Not each spooky season adventure must scare you. Including beloved classics like animated detectives to delightful stories including Over the Garden Wall, plenty of spooky-season titles are enjoyable without causing fear. Moreover, a growing library of eerie-charming games featuring spooky themes, though lacking the sleep-with-the-lights-on level of terror. Gloomy Eyes debuted in September, and acts as an outstanding cozy choice to the intensely frightening titles of the current season.
An Original Single-Player Cooperative Quest
Described as a “self-coop” brain-teaser, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a undead youth named Gloomy and a human girl named Nena as they start an quest to bring the sun back to their dark, dark realm. They look resembles collectible figures combined with the characters from a animated feature. The light-complected and heavy-lidded style draws inspiration from the visual style of Burtonesque cinema, and the plot is a quintessential family-friendly tale. The pair forms an enduring friendship over the duration of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena strives to show to her clerical relative that, hey, perhaps the undead are actually good.
Original Puzzle Mechanics
The “self-coop” label originates from the game’s environmental puzzles. After Gloomy and Nena cross paths, you’ll swap among the budding companions to overcome obstacles and progress through the areas. Since he's not alive, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the light of a lamppost, while Nena will get snatched up by loitering creatures without a light is shone on them.
They have to collaborate effectively — in practice, gamers operate them together — to advance through areas. Nena could adjust or briefly disable lights to open routes for Gloomy, while the open-brained boy will utilize his supernatural ability to move objects in the surroundings, revealing routes for Nena.
Engaging Level Design
The puzzles evoke memories a little of The Gardens Between, in the manner the stages are suspended, diorama-like structures that the camera pans around in conjunction with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are highly entertaining, taking the companions around a amusement park and through a spooky mansion, including other places. There’s a “diorama view” feature that enables you to view from afar and rotate the areas, simultaneously to appreciate the designs and hunt for paths that may not have been obvious.
Slight Issues and General Experience
Here lies one of the only difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Like other titles with a static view, it’s not always clear where the protagonists can and cannot go. Players might have to just bump into a multiple different items to determine which ones are usable, as it’s not always intuitive.
However, those minor challenges don’t get in the way of a spooky-cute good time. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with about a few sessions worth of challenges. Later levels combine subtle hidden movement and exciting moments with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a satisfying — and moderately unforeseen — conclusion.
Availability and Conclusion
Players avoiding the frights of fear-inducing releases ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. It’s available on Nintendo Switch, Sony system, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, and is presently discounted for 25% off on digital platforms.
This charming title is available on various systems and offers a pleasurable alternative for fans looking for Halloween fun minus the fear factor.
