Not all Halloween horror journey must terrify you. Starting with beloved classics like animated detectives to delightful stories including Over the Garden Wall, plenty of spooky-season titles are enjoyable without needing causing fear. Moreover, a increasing selection of eerie-charming releases with autumn atmosphere, yet without the truly terrifying degree of horror. Gloomy Eyes arrived in September, and serves as an excellent cozy alternative to the deeply scary games of this year.
A Unique Single-Player Cooperative Journey
Described as a single-player cooperative problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes teams up a zombie boy called Gloomy and a human girl called Nena as they embark on an quest to restore sunlight to their shadowy world. Their design is similar to stylized dolls combined with the characters from a Laika film. Their light-complected and baggy-eyed style borrows heavily from the appearance of Tim Burton’s films, and the story is a quintessential suitable for everyone adventure. These two forms an enduring friendship over the course of the game’s multiple stages as Nena tries to prove to her religious guardian that, look, possibly the undead are actually good.
Innovative Problem-Solving Features
This unique term comes about from the game’s world-based challenges. After Gloomy and Nena cross paths, gamers switch among the newfound friends to complete challenges and advance through the stages. Since he's not alive, Gloomy cannot pass through the light of a light source, while Nena can be captured by idle zombies without a beam is directed on them.
They have to work in tandem — in practice, you’ll use them simultaneously — to finish levels. Nena may move or briefly disable lights to open routes for Gloomy, while the thoughtful boy will use his zombie strength to shift around items in the world, revealing routes for Nena.
Captivating Environment Creation
The brain-teasers remind me a bit of The Gardens Between, in the way the areas are floating, diorama-like structures that the perspective moves across in conjunction with your characters. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are quite fun, leading the duo around a carnival and through a haunted house, amid other locales. There’s a “diorama view” feature that allows you to view from afar and spin the stages, simultaneously to enjoy the artwork and hunt for paths that may not have been obvious.
Slight Hiccups and Overall Gameplay
And that’s one of the only problems with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other titles with a fixed perspective, sometimes it's unclear where the characters are able to move. Gamers could require to simply collide with a few random objects 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 spooky-cute good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with about a few sessions worth of brain-teasers. Advanced areas combine subtle hidden movement and action elements with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a rewarding — and slightly unforeseen — ending.
Availability and Conclusion
Players shying away from the scares of terrifying titles should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Switch console, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Microsoft console, and is currently on sale for a discount on game marketplaces.
This charming title is available on various systems and offers a enjoyable choice for players looking for autumn enjoyment without intense scares.
