Zoonomaly
- March 6, 2024
- LIGHTS ARE OFF LLC
- 4h median play time
Get on Steam"Zoonomaly is a single-player action game with excellent visuals, offering around 4 hours of playtime. As a player, you must explore an open-world zoo overrun by monsters, solve puzzles to collect key shards, and assemble the master key to stop the monster infestation. Avoid monsters at all costs, as they can't be killed, and stay alive to complete your mission."
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features unique mechanics and a variety of scary monster designs that enhance the horror experience.
- The graphics and atmosphere are visually appealing, creating an immersive environment for players.
- The puzzles, while sometimes repetitive, offer a fun challenge and the game has a good balance of horror and gameplay.
- The game suffers from numerous bugs, including issues with safe zones and mechanics that can lead to frustrating gameplay experiences.
- Many puzzles feel repetitive and can become tedious, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the game.
- The lack of quality of life features, such as autosave and controller support, makes the game less accessible and enjoyable for some players.
- gameplay106 mentions
- 23 % positive mentions
- 55 % neutral mentions
- 23 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its unique mechanics and impressive visuals but criticizing the repetitive and often frustrating puzzles. While some appreciate the creative elements and updates like the teleporting light mechanic, others find the core gameplay loop lacking and rudimentary, leading to a less enjoyable experience overall. Despite its potential, the gameplay is seen as clunky and basic, failing to fully capitalize on the game's horror elements.
“The gameplay, although simple and sometimes frustrating, gets the job done.”
“Many of these creatures feature different mechanics that you'll have to learn and adapt to in order to solve puzzles and make your way around the zoo.”
“I absolutely love the light bulb mechanic as it feels like you're being forced to strip the world of its natural light in order to use it as a defense mechanism.”
“I sadly don't recommend this game; it had a lot of potential for being a very good and interesting game but lost that due to the boring puzzles and plain gameplay.”
“The game looks great and has some really cool monster designs, but the overall gameplay is just... not great.”
“Yeah, I waited like 2 years for this game just for it not to run or feel good at all, not to mention it's about 2-4 hours of gameplay (that should really only be 1 hour) of the same puzzle with the exact same tools that are all done in the exact same way. This was one of the biggest disappointments I think I have seen by far from them.”
- graphics63 mentions
- 49 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 5 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many praising the visuals, unique art style, and monster designs, often rating them highly. However, players report significant optimization issues, including glitches and artifacts that can hinder gameplay, especially on lower settings. Overall, while the aesthetic is appreciated, it is noted that the graphics may not be enough to compensate for gameplay frustrations.
“I honestly like the game a lot because it has great visuals and decent monster designs, and my favorite thing is that it has a huge map with lots of puzzles and mazes.”
“The game has gorgeous graphics, a great soundtrack, and a lot of really scary moments, but the puzzles can be extremely frustrating if you don't understand the core mechanics.”
“The graphics were also beautiful, especially in the aquarium; this section was awesome and definitely the highlight of the game.”
“Another issue I had was the weird bright artifacts on my screen that made the game unplayable as I couldn't see anything until I messed around with graphics to finally be able to see.”
“The game looks great, especially for an inexperienced dev, but there's a huge graphical issue I'm facing with it: everywhere outside the tutorial area has red and green glitchy textures all over it.”
“The issue only gets worse if I turn the graphics down, with my entire screen being completely overtaken by bright red and green lights.”
- music24 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives high praise for its memorable and enjoyable soundtrack, particularly the theme music, which many players find catchy and engaging. However, some users note that the music can be repetitive and that the game is often silent, with music only playing a small portion of the time. Overall, while the soundtrack enhances the atmosphere, its limited presence and occasional grating elements are points of contention.
“Graphics are good, atmosphere is great, soundtrack, although short, is memorable.”
“🐸 music: 10/10 (intro song is great)”
“I like the variety of puzzles and the music is very good.”
“The music is repetitive and grating, and the enemies make so much noise.”
“Music is a bop, but the game is silent music-wise 90% of the time.”
“Music is a bop, but the game is silent music-wise 90% of the time.”
- story22 mentions
- 45 % positive mentions
- 36 % neutral mentions
- 18 % negative mentions
The game's story receives mixed reviews, with some players praising its uniqueness and engaging monster designs, while others criticize the lack of depth and coherence, describing it as minimal or poorly executed. Many users express a desire for multiplayer features to enhance the storytelling experience, suggesting that cooperative play could add more fun and challenge. Overall, the narrative is seen as simple and underdeveloped, particularly in the horror elements, which seem to diminish after the initial gameplay.
“It has a good story and primes, all the monster designs were great and creepy, and it has some pretty neat environments (I really liked the aquarium in particular).”
“Unique story 10/10”
“The story is a bit established, which is good.”
“There's no story; you're just dropped into an 'anomaly zoo.' The game's optimization is really bad.”
“But considering that this is apparently a fully released game, the storytelling isn't good and the horror aspect of the game is only present in the first hour or so.”
“Multiplayer: this would be a cool game to play with friends, you can play the main story with friends or there could be a PvP mode where one player is a monster.”
- grinding16 mentions
- 6 % positive mentions
- 6 % neutral mentions
- 88 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and repetitive, particularly criticizing the puzzles for being frustrating and overly complex. While some elements are visually appealing and initially engaging, the overall gameplay loop becomes monotonous, leading to a lack of enjoyment and a feeling that the game is unnecessarily prolonged.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“However, the main gameplay loop of running around and solving puzzles is very tedious.”
“The puzzles are engaging and fun, but later in the game get tedious and a little repetitive.”
“Visually cool, but the tedious, awful, and frustrating puzzles clearly made it impossible to finish in under 2 hours; however, content-wise, it is like a half-hour game.”
- atmosphere14 mentions
- 86 % positive mentions
- 7 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive graphics, memorable soundtrack, and spooky sound design, creating a unique and engaging environment. However, some players feel that the atmosphere can lose its charm over time, particularly when overshadowed by frustrating gameplay elements. Overall, while the atmosphere is a standout feature, it is not enough to redeem the game's other shortcomings for all players.
“The atmosphere is excellent with the spooky animal monster cries echoing and the dark foggy paths.”
“The game features a really well done atmosphere and environments, coupled with nice monster designs that are always pretty cool to look at.”
“If played this way, you'll find that this game is a fun little atmospheric puzzle game with non-linear progression and an interesting concept.”
“I don't think that people would like to watch a game that has lots of unnecessary puzzles and an unscary atmosphere.”
- stability10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game has been reported to have significant stability issues, including numerous bugs and glitches such as animals getting stuck, visual errors, and problematic launching puzzles. Players have noted a particularly frustrating spawn camping glitch, and the lack of control settings has also contributed to a chaotic experience. While these issues are acknowledged as common in newly released games, they detract from overall enjoyment.
“A couple of problems though is that the game was quite buggy, with some animals getting stuck or clipping through things a lot.”
“Final of all the launching puzzles were very buggy and harsh.”
“Tons of glitches including visual glitches, a spawn camping glitch where the enemies will kill you forever no matter what. Also, there aren't any control settings, so my sensitivity was way too fast.”
- optimization8 mentions
- 13 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has received significant criticism, with users reporting poor performance and bugs, particularly related to physics. While the graphics are praised, they are noted to be somewhat poorly optimized, which is somewhat expected for a debut title. Overall, players feel that optimization needs considerable improvement.
“Graphics are great, a little poorly optimized, but again, it's the first game, so nothing unexpected.”
“The game's optimization is really bad.”
“Graphics are great, a little poorly optimized, but again, first game, so nothing unexpected.”
“Although I do believe optimizations could be a bit better, I immediately ran into a physics bug upon blasting the first wall.”
