Not each Halloween horror journey has to scare gamers. Including well-known tales for example mystery-solving cartoons to delightful stories including Over the Garden Wall, many autumn-inspired favorites provide fun without needing raising your heart rate. There’s also, a growing library of eerie-charming titles featuring Halloween vibes, yet without the truly terrifying level of terror. Gloomy Eyes arrived in September, and acts as an superb cozy choice to the deeply scary releases of this year.
An Original Collaborative Solo Quest
Labeled as a solo collaboration puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes unites a zombie boy called Gloomy and a living girl known as Nena as they start an quest to bring the sun back to their gloomy realm. Their appearance resembles stylized dolls blended with the figures from a Laika film. The light-complected and baggy-eyed style draws inspiration from the look of Gothic fantasy movies, and the plot is a quintessential all-ages journey. These two forms an enduring friendship over the duration of the game’s multiple stages as Nena attempts to prove to her religious guardian that, you know, maybe living-impaired beings are actually good.
Innovative Gameplay Systems
The innovative term stems from the game’s interactive problem-solving. When Gloomy and Nena meet, you’ll swap among the newfound friends to solve puzzles and progress through the levels. Being a zombie, Gloomy cannot pass through the brightness of a streetlight, while Nena can be captured by idle zombies without a lamp is directed on them.
They have to collaborate effectively — well, players control them simultaneously — to advance through areas. Nena might relocate or briefly disable illumination to create passages for Gloomy, while the thoughtful youth will employ his undead power to rearrange obstacles in the environment, revealing paths for Nena.
Engaging Level Design
These challenges evoke memories a touch of The Gardens Between, in the way the levels are floating, miniature structures that the perspective pans around in sync with your protagonists. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are quite fun, guiding the friends around a fair and through a spooky mansion, including other locales. Players can use a “diorama view” button that enables you to zoom out and spin the stages, simultaneously to appreciate the designs and hunt for routes that may not have been obvious.
Minor Issues and General Adventure
And that’s one of the few hiccups with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other games with a fixed perspective, it’s not always clear where the characters are able to move. Players might have to simply collide with a few random items to figure out which ones are interactable, as the game doesn't always indicate.
Nonetheless, those slight obstacles don't obstruct of a ghostly-charming fun adventure. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with about three to five hours worth of puzzles. Later levels blend together minor sneaking and dynamic sequences with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a satisfying — and moderately unforeseen — finale.
Accessibility and Summary
Those steering clear of the terror of fear-inducing games ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. It’s available on Switch console, PlayStation 5, PC, and Xbox Series X, and is available at a reduced price for a discount on game marketplaces.
The spooky-cute adventure is out now on several consoles and delivers a delightful choice for fans in search of spooky entertainment minus the intense scares.
