Considering the opening sequence, and indeed the game’s box art, pretty much signpost where this game is going to end up, and probably a more than healthy hint as to why, it’s testament to the skill of developer Movie Games that this is still such an engrossing title.
This game was clearly a labour of love for developer Bloober Team. They even included a full-screen message telling you so. This is the developer behind both Layers of Fear and Observer, both innovative, tense, and enjoyable horror titles, and the more generic but serviceably scary Blair Witch.
Perhaps inevitably, on first downloading this game, I was pondering where I might end up crowbarring a ‘fade to grey’ gag into this review. Having now played the game through to completion, I really don’t feel much like laughing.
I like playing Indie titles, although I recognise “indie” may be a slightly fungible term these days. Nevertheless, straying away from a pure diet of hyped so-called Triple A titles can be very rewarding. There are some gems out there.
Moons, is it? Not Mansions. OK, still meets the pseudo-alliteration test, still very clearly Lovecraftian, if the big generic sea creature tentacles on the box art and digital icons for the installed games weren’t also doing their bit.
Well, Supermassive Games have already done better than Universal Studios, as their Dark Pictures anthology has managed to survive long enough to actually put out its second title.
Strange bunch, us humans. We find fear entertaining, and not in the sadistic way of enjoying someone else’s fear. We actively seek out being scared ourselves. What makes something scary? A perennial topic for horror fans.
What makes a great game, and its universe compelling? Certainly, graphics can play a part in world-building. I still remember leaving Helgen for the first time in Skyrim and seeing the hold of Falkreath unfolding before me, it was breath taking, and that was pre-HDR
There sometimes comes a point with a well-established and well-loved brand/franchise/universe that anything new coming out of it is met with such enormous expectation that it becomes almost impossible to live up to, and, in some cases, the resulting work is then denounced and vilified
I think the tipping point for me was Star Trek Picard. The use of the f-bomb in that show was so jarring to me it immediately wrecked my willing suspension of disbelief. In other words, it wasn’t true to the story world. Not to me, although in my defense I do have several decades of […]