Not all spooky season adventure must frighten you. From well-known tales for example Scooby-Doo to delightful stories like Over the Garden Wall, many Halloween-themed staples provide fun without requiring raising your heart rate. There’s also, a expanding collection of spooky-cute titles featuring autumn atmosphere, yet without the keep-you-awake level of fear. Gloomy Eyes was released in the fall, and acts as an outstanding comfortable alternative to the truly terrifying games of the current season.
An Original Collaborative Solo Adventure
Labeled as a “self-coop” puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes unites a undead youth called Gloomy and a human girl named Nena as they begin an quest to return daylight to their dark, dark realm. They look resembles stylized dolls combined with the characters from a stop-motion animation. The light-complected and heavy-lidded aesthetic borrows heavily from the look of Tim Burton’s films, and the narrative is a archetypal all-ages journey. The duo develops an enduring friendship over the course of the game’s multiple stages as Nena strives to demonstrate to her priest uncle that, hey, perhaps the undead aren’t half bad.
Original Problem-Solving Features
This unique label stems from the game’s world-based challenges. Once Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, you’ll swap between the budding companions to complete challenges and progress through the levels. Since he's not alive, Gloomy cannot pass through the illumination of a lamppost, while Nena can be captured by idle zombies except if a light is shone on them.
They must work in tandem — in practice, players control them in tandem — to advance through areas. Nena could adjust or briefly disable lamps to create passages for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious youth will use his zombie strength to shift around obstacles in the surroundings, creating routes for Nena.
Immersive Level Design
The brain-teasers remind me a little of The Gardens Between, in the way the levels are floating, miniature structures that the perspective pans around in coordination with your protagonists. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are quite fun, leading the friends around a fair and through a ghostly building, among other locations. The game includes a “diorama view” feature that enables you to pull back and spin the stages, simultaneously to admire the visuals and search for paths that may not have been clear.
Slight Challenges and Overall Adventure
Here lies one of the only difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Like other titles with a static view, occasionally it's confusing where the heroes may or may not travel. You may need to simply collide with a few random items to determine which ones are interactive, as clues aren't consistently provided.
Nonetheless, those slight obstacles don’t get in the way of a ghostly-charming enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with about several hours worth of puzzles. Subsequent stages integrate minor sneaking and action elements with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a rewarding — and moderately unforeseen — ending.
Availability and Summary
Those shying away from the frights of terrifying titles ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, and is presently discounted for a discount on game marketplaces.
This charming title has been released on various systems and provides a pleasurable choice for players seeking Halloween fun without terrifying moments.
