Not every spooky season experience needs to terrify players. Including iconic favorites for example mystery-solving cartoons to delightful stories like Over the Garden Wall, plenty of autumn-inspired favorites provide fun without needing increasing anxiety. There’s also, a expanding collection of eerie-charming games with autumn atmosphere, but not the truly terrifying intensity of horror. Gloomy Eyes debuted in the fall, and serves as an excellent comfortable option to the truly terrifying games of this year.
A Unique Self-Coop Journey
Labeled as a single-player cooperative puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a living-impaired child known as Gloomy and a living girl known as Nena as they start an mission to bring the sun back to their dark, dark environment. Their design evokes stylized dolls combined with the figures from a animated feature. The fair-toned and baggy-eyed aesthetic is influenced by the visual style of Burtonesque cinema, and the plot is a classic family-friendly tale. The pair forms an enduring connection over the span of the game’s multiple stages as Nena tries to demonstrate to her priest uncle that, hey, possibly zombies are actually good.
Original Puzzle Mechanics
The “self-coop” term originates from the game’s environmental puzzles. When Gloomy and Nena cross paths, players alternate among the newfound friends to complete challenges and progress through the stages. As an undead, Gloomy cannot pass through the light of a lamppost, while Nena will get snatched up by idle zombies except if a lamp is directed on them.
They must cooperate closely — in practice, you’ll use them simultaneously — to advance through areas. Nena may move or momentarily deactivate lamps to open routes for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious character will utilize his supernatural ability to rearrange items in the world, opening up routes for Nena.
Immersive Level Design
The brain-teasers remind me a little of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the levels are floating, model-like designs that the perspective rotates in coordination with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ settings are highly entertaining, taking the duo around a amusement park and through a spooky mansion, amid other locations. The game includes a “diorama view” option that enables you to pull back and turn the areas, both for admire the designs and hunt for routes that may not have been apparent.
Small Issues and Complete Experience
Here lies one of the sole hiccups with Gloomy Eyes. Like other games with a fixed perspective, occasionally it's confusing where the heroes are able to move. Players might have to just bump into a several various elements to determine which ones are usable, as it’s not always intuitive.
However, those small challenges don’t get in the way of a spooky-cute fun adventure. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with roughly three to five hours worth of puzzles. Subsequent stages combine minor hidden movement and dynamic sequences with the problem-solving, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a fulfilling — and somewhat unforeseen — finale.
Availability and Conclusion
Gamers shying away from the scares of terrifying titles won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. It’s available on Nintendo Switch, PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X, and is currently on sale for 25% off on game marketplaces.
Gloomy Eyes is out now on various systems and offers a pleasurable option for fans seeking Halloween fun without fear factor.
