The primary of Blumhouse Video games’ newly introduced slate, Concern The Highlight 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 incorrect, this story follows two excessive schoolers on an evening they gained’t quickly overlook as they unravel their faculty’s darkish previous.
Concern The Highlight follows a pattern that has but to get previous in that it appears to be like quite a bit like an up to date PS1 recreation. Chunky character fashions carrying low-resolution textures and a CRT filter might need you consider that it is a misplaced recreation from the late ‘90s. However don’t let its homage for bygone video games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil mislead you – Concern The Highlight is not any hole nostalgia journey. Wandering across the faculty’s dim halls reveals a free digicam, fashionable lighting techniques, and most significantly, modernized controls.
Sunnyside Excessive can get fairly spooky after hours. The high-pitched whir of safety cameras and exaggerated creak of each door make all the pieces only a bit extra tense; you by no means know who or what may very well be across the subsequent nook, with virtually sure detention threatening any misstep. Ducking under desks to keep away from the watchful eye of a rotating safety digicam or operating from room to room exploring empty halls feels clean and responsive. Total, Concern The Highlight appears intent on avoiding numerous the pitfalls that maintain its predecessors as we speak, as an alternative letting its story and mechanics shine in their very own proper.
That story exhibits immense promise. The half-hour demo I performed adopted two women: Vivian and Amy. The image of an ideal pupil, Vivian’s hesitant method 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 outdoors of her consolation zone. In the meantime, one thing’s not fairly proper with Amy, nevertheless it’s arduous 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 have been.
We be taught that a long time prior, Sunnyside Excessive had a hearth that claimed dozens of scholars’ lives. The ghost of those victims loomed over the college’s library as I discovered my method 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. Out of the blue, the college began shifting, turning the acquainted library into one thing else totally because the hallway emitted a brilliant gentle, making a regarding silhouette.
A mysterious letter for Amy sits in Vivian’s stock. Its obscure 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 type; one which’s the right mix of teenage pining and concern of what may come between Vivian and making her confession.
Apparently, this primary challenge from husband and spouse duo Cozy Recreation Buddies already launched on Steam in 2023 earlier than the pair pulled it from storefronts following their take care of Blumhouse Video games to be able to add extra into the sport. Cozy Recreation Buddies promised me that this up to date model of Concern The Highlight is getting about two extra hours’ value of content material, in keeping 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 will probably be simply as detailed as the unique launch when it comes out on PC and consoles someday later this 12 months.
Concern The Highlight units up a terrific premise for a horror recreation. With well-realized characters in a enjoyable, trope-y premise, Cozy Recreation Buddies teased one thing with a lot of potential on this demo. Though 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.