Not every Halloween horror journey must frighten you. Including iconic favorites for example mystery-solving cartoons to delightful stories including Over the Garden Wall, numerous spooky-season staples offer entertainment without increasing anxiety. There’s also, a growing library of ghostly-adorable games including Halloween vibes, yet without the sleep-with-the-lights-on level of fear. Gloomy Eyes arrived in recent months, and acts as an excellent comfortable choice to the truly terrifying titles of the current season.
A Unique Self-Coop Journey
Known as a solo collaboration puzzle game, Gloomy Eyes unites a living-impaired child known as Gloomy and a human girl known as Nena as they start an adventure to return daylight to their shadowy world. Their design resembles collectible figures mixed with the figures from a Laika film. Their light-complected and heavy-lidded style borrows heavily from the appearance of Tim Burton’s films, and the plot is a archetypal all-ages journey. The duo develops an unbreakable bond over the duration of the game’s numerous levels as Nena attempts to show to her clerical relative that, you know, perhaps zombies are actually good.
Original Puzzle Mechanics
This unique label comes about from the game’s world-based challenges. After Gloomy and Nena encounter each other, players alternate among the newfound friends to overcome obstacles and advance through the levels. As an undead, Gloomy can’t walk through the illumination of a streetlight, while Nena will get snatched up by wandering undead unless a light is shone on them.
They have to collaborate effectively — in practice, gamers operate them together — to finish levels. Nena could adjust or temporarily shut off lamps to create passages for Gloomy, while the intellectually curious youth will use his zombie strength to shift around obstacles in the world, revealing ways for Nena.
Engaging World Building
The puzzles remind me a bit of The Gardens Between, in the way the areas are floating, model-like structures that the perspective pans around in coordination with your characters. Gloomy Eyes’ settings are very enjoyable, guiding the companions around a carnival and through a ghostly building, among other locales. Players can use a “diorama view” button that enables you to pull back and turn the areas, both for enjoy the artwork and search for paths that may not have been obvious.
Slight Challenges and General Adventure
And that’s one of the few difficulties with Gloomy Eyes. Like other titles with a static view, sometimes it's unclear where the protagonists can and cannot go. You may need to just bump into a multiple different elements to discover which ones are interactive, as clues aren't consistently provided.
Nonetheless, those small obstacles don’t get in the way of a spooky-cute good time. Gloomy Eyes runs on the short side, with roughly a few sessions worth of challenges. Advanced areas integrate light sneaking and dynamic sequences with the puzzle solving, as Gloomy Eyes marches toward a rewarding — and moderately unexpected — ending.
Availability and Final Thoughts
Players avoiding the terror of terrifying games won’t want to miss Gloomy Eyes. You can find it on Nintendo platform, PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X, and is currently on sale for 25% off on digital platforms.
This charming title is out now on multiple platforms and provides a pleasurable choice for players looking for Halloween fun minus the terrifying moments.
