This Ghostly-Charming Puzzler Acts as the Excellent Alternative to Spooky Scares

Not every spooky season journey must scare you. Including well-known tales for example animated detectives to charming series including Over the Garden Wall, numerous autumn-inspired favorites offer entertainment without requiring raising your heart rate. Additionally, a expanding collection of eerie-charming titles featuring Halloween vibes, yet without the keep-you-awake intensity of terror. Gloomy Eyes debuted in recent months, and stands as an excellent comfortable choice to the truly terrifying games of this year.

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Screenshot: ARTE France, ATLAS V, Design Group, Game Company

An Original Single-Player Cooperative Adventure

Described as a single-player cooperative brain-teaser, Gloomy Eyes teams up a living-impaired child named Gloomy and a living girl known as Nena as they start an quest to return daylight to their shadowy realm. Their design is similar to stylized dolls combined with the figures from a animated feature. The fair-toned and tired-looking appearance borrows heavily from the visual style of Gothic fantasy movies, and the plot is a quintessential family-friendly adventure. The duo develops an enduring friendship over the span of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena strives to prove to her clerical relative that, you know, possibly zombies are actually good.

Creative Problem-Solving Features

The innovative term stems from the game’s environmental puzzles. Once Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, players alternate between the budding companions to solve puzzles and move forward through the levels. Since he's not alive, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the brightness of a light source, while Nena will get snatched up by wandering undead unless a lamp is shone on them.

They have to collaborate effectively — in practice, players control them simultaneously — to advance through areas. Nena could adjust or temporarily shut off illumination to create passages for Gloomy, while the thoughtful character will use his zombie strength to shift around items in the surroundings, opening up paths for Nena.

Gloomy Eyes visual
Screenshot: ARTE France, ATLAS V, Art Team, Publishers

Captivating Level Design

The puzzles bring to mind a little of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the areas are hovering, miniature designs that the perspective pans around in sync with your protagonists. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are highly entertaining, taking the companions around a carnival and through a ghostly building, including other locales. Players can use a “diorama view” option that permits you to zoom out and spin the levels, simultaneously to enjoy the visuals and look for paths that may not have been obvious.

Slight Issues and General Experience

This represents one of the sole difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other games with a static view, it’s not always clear where the protagonists can and cannot go. Players might have to randomly encounter a multiple different items to determine which ones are usable, as clues aren't consistently provided.

Nevertheless, those small challenges don't obstruct of a eerie-adorable good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with roughly several hours worth of brain-teasers. Later levels blend together minor stealth and action elements with the problem-solving, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a rewarding — and slightly surprising — conclusion.

Availability and Final Thoughts

Those steering clear of the scares of fear-inducing releases should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Switch console, PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox, and is available at a reduced price for a discount on digital platforms.

The spooky-cute adventure is available on various systems and offers a pleasurable option for fans seeking spooky entertainment minus the terrifying moments.

David Fields
David Fields

Expert in online gokken en strategieën met jarenlange ervaring in de kansspelindustrie.