Each chapter explores a one of the residents of the house, being able to choose any of them right from the get-go. The game is split into three major chapters. There’s been countless moments when staying in a light area of the room would still cause a drop in sanity, even more irritating during unskippable cinematic sequences. It’s a bit of a forced mechanic, but Visage fails to implement this properly when your sanity can drop even in the light. Much like the Amnesia games, as well as the millions of Lovecraftian titles released at a weekly basis, the longer you stay in the dark the lower your sanity goes. Another issue I’ve had is with the sanity mechanic. Maybe I’m used to the unique feel of Amnesia, where I never had that problem. I found myself just walking into doors to close them. Opening and closing doors can be a weirdly awkward process. Visage‘s best scares are the ones where the game is messing with your sense of what’s happening, tripping up on more traditional horror.Ĭontrols are also a bit finicky and can be problematic. Sure, the first time a ghost appeared in the house and killed me, it felt scary, but then I figured out all I needed to do was briskly walk away. Also, the rare enemy that you will eventually encounter just doesn’t land. There are lengthy stretches of the game that lean way too hard on jump scares that lose their effectiveness or just don’t land, often falling back on the classic horror trope of loud noises. Unfortunately, whilst the overall tension and dynamic scares do work for the most part, there are a few that I just didn’t like. For example, getting from the main floor to the basement is straightforward, but if you want to go from the basement back to the main floor, you need to take a totally different route that doesn’t make sense at all.
Even simple navigation of the house can be confusing with a layout that will occasionally shift. It’s an organic feeling to a game that is designed to confuse your senses. You might encounter a puzzle before even getting a clue, or find a clue that won’t be relevant to the story until much later. The game will subtly guide you with clever imagery and hints telling you where you need to go. Here in Visage, however, this is a strength. Usually this level of confusion is a negative, a way to drag out a game’s run time if it’s too short. There’s very little to guide you through the game and you will often have to figure everything out on your own. You find your own way around the house, completing chapters in whatever order you want, but the consequences are something you will live with. Not everything you do in Visage makes sense, because not everything needs to make sense. But no, this is a uniquely difficult game. I was confused by this statement, thinking it would be a simple resource collecting game. “Be mindful that it is a difficult game in unconventional ways” is a direct quote pulled from the game’s Steam store page. It feels very much like the mystery that took centre stage in PT, and it’s very hard to talk about without spoiling it. Split across four chapters, you will delve deep into the house’s history, which tackles your typical horror themes, but in a pretty interesting manner, with less focus on dialogue and more on the imagery and visuals.
#Visage horror free
Upon leaving it, you are free to explore the house you’re in, and discover the events that transpired there. Just a normal house… nothing to see or fear hereĪfter a brief cinematic scene where a character commits something tragic, you wake up in a bathroom.