The thing at the window - review
The thing in the window is a rather interesting first-game attempt that I would honestly expect to see while browsing Itch.io at three in the morning rather than as a full-fledged Steam release, which, while not much, does cost money.
Now hold on, this might sound like I'm just trashing the game, which isn't entirely fair because there are some positives among the sadly large number of negatives. So let's go into more detail.
The Monster.
I'm going to start of big and directly dive into ONE OF THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN A HORROR GAME: The monster, If the monster doesn't terify you, scare you, or make you want to hide behind your chair, then, well, the game won't really terify you as much as it should, and to be honest, the monster is completely non-scary.
The graphics can partially be blamed for that, but shifting away from that, we can find plenty of other reasons: the sounds it makes, the way it appears, and the manner in which it is introduced (or lack thereof) are just... not scary.
Atmosphere
Now what is even more crucial to horror than the monster itself? A game with a not-so-scary monster can still be saved by a great atmosphere. But sadly... there is non of that here, no music, and barely any background sounds (I understand that there can't be too many sounds as we rely on the sound of the monster breaking in to know where it is, but we need something to keep our ears on edge.) To keep us on edge, and for visuals? Not much either.
Bugs
Now let's get into a positive: it's actually playable. This is something that gets overlooked so often, but your indie game can be amazing, maybe even perfect, but if it's unplayable, then who cares? A 10/10 game can easily turn into a 1/10 game if it's simply unplayable. And i'm happy to report that I haven't come across any bugs, not in the ai, graphics, settings, etc. (Sure there might not be a lot, but the things that are there are working.)
Gameplay
Now the actual gameplay is well... I honestly don't know what to say here, there simply isn't that much to it. Its gameplay is similar to what your average horror mobile game would also deliver, but for the price tag, this can be expected. It's not really scary, but it will help you pass a few spare minutes if you're waiting for, say, a package delivery.
Conclusion
Technically, a solid attempt at a first game, but it simply would have been better as a free Itch.io release than a paid Steam release. 2.3 out of 10 for effort.
(We at NeonLightsMedia (NLM) received a key for this game for free; this, however, hasn't impacted the review in any way.)