Not every Halloween horror adventure has to terrify players. From well-known tales for example animated detectives to delightful stories including Over the Garden Wall, numerous spooky-season titles offer entertainment without raising your heart rate. Additionally, a growing library of eerie-charming releases featuring autumn atmosphere, but not the truly terrifying level of fear. Gloomy Eyes arrived in September, and serves as an outstanding relaxing option to the truly terrifying releases of the current season.
A Unique Single-Player Cooperative Quest
Known as a “self-coop” problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a living-impaired child known as Gloomy and a living girl known as Nena as they embark on an adventure to return daylight to their shadowy realm. Their appearance evokes Funko Pops combined with the figures from a stop-motion animation. The fair-toned and baggy-eyed appearance borrows heavily from the appearance of Tim Burton’s films, and the plot is a quintessential all-ages journey. These two builds an strong friendship over the span of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena tries to show to her priest uncle that, look, perhaps the undead are actually good.
Innovative Gameplay Systems
The innovative label stems from the game’s environmental puzzles. Once Gloomy and Nena cross paths, gamers switch between the recent allies to solve puzzles and advance through the levels. As an undead, Gloomy cannot pass through the illumination of a light source, while Nena can be captured by loitering creatures unless a lamp is focused on them.
They must work in tandem — well, players control them in tandem — to finish levels. Nena might relocate or briefly disable lights to clear paths for Gloomy, while the open-brained youth will employ his undead power to rearrange objects in the environment, opening up paths for Nena.
Captivating Level Design
The brain-teasers evoke memories a little of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the areas are floating, model-like designs that the perspective pans around in coordination with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ settings are highly entertaining, leading the friends around a carnival and through a spooky mansion, among other places. The game includes a “diorama view” feature that allows you to view from afar and rotate the areas, both to admire the artwork and search for paths that may not have been obvious.
Small Challenges and Overall Gameplay
This represents one of the only hiccups with Gloomy Eyes. Like other titles with a locked camera, sometimes it's unclear where the characters can and cannot go. Players might have to just bump into a several various elements to determine which ones are interactable, as the game doesn't always indicate.
However, those minor challenges don't hinder of a spooky-cute fun adventure. Gloomy Eyes is relatively brief, with roughly several hours worth of challenges. Later levels combine subtle sneaking and dynamic sequences with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a rewarding — and slightly unexpected — finale.
Availability and Final Thoughts
Players shying away from the terror of terrifying titles should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Microsoft console, and is currently on sale for 25% off on online stores.
This charming title is out now on multiple platforms and offers a pleasurable option for fans looking for autumn enjoyment without the fear factor.
