Not every spooky season journey has to frighten you. Starting with iconic favorites like Scooby-Doo to charming series like Over the Garden Wall, many Halloween-themed titles offer entertainment without increasing anxiety. There’s also, a growing library of spooky-cute releases with autumn atmosphere, but not the sleep-with-the-lights-on level of terror. Gloomy Eyes arrived in recent months, and acts as an outstanding cozy option to the truly terrifying titles of the current season.
An Original Self-Coop Journey
Described as a “self-coop” problem-solving title, Gloomy Eyes unites a living-impaired child known as Gloomy and a living girl called Nena as they start an adventure to bring the sun back to their dark, dark world. Their appearance resembles Funko Pops mixed with the characters from a stop-motion animation. Their pale-skinned and heavy-lidded aesthetic is influenced by the appearance of Tim Burton’s films, and the story is a classic family-friendly journey. These two builds an unbreakable friendship over the span of the game’s numerous levels as Nena tries to show to her priest uncle that, look, possibly living-impaired beings can be friendly.
Original Gameplay Systems
The “self-coop” description comes about from the game’s environmental puzzles. After Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, gamers switch between the budding companions to complete challenges and move forward through the levels. Since he's not alive, Gloomy is unable to traverse through the brightness of a lamppost, while Nena can be captured by idle zombies without a lamp is directed on them.
They must work in tandem — actually, players control them in tandem — to complete stages. Nena might relocate or momentarily deactivate lights to create passages for Gloomy, while the open-brained character will use his zombie strength to rearrange items in the surroundings, opening up ways for Nena.
Captivating World Building
The puzzles bring to mind a little of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the areas are floating, miniature designs that the camera moves across in coordination with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ worlds are highly entertaining, taking the companions around a fair and through a spooky mansion, amid other places. There’s a “diorama view” feature that allows you to zoom out and turn the levels, simultaneously to enjoy the visuals and look for routes that may not have been clear.
Slight Issues and General Gameplay
And that’s one of the only difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other games with a locked camera, it’s not always clear where the protagonists can and cannot go. Players might have to simply collide with a several various objects to figure out which ones are interactive, as it’s not always intuitive.
Nonetheless, those small obstacles don’t get in the way of a ghostly-charming enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with about a few sessions worth of challenges. Advanced areas blend together minor stealth and dynamic sequences with the problem-solving, as Gloomy Eyes advances to a satisfying — and moderately surprising — conclusion.
Release and Conclusion
Those shying away from the frights of intense horror games won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. The game is out on Nintendo platform, PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox, and is available at a reduced price for a discount on online stores.
The spooky-cute adventure is out now on various systems and provides a delightful option for gamers in search of spooky entertainment minus the fear factor.
