I usually make a point to pick up the cheaper games on my wishlist when the Steam Summer sale comes along and this was one of those games on sale for about as much as I might have spent in my childhood playing a few rounds at the arcades, only to put it in the backlog and forget about it. But the dice didn't forget and only a few short months later, brought it up front and center. I'm glad it did as this game pleasantly surprised me. I figured it would be interesting, but it genuinely was a creepy little experience.
Story: While there is a story to this game, it is a fairly simple one and one the game chooses to drip-feed you over the hour or two you spend with it. All you get when you start is a title screen showing a ballerina music box and that you wake up on the floor in a room with a runes in blood. There is nothing here but a bench behind you and a door in front of you. Time to go inside.
But simple does not mean bad or easy to ignore. Make no mistake, this game is dark and will have you exploring aspects that will likely make you shutter before it's over. And while the story generally comes to you in the form of notes you will come across, they are not things you can ignore if you want to complete it. Many of these notes will require you to read them for clues on the few real puzzles the game will throw at you so your chance of ignoring them is pretty much nil. So enjoy it for what it is, and be ready to despise a character for some of the most horrific acts you will read about in a game.
6/10
Graphics: This is actually a very smart looking game for the most part. You will spend the majority of it either alone or with the whatever is with you hidden for the most part in the shadows, making the house itself the star of the show... and it simply looks fantastic. Dark, moody, and absolutely using with detail to observe, it is gorgeous. If there is any issues with the place itself it's the lighting and the limitations. This is not a large game and it tells it's story in just a handful of rooms, so you will not have a ton of locations to see. Still what is here is well paced and varied, so this becomes a weakness more after you finish and look back at what you have experienced.
The lighting, on the other hand, is another story entirely. More often then not the rooms you encounter will have very limited lighting, leaving a lot of this detail in a place where you have to get up close to see it at all. And then when you finally get an oil lamp, it's light is harsh enough to be an issue from time to time, not really helping the situation. Still it's worth getting up close to see these details and definately plays to the strengths of the other cast members of the game.. and weaknesses.
To be blunt, this game does not lavish the same amount of love in it's few cast members as it does the world, making the few times they are out of the dark more comical and cartoon-like then the rest of the game. But when they are in the dark and you will get the creeps around them. It is a masterful if simple effect that just oozes brilliantly through the game.
7/10
Sound: The stage for your ear is set so sit back and be ready to get tense... there is little actual music in this game, opting for an almost completely ambient soundtrack. But don't expect the game to be silent. You will hear every creaky door, every foot step and ever backward chant used at it's absolute finest to draw you in. Most of the time it will be accompanies by an almost windy-tunnel effect to amp it up, but occasionally a few tones of an actual instrument will accompany the audio acaustation you are about to bear.
And while it is rare, the game will even offer a few pieces of spoken word as you play. These are done well enough, but they hardly take center stage till the very end and the scares are all done... but those last words will give you something to chew on... nicely done.
7/10
Gameplay: This is not a game that is going to offer a lot in the way of gameplay, opting to focus far more on story then action. Yes, this game is very much a walking-simulator.
You will explore the house and the events that happened within, but the path will be fairly linear, controlling your path by what doors are open and the few puzzles it will put in front of you. There really isn't a lot here, but what is here is solid enough to hold out for the game's short playtime. It just shouldn't be the reason you are here.
6/10
Bugs: Honestly this is one place where AAA developers should take not. Not only did this game have no bugs, it ran smoother then many high-profile professionally made titles!
Score: Short an sweet, this is not a game that will offer a lot of gameplay, but it doesn't overstay it's welcome to bore you with such an issue. Rather, it will likely ask you to sit down with it for about an hour, genuinely creep you out and make you shudder for the events that happened here and just might still be going on. If that sounds like a fun afternoon to you, I have to recommend giving it a go. If not, you probably don't want to play this one.
7/10
System Requirements:
- Intel Core i3-3470 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200
- 8 GB RAM
- NVidia Gforce GTX 760 (2GB VRAM) or AMD Radeon R9 280 (3GB VRAM)
- 4 GB hard drive space
- Windows 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 (64-bit only)
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
Source: Steam
No comments:
Post a Comment