Not all autumn fright adventure has to scare you. Including beloved classics like animated detectives to delightful stories like Over the Garden Wall, plenty of Halloween-themed titles are enjoyable without needing causing fear. Moreover, a expanding collection of spooky-cute games including Halloween vibes, but not the sleep-with-the-lights-on level of fear. Gloomy Eyes arrived in September, and serves as an excellent relaxing choice to the intensely frightening releases of this year.
An Original Single-Player Cooperative Journey
Described as a “self-coop” brain-teaser, Gloomy Eyes unites a zombie boy named Gloomy and a mortal child called Nena as they embark on an quest to bring the sun back to their dark, dark world. They look resembles collectible figures combined with the puppets from a stop-motion animation. Their fair-toned and baggy-eyed aesthetic is influenced by the appearance of Tim Burton’s films, and the narrative is a quintessential family-friendly adventure. These two builds an enduring friendship over the span of the game’s multiple stages as Nena strives to prove to her priest uncle that, hey, possibly the undead aren’t half bad.
Creative Gameplay Systems
The “self-coop” description comes about from the game’s interactive problem-solving. Once Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, you’ll swap among the recent allies to complete challenges and progress through the stages. Being a zombie, Gloomy cannot pass through the brightness of a streetlight, while Nena can be captured by loitering creatures except if a beam is focused on them.
They must cooperate closely — well, you’ll use them together — to finish levels. Nena might relocate or momentarily deactivate illumination to clear paths for Gloomy, while the open-brained boy will employ his undead power to move items in the surroundings, creating ways for Nena.
Immersive World Building
The puzzles remind me a bit of The Gardens Between, in the manner the areas are suspended, model-like designs that the camera moves across in conjunction with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ settings are quite fun, leading the friends around a amusement park and through a ghostly building, including other locations. Players can use a “diorama view” button that allows you to pull back and turn the areas, both to admire the designs and look for routes that may not have been obvious.
Small Hiccups and Overall Adventure
This represents one of the only difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Comparable to other titles with a static view, sometimes it's unclear where the heroes may or may not travel. Gamers could require to just bump into a multiple different items to figure out which ones are usable, as the game doesn't always indicate.
Nonetheless, those slight challenges don't obstruct of a spooky-cute good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with roughly a few sessions worth of challenges. Later levels blend together subtle hidden movement and action elements with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a rewarding — and slightly unforeseen — finale.
Availability and Summary
Those shying away from the frights of fear-inducing releases ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. You can find it on Nintendo Switch, Sony system, Windows PC, and Microsoft console, and is currently on sale for 25% off on digital platforms.
This charming title is out now on multiple platforms and delivers a enjoyable choice for players looking for Halloween fun minus the intense scares.
