Not every spooky season experience has to scare players. Including iconic favorites like animated detectives to charming series like Over the Garden Wall, plenty of autumn-inspired staples are enjoyable without requiring causing fear. There’s also, a expanding collection of ghostly-adorable games featuring Halloween vibes, yet without the keep-you-awake intensity of terror. Gloomy Eyes debuted in September, and acts as an superb cozy option to the intensely frightening titles of this year.
An Original Self-Coop Adventure
Labeled as a “self-coop” puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes unites a undead youth known as Gloomy and a mortal child called Nena as they embark on an adventure to restore sunlight to their dark, dark realm. Their design evokes stylized dolls blended with the puppets from a animated feature. Their pale-skinned and baggy-eyed style borrows heavily from the visual style of Gothic fantasy movies, and the narrative is a archetypal all-ages journey. The duo develops an unbreakable connection over the duration of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena strives to demonstrate to her priest uncle that, hey, maybe living-impaired beings can be friendly.
Innovative Puzzle Mechanics
This unique description stems from the game’s interactive problem-solving. After Gloomy and Nena meet, players alternate among the recent allies to solve puzzles and progress through the areas. Since he's not alive, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the light of a streetlight, while Nena may be grabbed by loitering creatures unless a light is directed on them.
They have to collaborate effectively — actually, you’ll use them together — to advance through areas. Nena may move or briefly disable illumination to create passages for Gloomy, while the open-brained character will employ his undead power to rearrange obstacles in the world, revealing paths for Nena.
Engaging Level Design
These challenges evoke memories a touch of The Gardens Between, in the manner the areas are floating, diorama-like designs that the perspective rotates in coordination with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are highly entertaining, leading the friends around a amusement park and through a haunted house, amid other locales. Players can use a “diorama view” button that enables you to zoom out and spin the levels, both to admire the artwork and hunt for routes that may not have been apparent.
Small Hiccups and General Experience
And that’s one of the few difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Comparable to other releases with a locked camera, it’s not always clear where the protagonists are able to move. Players might have to simply collide with a multiple different items to determine which ones are interactable, as it’s not always intuitive.
However, those small challenges don’t get in the way of a eerie-adorable good time. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with about several hours worth of puzzles. Subsequent stages integrate subtle stealth and dynamic sequences with the problem-solving, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a satisfying — and slightly unforeseen — conclusion.
Release and Conclusion
Those shying away from the frights of intense horror titles should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. It’s available on Nintendo Switch, Sony system, computer, and Xbox, and is available at a reduced price for a quarter off on digital platforms.
The spooky-cute adventure is out now on various systems and provides a pleasurable alternative for players seeking spooky entertainment minus the terrifying moments.
