MAID OF SKER Review: Escaping The Hotel Of Madness

PS4 Review Code Provided by Wales Interactive

Bringing a new defenseless horror game with its own set of unique aspects and story is Wales Interactive with their latest title Maid of Sker. As I played through this game I could tell that this was a game that was inspired by the well-known titles Outlast and Resident Evil 2. Blending elements from those games and mixing them with elements that only apply to this game, I have to say that escaping this hotel full of madness was quite interesting and worth the roughly 5 hours it took me to beat it.

Story

Set in the late 1800s, you have received a dire message from your beloved Elizabeth who has requested you come to her family named hotel in order to help her, you find yourself in a tough situation within the Sker Hotel residence. Getting periodic updates through phone calls from Elizabeth and chunks of story pieces from both Phonograph messages and notes, you come to understand the true state of the hotel and what has caused everybody within it to go mad. There’s only one way to put a stop to the madness and with Elizabeth trapped in the attic, it is up to you to gather all the materials, learn the truth, and put an end to the nightmare.

Gameplay

Throughout the game, you will be in the first-person view. When you first start out, there will be a handful of things to interact with to get you used to the basic controls of the game. These controls are the typical ones used for games like these and are rather smooth with light options in the settings to raise or lower sensitivity and add inversions.

One of the unique things you will find out is that to properly hide from enemies, which are all blind, you will need to hold your breath. Moving slowly, preferably crouched, and holding your breath is how you will maneuver around your enemies that block your progress. Some hallways are a bit short on width so you find times where you need to tuck to the side and wait for them to pass while you hold your breath. Do keep in mind that that longer you hold your breath, the louder the gasp will be when you let go and take a breath again meaning you need to make sure you have distance. Also, activities like running or constantly holding your breath over and over will make the amount of time you can hold your breath shorter.

They do add environmental obstacles as well such as heavy dust areas and eventually the occasional poison gas cloud thrown by the enemies. You can pass through any of these without an issue if you hold your breath, but if not you will either take damage or cough, giving away your position. Once the enemy hears you, they will continue to look for you, and their hearing sensitivity is raised making it harder to just sneak away.

Later in the game, you will come across a weapon of a kind which is a sound orb. You have to have a power trinket in order to use it, but you can find a few of these here and there, but they are pretty scarce so use them sparsely. Once you do use this, all enemies within the vicinity will be unable to move or listen, giving you the chance to move freely and quickly to getaway.

There are a few puzzles in the game as well, but nothing that is too hard to figure out. No riddles or secrets in the notes kind of puzzles, but rather examine the spot on the map with the question mark and you can figure out what to do from there. Now, there are two puzzles that require a bit of thinking and closer examination to your surroundings, but they are in low-intensity sections of the game so you can focus on them. I can’t say the same for the other puzzles though.

A standardly used puzzle-like thing in the game is activating buttons for doors. You will figure it out quickly, but just in case you basically have to find one switch, go and hit the button, then go and find the second switch before hitting the button again. Basically, you can’t hit more than one switch at a time and you have to hit the button after each switch. This is an actually used property of early days with electricity so the authenticity is pretty great.

I saved this last note for the bottom because it is a bit of a spoiler, so feel free to move on to the next segment to avoid! Now, without using keywords, there are two boss-like enemies in the game that you will come across. I won’t mention the last one because it is explained directly when the moment happens, but I did enjoy that they had a section of the game that had an enemy character that reminded me a lot of a certain stalking enemy from one of their inspired games. He is relentless once he appears, he doesn’t go into the save rooms just like our infamous friend, and you will have to take him down with one of those timed energy pulse weapons horror games like to use.

Visual

Graphically speaking, this game has a great aesthetic to it. The atmosphere itself is fitting to an abandoned hotel while at the same time giving off the mixture of destruction that madness brings. While I think the default lighting might be a little too bright, that is adjustable easily to keep the intensity up. Quality alone was kept to a good standard that worked well for this game.

Sounds

With a game and story all based on sounds and songs, this game definitely put some focus into this section. From the little creaks that an old building would make while it is silent to the movement of enemies and keeping recordings to the sound quality of pre-modern equipment, all the details were there to fill the atmosphere.

Replayability

As with most horror games, there are collectibles that you can go back and try to find. Other than that, the only reason I can see someone playing through the game again is that they want to see the other ending. There are at least two endings, the bad ending (which is the one I got) takes the least amount of time while the good ending will take further investigation.

What Could Be Better

When you are moving through a game full of small corridors, something as small as your character being against a wall shouldn’t slow down your movement. Hitting walls was a painful experience in this game because it would slow my movement down while I am in the middle of sneaking or running away. This can be fixed, but it was definitely an experience hindrance.

Having scripted moments is fine, but don’t make the interaction awkward on its own. If interacting with an item is going to start a scripted moment, force the player to stand in the right spot before letting them interact with it. When I would interact with a scripted item from the side and it would slide me over into place, it was just weird.

Conclusion

Maid of Sker delivers horror the right way! They don’t rely on gore or a bunch of jump scares and instead let the overall atmosphere and storyline bring the horror element to the game. I truly enjoyed my playthrough and loved that the story itself was pretty unique. While some aspects of it may be telling through experience, they keep some of the mystery held back for you to find out on your own.