Not all autumn fright experience must frighten gamers. Including well-known tales like animated detectives to delightful stories including Over the Garden Wall, many spooky-season favorites provide fun without needing raising your heart rate. There’s also, a growing library of eerie-charming titles featuring Halloween vibes, but not the truly terrifying degree of horror. Gloomy Eyes was released in the fall, and stands as an excellent relaxing option to the truly terrifying games of the current season.
A Distinctive Self-Coop Journey
Described as a single-player cooperative puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes teams up a undead youth called Gloomy and a living girl known as Nena as they begin an adventure to restore sunlight to their shadowy world. They look is similar to stylized dolls combined with the characters from a stop-motion animation. Their pale-skinned and baggy-eyed aesthetic draws inspiration from the appearance of Burtonesque cinema, and the narrative is a archetypal suitable for everyone adventure. The pair develops an unbreakable friendship over the duration of the game’s multiple stages as Nena attempts to demonstrate to her clerical relative that, you know, maybe the undead are actually good.
Innovative Puzzle Mechanics
This unique term stems from the game’s interactive problem-solving. After Gloomy and Nena meet, gamers switch amidst the budding companions to overcome obstacles and advance through the levels. Since he's not alive, Gloomy cannot pass through the illumination of a light source, while Nena can be captured by idle zombies except if a light is directed on them.
They have to cooperate closely — well, players control them together — to complete stages. Nena may move or briefly disable illumination to clear paths for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious boy will utilize his supernatural ability to rearrange obstacles in the environment, creating ways for Nena.
Captivating Level Design
The brain-teasers bring to mind a bit of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the stages are suspended, model-like structures that the camera pans around in conjunction with your characters. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are quite fun, taking the duo around a amusement park and through a haunted house, among other locations. The game includes a “diorama view” option that allows you to pull back and rotate the stages, both for admire the visuals and hunt for ways that may not have been apparent.
Slight Issues and Complete Gameplay
Here lies one of the only difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other releases with a fixed perspective, occasionally it's confusing where the characters are able to move. Players might have to just bump into a few random objects to discover which ones are interactable, as the game doesn't always indicate.
Nonetheless, those small speedbumps don't obstruct of a eerie-adorable good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with roughly several hours worth of brain-teasers. Advanced areas combine light stealth and dynamic sequences with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a fulfilling — and moderately surprising — ending.
Accessibility and Final Thoughts
Players steering clear of the scares of fear-inducing games ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Switch console, PlayStation 5, computer, and Xbox Series X, and is presently discounted for a discount on online stores.
The spooky-cute adventure has been released on several consoles and offers a delightful choice for gamers seeking Halloween fun without the intense scares.
