Krinkle Krusher
Krinkle Krusher
Game
Game2019
DESOLATE
Developer Nearga
Desolate (stylized in all caps) is an action-adventure video game developed by Nearga and published by HypeTrain Digital. The game takes place on a fictional island named Granichny, where secret experiments resulted in a massive "mutation" of the world. The player assumes the role of a Volunteer, who must research the paranormal activities of the island, gathering information and undertaking dangerous tasks. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
194 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Mastodon) · newest Oct 24, 2026 · last updated Nov 4, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
49
Mixed
87 positive · 89 negative
95% range 42–57%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 87 | 89 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 4 | 0 | 12 |
| Mastodon * | 0 | 0 | 2 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Mixed
1,928 of 3,086 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
50% recommend · 88 yes, 88 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 176 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Mixed (5,363 of 8,070 positive).
Players are divided on Desolate, with some praising its atmosphere and story while others criticize its clunky combat and tedious gameplay. [1][2][3][4] Many reviewers note the game feels unfinished and abandoned by developers, with bugs and performance issues. [3][5][6][7] Some players find the survival mechanics too easy, while others consider the game overly punishing. [8][9][10]
Liked
Representative posts
- [1]
I'm pretty sure this game has done permanent damage to my video card and processor; even on low graphics settings it wants to use every bit of your computer's power. Not counting the bad optimization, I really enjoyed this game. There are valid complaints about the combat being clunky and whatnot, but I didn't mind it much. The game world is really intriguing, exploration is fun, I was often on the edge of my seat …
- [3]
TL:DR Buy only if its under 5$ The Good: Atmosphere is amazing Music and voice acting of the protagonist and main quest are great Some main Quest moments are great. The Bad: Game legitimately feels unfinished and abandoned at times. NPCs look worse than oblivion NPCs. No fast travel means half your time will be running like an idiot from one quest to the next. This gets even worse when you have multiple side quests …
- [2]
Desolate is a bleak and atmospheric first-person survival horror experience that drops players onto the forsaken island of Granichny—an isolated stretch of land overrun by mutants, anomalies, deranged survivors, and the residual effects of unethical experiments. Developed by Nearga and published by HypeTrain Digital, the game blends open-world exploration, survival mechanics, crafting, and narrative investigation …
- [4]
I try not to give negative reviews, but after 10+ hours I felt I needed to get my thoughts into words. Looking for a fallout style open world/fps fix, I bought this game hoping it would scratch it. Instead I was met with a shallow exploration game that has a long playtime due to tediousness. Combat is sluggish, with ammo for single shot guns being rare, you must rely on a melee combat system where you bash away at …
- [11]
Spoiler-free TLDR: The game has a lot of problems but would be worth the price of admission, were it not for an ending that ruins everything. Got this game in the 2022 Jingle Jam, finally got around to playing it. The game is very buggy and the combat is clunky as hell, but the story is really engrossing and, overall, I was enjoying it a lot. Then I got to the ending. Turns out, none of the characters you got …
Summarised from 34 of the 189 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 9, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
50% of the 176 Steam reviewers we collected recommend DESOLATE. The complaint that keeps coming up: combat is clunky and sluggish. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Reactions
60 of 194 · most liked firstCoffee from The Desolate Hope... My beloved. I wanna draw him again but more stylized. ill figure that out later. That game has SAUCE
positive · AI labelView post →If the video game aesthetic of the 2000s can be typified as "Tropical" then the defining aesthetic of 2020s video games is surely "Desolate" - this is a subtle reference to how everything is fucked
neutral · AI labelView post →---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a harsh and unforgiving survival game. Firstly, you start off with nothing but a long stick for a weapon. Secondly, when you die, your backpack drops on the ground right there where you died. You will respawn, often a couple hundred kilometers away, and have exactly 10 minutes to find your backpack again. It's marked on the map, which is very helpful, but the problem is that now you are unarmed. If you can get to your backpack in time, you get all of your stuff back. If you can't…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☑ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Here I will leave the cat, friends who pass by can pet it and give it a thumbs up ／＞ フ | _ _ l ／` ミ＿xノ / | / ヽ ﾉ │ | | | ／￣| | | | | (￣ヽ＿_ヽ_)__) ＼二つ gud game
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm pretty sure this game has done permanent damage to my video card and processor; even on low graphics settings it wants to use every bit of your computer's power. Not counting the bad optimization, I really enjoyed this game. There are valid complaints about the combat being clunky and whatnot, but I didn't mind it much. The game world is really intriguing, exploration is fun, I was often on the edge of my seat waiting to see what else is out there. Get it on sale and give it a try.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game has been abandoned.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I try not to give negative reviews, but after 10+ hours I felt I needed to get my thoughts into words. Looking for a fallout style open world/fps fix, I bought this game hoping it would scratch it. Instead I was met with a shallow exploration game that has a long playtime due to tediousness. Combat is sluggish, with ammo for single shot guns being rare, you must rely on a melee combat system where you bash away at enemies, tediously grinding away their hit points. The difference between the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Spoiler-free TLDR: The game has a lot of problems but would be worth the price of admission, were it not for an ending that ruins everything. Got this game in the 2022 Jingle Jam, finally got around to playing it. The game is very buggy and the combat is clunky as hell, but the story is really engrossing and, overall, I was enjoying it a lot. Then I got to the ending. Turns out, none of the characters you got attached to even existed. The entire game is taking place in the mind of the main…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not sure who is reviewing this negatively. This game is quite good. It's also super cheap and on sale. Already 3 hours in and loving it so far. Not sure why people are complaining. Someone said it's 'hard survival'. Are you serious? You occasionally have to eat and drink. That's it. It's as easy as it gets in that regard. The enemies are not bad either and appropriately level up the more you learn, better you get and the more perks you get. Great game so far. Definitely worth $3 and honestly…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has become desolate itself...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well, after 40hours I finally found a bug that made me rage quit, uninstall and done with this game. It's a 95% story progress, and one side quest to kill a boss, The Blindman with 80k health points (most enemies are around 3k) is designed so dumb and poor. The boss have 2 phase; first phase it's gonna come at me, punching like usual other unarmed enemy, then at a time will charge and it's meant to make him charged at spiked wall. Pretty much similar to the big zombie grunt in Dying Light.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →God, man. Desolate is a sort of gameplay experience that isn't exactly memorable for most, but it will always occupy a spot in my head. This game brims with potential. Problem is, devs sort of lost interest in the really cool world they were attempting to build. For that matter, if you're playing this game for the first time cause you saw it on sale, I have a word of advice- ignore all side quests until you complete the main story, completing the side quests afterward will prove the main…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Desolate is a bleak and atmospheric first-person survival horror experience that drops players onto the forsaken island of Granichny—an isolated stretch of land overrun by mutants, anomalies, deranged survivors, and the residual effects of unethical experiments. Developed by Nearga and published by HypeTrain Digital, the game blends open-world exploration, survival mechanics, crafting, and narrative investigation into a single experience that draws clear inspiration from titles like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun Stalker-ish game with an interresting short story. Combat is a bit jank tho. :D Took me 53-ish hours to 100% all achievements. Few tips: Base storage has infinite weight capacity, but not item stacks/slots. Quartermaster is next to shop... I didnt interact with him till end of game woops. xD Can use 'Unstuck' in menu for free teleport to SE of map. Kills for liberation quest does'nt need to be at the place of quest which is good as barely anything spawned there for me. Good Marauder…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL:DR Buy only if its under 5$ The Good: Atmosphere is amazing Music and voice acting of the protagonist and main quest are great Some main Quest moments are great. The Bad: Game legitimately feels unfinished and abandoned at times. NPCs look worse than oblivion NPCs. No fast travel means half your time will be running like an idiot from one quest to the next. This gets even worse when you have multiple side quests pulling you in different directions, There is a feeling that the Devs tried…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →7 hours in , everything takes way too long to do. Finding the right item , getting to a quest , unnecessary repairs on every poi you find , getting from point A to B (hold shift to run a marathon), etc etc etc. Giant time waster with good potential but game is old so dont expect any changes. Basically fallout or stalker but stripped to its bare bones and given a dash of basic survival mechanics.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Don't get this game. https://prnt.sc/23jCXwMALxxm It ate up half of my 64gb ram. Serious memory leak. Upset fanboys spamming funny .. Except the game doesn't even require 8gb ram in their max.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Game had potential but has been abandoned by the developers since 2021, shame on the devs to let such a good game to die off like this. id wish it gets buffed and reworked again so we can explore even further into the horror abyss!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →a kind of overlooked game imo that still deserves some love and attention. Best looking explosions in a game, period, genuinely engaging car combat, a truly DESOLATE world... Idk. This game had the sauce. This is one of those perfect 7 out of 10's for me.
positive · AI labelView post →THIS IS A RUSSIAN GAME. By purchasing it (or even just adding it to your wish list), you support a state sponsor of terrorism. https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/ukraine/european-parliament-declares-russia-be-state-sponsor-terrorism_en?s=232 RUSSIA IS A TERRORIST STATE!
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Look, this is not a AAA game, but it's not a bad game either. If it looks interesting to you, give it a try. It's often on sale for under $4. I see it compared to Stalker or Metro -- it's not really either of those but does have some vibes from each. The food and hydration survival mechanic is easy, as there is plenty of food and drink. What really bugged me was the combat. Enemies are everywhere and I was so frustrated in the beginning because I was done with "sneaking" everywhere. Combat is…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →One more #blog batch coming through. These ones include cool rocks, idioms, and a (porn) game review. Featuring Cat #Tarot, La Carte del Tarocchi, and Silent Desolate Tarot wanderingskylark.com/the-cool-roc... wanderingskylark.com/the-best-dog/ wanderingskylark.com/kore-ga-lulu... 6 drafts to go
neutral · AI labelView post →I loved watching IGP playing this game as a kid and fell in love with it ever since, now able to finally play it. I my opinion it is great, story is okay, but just as a survival horror game to play with some friends or just by yourself it is fun it isn't too hard. A little sad that it's not getting a lot of attention from the Internet and that the creators aren't working on it anymore.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Abandoned by the devs.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →you can't even play the game because it doesn't spawn the keycard to leave the starting area, maybe when the devs come back from the dead to revive an fix this game will it ever be ready to be purchased again.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →multiplayer non functional bad game big bugs
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not too sure why I keep falling for these types of games. It's your generic, early access survival game. Combat is clunky, enemies are broken, resources are stupidly scarce. I would not buy it, if I could refund it I would.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →slow and boring.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A HORRIBLE gaming experience. The whole game is Run to questgiver(500meters), Run to quest location (across the map/900 meters), find a handful of objects hidden in the environment, Run to a delivery point(200 meters), and run to the questgiver again(1000 meters). A series of fetch quests with the clunkiest, most uninteresting combat. In between. The game takes much inspiration from stalker, but copies none of the charm, world building, fun combat, interesting enemy design, atmosphere. The…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Smoking enough weed to get the whales out of the sky
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played this for a dozen hours with pals, but didn't like it. A lot of people compare it to Stalker and I can see that, but I just didn't find it that enjoyable. Not a fan of 'everything is very dark here's your crappy flashlight, now go on an overly convoluted and complicated FETCH QUEST' as a gameplay loop.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →1000m running sim for every mission.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Abysmal from the beginning to the very end, pure garbage. Gameplay loop: walk 1000 meters from one point to another, find item, go back and turn in the quest. do it again 15 times and game is over. 98% of playtime is walking in a boring open world, you can explore and find random buildings but its all completely useless, every encounter or a detour leaves you with less than you had or exactly the same. also game is completely beatable with any random melee weapon you find at any point of the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ones of game i play with my best friend and get all archivement , Great Game but now he gone forever
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →No soul is DESOLATE as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →feels like an empty unfinished game, decided to revisit and the games completely broken. combat is janky, and kinda trash story is meh, combat is bad, looting is fun, the world is beautiful and atmospheric. play this game with friends or not at all. only buy on sale
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →most underrated game i had never heard, bought it on a whim and loved it. if you like STALKER play this
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game looks unfinished for release version.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Desolate is a fine game. It's not the best game I've ever played, but it certainly isn't the worst. It looks pretty nice, and the story is interesting enough to keep me playing. The biggest problem is that it's too stiff. Animations are pretty stiff, gameplay can be pretty stiff, combat is very stiff. It's an odd experience. I can't say I've encountered a game so stiff in quite a while. At $15, it's certainly not overpriced, but you may feel better about it if you can snag it for $10 or less.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So at first glance, the game seems interesting, story is okay, game isn't buggy and graphics are fine. But the gameplay is just so inexcusably horrible. Game literally punishes you for playing it, with how frustrating every single thing in the game is. Weapons have durability like they were made of cardboard, they literally break apart from 100% durability to 0 after killing just 2-4 enemies so keeping them in a working state is a constant chore. Infections, fractures or other similar debuffs…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DesolateI went back and fourth on whether or not I would recommend Desolate during my time playing, while it has a few redeeming qualities and neat ideas, the story and janky gameplay fall flat enough for me to say it's not worth playing over other games in the genre. It's been given away for free on multiple occasions so if you are still interested in the game it's probably worth waiting for one of these free periods or for a considerable sale. GameplayDesolate is an Open world survival…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →DESOLATE is a buggy, a mess of a game with many animation and visual glitches. It does however have solid enough mechanics. It has decent horror elements and sounds. Best part is the story, so if you like good story games with horror elements and can get past the glitches, give it a try.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fan of survival? Fan of Metro or Stalker? Fan of horror? Desolate is for you.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Played the tutorial and the combat was already a weird buggy mess. Played fifteen minutes of the game after the tutorial and combat is a weird buggy mess.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Weird bad version of Stalker, that fails in almost every sense. The combat is janky, but I grew to like it, just because of how ♥♥♥♥ it is and how you can abuse it. The story is all in le head or something like that, I skipped through half of it. The world is the only really interesting thing, the exploration, collecting and repairing/liberating old towns/structures. The grind to get 100% is brutal, there are a myriad of bugs and glitches that can ♥♥♥♥ you along the way. Not a good game,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This is a NEW Sci-Fi Survival Game on a Desolate Alien Planet - Hiraeth #hiraeth #indiedev #indiegame #survivalgame youtu.be/jNZxulUXZ_4
neutral · AI labelView post →Silly combat, derpy enemies, a lot of walking and a huge lack of interesting things to do. What looks good on the surface doesn't always work good in the end
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is a mix between Stalker and Fallout. The character evolves in a post-apo Russia, almost steam punk where survival takes precedence over humanity. The island that will serve as the game's map is populated by madmen, criminals and hostile NL agents. But also monstrous creatures and quite creepy paranormal events. - A very good survival/adventure game in the horror style, the atmosphere is quite heavy and gripping at the beginning unfortunately like many horror games you get used to it…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In good moments, it manages to provide a satisfying gameplay loop: Prepare / craft, explore, do quests, fight some enemies in mostly melee combat, gather all the things, get encumbered way too quickly, back to base, repeat; all while creating an immersive atmosphere akin to the Stalker / Metro series. In bad moments, with its bugs and sizeable amount of jank in almost every gameplay aspect, it feels just like one of the countless other Early Access "Open World Survival Craft" titles: All the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →@cocktailsfuru.bsky.social presenters will be playing an Indie first person horror survival game, Desolate! Who will be killed off first? Come find out! #furry #streaming #desolate #CocktailsfurU twitch.tv/cocktailsfuru
neutral · AI labelView post →I wanted to like this game, I really tried.. but is just too lackluster for putting up the hours. It tries hard to get the stalker vibe.. but is jsut not deep enough. pd: whoever added the random uncalled jumpscares need to lose its job
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Feels weird no impact melee, player feels incorrectly sized for environment, played the prologue was enough to be off putting.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →In Short = Uber Delivery Service / Amazon Express 👎👎👎 Don't Waste Your Time 👎👎👎
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →as of 2025 the game is dead and has server issues that ive experienced with friends
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →kindah clunky game, combat feels weird, soundbugs, some objects cant even be destroyed/touched/moved, gameplay is kindah boring. feels a bit weird...
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Desolate is a well made survival story game, that sucks you in to the story of it. The main story line took me about 16 hours to complete, yet I'm not even in half of the side quests. Graphics are beautiful and the whole idea is original, not just a generic survival horror game. Yes, there are plenty of bugs but they are not game breaking. There are plenty puzzles you have to complete, from finding the right location to breaking codes. Overall, I do recommend this game and I wish that I could…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is highly buggy and half baked. the story is good, and has some solid mechanics, however the game plays like crap and there's constantly something broken about it. I'm honestly shocked this isn't an early access game or something, imo not worth the money I'd refund it if I could but I let it sit in my library too long I think
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Meh. Its not bad but not going to win any awards either. For a small indie team its quite good. Its nothing like STALKER or Metro as some people have suggested in the reviews. If anything id say it plays more like Bioshock. With the melee combat and item pick ups. It also reminded me a lot of Chernobylite (that game sucked). Story is basic go here do this with some voice over. I got this for free a little while back so I suppose I cant complain too much. If you are buying this for some kind…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
Posts are quoted from public profiles with links to the original. Want yours removed? Contact us.
