Not all spooky season experience needs to scare gamers. Starting with iconic favorites for example animated detectives to endearing shows like Over the Garden Wall, numerous spooky-season titles provide fun without needing raising your heart rate. Additionally, a expanding collection of ghostly-adorable games including spooky themes, but not the truly terrifying intensity of fear. Gloomy Eyes debuted in September, and serves as an outstanding cozy choice to the truly terrifying games of this year.
A Unique Collaborative Solo Quest
Labeled as a “self-coop” problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes teams up a zombie boy called Gloomy and a mortal child known as Nena as they begin an adventure to restore sunlight to their dark, dark environment. Their design is similar to Funko Pops mixed with the puppets from a stop-motion animation. Their light-complected and heavy-lidded aesthetic borrows heavily from the visual style of Gothic fantasy movies, and the plot is a archetypal suitable for everyone tale. The pair forms an enduring connection over the span of the game’s multiple stages as Nena strives to show to her religious guardian that, you know, perhaps zombies are actually good.
Creative Puzzle Mechanics
This unique label stems from the game’s environmental puzzles. Once Gloomy and Nena meet, players alternate among the newfound friends to complete challenges and progress through the areas. As an undead, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the illumination of a lamppost, while Nena may be grabbed by idle zombies unless a light is shone on them.
They must collaborate effectively — in practice, gamers operate them simultaneously — to finish levels. Nena might relocate or temporarily shut off lamps to clear paths for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious character will use his zombie strength to move obstacles in the world, revealing routes for Nena.
Engaging Environment Creation
The puzzles bring to mind a bit of The Gardens Between, in the manner the levels are floating, model-like structures that the perspective rotates in conjunction with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are very enjoyable, leading the friends around a amusement park and through a ghostly building, among other places. There’s a “diorama view” feature that permits you to view from afar and spin the areas, both for enjoy the artwork and look for routes that may not have been clear.
Minor Hiccups and Overall Adventure
And that’s one of the only problems with Gloomy Eyes. Like other games with a static view, sometimes it's unclear where the protagonists can and cannot go. Players might have to just bump into a multiple different items to figure out which ones are usable, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nevertheless, those slight speedbumps don’t get in the way of a eerie-adorable good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with roughly several hours worth of challenges. Advanced areas combine light stealth and action elements with the problem-solving, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a satisfying — and slightly surprising — finale.
Release and Final Thoughts
Players avoiding the frights of fear-inducing games won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo Switch, Sony system, Windows PC, and Xbox, and is presently discounted for a quarter off on digital platforms.
Gloomy Eyes is out now on several consoles and provides a pleasurable option for players looking for autumn enjoyment without fear factor.
