gamescom 2016
Indie horror in the footsteps of Twin Peaks and Alan Wake.
Today we are living a renaissance of horror games, almost every month there is a game for lovers of style. These include a work with a serious publishing background like Until Dawn or Resident Evil 7, as well as a bunch of indie projects like Outlast or Amnesia. It can be said, then, that it is becoming more and more difficult to stand out from this medium, to offer something unique for a lasting experience. This is what the Husk which I could personally try on gamescom.
When the game was announced, the developers revealed that their work was inspired by works like Silent Hill and Alan Wake, and I have to admit, in the roughly half an hour I spent playing, the mood definitely reminded me of that, maybe a little complemented by a bit of Twin Peaks. . The story begins with a train accident after our hero recovers alone among the wreckage. Even with his first thought, he’s already looking for his wife and child, but they don’t answer the caller, so he starts with uncertain steps at night to find them. His journey soon leads to the deserted city of Shivercliff, where, however, he finds no orphaned souls. In return, there are strange human-like but distorted creatures roaming the alleys, which are very difficult to escape.
Husk is an inside-view horror game that tries to combine the gameplay of standard survival horrors with that of action games. As a result, we spend most of our time wandering around, trying to learn as much as we can about the city, getting into as many buildings as possible to tweak the background history from the tiny crumbs of information scattered there. In the meantime, we need to get a flashlight, and over time, a gun and ammunition for it. The developers solved some game elements quite imaginatively, so we have to put an element in the flashlight, but first we have to unscrew the cap from the end by hand (with the mouse), then insert the elements, and finally rewind the cap. We need to use this method in several other tasks. As maceric and unnecessary as it may seem at first reading, it is so imaginative and fun to operate.
However, the same can be said less for monsters and fights. This – at least in the version I tried – was just that we had to knock down the monster in our way with a stick and then fly away from the area as quickly as possible, because we only stunned it for a few seconds, but then it comes after us. And you can’t defeat them until we have a firearm, just run away from them. It used to work quite well in many other similar games, but here it’s a bit more chunky, rudimentary, it feels like an unadulterated indie-feeling. As well as the overall implementation of the game. Husk is guaranteed not to win the title of Best Game of the Year, but not even in the indie category. Sure, it’s not all graphics, but in 2016 (or 2017, when the premiere is planned), it’s going to be a sweet little already. If I had to form an opinion now, I’d say the Husk will be mostly taken away by its mood, complete with some interesting gameplay elements. If they can slap the fights alongside these, make them even prettier in the poor visual world, and even the guys can throw together a good story, we can be pleasantly disappointed in the game.
