There’s one thing about principally empty city facilities within the US that depresses me and disturbs my soul. At any time when I go to household within the States and discover myself in a derelict procuring plaza or another place affected by America’s miserable sense of architectural planning and overreliance on vehicles, I can not assist however really feel a way of dread.
Satan’s Hideout, a degree and click on horror sport made by indie dev Cosmic Void, takes place in a single such deserted American metropolis, and manages to ship on this sense of dread even when its eerie hellscape is tough across the edges.
The sport casts you as Lauren, who’s making an attempt to rescue her lacking sister from cultists. Lauren’s journey begins in a hospital, however fairly quickly the entire unnamed metropolis seems to be the titular “Satan’s Hideout,” and unexplained creepiness begins occurring with nice gusto. Skeletal arms pop from partitions, corpses grasp from fishhooks in an area butchery, and our bodies are both pushed from rooftops or seem in mounds with their eyeballs gouged out. Even Pennywise from It – sorry, a clown who simply appears and talks like Pennywise – makes a random look.
“Random look” is an apt phrase to explain plenty of the gimmicks within the sport’s plot, which is communicated by first rate however not spectacular indie voice appearing. There are hints that Lauren could have performed a deeper position in her sister’s disappearance in addition to the cult’s shenanigans, and I used to be midway anticipating town to be a ruined depiction of Lauren’s fractured psyche, or another 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, add a splash of Lovecraft there. Even a number of the extra unlucky tropes current in horror movies emerge, as (spoiler a few character demise incoming) the one apparent individual of color within the sport is the primary to die.
The aforementioned Pennywise impersonator is a very good instance of this sport’s gumbo pot stylings, as he simply kinda reveals up with out rationalization 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 House Quest-style throwback Tachyon Goals Anthology. That sport dabbled with time journey and house comedy in a means that was nice, however did not all the time hit the mark in a cohesive method. Satan’s Hideout falls into the identical entice, however I’ll say that this time, it is simpler to excuse. This can be a horror sport, in spite of everything, and horror does not all the time should be defined or tied collectively. By not doing so, the sport felt even extra surreal to me, although I am undecided if all gamers will probably be as forgiving.
And that surreal nature is augmented by an uncommon interface. The sport’s scenes are introduced in a first-person perspective the place you have to click on on stuff across the display to work together with it, not dissimilar to a hidden object sport. You may press a button to spotlight all interactable objects, which I appreciated, and there is a little stock part within the left nook. On the uncommon event when Lauren meets a interactable NPC, that NPC reveals up in your stock as an “merchandise” that you should use with different gadgets, which is a neat alternative.
I often favor a third-person perspective for journey video games, however this setup is efficient when Satan’s Hideout throws you into darkened screens, illuminated solely by the round glow of Lauren’s flashlight. Put together for quite a few jumpscares as creepy manifestations spring out of your flashlight’s glow at sudden intervals, and also you must also count on speaking heads on the backside of the display at any time when there’s dialogue. You see this in most old-fashioned journey video games, however not like say, King’s Quest VI, there isn’t any border round these half-body portraits, they usually are likely to throw off the attitude of every part else once they seem.
That is particularly evident when Lauren’s little portrait is juxtaposed in opposition to the large face of an necessary NPC within the centre of the display. I am most reminded of Name of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Comet, a 1993 journey by Infogrames that feels quite a bit like Satan’s Hideout, from its garish graphical model to the reliance on extremely detailed faces plastered over the display, together with ones primarily based on actors’ likenesses. (Go seek for screenshots of Shadow of the Comet and bask within the speaking head who appears suspiciously like Jack Nicholson.)
Whether or not you just like the graphical selections that had been made or not, there isn’t any denying that the sport is expertly drawn. In relation to the puzzles, although, count on a level of obfuscation. I am not saying that something right here is 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. Objects seem in sudden locations (why is there a telescope embedded in a corpse’s guts?) and also you must also get able to click on on as many issues as you may till you discover the precise merchandise mixture. Simply as there’s not a lot inner logic connecting the horror themes right here, there’s little logic to the puzzles, alas.
However, Satan’s Hideout nonetheless has a compelling ambiance that makes me overlook its flaws. In its most evocative moments, it jogged my memory of a Stephen King story, and I am not simply referring to the Pennywise cameo. A metropolis that is misplaced all of its healthful Americana and fallen to evil is solely one thing that King would write about, although Satan’s Hideout would in all probability be a type of ’80s King paperbacks the place he was coked up and in want of a greater editor. Like Kathy Rain, one other level and click on that had plenty of random horror stuff occurring behind the scenes, I really feel like Satan’s Hideout may benefit from a director’s lower at a later date to assist flesh out the bits I preferred and hammer down the components I did not. There’s super potential at play within the alleyways of this city hell, in different phrases, and even when it was imperfect, I completed Satan’s Hideout wanting extra – which isn’t one thing I’ve ever desired from an deserted American metropolis ever earlier than.
This overview relies on a overview construct of the sport offered by the developer.
