There’s one thing about largely 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 purchasing plaza or another place affected by America’s miserable sense of architectural planning and overreliance on automobiles, I can not assist however really feel a way of dread.
Satan’s Hideout, some extent and click on horror game 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 trying 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 dangle 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 seems to be and talks like Pennywise – makes a random look.
“Random look” is an apt phrase to explain numerous the gimmicks within the recreation’s plot, which is communicated by respectable however not spectacular indie voice performing. There are hints that Lauren might have performed a deeper function in her sister’s disappearance in addition to the cult’s shenanigans, and I used to be midway anticipating the 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 an alternative 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 touch of Lovecraft there. Even among the extra unlucky tropes current in horror movies emerge, as (spoiler a couple of character loss of life incoming) the one apparent particular person of color within the recreation is the primary to die.
The aforementioned Pennywise impersonator is a very good instance of this recreation’s gumbo pot stylings, as he simply kinda reveals up with out clarification to ship exposition and arrange two puzzles. This scattershot presentation of plot threads jogs my memory of the final Cosmic Void recreation that I reviewed right here on RPS: the Area Quest-style throwback Tachyon Dreams Anthology. That recreation dabbled with time journey and house comedy in a manner that was tremendous, however did not at all times 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. It is a horror recreation, in spite of everything, and horror does not at all times have to be defined or tied collectively. By not doing so, the sport felt even extra surreal to me, although I am unsure if all gamers will probably be as forgiving.
And that surreal nature is augmented by an uncommon interface. The sport’s scenes are offered in a first-person perspective the place you have to click on on stuff across the display screen to work together with it, not dissimilar to a hidden object recreation. You’ll be able to press a button to focus on 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 utilize with different gadgets, which is a neat selection.
I normally desire 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 plenty of jumpscares as creepy manifestations spring out of your flashlight’s glow at sudden intervals, and also you also needs to anticipate speaking heads on the backside of the display screen 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 is not any border round these half-body portraits, and so they are inclined to throw off the angle of all the things else once they seem.
That is particularly evident when Lauren’s little portrait is juxtaposed towards the massive face of an necessary NPC within the centre of the display screen. I am most reminded of Call 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 screen, together with ones primarily based on actors’ likenesses. (Go seek for screenshots of Shadow of the Comet and bask within the speaking head who seems to be suspiciously like Jack Nicholson.)
Whether or not you just like the graphical selections that have been made or not, there is not any denying that the sport is expertly drawn. In the case of the puzzles, although, anticipate 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. Gadgets seem in sudden locations (why is there a telescope embedded in a corpse’s guts?) and also you also needs to get able to click on on as many issues as you’ll be able to 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 environment 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 numerous random horror stuff occurring behind the scenes, I really feel like Satan’s Hideout may gain advantage from a director’s reduce at a later date to assist flesh out the bits I appreciated and hammer down the components I did not. There’s great 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.
