There is something about most commonly empty city facilities in the United States that depresses me and disturbs my soul. On every occasion I talk over with circle of relatives within the States and in finding myself in a derelict buying groceries plaza or any other position suffering from The usa’s miserable sense of architectural making plans and overreliance on automobiles, I will be able to’t assist however really feel a way of dread.
Satan’s Hideout, some extent and click on horror sport made by means of indie dev Cosmic Void, takes position in a single such deserted American town, and manages to ship in this sense of dread despite the fact that its eerie hellscape is tough across the edges.
The sport casts you as Lauren, who is making an attempt to rescue her lacking sister from cultists. Lauren’s adventure begins in a clinic, however beautiful quickly the entire unnamed town seems to be the titular “Satan’s Hideout,” and unexplained creepiness begins going on with nice gusto. Skeletal hands pop from partitions, corpses grasp from fishhooks in a neighborhood butchery, and our bodies are both driven from rooftops or seem in mounds with their eyeballs gouged out. Even Pennywise from It – sorry, a clown who simply appears to be like and talks like Pennywise – makes a random look.
“Random look” is an apt word to explain a large number of the gimmicks within the sport’s plot, which is communicated by means of first rate however no longer impressive indie voice appearing. There are hints that Lauren will have performed a deeper position in her sister’s disappearance in addition to the cult’s shenanigans, and I used to be midway anticipating the town to be a ruined depiction of Lauren’s fractured psyche, or any other Silent Hill-esque relevation. We do not get that, as Satan’s Hideout is as a substitute content material to toss a seize bag of items taken from horror media on the participant with out bothering with a lot connective tissue. Insert a smidgeon of The Shining right here, upload a splash of Lovecraft there. Even one of the crucial extra unlucky tropes found in horror movies emerge, as (spoiler a couple of persona dying incoming) the one obtrusive consumer of color within the sport is the primary to die.
The aforementioned Pennywise impersonator is a specifically just right instance of this sport’s gumbo pot stylings, as he simply kinda displays up with out clarification to ship exposition and arrange two puzzles. This scattershot presentation of plot threads jogs my memory of the final Cosmic Void sport that I reviewed right here on RPS: the Area Quest-style throwback Tachyon Goals Anthology. That sport dabbled with time commute and house comedy in some way that used to be tremendous, however did not all the time hit the mark in a cohesive method. Satan’s Hideout falls into the similar lure, however I will be able to say that this time, it is more uncomplicated to excuse. It is a horror sport, in the end, and horror does not all the time wish to be defined or tied in combination. Through no longer doing so, the sport felt even extra surreal to me, despite the fact that I am not certain if all gamers might be as forgiving.
And that surreal nature is augmented by means of an odd interface. The sport’s scenes are offered in a first-person standpoint the place you have to click on on stuff across the display to engage with it, no longer dissimilar to a hidden object sport. You’ll be able to press a button to spotlight all interactable items, which I preferred, and there is a little stock phase within the left nook. At the uncommon instance when Lauren meets a interactable NPC, that NPC displays up to your stock as an “merchandise” that you’ll use with different pieces, which is a neat selection.
I most often choose a third-person standpoint for journey video games, however this setup is valuable when Satan’s Hideout throws you into darkened displays, illuminated handiest by means of the round glow of Lauren’s flashlight. Get ready for numerous jumpscares as creepy manifestations spring from your flashlight’s glow at surprising durations, and also you will have to additionally be expecting speaking heads on the backside of the display on every occasion there is discussion. You spot this in maximum oldschool journey video games, however not like say, King’s Quest VI, there is no border round those half-body portraits, and they have a tendency to throw off the standpoint of the whole lot else once they seem.
That is particularly obvious when Lauren’s little portrait is juxtaposed in opposition to the large face of a very powerful NPC within the centre of the display. I am maximum reminded of Name of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet, a 1993 journey by means of Infogrames that feels so much like Satan’s Hideout, from its garish graphical genre to the reliance on extremely detailed faces plastered over the display, together with ones in keeping with actors’ likenesses. (Cross seek for screenshots of Shadow of the Comet and bask within the speaking head who appears to be like suspiciously like Jack Nicholson.)
Whether or not you just like the graphical alternatives that have been made or no longer, there is no denying that the sport is expertly drawn. In relation to the puzzles, despite the fact that, be expecting a point of obfuscation. I am not announcing that anything else here’s as flabbergasting as Gabriel Knight 3’s notorious “use cat fur and maple syrup to create a false mustache” puzzle, however a few of ’em come dangerously shut. Pieces seem in surprising puts (why is there a telescope embedded in a corpse’s guts?) and also you will have to additionally get in a position to click on on as many stuff as you’ll till you in finding the correct merchandise aggregate. Simply as there is no longer a lot inner common sense connecting the horror subject matters right here, there is little common sense to the puzzles, alas.
However, Satan’s Hideout nonetheless has a compelling environment that makes me omit its flaws. In its maximum evocative moments, it jogged my memory of a Stephen King tale, and I am not simply regarding the Pennywise cameo. A town that is misplaced all of its healthy Americana and fallen to evil is solely one thing that King would write about, despite the fact that Satan’s Hideout would most certainly be a type of ’80s King paperbacks the place he used to be coked up and in want of a higher editor. Like Kathy Rain, any other level and click on that had a large number of random horror stuff taking place at the back of the scenes, I believe like Satan’s Hideout may take pleasure in a director’s reduce at a later date to assist flesh out the bits I favored and hammer down the portions I did not. There is super doable at play within the alleyways of this city hell, in different phrases, and despite the fact that it used to be imperfect, I ended Satan’s Hideout short of extra – which isn’t one thing I have ever desired from an deserted American town ever ahead of.
This assessment is in keeping with a assessment construct of the sport supplied by means of the developer.
