Cabin Fever | A Slice-Of-Life Visual Novel

I’m currently in the middle of my second full playthrough of Cabin Fever as I’m typing this up. It’s just so incredibly good. This is the first visual novel I have ever played. And might I say, I love it. It is most definitely going up there on my favourite games list.

I’m your typical, avid gamer. From idle clicker games, such as Adventure Capitalist and Cookie Clicker, to more strategy-based games, such as Risk. But I have yet to play through a visual novel. If you don’t know what a visual novel is, let me explain: A visual novel is a text-based story, interactive video game genre. They feature a narrative-like style of literature with sprite-based visuals. The sprites most often use an anime art style as they originate from Japan. There is one thing clear about visual novels: Your choices matter throughout the story. Make the wrong choice and you may get a bad ending. Anyway, on to the main topic of this review: Cabin Fever.

Cabin Fever was developed by Steamy Buns Games, a company involving some of the members from Sad Panda Studios. Released on July 12th, 2021, Cabin Fever is a short western-styled VN that has a story that is rather appropriate to our current pandemic situation, which is set mid-pandemic, years after an unknown virus (VIVID-22 as seen in one of the background shots during the first chapter) has overcome the world. It probably has a storyline that is significantly more pessimistic than our current world, which is shown through various backgrounds and dialogues throughout the novel.

The main character, whose name and voice are completely up to you, is one of those self-sufficient types who lives in the mountains and has a pretty spacious cabin upon the hills, far away from the city, filled with all kinds of off-the-grid amenities, a garden full of fresh produce (similar sort of vibes to the Abbott family’s setup in A Quiet Place) and drones to deliver your online orders. No need to run into humans who may or may not have the ever-spreading virus all up in their immune systems. Everything seems to go along smooth-like until his or her solitary lifestyle is interrupted by the arrival of a 21-year-old girl who's a bit clumsy and gets caught in one of the main character's animal traps.

Whilst I was playing this the first time around, it made me look back to March of 2020. We were quarantined for a good few months. Barely going outside to reduce the chances of running into someone face-to-face. Which does indeed bring up a good point in how this is a direct connection to our current situation with COVID-19.

Something to keep in mind is that this visual novel was made whilst the artists and development team were in quarantine, just like the rest of us were. But in the case of Cabin Fever, I would say that it represents what the world would end up being like if COVID-19 was a powerhouse of a virus, potentially being even more deadly than it already is, to the point where society looks like the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. And if this is the case where the virus in the novel is like COVID-19 on steroids (which I do believe is the case since you find out during the opening narration that this virus has been around for years), then you would not want to catch it whatsoever.

As aforementioned, we learn that this virus in the novel has been around for quite some time, as brought up by the protagonist in Chapter 1:

“I don’t remember much about the world before the sickness. I was just a kid when it started, too young to fully grasp all the changes happening across the globe.”

Your age is in the range of 20-22 years old in the novel, so to know that the sickness has been around since the protagonist was merely a kid is honestly something I don’t want to ever imagine happening. It was a massive shock to learn that we were entering a pandemic last year, and in my opinion, it is still a shock. To know that one day we could wake up and turn to the news channel on TV just to discover that COVID-19 will not be going anywhere for years is terrifying to even fathom. If that were to somehow happen, who knows what we would do?

Do we start gardens to avoid grocery stores that could be packed full of probably contagious people? Maybe we will avoid going outside as a whole and order any necessities we may need online. All of this stems from a well-written visual novel that is set in a world where the virus has made it happen.

In conclusion, Cabin Fever is a very short visual novel experience with great voice acting, dialogue, CG, an incredible moving soundtrack, and visually pleasing character sprites and art style, this, to me, is what makes this novel. The music and sound effects alongside the dialogue and the diction and tone that come from voice actors pull you in and almost “play” with your heartstrings. Lasting roughly 2 hours of full gameplay, it won’t take much time to get all the endings and achievements, maybe 3 hours maximum. But it's also a relatively cheap one as well at $13.21 CAD after taxes. That being said, I feel that the brief experience is worth having, one that has both lighthearted and emotional moments set in a world that is darker, but somewhat similar to our own in various ways.

Now, if you don’t mind, I will now go back to finish off my second playthrough of my new favourite game, Cabin Fever.

28.09.2021