The Ghostly-Charming Puzzler Serves as the Ideal Alternative to Spooky Scares

Not each Halloween horror journey needs to terrify gamers. Including iconic favorites for example mystery-solving cartoons to delightful stories such as Over the Garden Wall, plenty of spooky-season favorites provide fun without needing increasing anxiety. There’s also, a increasing selection of spooky-cute releases with Halloween vibes, yet without the keep-you-awake level of terror. Gloomy Eyes debuted in September, and acts as an superb comfortable option to the intensely frightening games of the current season.

Gloomy Eyes screenshot
Image: Creators, ATLAS V, Design Group, Publishers

A Distinctive Collaborative Solo Quest

Labeled as a single-player cooperative puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes teams up a zombie boy called Gloomy and a living girl called Nena as they embark on an adventure to return daylight to their gloomy world. Their design is similar to stylized dolls blended with the characters from a stop-motion animation. The light-complected and tired-looking style borrows heavily from the visual style of Burtonesque cinema, and the story is a quintessential family-friendly adventure. These two builds an unbreakable connection over the span of the game’s multiple stages as Nena attempts to show to her religious guardian that, you know, maybe living-impaired beings aren’t half bad.

Creative Puzzle Mechanics

The innovative term originates from the game’s environmental puzzles. When Gloomy and Nena cross paths, players alternate among the newfound friends to complete challenges and move forward through the stages. As an undead, Gloomy can’t walk through the brightness of a streetlight, while Nena may be grabbed by idle zombies without a lamp is focused on them.

They have to collaborate effectively — actually, you’ll use them in tandem — to complete stages. Nena could adjust or temporarily shut off lights to clear paths for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious character will employ his undead power to move obstacles in the environment, revealing routes for Nena.

The game visual
Image: Developers, Production Team, 3DAR, Publishers

Captivating Level Design

The brain-teasers bring to mind a bit of The Gardens Between, in the fashion the stages are floating, model-like constructions that the view pans around in sync with your heroes. Gloomy Eyes’ environments are highly entertaining, taking the companions around a fair and through a spooky mansion, among other places. There’s a “diorama view” option that allows you to zoom out and rotate the areas, simultaneously to appreciate the visuals and look for paths that may not have been clear.

Slight Challenges and General Gameplay

Here lies one of the sole hiccups with Gloomy Eyes. Similar to other titles with a locked camera, it’s not always clear where the protagonists may or may not travel. Gamers could require to randomly encounter a several various objects to determine which ones are interactable, as clues aren't consistently provided.

However, those small obstacles don't obstruct of a eerie-adorable enjoyable experience. Gloomy Eyes is relatively brief, with about several hours worth of puzzles. Subsequent stages blend together light sneaking and action elements with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes progresses to a rewarding — and moderately surprising — conclusion.

Release and Conclusion

Gamers shying away from the frights of fear-inducing releases should definitely try Gloomy Eyes. You can find it on Switch console, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Microsoft console, and is presently discounted for a discount on digital platforms.

The spooky-cute adventure is out now on several consoles and offers a enjoyable choice for fans seeking Halloween fun minus the terrifying moments.

Sara Gonzales
Sara Gonzales

A tech enthusiast and digital strategist with over a decade of experience in analyzing emerging technologies and their impact on society.