Not every autumn fright journey needs to terrify you. From well-known tales such as mystery-solving cartoons to delightful stories such as Over the Garden Wall, numerous Halloween-themed favorites offer entertainment without requiring raising your heart rate. There’s also, a growing library of ghostly-adorable games with autumn atmosphere, but not the keep-you-awake intensity of terror. Gloomy Eyes debuted in September, and serves as an outstanding comfortable choice to the truly terrifying games of this year.
An Original Self-Coop Journey
Known as a solo collaboration puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a zombie boy named Gloomy and a mortal child known as Nena as they start an mission to return daylight to their dark, dark realm. Their appearance resembles stylized dolls mixed with the puppets from a stop-motion animation. Their fair-toned and heavy-lidded aesthetic borrows heavily from the appearance of Burtonesque cinema, and the story is a classic family-friendly journey. The duo forms an strong bond over the duration of the game’s multiple stages as Nena tries to show to her priest uncle that, you know, perhaps zombies aren’t half bad.
Innovative Problem-Solving Features
The “self-coop” description comes about from the game’s environmental puzzles. When Gloomy and Nena cross paths, you’ll swap between the budding companions to solve puzzles and move forward through the levels. Being a zombie, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the illumination of a light source, while Nena can be captured by idle zombies except if a light is shone on them.
They have to collaborate effectively — actually, gamers operate them simultaneously — to finish levels. Nena may move or briefly disable lamps to create passages for Gloomy, while the thoughtful character will utilize his supernatural ability to rearrange obstacles in the surroundings, creating paths for Nena.
Immersive Level Design
The brain-teasers bring to mind a bit of The Gardens Between, in the way the levels are suspended, diorama-like designs that the camera rotates in coordination with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are quite fun, guiding the companions around a amusement park and through a ghostly building, amid other places. Players can use a “diorama view” feature that allows you to zoom out and turn the stages, both for admire the artwork and look for routes that may not have been clear.
Small Hiccups and General Experience
Here lies one of the only problems with Gloomy Eyes. Comparable to other games with a locked camera, it’s not always clear where the characters can and cannot go. You may need to simply collide with a several various elements to determine which ones are interactive, as clues aren't consistently provided.
However, those slight speedbumps don’t get in the way of a spooky-cute fun adventure. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with roughly three to five hours worth of brain-teasers. Later levels combine light stealth and action elements with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a satisfying — and slightly unexpected — conclusion.
Accessibility and Final Thoughts
Players steering clear of the scares of fear-inducing titles ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo platform, PS5, PC, and Xbox, and is presently discounted for a quarter off on digital platforms.
The spooky-cute adventure is available on several consoles and provides a pleasurable alternative for players in search of Halloween fun minus the fear factor.
