The primary of Blumhouse Video games’ newly introduced slate, Worry 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 improper, this story follows two excessive schoolers on an evening they gained’t quickly overlook as they unravel their college’s darkish previous.
Worry The Highlight follows a development that has but to get previous in that it seems so much like an up to date PS1 sport. Chunky character fashions sporting low-resolution textures and a CRT filter may need you consider that it is a misplaced sport from the late ‘90s. However don’t let its homage for bygone video games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil mislead you – Worry The Highlight isn’t any hole nostalgia journey. Wandering across the college’s dim halls reveals a free digicam, trendy lighting programs, 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 the whole lot only a bit extra tense; you by no means know who or what might be across the subsequent nook, with nearly sure detention threatening any misstep. Ducking under desks to keep away from the watchful eye of a rotating safety digicam or working from room to room exploring empty halls feels easy and responsive. Total, Worry The Highlight appears intent on avoiding plenty of 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 reveals immense promise. The half-hour demo I performed adopted two ladies: Vivian and Amy. The image of an ideal scholar, Vivian’s hesitant strategy to their quest to interrupt into the varsity’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 exterior of her consolation zone. In the meantime, one thing’s not fairly proper with Amy, nevertheless it’s onerous to care… Her dynamic with Vivian was so compelling in the course of 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 results have been.
We study that a long time prior, Sunnyside Excessive had a fireplace that claimed dozens of scholars’ lives. The ghost of those victims loomed over the varsity’s library as I discovered my approach 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 shifting 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 bushes and responses to my trickery earlier than ending the seance with an abrupt shock as Amy was seemingly possessed. All of the sudden, the varsity began shifting, turning the acquainted library into one thing else solely because the hallway emitted a shiny mild, making a regarding silhouette.
A mysterious letter for Amy sits in Vivian’s stock. Its imprecise 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 proper mix of teenage pining and concern of what may come between Vivian and making her confession.
Curiously, this primary undertaking from husband and spouse duo Cozy Recreation Friends already launched on Steam in 2023 earlier than the pair pulled it from storefronts following their take care of Blumhouse Video games in an effort to add extra into the sport. Cozy Recreation Friends promised me that this up to date model of Worry 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 might be simply as detailed as the unique launch when it comes out on PC and consoles someday later this yr.
Worry The Highlight units up an incredible premise for a horror sport. With well-realized characters in a enjoyable, trope-y premise, Cozy Recreation Friends teased one thing with a number 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.
