Not each Halloween horror adventure must frighten gamers. Starting with well-known tales such as animated detectives to delightful stories such as Over the Garden Wall, many spooky-season staples are enjoyable without raising your heart rate. Moreover, a expanding collection of ghostly-adorable releases with autumn atmosphere, yet without the keep-you-awake degree of terror. Gloomy Eyes arrived in the fall, and stands as an excellent relaxing alternative to the truly terrifying games of the current season.
An Original Collaborative Solo Adventure
Labeled as a solo collaboration puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes unites a undead youth called Gloomy and a living girl known as Nena as they begin an adventure to bring the sun back to their dark, dark environment. Their design resembles stylized dolls mixed with the puppets from a animated feature. Their light-complected and baggy-eyed appearance is influenced by the visual style of Tim Burton’s films, and the narrative is a classic suitable for everyone tale. These two forms an enduring connection over the course of the game’s numerous levels as Nena attempts to prove to her priest uncle that, you know, possibly living-impaired beings aren’t half bad.
Original Problem-Solving Features
The innovative label stems from the game’s environmental puzzles. When Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, players alternate among the newfound friends to overcome obstacles and progress through the levels. As an undead, Gloomy can’t walk through the light of a light source, while Nena will get snatched up by loitering creatures unless a light is focused on them.
They have to work in tandem — actually, players control them together — to advance through areas. Nena might relocate or briefly disable lights to create passages for Gloomy, while the open-brained youth will utilize his supernatural ability to shift around obstacles in the surroundings, revealing routes for Nena.
Engaging Environment Creation
The puzzles remind me a bit of The Gardens Between, in the way the stages are suspended, miniature structures that the camera pans around in sync with your protagonists. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are highly entertaining, leading the friends around a carnival and through a haunted house, amid other locales. Players can use a “diorama view” button that permits you to zoom out and turn the levels, both for enjoy the visuals and hunt for routes that may not have been clear.
Slight Challenges and Overall Experience
Here lies one of the few problems with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other games with a static view, occasionally it's confusing where the characters can and cannot go. Players might have to randomly encounter a few random items to discover which ones are interactive, as the game doesn't always indicate.
Nonetheless, those slight challenges don't obstruct of a ghostly-charming fun adventure. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with about three to five hours worth of puzzles. Advanced areas combine minor stealth and exciting moments with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a fulfilling — and somewhat surprising — ending.
Accessibility and Summary
Players avoiding the scares of terrifying titles ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Switch console, Sony system, PC, and Microsoft console, and is currently on sale for a quarter off on game marketplaces.
The spooky-cute adventure is available on multiple platforms and delivers a pleasurable option for players in search of spooky entertainment minus the intense scares.
