Betrayer was quick to draw me into its world. It is a world that manages to feel, at the same time, both desolate and packed with intrigue. There are places to explore, mysteries to solve and threats looming around every bend. This is a game that isn't afraid to take some risks in terms of game design. The results are sometimes wonderfully successful and other times ineffective.
What first drew me to Betrayer was its artistic design. While it does look as good as the screenshots, the novelty of it does wear off over time. I eventually experimented with turning on full color and was pleased with how things looked that way as well. Just know that simply turning up the color saturation slider doesn't make for something pleasing to the eye. You'll have to change the light and dark intensity sliders as well. I had both of them moved most of the way to the left.
As eye catching as the graphics style is, the sound design is equally as good and is an integral part of the experience. Even though the only music is during the main menu and credits, I never felt like the game was missing a soundtrack. All the sounds of the forest and the way you "listen" for clues and collectables makes your ears as valuable as your eyes as you explore.
Hunting for certain collectables can be a chore due to your long range "listen" ability being restricted to leading you only to story related locations. That can make for a lot of aimless wandering for completionists like me, which gets frustrating when you're still missing something after going through an area quite thoroughly. This could have easily been remedied by a late game unlock to be able to "listen" for everything. It also doesn't help that there isn't a lot of variety in environments. In fact, around the halfway point in the game zones start to blend together and no new enemies are introduced either. The final zone is very cool and unique, however. From around 50% to 85% of the way through the game is easily its weakest portion. Contributing to that is that it is around this point that you begin to identify gameplay patterns, making things feel predictable and repetitive.
If you're into murder mysteries then I suspect you'll enjoy Betrayer. Each area you visit has its own stories to tell. Some of these stories offer clues as to what's happened in the larger region in which the game is set. Others simply flesh out the local histories. It is up to you to decipher what fits into the grander scheme of things.