations. Reviewers consistently praise its beautiful, cozy, and immersive visuals that enhance the storytelling and atmosphere, making the overall aesthetic a standout aspect of the experience. Despite its simplicity and short length, the art direction and visual effects are considered polished and add significant charm to the visual novel.

    • “Absolutely gorgeous artwork!!”
    • “The artwork and atmosphere is outstanding; it's clear how much love was put into this game, especially after reading the afterword.”
    • “Seriously though, the artwork and character design is gorgeous.”
    • “It's a free game, so I can't complain too much, but the store page says that this is a polished remastered version of the game, which makes me wonder if it was only the visuals that were polished.”
    • “It's just a shame that the professional-grade graphics, visual effects, and overall game design are brought down by terribly amateurish writing.”
    • “The characters looked emotional; in general, the art style felt rather unique and very pretty.”

  • music

    25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    60% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The music in the game is widely praised for its ability to create a calming, immersive, and atmospheric experience that enhances the story and art. Many reviewers note the soundtrack’s suitability for the scenes, its emotional impact, and the nostalgic or eerie vibe it provides, making it one of the game's strongest and most memorable features.

    • “The music and sound effects draw you into the mystery and make the world feel alive—definitely one of the game's strongest aspects.”
    • “Very intriguing premise and superb atmosphere building... music selected for the scenes are also apt to the point that me and oomfie thought it was composed specifically for the game... waiting patiently for your next works!!”
    • “Amazing music, cool art, endearing characters, and brilliant writing.”

  • atmosphere

    17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    59% positive mentions, 23% neutral mentions, 18% negative mentions

    The game excels in creating a captivating and immersive atmosphere, blending intriguing storytelling with eerie yet cozy visuals and music that perfectly complement the mood. Despite its short length, the well-crafted design, art, and audio effectively evoke a mysterious and nostalgic ambiance that enhances the overall experience.

    • “Very intriguing premise and superb atmosphere building. The music selected for the scenes is so apt that it feels like it was composed specifically for the game.”
    • “The design and atmosphere perfectly set the mood, and the audio does an incredible job of complementing the experience.”
    • “Upon playing the remastered version, I can safely say that the team at Studio Clump have once again excelled at crafting an atmospheric and engaging mystery game.”
    • “The horror is subdued and not really 'scary', but the atmosphere is so well-done and suits a mystery perfectly.”
    • “You only need about an hour to get through and complete the story, and although it's pretty predictable, it's straightforward. The music sets the atmosphere, and the characters are likable.”
    • “Story, characters, writing, art, atmosphere, music (yeah I know it's royalty free, it's got that RPG Maker soundtrack going, but that just gave me some nice nostalgia) — my only complaint is how short it is!”

  • emotional

    9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game delivers a gripping and emotionally impactful story with heartwarming and sometimes heartbreaking endings open to interpretation. Its lovable characters, especially the heartfelt banter between Hugo and Noah, alongside a unique and beautiful art style, create a touching and memorable emotional experience.

    • “The story is where this game truly shines—gripping, emotional, and beautifully paced.”
    • “The endings are up to the player’s interpretation, and some of those interpretations are really heartwarming (or just heart shattering).”
    • “The characters are really lovable and the banter between Hugo and Noah is just heartwarming to experience.”

  • character development

    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    60% positive mentions, 40% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    Reviews highlight the game's stunning character designs and artwork, praising the visually pleasing graphics and detailed sprites. The impressive character visuals significantly contribute to the game's atmosphere and overall appeal.

    • “The character designs and sprites in this are absolutely stunning, and the small horror scenes really impressed me.”
    • “The sounds, the music, the atmosphere, the character design, the art!”
    • “Seriously though, the artwork and character design is gorgeous.”

  • gameplay

    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    75% positive mentions, -25% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions

    The gameplay is primarily a straightforward visual novel experience with simple point-and-click mechanics, praised for its smooth performance and an interesting investigation feature. However, the story and dialogue received mixed feedback, with some finding it poorly written or too short, limiting overall engagement.

    • “I like the investigation mechanic; it's super cool.”
    • “Even though it's a simple point-and-click game, the gameplay was incredibly smooth, and I didn’t encounter any technical issues at all.”
    • “Simple visual novel gameplay.”
    • “As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay. It's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which poses the question, 'how did something this badly written end up on Steam?'”
    • “Simple visual novel gameplay - storyline was a bit short for me, would have loved to delve deeper into Hugo & Noah's dynamic and expand on Hugo's backstory.”

  • replayability

    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The game offers moderate replayability through multiple choices that lead to different endings, encouraging players to revisit the story to explore various outcomes.

    • “The story has multiple choices which lead to multiple endings, providing a good amount of replayability.”
    • “The game is replayable thanks to multiple choices.”

  • stability

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    The game demonstrates excellent stability, with users reporting no bugs or glitches during gameplay.

  • grinding

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions

    Users find the grinding aspect tedious and slow, likening it to reading visual novels or e-books where progress requires repetitive clicking, making an otherwise engaging story feel drawn-out and monotonous.

  • humor

    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
    100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions

    The humor is dry and self-deprecating, appealing to those who appreciate witty, understated jokes. It may not resonate with everyone but offers a clever, niche comedic style.

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Play Times

3h Median play time
3h Average play time
1-4h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 2 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Stillwater is a action game with horror, mystery and anime themes. Common tags for Stillwater include indie, lgbtq+, linear, free to play, 2d and others.

Stillwater is available on PC, Mac OS, Phone, Windows and others.

On average players spend around 3 hours playing Stillwater.

Stillwater was released on September 6, 2022.

Stillwater was developed by Studio Clump.

Stillwater has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players. Most players liked Stillwater for its story but disliked it for its stability.

Stillwater is a single player game.

Similar games include The Crown of Leaves, D1AL-ogue, Ballads at Midnight, Project Kat: Paper Lily Prologue, Beacon Pines and others.