gamy schooling can be a real horror show . Bullies vagabond the halls like zombies , every mental test has life - or - expiry interest , and the menace of expulsion hangs over your head like a guillotine . For a young kid struggling to navigate the world , it can palpate like being thrown into one of Jigsaw ’s twisting chamber .
Fear the Spotlight , thefirst publishing effort from Blumhouse Games , tap into that dread . The story of two girls breaking into their schoolhouse to commune with the deadened turns mundane suburban sights into haunted houses . It ’s a microhorror project edit from the same cloth as teen medium likeBuffy the Vampire Slayer , but placed through the electron lens of gambling horror greats likeResident Evil . That plant the stage for a creepy tale of teenage revolt told through the language of lo - fi visuals and onetime - school day mystifier box gameplay .
As a work of throwback video plot repulsion , revere the Spotlightpasses , but only with partial credit . It ’s a concise creepshow with a threefold narration whirl that digs into the brain of both of its stripling heroines . Its attempts to calculate and sense like a PS1 game miss the cross , though , as it ca n’t shake the intuitive feeling of a modern indie biz in a phase costume . The tonal discrepancy dims the public eye around what ’s otherwise an impressive rage undertaking for a two - individual development squad .
Throwback meets modern
venerate the Spotlightbegins amid a late - night school day break - in , as Vivian and Amy sneak through the halls in hunt of a locked - up Ouija board . The duo hope to get some information about a tragic fire that bump at the school long before their prison term . They get their indirect request — but you could imagine how that go for them . That reliable stalk house premiss kicks off an eery first cause , as Vivian learns the school day ’s blue secret via notes while put off a memorable devil with a glare for a headway .
The whole step is somewhere betweenLife is StrangeandSilent Hill , a combination that is n’t always a neat fit . It almost looks the part with its jaggy fiber models , but a grainy TV filter is doing a lot of work to create the semblance of an atmospheric PS1 plot . Strip that forth andFear the Spotlightdoesn’t see all that different from what you ’d look from an indie biz in 2024 ( this year’sCrow Countrynails the retro horror look much more convincingly ) . It ’s an imitation that makes the art style sense like a bit of a schtik rather than a meaningful purpose of ’ 90 optical language .
It can be difficult to find the headspace thatFear the Spotlightwants to put you in .
That ’s not to say that it does n’t use its art style well in moments . When fervency spreads through the library after the opening séance run awry , I campaign as pixelating flame exhaust up the crunchy scenery around me . Stealth sequences play with bright yellow spotlights that trim back through the musty schoolhouse . All of the horror imagination cut through the thin scenery like a knife , rip the suburban scene aside . I can feel that I ’m in a deteriorating school with decades of moral rotting in its floorboards .
Still , the tonic disparity often bubbles back up to the surface , peculiarly in the adventure ’s penning and voice acting . Vivian and Amy may reckon like they stepped out ofSilent Hill 3 ’s amusement park , but they ’re full of hammy quips that have a way of cutting the tensity . It ’s hard to get a gumption of clip and spot , as I ’m always tear between its trivial ’ 90s touchpoints and its 2020s attitude . It can be hard to find the headspace thatFear the Spotlightwants to put you in at multiplication .
There are moments , though , where it clicks together . Fear the Spotlightworks good as a television game equivalent of a young grownup novel . It takes the haunting put stuffing of a psychological game like Silent Hill , but replaces its adult psychic trauma and grisly force with relatable teen issues . Its story waver through push around narratives , drama club anxiety , schoolyard still hunt , and more . It feel - tailor made for a young propagation of players who have perhaps grown up on the saltation panic ofFive Nights at Freddy’sand are look to graduate to something that ’s a bit more fledged , but relevant to their lives . The business deal - off is that the story can end up feeling like a heavy - handed anti - bullying PSA . One succession even takes position in a gym that ’s been turned into an emergency intimidation assembly , full of student - made standees explaining why bullying is incorrect .
The fib can sense dissociate in moments too , a quirk on the face of it bind to the game ’s left development history . This is in reality the 2nd launch ofFear the public eye ; it was to begin with released as a much smaller task for only a few calendar week before publisher Blumhouse Games offer developer Cozy Game Pals more cash to exposit it . The dev duet promptly delist the game , doubling its story subject . This version now has an entire 2nd movement that go away the schooling and focuses more on family skeleton in the cupboard and trade the spotlight monster in for a motherly body snatcher that looks like it crawled out ofThe Ring . That dual narration makes for a more well - rounded story that recount both heroine ’ stories , but they can feel thematically removed , like two story duct - taped together .
Extracurricular horror
While the project has plenty of wart , its bite - sized puzzle boxful horror mostly delivers . This isResident Evilin miniature form ; Vivian work her direction out of the schoolhouse in the first two - time of day campaign , while a childhood home becomes more of a surrealistic prison full of lock and keys in the second half . Both scenario allow Cozy Game Pals to more effectively show off their sexual love for ’ 90s horror classic with cagy , tactile puzzler .
Fear the Spotlightis small in scope , but that works to its reward .
In one section , I find myself in a gym searching for a way of life to wrench on the school ’s HVAC organization . To do that , I need to hunt down a handful of lettered fuses disperse in connected rooms . When I find them , which come through go after down pumps to enfeeble pools or the miss handgrip of a lotto orb tumbler , I need to crack reach the fuse loge , plug away some cable television into the right-hand patch , and figure out the right wattage by turning a nearby dial . It ’s a multipart answer that has me poking and goad object to interact with them rather than sticking the correct winder in a door .
Fear the Spotlightis small in scope , but that bring to its advantage . Cozy Game Pals are able to play with some minimalist theme that might be a drag in a farsighted biz likeSilent Hill 2 . For instance , there ’s no scrap here . Instead , Vivian has to sneak around desk to avoid a searchlight ’s regard . If she ’s get , her lungs take a bang and she ’ll call for to use one of the few inhalator found around the schooling to calm down — another great teen - centrical variation on the established horror formula . Rather than flooding the story with stealth interludes , they ’re only strategically deployed in a few cardinal moments build for tensity . In one puzzle , I need to keep a projector transparency to a floppy disk . As a long procession barroom starts , the monster bursts into the room . I need to sidestep it while the save finishes , and then get it to a computer on the other side to start out the long mental process of sending it to a nearby pressman . It ’s one of the few moments whereFear the Spotlight ’s ’ 90 esthetical gets put to just role .
While the 2nd campaign has similar teaser loop , it introduce new machinist that freshen the formula up . Here , I ’m picking locks through a idle minigame and convey leap - dash by loud cell phone notification that have my zep reliving her family harm once again . There are just enough good puzzles and structural twists to fill a sleek four - hr secret plan , even if some of that fourth dimension is bogged down by ho-hum backtracking through the same few hall .
When the sparse credits fleet by at the end , reminding me that all of this was mostly the work of just two devoted developers , I ’m recognize by a line from the studio apartment . The duo is the first to admit that their game is by no means gross ; it ’s a plucky passion task made potential both by Blumhouse and babysitters in equal part . It ’s a second of vulnerable sincerity that makes it easier to embrace all the limitations and rough edge . Is n’t that the right mental attitude for a storey of two teenagers finding themselves amid the nightmare of an unassuming coming - of - age backdrop ? There ’s a charming awkwardness toFear the Spotlightas it cram through its nostalgic inspirations and indie imperfectness to find its own articulation in the revulsion gaming landscape . It may not amply get there by the final stage , but I pass on the creepy adventure affirmative that , like Vivian and Amy , Cozy Game Pals has amount out the other side with a tighter grip on its identity .
Fear the Spotlightwas tested on Nintendo Switch OLED .
