Mare

I don't think anyone alive could predict the ending to this game.
Mare is an interesting puzzle game. Do I love it? Yes.
Would I recommend it as a must play for others? Probably not.
It is more of a slow, art exhibit kind of experience, than a barn burning, mountain dew chugging, interactive gaming endeavor.
But, if you watch a trailer, and it has a glimmer of appeal, maybe check it out?
There is about 2.5-3 hours of gameplay here. The "real ending" is hidden behind collecting all the cat statues, with a few that are easy to miss on first playthrough, and may require going back through level select to pick them up.
A port from an initial 2021 Oculus Quest 2 release, the game eschews the trappings of modern graphics in favor of a sharp picture with artistically driven design for the textures and environments. Developed by Rui Guerreiro, who worked on The Last Guardian with Team ICO, and Vane with Friends & Foes, you can definitely tell this was the work of an Auteur with singular vision.
Generally, the atmosphere, environmental design, and lighting/color palette is reminiscent of themes and style from Fumito Ueda's work on Ico and Shadow of Colossus. But I really think that is selling Rui short of what he put together here from an artistic perspective.
I really like the art design in this game, with the visual story telling and environments almost worth a playthrough alone.
The models in this game are low poly, but have an interesting rounded effect on all the edges and a tetrahedron patterning for the textures, like all the environment is sculpted out of clay, but with a stretched canvas overlain over the top of the clay frame, or paper mached onto it. Lighting and shadows are static, and baked with god rays, fog, and dynamic lighting sources intentionally placed with artistic intent to fill out the scenes. It gives the entire game a dreamlike, ghostly feeling.
I do think that the color palette of the game gets a little visually wearing, if playing the game in one sitting.
Stuff starts to bleed together halfway through the game, even though there are visually distinct breaks scattered throughout.
The music and ambience in the game are top notch.
For gameplay, there is not a lot of meat on the bone to chew on.
It had the bare minimum to keep me engaged, and if it was not a VR title, or so artistically driven, I probably would have bounced off of it. The puzzles are not really noteworthy.
The game consists of sitting in central posts scatter through the areas, and interacting with different pieces of the environment via point and click to guide a little girl through an abandoned, post apocalyptic landscape. The gameplay can feel very linear or on rails, with a "waiting for the bread to rise before you can put it in the oven" feeling in the back of my head as I played it.
Similar to ICO, The puzzles of the game consist of figuring out sequencing and timing required to guide the girl in the right direction. When you make the wrong move, it can be a little agonizing to wait for the girl to slowly run back to the right position required to go the right way.
The story is ambiguous, left up to player interpretation. There are several action pieces in the game that are really well done, especially the intro.
Of particular note, the game is designed and optimized to a sheen for performance. Like I bumped the game up to 8K resolution super sampling and never saw a hitch in the frametimes or fps, really well made. Looked and played fantastic on PSVR2 headset via PC adapter.

Steam User 1

Reviewed last year

I don't think anyone alive could predict the ending to this game.
Mare is an interesting puzzle game. Do I love it? Yes.
Would I recommend it as a must play for others? Probably not.
It is more of a slow, art exhibit kind of experience, than a barn burning, mountain dew chugging, interactive gaming endeavor.
But, if you watch a trailer, and it has a glimmer of appeal, maybe check it out?
There is about 2.5-3 hours of gameplay here. The "real ending" is hidden behind collecting all the cat statues, with a few that are easy to miss on first playthrough, and may require going back through level select to pick them up.
A port from an initial 2021 Oculus Quest 2 release, the game eschews the trappings of modern graphics in favor of a sharp picture with artistically driven design for the textures and environments. Developed by Rui Guerreiro, who worked on The Last Guardian with Team ICO, and Vane with Friends & Foes, you can definitely tell this was the work of an Auteur with singular vision.
Generally, the atmosphere, environmental design, and lighting/color palette is reminiscent of themes and style from Fumito Ueda's work on Ico and Shadow of Colossus. But I really think that is selling Rui short of what he put together here from an artistic perspective.
I really like the art design in this game, with the visual story telling and environments almost worth a playthrough alone.
The models in this game are low poly, but have an interesting rounded effect on all the edges and a tetrahedron patterning for the textures, like all the environment is sculpted out of clay, but with a stretched canvas overlain over the top of the clay frame, or paper mached onto it. Lighting and shadows are static, and baked with god rays, fog, and dynamic lighting sources intentionally placed with artistic intent to fill out the scenes. It gives the entire game a dreamlike, ghostly feeling.
I do think that the color palette of the game gets a little visually wearing, if playing the game in one sitting.
Stuff starts to bleed together halfway through the game, even though there are visually distinct breaks scattered throughout.
The music and ambience in the game are top notch.
For gameplay, there is not a lot of meat on the bone to chew on.
It had the bare minimum to keep me engaged, and if it was not a VR title, or so artistically driven, I probably would have bounced off of it. The puzzles are not really noteworthy.
The game consists of sitting in central posts scatter through the areas, and interacting with different pieces of the environment via point and click to guide a little girl through an abandoned, post apocalyptic landscape. The gameplay can feel very linear or on rails, with a "waiting for the bread to rise before you can put it in the oven" feeling in the back of my head as I played it.
Similar to ICO, The puzzles of the game consist of figuring out sequencing and timing required to guide the girl in the right direction. When you make the wrong move, it can be a little agonizing to wait for the girl to slowly run back to the right position required to go the right way.
The story is ambiguous, left up to player interpretation. There are several action pieces in the game that are really well done, especially the intro.
Of particular note, the game is designed and optimized to a sheen for performance. Like I bumped the game up to 8K resolution super sampling and never saw a hitch in the frametimes or fps, really well made. Looked and played fantastic on PSVR2 headset via PC adapter.
Steam User 0

Reviewed 01.2025

9/10
Very enjoyable. Quite an anticlimactic ending though.
Steam User 1

Reviewed last year

6/10
Visit a art gallery,
you'd say it was good, to be polite.
but really... you don't get it.
Starts out bewildering, intriguing
then a girl pops out,
Delighted!, reminds you of ICO from PS2,
but then, it is not...
even with the hidden? true? ending?
still, I don't get the story.
Total, about 3 hours to finish, collecting all the bunnies.
a short puzzle, for weekend play,
Only, get it at sale.

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