Not every Halloween horror adventure has to terrify players. Including iconic favorites such as animated detectives to endearing shows such as Over the Garden Wall, plenty of spooky-season titles offer entertainment without needing causing fear. Moreover, a expanding collection of ghostly-adorable titles including spooky themes, though lacking the truly terrifying intensity of fear. Gloomy Eyes arrived in recent months, and serves as an superb cozy option to the deeply scary releases of this year.
A Distinctive Collaborative Solo Adventure
Labeled as a solo collaboration brain-teaser, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a living-impaired child called Gloomy and a human girl named Nena as they embark on an quest to return daylight to their dark, dark realm. Their appearance evokes stylized dolls mixed with the characters from a animated feature. Their fair-toned and heavy-lidded style is influenced by the visual style of Burtonesque cinema, and the plot is a quintessential family-friendly adventure. The duo develops an strong bond over the span of the game’s 14 chapters as Nena attempts to prove to her clerical relative that, look, perhaps the undead aren’t half bad.
Innovative Problem-Solving Features
The “self-coop” term stems from the game’s interactive problem-solving. Once Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, players alternate among the budding companions to overcome obstacles and progress through the levels. As an undead, Gloomy can’t walk through the illumination of a lamppost, while Nena can be captured by wandering undead without a lamp is focused on them.
It's necessary for them to work in tandem — well, players control them simultaneously — to finish levels. Nena may move or momentarily deactivate lights to create passages for Gloomy, while the open-brained boy will utilize his supernatural ability to move objects in the world, creating ways for Nena.
Captivating Level Design
The puzzles evoke memories a bit of The Gardens Between, in the way the areas are floating, miniature constructions that the perspective pans around in coordination with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are quite fun, taking the friends around a carnival and through a ghostly building, amid other places. There’s a “diorama view” feature that allows you to view from afar and rotate the stages, both to enjoy the artwork and search for routes that may not have been clear.
Small Challenges and Overall Adventure
This represents one of the only problems with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other games with a locked camera, it’s not always clear where the heroes can and cannot go. You may need to randomly encounter a several various elements to figure out which ones are usable, as it’s not always intuitive.
However, those slight speedbumps don’t get in the way of a ghostly-charming enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with approximately a few sessions worth of challenges. Advanced areas combine light stealth and action elements with the problem-solving, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a satisfying — and somewhat unexpected — finale.
Release and Conclusion
Players shying away from the terror of fear-inducing releases won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Switch console, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, and is presently discounted for a discount on digital platforms.
Gloomy Eyes is available on several consoles and delivers a delightful option for fans in search of Halloween fun without the fear factor.
