The first of Blumhouse Games’ newly introduced slate, Fear The Spotlight guarantees throwback horror with a extra approachable tackle PS1-era horror gameplay designed for non-horror followers to get pleasure from. Set on the evening of a break-in gone mistaken, this story follows two excessive schoolers on an evening they received’t quickly overlook as they unravel their faculty’s darkish previous.
Fear The Spotlight follows a pattern that has but to get previous in that it seems rather a lot like an up to date PS1 sport. Chunky character fashions carrying low-resolution textures and a CRT filter might need you consider that it is a misplaced sport from the late ‘90s. But don’t let its homage for bygone video games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil mislead you – Fear The Spotlight is not any hole nostalgia journey. Wandering across the faculty’s dim halls reveals a free digital camera, fashionable lighting programs, and most significantly, modernized controls.
Sunnyside High can get fairly spooky after hours. The high-pitched whir of safety cameras and exaggerated creak of each door make every part only a bit extra tense; you by no means know who or what may very well be across the subsequent nook, with nearly sure detention threatening any misstep. Ducking beneath desks to keep away from the watchful eye of a rotating safety digital camera or working from room to room exploring empty halls feels easy and responsive. Overall, Fear The Spotlight appears intent on avoiding a whole lot of the pitfalls that maintain its predecessors in the present day, as a substitute letting its story and mechanics shine in their very own proper.
That story reveals immense promise. The half-hour demo I performed adopted two women: Vivian and Amy. The image of an ideal pupil, Vivian’s hesitant strategy to their quest to interrupt into the college’s library and carry out a seance utilizing a Ouija Board-like Spirit Board paints her because the goody-two-shoes foil to the rebellious and morose Amy. This punky goth child is continually pushing Vivian exterior of her consolation zone. Meanwhile, one thing’s not fairly proper with Amy, nevertheless it’s laborious to care… Her dynamic with Vivian was so compelling throughout the first half-hour of the sport that every one I wished to do was see what occurred subsequent, it doesn’t matter what the implications had been.
We be taught that a long time prior, Sunnyside High had a hearth that claimed dozens of scholars’ lives. The ghost of those victims loomed over the college’s library as I discovered my means into the librarian’s workplace, fished the important thing for a show case out of their desk, and ultimately freed the ‘Spirit Board’ from its glass jail. Small interactions like transferring the Spirit Board’s planchette myself revealed simply how a lot love and care has gone into constructing this expertise with a number of dialog timber and responses to my trickery earlier than ending the seance with an abrupt shock as Amy was seemingly possessed. Suddenly, the college began shifting, turning the acquainted library into one thing else fully because the hallway emitted a brilliant gentle, making a regarding silhouette.
A mysterious letter for Amy sits in Vivian’s stock. Its imprecise description, which hints on the hopes of giving it to her on the finish of their journey that evening, provides an additional layer of stress of one other variety; one which’s the proper mix of teenage pining and worry of what may come between Vivian and making her confession.
Interestingly, this primary challenge from husband and spouse duo Cozy Game Pals already launched on Steam in 2023 earlier than the pair pulled it from storefronts following their cope with Blumhouse Games with a purpose to add extra into the sport. Cozy Game Pals promised me that this up to date model of Fear The Spotlight is getting about two extra hours’ value of content material, in accordance with their estimates. Given how detailed the primary part was, I’m assured that the brand new additions to this short-but-sweet-seeming expertise can be simply as detailed as the unique launch when it comes out on PC and consoles someday later this 12 months.
Fear The Spotlight units up an incredible premise for a horror sport. With well-realized characters in a enjoyable, trope-y premise, Cozy Game Pals teased one thing with numerous potential on this demo. Although I want I had the chance to see extra of the puzzle and exploration mechanics, its story has me actually excited—and scared—to see what occurs subsequent.
