Not each spooky season journey needs to frighten you. From iconic favorites such as animated detectives to delightful stories such as Over the Garden Wall, numerous autumn-inspired favorites provide fun without needing raising your heart rate. Additionally, a growing library of ghostly-adorable titles including spooky themes, but not the sleep-with-the-lights-on level of horror. Gloomy Eyes arrived in the fall, and stands as an superb cozy choice to the intensely frightening releases of this year.
An Original Collaborative Solo Adventure
Described as a single-player cooperative problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes unites a living-impaired child named Gloomy and a human girl called Nena as they begin an mission to bring the sun back to their dark, dark realm. Their design resembles stylized dolls mixed with the puppets from a animated feature. Their pale-skinned and heavy-lidded appearance is influenced by the appearance of Gothic fantasy movies, and the story is a archetypal all-ages adventure. The duo builds an unbreakable bond over the span of the game’s numerous levels as Nena tries to prove to her clerical relative that, hey, possibly living-impaired beings are actually good.
Original Gameplay Systems
The innovative label comes about from the game’s world-based challenges. After Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, gamers switch amidst the budding companions to overcome obstacles and move forward through the stages. Being a zombie, Gloomy can’t walk through the brightness of a lamppost, while Nena can be captured by loitering creatures without a lamp is directed on them.
It's necessary for them to work in tandem — well, you’ll use them together — to complete stages. Nena might relocate or briefly disable lights to open routes for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious youth will utilize his supernatural ability to rearrange objects in the environment, opening up paths for Nena.
Engaging Level Design
The puzzles remind me a bit of The Gardens Between, in the way the areas are hovering, diorama-like structures that the perspective moves across in conjunction with your characters. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are highly entertaining, leading the companions around a amusement park and through a ghostly building, including other places. Players can use a “diorama view” button that allows you to zoom out and spin the levels, simultaneously to enjoy the visuals and hunt for routes that may not have been obvious.
Minor Hiccups and Overall Gameplay
This represents one of the few hiccups with Gloomy Eyes. Comparable to other releases with a static view, occasionally it's confusing where the heroes may or may not travel. Players might have to just bump into a multiple different items to determine which ones are interactable, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nevertheless, those small challenges don’t get in the way of a spooky-cute enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes has a compact length, with roughly a few sessions worth of challenges. Subsequent stages integrate minor stealth and dynamic sequences with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a fulfilling — and somewhat unforeseen — ending.
Availability and Summary
Gamers shying away from the scares of intense horror titles ought to experience Gloomy Eyes. You can find it on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Microsoft console, and is presently discounted for a quarter off on online stores.
The spooky-cute adventure is available on various systems and offers a enjoyable option for players in search of autumn enjoyment without intense scares.
