Not each autumn fright adventure needs to scare you. Including iconic favorites like mystery-solving cartoons to delightful stories such as Over the Garden Wall, plenty of spooky-season favorites provide fun without needing raising your heart rate. There’s also, a increasing selection of eerie-charming releases with spooky themes, but not the keep-you-awake intensity of horror. Gloomy Eyes was released in the fall, and serves as an superb cozy choice to the truly terrifying titles of the current season.
An Original Collaborative Solo Adventure
Described as a “self-coop” puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes teams up a zombie boy known as Gloomy and a human girl called Nena as they begin an quest to restore sunlight to their dark, dark realm. Their appearance is similar to collectible figures mixed with the figures from a Laika film. Their pale-skinned and baggy-eyed style is influenced by the appearance of Burtonesque cinema, and the plot is a quintessential all-ages adventure. The pair develops an strong bond over the span of the game’s numerous levels as Nena tries to demonstrate to her priest uncle that, hey, perhaps the undead can be friendly.
Original Gameplay Systems
The innovative term comes about 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 levels. Since he's not alive, Gloomy cannot pass through the light of a streetlight, while Nena can be captured by idle zombies except if a light is directed on them.
They must cooperate closely — well, gamers operate them simultaneously — to finish levels. Nena may move or momentarily deactivate lights to open routes for Gloomy, while the thoughtful boy will employ his undead power to move obstacles in the environment, creating routes for Nena.
Engaging Environment Creation
The brain-teasers evoke memories a little of The Gardens Between, in the way the levels are floating, miniature designs that the perspective rotates in sync with your characters. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are quite fun, taking the duo around a fair and through a spooky mansion, including other locales. There’s a “diorama view” feature that permits you to pull back and rotate the areas, simultaneously to appreciate the visuals and look for routes that may not have been clear.
Small Hiccups and Overall Experience
And that’s one of the sole problems with Gloomy Eyes. Like other titles with a static view, it’s not always clear where the protagonists are able to move. You may need to just bump into a multiple different items to determine which ones are interactable, as it’s not always intuitive.
However, those slight speedbumps don’t get in the way of a eerie-adorable fun adventure. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with about a few sessions worth of puzzles. Later levels integrate light sneaking and action elements with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a fulfilling — and somewhat unexpected — ending.
Release and Final Thoughts
Those shying away from the scares of intense horror titles should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Switch console, PlayStation 5, computer, and Xbox Series X, and is currently on sale for a discount on game marketplaces.
The spooky-cute adventure is available on multiple platforms and offers a pleasurable option for fans in search of spooky entertainment minus the intense scares.
