Not each Halloween horror adventure needs to terrify gamers. Starting with iconic favorites like Scooby-Doo to delightful stories like Over the Garden Wall, many Halloween-themed titles offer entertainment without needing increasing anxiety. There’s also, a growing library of eerie-charming titles with spooky themes, but not the keep-you-awake intensity of terror. Gloomy Eyes was released in September, and serves as an superb comfortable option to the deeply scary games of this year.
A Distinctive Single-Player Cooperative Adventure
Known as a solo collaboration puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a undead youth called Gloomy and a mortal child known as Nena as they embark on an adventure to restore sunlight to their gloomy world. Their design evokes stylized dolls blended with the characters from a stop-motion animation. The pale-skinned and tired-looking style borrows heavily from the appearance of Burtonesque cinema, and the narrative is a archetypal suitable for everyone adventure. The duo forms an unbreakable friendship over the span of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena tries to demonstrate to her priest uncle that, hey, perhaps living-impaired beings can be friendly.
Creative Gameplay Systems
The “self-coop” term originates from the game’s world-based challenges. When Gloomy and Nena cross paths, gamers switch between the budding companions to solve puzzles and progress through the stages. As an undead, Gloomy can’t walk through the illumination of a streetlight, while Nena will get snatched up by idle zombies except if a light is focused on them.
They have to work in tandem — in practice, players control them together — to finish levels. Nena could adjust or briefly disable illumination to open routes for Gloomy, while the thoughtful youth will utilize his supernatural ability to rearrange objects in the environment, opening up ways for Nena.
Captivating World Building
These challenges remind me a bit of The Gardens Between, in the manner the levels are suspended, miniature structures that the view rotates in coordination with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are very enjoyable, leading the friends around a carnival and through a ghostly building, among other places. There’s a “diorama view” button that allows you to zoom out and spin the areas, both to admire the artwork and search for ways that may not have been obvious.
Slight Issues and Overall Experience
Here lies one of the sole difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Comparable to other games with a static view, sometimes it's unclear where the characters can and cannot go. Players might have to just bump into a few random elements to figure out which ones are interactable, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nonetheless, those small challenges don't obstruct of a eerie-adorable good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with approximately several hours worth of challenges. Subsequent stages combine subtle sneaking and exciting moments with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a fulfilling — and somewhat unforeseen — ending.
Release and Summary
Players shying away from the frights of fear-inducing titles won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo Switch, Sony system, PC, and Microsoft console, and is presently discounted for a quarter off on online stores.
This charming title is out now on several consoles and delivers a delightful option for players in search of Halloween fun without the fear factor.
