Although it is a “discussed” genre in the environment, more than anything because of its limited gameplay, I must confess that I love the walking simulators. More so if they have elements of psychological horror, then I directly need to play them no matter what.
In recent times I have had the fortune of trying several very interesting ones, such as LEMPO, AD INFINITUM either LAYERS OF FEAR. And yes, I do not dispute that they are mechanically limited titles, that is why they seek to have stories that will break your mind. Now added to the list REVEIL. Short and on the foot, it complies.
REVEIL It is available for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC.
THE CIRCUS THAT DOES NOT GIVE LAUGHTER
From now on I warn you that the story of REVEIL It is a puzzle that is put together little by little as you progress in the game, so I am going to try to tell more or less what it is about but it is very possible that some of the information that I am going to mention will be discovered when one It advanced quite a bit in the plot.
The story centers on a man named Walter Thompson, who one day suffers a terrible nightmare but manages to wake up and start living his life. From the first information we are given, we know that Walter is married to Martha, and they both have a seven-year-old daughter named Dorie. Walter and Martha met working in a circus, and they have also trained Dorie from a very young age so that she would follow in their footsteps and also be a circus performer. Walter is a prop and set designer, while Martha and Dorie are acrobats.
One day, upon waking up in his study, Walter begins to walk around his house, and realizes that his wife and daughter are nowhere to be found. While he searches for them, he begins to feel bad and his memory and memories begin to become more and more confusing. What really happened to his family? Does he actually have a wife and a daughter? Is the circus that appears in his visions real? In fact, is his name really Walter? The only way to find answers to these questions is to play. REVEIL, and, of course, nothing, absolutely nothing is going to be what it seems to be at first.
I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON IN MY HEAD
As I said at the beginning, REVEIL it's a walking simulator with elements of psychological horror. We control Walter in the first person while he goes through different scenarios looking for how to make his way and also has to find different items and solve some interesting puzzles. At the same time that we move, we can point the cursor at different objects on the screen, and if something is interactable (that can be looked at, grabbed or used), it will change shape to let us know that. The scenarios are tremendously detailed and full of objects, so exploring each one of them can take a long time. Especially considering that the vast majority of objects have no use, so hovering over everything all the time can become a bit tedious.
There is no way to die in the game, since it is mostly an exploration title, although on certain and specific occasions an enemy may appear to chase us. Since we do not have any items to defend ourselves, the strategy in these cases is to always use stealth. If the enemy in question finds us, we still have the possibility of running away, but if he reaches us, there will be no major consequences other than a jumpscare scene and we can immediately try what we were doing again.
One of the most interesting things about the game are the puzzles. Most of them are based on multi-stage mechanical puzzles (like those in the THE ROOM), which I personally find very attractive.
While there aren't many in the game, they are very well done and figuring out how they work and unlock ends up being very satisfying.
We can also collect a multitude of documents and collectibles that will give us information about the history of the game. As I said, the plot is revealed little by little and we are given new information all the time, so these items serve to fill in gaps in the story, but still, and I repeat myself, we should never trust what we think we know. about what is happening here.
It is not a very long game nor is it very difficult, a quiet game can take us 4/5 hours. Even so, if we had something left to explore in a first pass, the title allows us to later choose not only any chapter that we have finished, but even at what point in that chapter we want to play again. How also REVEIL It has up to 5 different endings that are determined by different actions within the game, the replayability value is very high and so are the outcomes of such a strange story.
FANTASY OR REALITY
Technically the game looks pretty nice. The stages are highly detailed and contain multiple locations and objects to explore. One of the coolest things is the “instant change of scenery” effect, which we already had the opportunity to observe in other similar titles, such as LAYERS OF FEAR. This effect works, for example, when we are going through a hallway and we reach a door at the end, which is closed. Apparently there is no way to continue, but when we turned around we suddenly discovered that everything behind us changed, to a completely different scenario. This effect never fails to surprise me and even scare me a little, and it always seems great to me.
But…in this section we have a big little problem. As I mentioned before, every time we hover over an interactable object, it changes shape to let us know that we can look at, grab, or use that object. It turns out that it happened to me several times in my games that said cursor did not change even if it was placed directly on one of those objects. That, added to the large number of objects to review on the screen, the tiny size of some of them and not knowing if that object was really interactable or not (I couldn't know for sure if at that moment the cursor had bugged). or not), often made the exploration long and in vain. I had to close and open the game several times for this to be resolved. Also, certain objects are very small and can even literally disappear (yes, it happened to me with several of the collectibles), so it can become really annoying.
In the sound department things are very well done as well. The voice acting is very well done, especially that of Walter, who is the one we will listen to almost all the time, and he will keep us company with his thoughts during all the games. The music and sound effects keep the bar high. The ambient sounds, the noises, the jumpscares, everything is very well organized and maintains the tension all the time, since we never know that he is going to jump on us around any corner. The game also includes several songs with vocals included, which sound really good.
Playably, it is an entertaining title. The story is engaging and the plot twists, while nothing we haven't seen many times before, end up being satisfying. The best of all is the possibility of accessing 5 different endings, so the story can have a better or worse ending according to our decisions. It is a short but quite complete title, and during the hours it lasts it will keep us glued to the controller until we reach some of its conclusions.
THE BEST
- 5 different endings so that we stay with the one we like the most
- The puzzles are interesting and engaging
- The story is good even if it is not new
WORST
- Some sudden bugs that hinder gameplay
- Certain sections do not have good visibility and some items are not visible or disappear altogether.
- It can be made a little short for the most demanding