This is not a game that waited very long to play. Having picked it up on the Steam Summer sale, I had expected to put it aside for a lot longer. But instead thanks to another weekend game to show off for Extra Life, it jumped the line and I finished it in a single sitting. It's not a long game, but it was a long stream... I just couldn't let it go as I absolutely had a blast the entire time.
Story: Andrew was a fisherman, born and raised in the local area. He never regretted the job, but he does regret this trip for it. After all it's hard not to regret a trip that ended in the boat running aground on an unfamiliar island and leaving you stranded, but that's not the worst of it. That would be the fact that his daughter was with him on the trip and is now missing. And to make matters even worse, while wandering to find her, it doesn't take long before he starts to understand something here is very very wrong with the island itself.
In tradition of a Lovecraftian tail, you will start the game exploring the island, and start off finding traces of the events that have taken place here and what just might be here now as. It's a slow march, picking up speed as more and more insanity is uncovered and occurs around you, introducing you to several of the superstars of the mythos before your time is up.
Although for all the craziness of it, the central story remains rather basic this time around: you will be lead by "a dark shadow" to follow it's commands in the hopes that these actions and the will behind it can work together to bring your daughter back to you. You will be given a fittingly grandiose ending, and it all comes together beautifully, but it feels pretty straight forward, especially considering the source material. If you know the mythos, you will likely have a good idea of what it's getting at for Andrew and who's pulling strings. If not, the names likely wont mean much to you... but if may just strike your interest enough to read some of the author's work.
7/10
Graphics: Right off the bat, this game is an absolute stunner. You will play this game from a 1st person perspective, and the sheer level of detail you will see while playing will impress you, standing up to even some of the AAA games we see to this day. No it's not going to beat them out in the resolution of bitmaps on the models or anything like that, but what this vision displays so well should be a proud achievement for it's main developer and sole artist. That's right, all the grandeur, mood and splendor in the varied places you will see were made by the man who's credited with the game's development and to that end I simply must give ample credit to Mr. Ares Dragonis.
And varied it is. What starts as simply an empty (if gorgeously lonely) island with a light house will lead to horrific and unexplainable artifacts, both here on it's shores and underwater and in alien landscapes that I dare not explain for their discovery is part of the experience we will get to later. Suffice it to say, this game is out to wow you and wow you it will, from beauty at first to horrifically fantastic by the end.
And that is not just the environment either... or even the items you will collect. I do not believe it would be much of a horror if telling you that you were not really alone here was a spoiler. You will find yourself face to face with various inhabitants before it is over, all of which are modeled exceptionally well. If there is any real weakness here, its the lack of this work.. you really won't see many until the second half of the game, and there is little variety in them once you do. Definitely a case of quality over quantity.
And while the game has absolutely no interface to speak of, I would also like to take a little extra time to talk about the inventory screen. Where most games would be happy to dull your main view to display a list or a grid, The Shore has gone a very retro-way with this one, opting to completely replace the screen when looking with a very well detailed and organized inventory screen all it's own, set to a rather nice looking inside of a boat. Theme fitting and unique enough to warrant it's own mention. It's not going to change your opinion of the game's looks but it will make it easy to confirm what you have available at a glance and still look exceptionally good doing it.
9/10
Sound: And much like the graphics, this is is a quality over quantity scenario. The music making up the space is a mix of ambient noises, slightly technological horror-scapes of noise and war-drums, and classical music for the most part: each set to their own moments and servicing the experience by driving up tension, speaking to the eerie beauty of the place, you are in, or just reminding you how far from home you really are. It isn't a lot, but it was made with an exacting focus on what it was to do, and fits exceptionally well every second you are playing. You might even remember some of the more intense and other-worldly parts for a while. Once again, with a single artist putting all this together, I once again have to tip my hat to the composer of this game. So Mr. Thanos Zampoukas, please take a bow!
But music will not be all you hear, and the sound effect here are again, both limited and top notch. Here the most common thing you will hear will be the sound of your own feet as you walk and run around the various locations, reflecting the type of surface you are on to the point they just blend in perfectly. But everything here fits well, from the alien artifacts you use and turn on as needed to the crumbling of stone to the shrieks of alien beasts who may or may not want to devour you on sight.
But the real star here is the voice acting. Most of the time, there are two dominant voices through this game... Andrew when talking to himself or talking to the voice that guides him. These two (as well as the occasional other cast member of eldritch beings) are absolutely fantastic, making every word something to adore listening to.
But that is sadly also where this game fails the soundscape as well... the few times you hear your daughter speak it just sounds incredibly stilted and she ruins every scene she's in (thankfully few and never in the moment horror).
8/10
Gameplay: This is where The Shore really surprised me, and for the better. I went in expecting a short and simple point and click adventure where I would hunt for objects for use in puzzles and maybe a threat or two to avoid. This, effectively, is how the game began, but not how it ended. You start running around the island with the goal of completing rituals and finding objects you can use to unlock passages to reach new locations, guided by a shadowy voice and notes in bottles from the last group of sailors who got stuck here.
But overtime, the voice takes over this guiding force role and leads you down a lot more violent path by handing you an artifact capable of blasting the creatures you encounter with dark energy beams. Your environment also changes starkly to alien worlds that appear inspired by Giger and it only gets weirder from there. The tone has changed along with the gameplay. Now you can expect to be in much more of a horror shooter then a horror point and click, fighting back against the abominations of the unknown using their own weapon against them. And those of you screaming "this isn't how Lovecraft is supposed to be!" you're right. But most of the time, killing isn't your goal, as most of the real threats either are too strong to kill or just plain don't stay dead, respawning almost instantly.
No, your goal is to buy distance between you and the unspeakable horrors while you flee to the next location or maybe figure out what you need to do. While not particularly difficult, it is tense as hell since you know it won't take much to trip you up and make you monster-food. Add to this a perfect use of atmosphere and be ready to panic just a little bit. Simply put, it's brilliant from this point on in a way that you just never saw coming.
8/10
Bugs: Sadly I can not say this game ran flawlessly. Most of the issues I had could be chalked up to a bit of jank that was overlooked during development, there was one point where the game actually broke down to be unplayable. It didn't crash, but it did leave me in a dead-man-walking scenario like I don't remember seeing this since Alice: The Madness Returns.
- Missing graphics/clipping through the world: I think I can count the times I saw this in my entire playthrough on one hand, but there are a few places where the locations were just not quite finished right. Be it a tunnel you could duck to enter just enough to clip your view through the roof, or holes in the game you can find and look through, there are a few places the game will show you more then it means to. Now do not get me wrong. NOTHING here will break the game as you will never get our of bounds or fall off the map or anything like that. But you will easily get a glimpse into the great beyond (apparently, it's all water).
- Menu takes a few tries to appear: This issue is a bit more common though, I'm afraid. In fact you can just about count on it happening once per session. Once in the game, like you would expect on a PC title, hitting escape brings up the main menu from where you can choose to quit to the title, adjust graphics, look at controls, and the like. The problem is that the game seems to need some extra prodding to make it appear. The first time you hit escape, you will see your mouse cursor appear, but no menu. Hitting escape again will bring you back to the game, and a 3rd time will bring up the menu without issue. Its annoying but barely more then a reliable to recreate inconvenience.... especially as the game relies on checkpoints to save rather then making (or letting) you do it.
- I think I was supposed to be dead: However, the game did break-down once while playing. It didn't crash or anything, but rather hit a glitch that just prevented me from going forward. In my arrogance, I had tried to back into a door while firing at a monster chasing me rather then turn around and look where I was going. The geometry wasn't helpful to this and I quickly became monster food... well I should have. I DID get through the door, but I couldn't use my weaponry OR die from the enemies in the new room. I think I somehow died without dying. This was fixed by quitting the session and selecting to continue my game. Thankfully checkpoints are generous and I only had to dodge that same monster again so it wasn't a huge loss.
Score: As noted in the gameplay section, this game pleasantly surprised me. From how good it looked and sounded to even what kind of gameplay it expected out of you, nothing was what it seemed... and yet that is somehow fitting for a game of the mythos. Honestly if you like horror games in first person and enjoy the build up as much as the intensity of the payoff, you should absolutely give this one a shot! And if you have a taste for Lovecraft in particular, welcome... make yourself at home.
8/10
System Requirements:
- Intel core i5 4400/AMD Ryzen 5 1600
- 8 GB RAM
- Nvidia GTX 1060 (3GB VRAM)
- 15 GB hard drive space
- 64-bit Windows 7
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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