The Ghostly-Charming Brain-Teaser Serves as the Perfect Substitute to Halloween Horror

Not all Halloween horror journey must frighten you. Including beloved classics for example animated detectives to endearing shows including Over the Garden Wall, numerous autumn-inspired favorites offer entertainment without requiring raising your heart rate. Moreover, a expanding collection of ghostly-adorable games featuring autumn atmosphere, yet without the truly terrifying intensity of fear. Gloomy Eyes debuted in September, and serves as an excellent relaxing choice to the intensely frightening releases of the current season.

The game visual
Visual: ARTE France, Production Team, Design Group, Be Revolution/Untold Tales

A Unique Single-Player Cooperative Adventure

Known as a single-player cooperative puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes unites a living-impaired child named Gloomy and a living girl called Nena as they start an quest to return daylight to their gloomy world. Their design resembles Funko Pops combined with the puppets from a stop-motion animation. The light-complected and baggy-eyed appearance borrows heavily from the look of Tim Burton’s films, and the narrative is a quintessential family-friendly journey. These two builds an unbreakable bond over the duration of the game’s numerous levels as Nena strives to show to her religious guardian that, look, perhaps the undead are actually good.

Creative Gameplay Systems

The innovative term stems from the game’s interactive problem-solving. When Gloomy and Nena cross paths, players alternate between the newfound friends to solve puzzles and advance through the stages. As an undead, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the brightness of a light source, while Nena may be grabbed by loitering creatures unless a light is shone on them.

They must cooperate closely — actually, you’ll use them simultaneously — to complete stages. Nena may move or momentarily deactivate illumination to clear paths for Gloomy, while the thoughtful boy will employ his undead power to shift around items in the surroundings, creating paths for Nena.

This adventure screenshot
Screenshot: ARTE France, Production Team, 3DAR, Publishers

Immersive World Building

The brain-teasers evoke memories a touch of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the areas are suspended, diorama-like structures that the camera pans around in coordination with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are highly entertaining, leading the duo around a carnival and through a haunted house, amid other locales. There’s a “diorama view” option that permits you to pull back and turn the stages, both for appreciate the visuals and hunt for routes that may not have been apparent.

Small Challenges and Overall Gameplay

Here lies one of the only hiccups with Gloomy Eyes. Like other releases with a fixed perspective, sometimes it's unclear where the characters are able to move. Gamers could require to just bump into a few random objects to figure out which ones are interactive, as it’s not always intuitive.

Nevertheless, those slight speedbumps don’t get in the way of a spooky-cute enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with approximately a few sessions worth of puzzles. Subsequent stages blend together minor stealth and exciting moments with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a rewarding — and slightly unexpected — conclusion.

Release and Summary

Those steering clear of the scares of fear-inducing titles ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. It’s available on Nintendo Switch, Sony system, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, and is currently on sale for a quarter off on digital platforms.

Gloomy Eyes has been released on several consoles and offers a pleasurable alternative for players seeking autumn enjoyment minus the terrifying moments.

Taylor Gutierrez
Taylor Gutierrez

A Dutch financial analyst passionate about helping expats and locals navigate personal finance in the Netherlands.