GLOOMY EYES - Review
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GLOOMY EYES
If Tim Burton were to make a videogame it would look and play an awful lot like this. The sun has given up on humanity, darkness and gloom took its place. However this is a tale of forbidden friendship and puzzle platforming with a cozy horror feel, Gloomy Eyes offers a refreshingly wholesome take on the undead genre.
The Good
- The Narrator
- Art
- Level Design
The Not-So-Good
- A Little Buggy
- Too Short
- You Can't Run
Story
In a world plunged into eternal night and torn by conflict between the living and the undead, there is still one faint glimmer of hope. Gloomy the undead boy and Nena the Niece of the evil Priest form an unlikely friendship and set off on an adventure to find the sun. The game is told from the 3rd person point of view by a gravedigger. The voice actor Eric Nolan has some beautiful dialogue and tells an incredible story with his incredible voice really adds to the game and helps get over the cosy Burton esque feel of the game. The characters have a familiar roller coaster of a journey with not much new in the way of plot twists and turns however it's incredibly well told and a joyous experience
Gameplay
In this self co op experience, you play as both Gloomy and Nena pronounced "Nina". Gloomy is your muscle and Nena is your brains, with different abilities and assets you have to work together to unlock different routes for each other. This is really well done and due to it's cosy nature it's not too difficult but it's also not a walk in the park. There's plenty of variation here for the player to experience the team work needed is great especially as there are elemental obstacles that Gloomy can traverse and Nena can't and vice versa. For instance Gloomy can't step into street lights where he's a Zombie Nena however can. It's things like this that really help your grey matter work.
Visuals, Design & Music
At the risk of bleating on about it the visuals are very Tim Burton, the characters are cute but also not (you can see Gloomys brain) but the yellow eyes look amazing. The villains look and act like a trope in the best way possible. The levels are a fairly decent size with lots of nooks and crannies to explore and the art is beautiful. It feels like a throw back to late 90's / 00's platforming. The levels are individual and long enough to not feel like a chore but not too easy or short to feel like it's a complete breeze. The game has a wonderful 3d diorama map. By pressing the share button or - on the switch controller you open up this map view where you can spin the map around to look for hidden paths zoom in to see what you've missed and look in awe at the beautiful level design. Music wise it's decent there are some great sound effect like Nena chattering her teeth in the cold of one level and a zombie the pop out of a casket. I wouldn't say it's a stellar score but due to it being a narrated story the emphasis isn't on the music here. I mentioned it above but the narrator does a wonderful job and really adds to the game
Performance
I played this on the Nintendo Switch 2 and whilst it performed really well on the whole I did encounter a few bugs. Most of them were simple clipping/collision issues where on character ended up on another characters head I had one great bug after putting the machine to sleep where both of my characters started jumping
Value
At £20.99 and regional equivalents it's not cheap. The game will take around 4-5 hours to complete which isn't amazing bang for your buck however this is a story that is worth experiencing especially around Halloween time. Usually I'd say to wait for a sale but whilst it's spooky season I wouldn't wait this is an experience worth experiencing.
Score Breakdown
Story
Gameplay
Visuals, Design & Music
Performance
Value
Overall Score
Final Verdict
Don't let the score put you off the knock down for value is the hardest thing about the overall score. This game is a wonderful blend of cinema and puzzle platforming. It looks amazing and has a heart warming story. This alternate take on zombies is refreshing and fun.
If you like co op inspired puzzle platformers, Anything like the Nightmare before Christmas or Corpse Bride this game is for you!