10/10

Like any good symbolic horror fiction, it makes itself interesting and evocative independently of how the player may interpret the symbolism. The delightfully grimy, murky aesthetics and presentation, combined with the measured escalation of everything going bad, make the experience worth having -- and because of that, I voluntarily thought about what it all meant as I played. I didn't come up with a specific answer, but I believed that there was a specific answer, which is the ideal balance to strike in many cases.

The addition of combat is a very good idea, and for the most part it's implemented well. I do think that the quickest of the enemy attacks could stand to be tweaked a little -- I felt like I needed just a few more milliseconds to react to it, whereas the timing on the other attacks is quite easy.

As "phantasmagorical party aftermath" games go, I must say that I prefer Nobody's Home, but Barbotine is a very solid addition to the genre.