Not every spooky season journey has to scare players. Starting with beloved classics like Scooby-Doo to delightful stories including Over the Garden Wall, plenty of Halloween-themed staples are enjoyable without needing raising your heart rate. There’s also, a expanding collection of spooky-cute releases featuring autumn atmosphere, yet without the sleep-with-the-lights-on level of terror. Gloomy Eyes was released in recent months, and acts as an outstanding cozy alternative to the intensely frightening releases of the current season.
A Unique Self-Coop Adventure
Known as a “self-coop” brain-teaser, Gloomy Eyes pairs up a zombie boy known as Gloomy and a human girl called Nena as they begin an quest to return daylight to their dark, dark world. Their design is similar to stylized dolls blended with the puppets from a animated feature. Their pale-skinned and baggy-eyed aesthetic borrows heavily from the appearance of Gothic fantasy movies, and the plot is a quintessential family-friendly tale. The duo builds an enduring bond over the course of the game’s numerous levels as Nena strives to show to her religious guardian that, you know, perhaps living-impaired beings can be friendly.
Original Gameplay Systems
The innovative label comes about from the game’s environmental puzzles. When Gloomy and Nena cross paths, players alternate amidst the recent allies to solve puzzles and progress through the areas. Since he's not alive, Gloomy can’t walk through the light of a lamppost, while Nena may be grabbed by loitering creatures without a beam is focused on them.
They must collaborate effectively — in practice, players control them together — to finish levels. Nena might relocate or temporarily shut off illumination to create passages for Gloomy, while the open-brained character will employ his undead power to rearrange items in the world, revealing ways for Nena.
Engaging World Building
The brain-teasers bring to mind a little of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the levels are floating, diorama-like designs that the perspective moves across in sync with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are highly entertaining, leading the duo around a amusement park and through a haunted house, among other locations. The game includes a “diorama view” feature that enables you to pull back and spin the levels, both to appreciate the designs and hunt for ways that may not have been apparent.
Slight Hiccups and Complete Gameplay
Here lies one of the only difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Like other releases with a static view, occasionally it's confusing where the heroes are able to move. Gamers could require to just bump into a several various items to determine which ones are interactable, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nonetheless, those small speedbumps don't hinder of a ghostly-charming enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes is relatively brief, with approximately several hours worth of brain-teasers. Later levels integrate light sneaking and action elements with the challenge completion, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a fulfilling — and moderately unforeseen — ending.
Availability and Final Thoughts
Gamers avoiding the frights of intense horror games should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. You can find it on Nintendo Switch, PS5, computer, and Microsoft console, and is presently discounted for a discount on game marketplaces.
The spooky-cute adventure is available on multiple platforms and provides a pleasurable choice for fans seeking spooky entertainment minus the intense scares.