Joana's Life (PC) review "The spirit is there, at least..."

If you were to throw down screenshots from a dozen or so obscure horror games offered on Steam, chances are you wouldn't be able to tell them apart. So many of them feature similar stories, styles, themes, and environments that they all run together after you've played a few of them. Hell, some of them even utilize nearly identical plots and devices to the point that you basically buy the same game multiple times--and even at the same time, at that.

Case in point, I once hunted through the depths of Steam's massive library looking for a scary adventure that began with a J. Obviously, I was intent on winning AlphaMarathon that year... I landed on two samey-looking, first-person adventure pieces: Judas and Joana's Life. Though they were two completely different games, they employed similar concepts and schemes:

You start both affairs trapped in apartments, attempting to escape out while ghostly forces taunt you. A child (who in this game's case is the titular "Joana") frequently appears among the apparitions, as well as one vengeful, demonic figure. Of course, the usual bumps in the house, phones going off, phantoms crawling on ceilings, newspaper clippings that talk about murders, and eerie messages written on the walls greet you. As you can tell, both experiences mostly underwhelm in the scares department.

Mostly...



Joana has the edge on its inadvertent counterpart with one actually terrifying sequence. At one point in the proceedings, you break into an abandoned apartment to search for clues regarding the haunting that surrounds you. A spectral baby begins to cry, and you follow its whines to find it. You eventually locate the poor creature, eventually running afoul into a horrific, suggestive image (which drew an audible gasp from me).

You see, this title can surprise you if you let it. You spend the first few minutes locked in your own home until you discover a broken mirror. With this handy tool, you can glimpse spectral activity over your shoulder, which serve as hints that guide you to your next objective. After following the mission markers, the front door opens and you're allowed to leave. You mosey into the street and actually take in the sights of a whole city. For a brief minute, you feel like you're not just trapped in your average haunted house affair, where the environments beyond your domicile are merely staged scenery placed within a small, enclosed area. You can actually move along multiple streets and see pedestrians walking by. While this content may not sound like much, indie horror fare seldom puts effort into a detail like this, and it's strangely refreshing.

That moment also tells you one thing: despite having the whole city open to you, you are not safe. Whatever powers that torment you now will take you no matter who knows, so you had better work diligently if you want to get out of this nightmare alive.



Of course, you enter a few other homes and search for more leads. Now and then, fantastic and properly jarring moments take you by surprise. One scene occurs as you traipse down a hallway to search for event item, unsure what it is precisely. A quick, seamless transition hits you and you're suddenly in a hospital or asylum of some kind, and the object you require sits in a pool of blood before you. After snagging it, you quickly warp back to the apartment without pizzazz or fanfare. The way the game expediently and blatantly throws you into other places like this without warning represents some of the best dream-like content Joana has to offer.

I would love to say that the closing segments provide more of that creepy material, but the truth is the game's cracks really start to show after you venture into a shadow realm of sorts. You see, there are brief flits of instability that crop up every now and then. For instance, the campaign sometimes opens up to a pitch black screen that might go away if you start a new game. Even after you begin in earnest, you encounter an awkward section where the main antagonist attacks you and the camera jumps around all over the place, making it difficult to tell what's happening. Either this was a poorly set up cutscene or the camera bugged out during it.

Sadly, these issues only worsen when you reach the final stretch, where you venture through an alternate version of your city to search for pieces of a mirror. Shadowy humanoids populate the streets, incessantly chasing after you with melee weapons as you aggro them. The demon you encountered at the beginning of this affair also pops up, occasionally stun-locking and killing you. During my own playthrough, he accomplished just that, then nearly killed me as I respawned. This bit of nonsense occurred because I resurrected in the same place I had just died, with all of my enemies right where they were as well, including the creature. He just resumed stealing my soul like we didn't recently cut to a 'game over' and reload routine.



Worse, an obstructive pattern forms on the screen as you take damage, blocking your view. Oh, and you can only run for a limited time, and you need to slow down to restore your invisible stamina while pretty much any anti-pedestrian you pass chases you--along with the beast. So not only do you trudge through this whole city, but have a hell of a time navigating it through the constant harm you take.

And how do you complete this scavenger hunt for mirror pieces? By occasionally summoning Joana, who slowly ambles in the direction of the next piece. She then disappears and apparently comes with a cool down time, so you basically end up running all over town and spamming the summon function until you figure out where you need to go.

At last, you make it to the grand finale, where you follow Joana to another location. This time, she takes you to a locked apartment door. Obviously, you'll need to scour the burg for a key, right? SEARCH THE WHOLE DAMN CITY FROM TOP TO BOTTOM FOR SOMETHING TO UNDO THE LOCK?



Actually, no, don't do that. Unfortunately, you might be inclined to do so because you can't figure out what else to do. Little do you realize that this section of the campaign is actually glitched, and the only workaround is to reload your file. That action drops you back in the level with the door accessible, allowing you to venture to the closing segment.

And all you get for your trouble is an ambiguous denouement that hardly justifies all the nonsense you endured. It's sad, because Joana's Life hits some really good, hard notes. However, its stability issues coupled with numerous dry scares guarantee it a place among other ill-regarded Steam horror products. No matter how much it works to separate itself from those tiresome apps, it's ultimately (and unfortunately) part of that family.

Staff review by Joseph Shaffer (March 02, 2022) Rumor has it that Joe is not actually a man, but a machine that likes video games, horror movies, and long walks on the beach. His/Its first contribution to HonestGamers was a review of Breath of Fire III.