While 2023 is shaping up to be a pretty big year for horror games, the second half of the year is even more lacking in horror experiences even as horror season gets closer. While we’re still waiting to see when it will actually debut, one horror game planned for later this year is Pixelsplit’s Reveil, a first-person psychological thriller that hopes to tap into some truly terrifying aesthetics. how could I know? Because during my time at Gamescom 2023, I got a hands-off look at Reveil to see how it came to be.
This title is a bit like a cross between a puzzle room and a horror game. The environments, their aesthetics, and the overarching story are designed to be unsettling and creepy, but the actual gameplay is less about running away from monsters and killers and more about piecing together a psychological mystery. You move around the levels, completing smaller puzzles, unlocking access to new areas and areas, and at the same time, you must pick up narrative clues and hints that seem to unravel and explain what’s happening in the story.
In terms of how Pixelsplit does this, Reveil is set in a place that can best be described as a dreamland, where determining what is real and what isn’t is extremely challenging. One moment you’re wandering around a child’s bedroom, the next you’re in a circus, and while the two environments may seem very different, they are interconnected and relevant to the narrative with some very dark themes. The hands-off demo was just a glimpse into the story, as the developers didn’t want to spoil it too much, but it’s essentially about a man waking up disoriented and trying to determine what happened to his wife and daughter the night before.
If you’ve ever felt uncomfortable in the company of clowns and circus performers, Reveil will be terrifying for you. There is a very creepy nature to this game where you constantly feel insecure and on edge while wandering around, all because of the emptiness, lack of life, and abandoned level design. Even the most hospitable of locations like the house where the protagonist wakes up has an aura of despair, almost like in games like PT and Returnal where when you’re walking around a seemingly normal place, there’s A very cold atmosphere.
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On the other hand, the mini-games and puzzles look to alleviate the unsettling nature somewhat. Reveil isn’t a game where you just keep progressing through locations, getting jumpy as you go. No, you have to solve short puzzles to open the way. This might be exploring a room, looking for each small interactive object, each related to a wider clue, or even tinkering with circuit boards to power an area so you can play an arcade machine to gain access to everything you need to get through the turnstiles. required coins. The puzzles reminded me of The Room and the escape room challenges present in that title.
Pixelsplit tells me that Reveil will have five chapters to complete, and to increase the fear factor, there will be no combat in this game. Whenever danger arises, you want to escape from it. This isn’t a horror-style Resident Evil or Dead Space, it’s more akin to Outlast and The Medium, requiring you to run away from threats rather than fighting them like an action hero.
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While I haven’t actually gotten my hands on Reveil yet, what I saw at Gamescom definitely has me excited for this horror game. Hopefully it’ll be ready to debut in time for Halloween, as this could be a prime candidate for a game to scare the crap out of yourself on the scariest night of the year.
