Love, Sam (FULL GAME)

This is an "unreliable narrator" done extremely well in a game. I'm actually struggling to think of other good examples.

Wow, we get to have so many different assumptions throughout this game. "Sam's straight up just a crazy stalker" "We're Sam being haunted by Brian" "We're Brian being haunted by Sam" "Sam started normal but broke from bullying and obsession" "Brian is in on the bullying" "Sam killed herself" "Brian killed Sam and it's revenge haunting not stalker haunting" "Crazy diary isn't Sam!" "Someone else killed Sam but are we still Brian?" "Crazy diary is Kyle!" "We are also Kyle!" "There is no ghost! Just drugs!" "Brian and Sam were completely innocent in all this and now I just feel sad" So many different ways we thought the story was going. This was brilliantly done.

I love that the thing said "Hide, coward" and Seán just said "Got it, got it."

It's been a while since a character made my blood boil the way Kyle does. He takes the ability to control his own fate for granted while systematically taking it away from Sam. She had her privacy invaded, her family history weaponized against her, and was tormented with false rumors she had no means to refute. Ultimately Kyle took not only her self-determination, but the chance to even experience the rest of her life at all, just for the sake of his own jealousy. Meanwhile, to the very end, he enjoyed the luxury of choosing if, when, and how his personal secrets were revealed. His own loneliness and fears are understandable, especially regarding his sexuality. However, nothing ever forced him to do what he did, and the fact that he had enough putrid shreds of a conscience to feel bad afterwards doesn't mean much to the girl he left broken and dying at the bottom of a cliff.

I love the fact that Kyle is basically a background character in Sam and Brian’s love story. Like not even the main villain in Sam’s diary entries, just Stacey’s lackey bf. Until he finally had enough.

Love that one day the human race as a whole decided that the feeling of dread, danger, and fear is pretty rad and started making shit that induces those feelings on purpose, just for fun, like a bunch of psychopaths.

The fact Sam was still alive while Kyle was rummaging through her bag breaks my heart, she didn’t have to die and certainly not alone. Plus i can’t believe how absolutely terrified Brian must have been even though it wasnt Sam stalking him he was still getting calls in the middle of the night where someone was just listening to his voice.

I love how Jack just looks at the camera and says with a tired voice, “don’t eat people’s hearts”

1:24:45 really cemented who we were playing as for me, because being told to “hide, coward” and then having the only option be the closet is just.. damn. Like I know closets are a pretty common hiding spot in games but.. man

“The creepy stares from Kyle” set off all my alerts. Also that Kyle hides in the end by cowering in his closet was a sad and disheartening touch

sean’s advice at 1:12:00 about finding the right person so important for so many people to hear

Loving the symbolism of hiding in the closet when told to hide

1:13 "I've never cared for keeping a diary. But now seems to be a good time to start keeping one." 6:45 "I haven't kept a diary since kindergarten, but this seems like a good time to restart ." From the very beginning, it was hinted at us that the two entries were from two different people. I just love it when games put in these obvious but easily overlooked details to make us give out an "Ahhh" when we really think about it afterward.

When he says "it's so echoey in here" and his voice also echoed, it scared the shit out of me. Great editing right there

I love how every single element in the game had a larger purpose to the story. From not having a reflection, to the randomly empty closet, hell even a branch - a fucking branch. It just goes to show how much effort and thought the dev put into it, as well as how much he values our time as players. Truly brilliant.

4 months late but OHH MY GOD this was actually so amazing. sam mentioning that kyle and brian seemed like more than friends. the diary writer saying they could never be with brian. the closet that doesn't seem to serve much of a purpose. they're all such good hints to kyle being gay!!! its also interesting how the diary switches between using the nickname b and brians full name. maybe it's something like b is kyles idealized version of brian, vs when he writes about who brian actually is and how he actually feels?? i feel bad for every character in this story. sam got framed and discarded, brian was manipulated and probably suffers a lot of guilt, stacy was used, and kyle was terrified of who he really was. the story behind each one of them was SO GOOD RAHHH

I was about to ask why Sam didn't call him B in her other diary. Jesus christ this game is heartbreaking, but it's excellently made. Genuinely incredible.

It was so cool how throughout Sam’s diary you would have comments like “Kyle was giving me that creepy stare” and then at the end it all just made sense because that was her noticing his overwhelming hate for her but just not realising. And as an audience, we then just pass by that little detail like Sam did until the ending comes and it all makes sense. All the little details click and make the full picture, which is what makes this such an amazingly well-written story.

It’s so tragic that Sam was there at the hill that night, assuming that Brian thought she was a creep. At least Brian knows the truth about the photos.

the way this game uses your assumptions and expectations against you is absolutely stunning. at the very beginning it almost seems like another unreal/unity indie horror game with a shallow story and common tropes but sam's diary entries are compelling enough to pull you in. then it hits you with the one two punch of societal assumptions about "crazy/obsessive" teenage girls and the assumption that both diaries are sam's, so when the truth is finally revealed it hits like a goddamn train. and the buildup to the reveal is so well-paced and well-written that once you get to the page in kyle's diary that's like "it's all HER fault" all the pieces start to fall into place and it really gives you that sense of "it all makes sense now" and makes you want to go back and see everything again to see all the foreshadowing for what it is. that level of suspense and payoff and using one tiny piece of information to reveal the entire picture is difficult to pull off in any genre and medium, and I truly don't think I've seen another horror game that does it anywhere near as well as this one, much less while still making it an effective horror game. and that's not even mentioning how real and fully fleshed out the characters are. mad mad props to the creator of this game. it's a masterpiece.