One of the best things about the horror genre is that it can work regardless of the materials used. Jump scares, written notes, an oral story, tape recordings with disturbing footage, a puppet show, silence, complete darkness, in-door buildings, or lonely streets — everything can be a fine ingredient with the correct recipe.
You don’t need a complex sound design or a detailed fog system like Silent Hill 2 remake to be scary. Sometimes, a well-crafted story with a few collectible letters, compelling polygonal characters, and simple but functional mechanics is all you need.
Old School Pixel Horror That Embraces Its Influences
Fear The Spotlightis the first game developed by Cozy Game Pals, a small indie studio created by two individuals, Bryan Singh and Crista Castro. It’s also the first title published by the recently founded Blumhouse gaming division, the production company responsible for dozens of horror flicks you have loved for over two decades. And many you didn’t, but that’s besides the point.
The division looks like an opportunity for smaller teams from very different backgrounds to tell their own horror stories.
You play as Vivian, a young girl who enters her school at night with her friend Amy. They borrow a Ouija board, which is being kept in the library for some reason, and make the proper preparations for a little chat with a spirit. As per usual with the paranormal, things go out of hand quickly and Amy disappears. Now you need to explore a distorted version of the school, looking out for Vivian’s friend while avoiding strange presences and burning lights that come out of nowhere.
In a retro style that imitates PS1 aesthetics like other notable gems in the genre, such as Signalis and Crow Country, Fear The Spotlight is not shy about its polygonal presentation: its characters and objects with geometrical shapes are enough for some good scares thanks to the delicate atmosphere created because of them.
Most of the time you’re walking through apparent empty corridors, with the low vision provided by your flashlight, looking for that single pesky item you’re missing to solve a puzzle. Some puzzles felt too trivial, like making me move one object from point A to B with almost no obstacles in the middle, while others raised the bar with multiple steps and a change of pace.
However, what ends up making them more interesting is paying attention to your surroundings. After a few minutes of inspecting rooms, you get the feeling you’re being watched from every corner. Sometimes it’s pretty clear, as you see the eyes of small creatures watching you from behind walls and unexpected positions. But usually, it’s a small step, the noise of a lock, a faint whisper, a letter that shouldn’t be there, and other delicious details that immerse you in the joyful paranoia. It’s classic survival horror, and keeps you sitting anxiously on the edge of your seat throughout.
Vivian can’t defend herself. This young girl can only walk, run, and crouch, hiding whenever an unbeatable enemy makes its presence known. The focus on stealth as your way of overcoming combat scenarios is coherent and (mostly) well-elaborated. A few times I felt like my inputs were being read and the presence in front of me was just messing around until I took a step, with obstacles that weren’t really placed intuitively. Fortunately, this only happened a couple of times, enough to raise my eyebrows but far from frustrating.
Well-Crafted Atmosphere And Solid Story Beat Unnecessary Jump Scares
I appreciate that Fear The Spotlight never tricked me into falling for cheap jump scares. As you interact with objects and switch to a first-person perspective, it would have been way too easy to surprise you with an ugly face or loud noise when you exit the puzzle and return to the original camera. The team understood the assignment, putting the time and effort into making every room of this school hide a mystery, a small possibility of something ready to make you feel bad or take your breath away. Sometimes horror doesn’t need to show you a gruesome act of violence to make your heart skip a beat: it can be more effective to throw small hints and let your mind fill in the shadowy spaces.
At first, I thought the story was going to fall into tired horror clichés, but it ended up surprising me with an unnerving tale about the dangers of standing out in a crowd and trying to be special, going through themes of abuse and self-hatred. It’s well-thought out and effectively subtle, requiring some thought on the player’s part to connect all the dots. It’s a shame that some moments are underplayed by voice acting that sounds out-of-place and occasional cringy dialogue that, whether intentional or not, misses the mark
Fear The Spotlight took me roughly three to four hours to complete, which is a nice runtime for an indie horror title such as this.
After you finish the main story, there’s some extra content that I’m not allowed to speak of in this review, but please don’t skip it — it’s a worthy conclusion to the experience. This ‘epilogue’ explores new themes like grief and dysfunctional families that help add some more layers to the characters you already know. It also offers a few new mechanics that don’t change the gameplay experience dramatically, but are a welcome addition to keep things fresh.
Cozy Game Pals delivered a sweet experience perfect for those who want an effective short Halloween story and have a place in their hearts for how games used to look a couple of decades ago.
